001Start this. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] All right. The April 23rd, 2025 regular board meeting is called to order at 4:16 p.m. We would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and the traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people. Miss Wilson Jones, the roll call, please. Vice President Briggs here. Director Clark present. Director Hersy here. Director Ms. Rahi here. Director Ranken here. Director Sarjo present. President Topp here. Student member Bragg here. Student member Ilas present. Student member Yun present. All right. Thank you. Um, we have a full house of board directors tonight, which is awesome to see. I'm going to now turn it over to Superintendent Jones for his comments. Good afternoon, Director Top, director, staff, and members of the community, both those who are in person and those who are
002joining us remotely. Uh before we begin tonight's agenda, I want to take a moment to highlight some exciting developments across our school district and recognize the incredible work happening throughout our district. As you may have seen on the screen before the meeting began, we shared a montage of footage from the first day of school at the new Rainer Beach High School building, which officially opened to students on Monday. [Applause] The building, if you haven't seen it, it is truly spectacular, both in design and in spirit. It embodies the motto proudly displayed outside, for us by us. I had the privilege of visiting Rainer Beach on opening day, speaking with students in the hallway, and they were excited. uh you could see it on their faces and and in dialogue with them, they felt some ownership
003and some belonging and and felt like it was a welcoming place for them already day one. And so uh that place is not just about learning in a beautiful new space, but it's about their futures beyond Rainineer Beach. Uh it's a reminder of why we do this work to create environments where students can dream big and thrive. You may also notice that some familiar faces who are typically uh who typically join us at these meetings aren't here this evening. And that's because they're representing Seattle public schools at the Women Leading Ed Conference, a national network dedicated to elevating female identifying leaders in education. We're proud to have strong SPS cohort participating in this professional development opportunity uh which is made possible through generous philanthropic support from our community. We look forward to the leadership insights
004that they will bring back to our district. Uh around an overview of tonight's topics in uh in our meeting, we're going to turn to tonight's agenda where we'll be beginning uh discussion of our current guard rails and the work underway to ensure safe and welcoming environments for all students. This includes reviewing data on student perceptions of belonging and attendance trends. We will also cover important updates regarding our enrollment and weight list practices. We'll have a progress report on our strategic planning efforts and will introduce guard rails which reflect the values and priorities of the board heard directly from the community during our recent engagement efforts. Uh regarding our legislature as the 2520 sess 25 session comes to a close, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to several individuals and groups. First, I'd like to
005thank our Seattle delegation for their ongoing advocacy on behalf of our district. I also especially want to thank Director Ranken for your leadership as the board's leg legislative liaison for your steadfast commitment in securing adequate resources for our students. Thank you. Uh yeah, I think I think that I think that's a big deal. We don't understand how much work that director ranking does on behalf of uh our legislature. So on behalf behalf of us with our legislature and finally I'm grateful to all of our board members and communities for your ongoing collective efforts in urging the legislature to prioritize educational funding. Your dedication helps ensure that we continue to provide highquality learning environments programs and services for all of our students. So thank you. Um, I also want to acknowledge that yesterday we shared a
006message with our community providing updates including leadership transitions within our highly capable services department. Uh, we shared a safety and security update as we head into spring. And I want to encourage everyone to stay mindful and safe during this time of year as activities ramp up and the weather draws more of us out outdoors. Um, finally, we're looking forward to joining many of you at the Alliance for Education recognition gayla this weekend. It'll be a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate the partnerships and achievements that strengthen our schools and uplift our students. To end on a high note, we'll take a brief moment to watch a clip of our latest first bell video. Uh, this showcases some of the incredible work happening at SPS. And thank you to the comm's team and SPS TV for
007your work in filming and putting these wonderful highlights together uh for us. This segment uh particularly high highlights bright spots including recognition of our SPS allstars and that's a new initiative this year from our public affairs team recognizing outstanding staff staff members who are making meaningful differences for our students and our communities. So with that we have a full agenda ahead of us. Let's uh take a look at the first bill. [Music] Hey SPS, I'm Sophia Charek and I'm Sandra Santos. Thanks for tuning in to First Bell where we chime in with news from around the district. Meet our opportunity award winners. By all accounts, Rachel Hardebec is the epitome of an SPS all-star. The Highland Park kindergarten teacher received a whopping 11 nomination letters shouting out her dedication and commitment to making all students
008feel included. At Franklin High School, Jennifer Ericson is a dedicated special education teacher who works in the school's distinct program. In her classroom, she fosters independence and empowers students to communicate their needs. In her first year outside of the classroom, Katherine Landerholm has taken on the role of levy coordinator at Washington Middle School. She builds meaningful relationships with students schoolwide while helping to create a more structured school environment. Also receiving honors were two music teachers, Bethany Grant from BFday and Patrick Gordon, who teaches band at Robert Eaglestaff Middle School. Both teachers were recognized for their ability to create meaningful opportunities for students through music. The district also recognized Bridges, a transition program that supports those who continue to need special education services after high school, and the Office of African American Male Achievement for their
009work in uplifting black students across the district. We are the Green Team. They came, they saw, and boy did they conquer. The View Ridge Green Team was created by four girls who thought the school could do a better job of composting and recycling. They took it upon themselves to create scripts, make posters, and visit classrooms to teach their peers how to properly use the bins. We all want to keep this the earth clean and healthy. I would do anything to keep this earth clean. If you're at a school and you don't have a green team, you could just like start a thing. I hope um other people get inspired and they start their own so they can um help keep the earth green, too. It was a day of putting STEM academics to use as
010students move through the facility, participating in activities that will give them a better understanding of maritime careers. activities included a navigational chart plotting exercise, the opportunity to operate a large vessel in a maritime simulator, and a buoyancy experiment using Legos. They also got to tour the Vulcan, a repair barge docked at the academy. JK Burwell, the librarian for both schools, arranged the trip as part of their participation in the Global Reading Challenge. They brought the book Miles Lewis, King of the Ice, to life by learning about ice skating and expanding their vocabulary with all things related to the sport. The field trip was the perfect way to connect literacy to realworld learning while diving into the history and culture of ice hockey. The team celebrated their big win with a parade through the school which
011culminated with an assembly in the gym. This was head coach Mike Betheia's ninth title win. Rainineer Beach isn't the only SPS school celebrating state champions. Ballard High School's girls gymnastics team became the first Seattle public school to win a state championship in the sport. Not to be outdone, Ballard's cheer team defended their national champion title, earning their second USA Spirit National Championship. And in the unified Special Olympics, both Lincoln and Roosevelt's unified basketball teams took second place. Way to go teams. That's it for this episode, but before we go, we want to give a quick shout out to Queen Anne Elementary's Library Links team for their win in the 2025 Global Reading Challenge. An excellent job by Jennese Hill, Kimble, and Orca K8, who all tied for second place. If you want to learn more
012about these stories, visit our website. Until next time, I'm Sandre Santos, and I'm Sophia Chuk. We'll catch you later for First Bell. And that concludes my remarks. Back to you, President Top. Thank you, Dr. Jones. That was a great first bell. And I just want to echo uh thank you to D for Director Rankin's hard work this legislative session. It is a lot of work and I appreciate the update she sends every single week as well. It's one of the favorite things I get in my inbox to be able to read. Um I'm going to go to student board uh members joining us this evening. um seeing if they have any comments. Um on March 26, Director Clark and I visited Ballard High School. We met with the Associate Student Body and Student Senate, which
013are a group of student representatives from each classroom. Many students emphasized the positive impact of having a teen health center at school and how it provided a safe and welcoming space for them that allows them to address their needs. And I just wanted to highlight that with the addition of five new teen health centers through the family education, preschool, and promise lobby, also known as the FEP levy, this is very promising to see more students will be provided the space. Um, director Clark, would you like to add anything to the school visit? Thank you, Director Yun. Um, yeah, I thought it was a really great visit. I was just sharing with um director Rankin that um we were in the hallways when they were doing a sendoff for the girls gymnastics team to state um
014and it it was my first time having an experience like that where all the students were gathered in the hallways, the marching band was going down the hall and the gymnastics team was in front and everybody was cheering and um so congratulations Ballard High School gymnastics team. Um I think I thought the meeting went really well. Um the students um you know answered various questions around concerns, feeling heard um what would they like to see change in the school um and also um we talked a bit about college and career readiness and if seniors um are feeling prepared. Um I think notably to me what stood out was um just oh uh many too many comments about um the lack of safety that students were feeling taking public transportation to school um that students were
015feeling really heard um and really seeking leadership opportunities and really engaging um uh with their school leaders. And so that was great. Um and then I think for the college and career readiness, um the students were expressing that they just want more opportunities. They want to do more service hours, uh more internships, um and just gain, you know, as many resources as they possibly can to be ready to move on to the next stage. Um and they felt that the art team is going really well. All sports are easy to find and sign up for and um so yeah it was a great visit and happy to be able to share some of the results with you all. Sorry, I add one more thing. Um I also attended the superintendent advisory board meeting a couple
016weeks ago when we had the opportunity to meet with Congresswoman Japal. I just wanted to share one message that really stood out to me and I wanted to resonate with everyone here in this room is to never lose hope, especially when it feels like your actions, your voice aren't bringing immediate change. She specifically alluded to Dr. Martin Luther King's powerful notion of the ark of justice, which teaches us that journey towards equality and progress is long and requires persistence. And during times when progress seems slow, I think it's really important that we all stay together and justice will eventually be on our side. As she shared, I wanted to take a moment to highlight a few important updates from the student community. First, with the superintendent search underway, I'd like to uplift an email we
017received from the NAACP youth council. They've asked they've asked to be included in the decision-making process and I want to echo that ask. Um, youth, especially BIPAC students, deserve a voice in selecting the next leader of our district. The council proposed holding focused groups, one-on-one interviews, or even a youthled dinner to meet candidates. I believe that creating space for student input is not only valuable, it is necessary. I'd love to help support or co-organize efforts like this moving forward. I also want to thank Director Hershey for making time to visit Franklin. We've planned for him to meet with Franklin's ASB to hear directly from students about their school experience, goals, and the challenges they're facing. This will mirror the visit Director Yun organized at Ballard and we hope it can become a model for meaningful
018studentled engagement across other schools. We're excited to share the results next month. Lastly, I want to remind everyone that the application for the next student board member positions are open. This year, I'm especially working to bring more students from the south end. We're encouraging students from under reppresented groups, including those in the South and West Seattle schools, students with IEPs, and those in non-traditional academic pathways to apply. I cannot stress this enough, but how important it is for this role to reflect the full diversity of the SPS student body. Your voice matters, and we need you at the table. Thank you. Thank you. Director Brag, apply for the Seattle School Board. Um, and just uh a quick followup, Director Sarju and I and staff and uh student board members are welcome hopefully meeting with the
019NAACP youth council to figure out how they can uh be incorporated into our search process. Um but with that uh we have reached our committee and liaison reports and I'm going to start with just a recap and a preview of what we have been working on this spring. First our superintendent search process. I'm going to get uh tired of saying this same thing over and over again. But Superintendent Jones has announced his upcoming departure from the district. So in March, we launched our superintendent search process by issuing a request for proposals for an executive search firm to help the board conduct engagement, recruitment for and move through the selection of our next superintendent. Uh we evaluated firm's proposals over several meetings accumulating in a final meeting earlier today and we will vote later tonight to
020authorize a contract for the selected firm. Uh next we have a series of engagement sessions over the next few weeks. First, director Hersy Rankin and I will be at AI Kroscei Middle School tomorrow night. Um our next engagement session after that will be April 30th at Denny International Middle School and then May 7th at Daniel Begley Elementary School. As student board director said, we are also now recruiting high school students to apply to serve as student board members. Uh board directors are headed out to some of the different high schools throughout the next month uh to be able to work on recruitment and um more information is available on the board website with applications due on the uh 30th of May. April. Okay, that is in congruent with our timeline because we're going out to
021high schools to recruit students to apply. So, we'll figure we're going to figure that out. Something's something is a miss there uh as far as the application deadline. So, uh note for staff and we'll figure that one out. Good thing that we caught that. Um all right. Additionally, uh a few notes on the work plan items um included in our agenda tonight. Our consent agenda includes uh action to set regular board meeting dates for next year. This allows us to plan for the coming year. It also has dates for special meetings and engagement sessions. A draft calendar for reference illustrates what this could look like. Uh but obviously more planning will be done in June at our June retreat and then also likely again at the Janu January retreat. Um, we also have two items
022related to interm metrics for new goals and guardrails. First, we will receive a presentation for interimm metrics for new guard rails. And the interimm metrics for the goals are attached as an information item. Uh, lastly, I think in during the break, I reminded board directors we have we're going through our quarterly self-ealuation. at the conclusion of tonight's meeting. If you're uncertain which section you're assigned to complete, uh, find Carrie board office staff so you can work through that during a break that we have. Um, finally, some milestones. So, I want to echo Dr. Jones excitement uh for the celebration of students um, entering Rainer Beach High School. I had the opportunity uh to visit Rainineer Beach with Dr. Jones uh I think a week and a half ago or and and we welcome students into
023the space. This is very exciting uh personally an impactful moment for me to be part of this project. Um my dad attended Rainer Beach High School, graduated from Rainineer Beach High School and this moment in my family was particularly impactful that I got to be a small part in this 10-year process of making this uh that opening up this school. Um, so so much has been put into this project. I want to thank all the staff all and all of those who made it possible. Um, including uh folks who supported our capital levy. Um, I as I was toured, I was struck by the detail, you know, and the new gym floors, the dedicated space for our CTE stuff, and as well as our bridges program. Uh, on the tour, I got to meet uh,
024uh, Israel Presley. He is here this evening a Rainineer Beach alum um helping to actually build the new school uh through his work as an apprentice carpenter at Lighted Construction. Um and uh I heard him speak at our Beck's BTA oversight committee and I invited him here tonight just to to hear from him. Um his story is very impactful. In fact, made me tear up a little bit. So invite him to the podium to to share and introduce himself. Um welcome Wow, it's been a while since I've been up here. Um, yeah. So, my name is Isel Presley. Um, I attended Rainer Beach um my senior year of high school and actually before that I even attended Garfield for for two years. Um, yeah, my my story really goes as this. I, you know, um
025I attended Rainer Beach, graduated, um attempted to actually I did attend uh South Seattle College and then COVID rolled around and um I I didn't really have an opportunity. I wound up actually having to drop out just due to the circumstances. And you know there was there was this awesome opportunity this amazing opportunity to to work um not only to work but to to have a second chance. So I just want to first and foremost acknowledge what the um what the student community workforce agreement does for us. It it it allows for for students like me who kind of whose original plan A kind of fell apart. He gave me the opportunity to to really take hold of my own life, you know. Um, and from there I was able to sorry, I was able
026to um I was able to work I was able to while working on these projects, I was able to build a water district near my house. So when my grandmother calls or my parents call the place that they get they pay their water bill every month, I got to have a hand in that. Um I was able to work on the Rainer Beach project, work on John Rogers Elementary, and during that project up at John Rogers Elementary, I um I had the privilege of getting married. And I don't think any of that would have been possible because before I had this opportunity, I was scrubbing toilets overnight. Um, and so yes, I got married. And then to to to really really show how beneficial this was, this December or this past December, I actually purchased
027my first home. And this is only a, you know, thank you. you know, uh, this is only, I mean, it sounds like a lot of time, but around the same amount of time you would have put in for your four years of high school, I was able to do this after high school. I I purchased my first home at 23. My wife, you know, it's me and my wife, and we actually just hosted Easter at my home. Uh so it's just an amazing turnaround to to not only just support myself but to support other members of my family but then also be an inspiration to younger people. There was nothing better than you know um seeing the students at Rainineer Beach and ask me oh what's this or how does this get built or and
028I was actually get able to give them answers. The beautiful part about Rainineer Beach for me is currently this the the old school is still there. So recently I've been able to literally walk right through the old school straight into the new one. And you know knowing that those same bathrooms my dad was had to use, you know, I had uncles that use those bathrooms, you know, and he was telling me that they haven't changed since then, you know, and uh and he he we make that joke all the time. It's like the little trough toilets in there. You're like, "Oh gosh." And then you see the new bathrooms, you're like, "My goodness, this would have been nice. Um, definitely the acoustics are a little bit better, you know. Um, the, you know, but truly
029I I really do have to say this that this is a legacy project. knowing that students who attended this school who really bleed that orange and blue were able to be on this project. Me, Orlando Norwood and and Germaine Smith, we were all on this project. We played ball together. Um and knowing that we poured those foundations and Lord willing for the next, you know, 50 years to the next century, there's going to be students walking on the same concrete that I had the privilege of pouring. there's going to be students walking through thresholds that I had the privilege of erecting. You know, every nail I I struck, you know, I I had an image of of that community, you know, and I wouldn't I wouldn't trade trade that for the world. So, I just
030want to first and you know, foremost, like I said, thank all of you guys because this project wouldn't happen if it wasn't for the people who constantly show up and advocate. I remember actually being a part of the in uh NAACP youth coalition my senior year of high school. So, it's amazing seeing how this all comes full circle. Um, but yeah, build a beach for us by us was truly truly a very surreal experience. And so, I just like I said, thank you all. Thank you. [Music] Thank thank you so much for showing up this evening and sharing your story and um and also highlighting the student and community workforce agreement and the impact that it has on our community. Going to go to board uh director reports. Anyone want to follow that? A director
031Ranken, I'll just drop a big old wet blanket. over that. Um, uh, so policy committee, we're meeting on schedule. We're getting through a lot of, uh, a lot of stuff. It's, uh, myself, Vice President Briggs, Director Clark, um, looking forward to bringing a package to the board, uh, in a couple of months. Um, uh, yeah. Any any specific things people want to look at there? It should all be online in meeting notes and materials and whatnot. Um, legislatively, here comes the wet blanket. Um, it's it's we're very close to the end of session. Um, it somebody else just somebody a a longtime um advocate and um uh steadfast legislative expert called this one of the most grueling sessions um they can remember. And it it has been pretty brutal. Um and uh we uh well
032I'll start with really good news, really amazing news is that both the House and the Senate have passed plans for special education that eliminate the arbitrary cap on students who receive special education services. That's a really really big deal. Um it's a huge uh I would think moral and ethical victory. Uh it it doesn't solve our financial issues though. However, um for th for those of you who may not know the our state unlike most other states and now we can finally say like other states we don't have this cap. Um our state uh provides special education funding uh on what's called a multiplier. So, for every student with an IEP, the state provides a general education allocation and then a special education multiplier allocation um up to a point. So, the state would limit,
033they'd say, "Yes, we're going to give this allocation for every student with an IEP." Um, a few years ago it was only 13.5%. And we pushed really, really hard to get that to 14.5%. and then to the current 16% and now it looks like we're finally going to um eliminate it which is incredible and that just means that any student who qualifies for an IEP the state will provide that that multiplier aortionment um regardless of how many students there are because uh it's not easy to get an IEP. It's not capriccious. It's there's federal set of standards. um it's an evaluation done by professionals and every student who qualifies for that it's their it's it's our legal and moral obligation to serve them and now our state will provide funding for every student. So that's
034really exciting. Um unfortunately the the multiplier is the bigger uh money impact and we started off with a really strong strong bill in the house and one in the and also one in the senate. The House bill failed to advance earlier in the session and the Senate led by um Seattle's own Senator Jamie Peterson um was the uh the high watermark um that unfortunately and is not to not unexpected has been whittleled down as we get close to the end of budget reconciliation which is the House and the Senate have to agree on one budget for the state um and the governor has to sign off on it. So, as we're approaching that end point, which is next week, um bargains are being made and those amounts are are shrinking. Um and it, uh we've
035seen many many different proposals for increased revenue from both the House and the Senate. And it is the governor who has um indicated he will veto most of those. He said he is open to increasing revenue but so far has shot down all of the proposals that have come forward. So unclear what revenue what new revenue streams he would accept. Um so that's kind of as we end the session that's what the House and the Senate are grappling with is you know when there's a budget deficit you either have to spend less or or raise more um to make it to make it close. and the the uh amount that the governor has indicated he's willing to sign off on is has been shrinking and so that is coming out of these proposals for uh
036for special education so or for excuse me for K12. So all told right now we will get around $9.2 million from the state for basic education costs. That is the big three which became the big two which now is the kind of small two um for uh materials operating material supplies and operating costs and special education. Pretty far cry from what districts actually spend. We will take it. We will be grateful for it and we will keep going back and asking for more until we have what our students need. So that's looking like about 9.2 million. The other piece that's in play is a um an authorization to schools that or school districts that pass local levies to collect a higher amount than is currently allowed by the state. The state caps the amount. We
037in Seattle had the foresight to ask and our voters had the generosity to approve levies at a higher rate just this past February at a higher rate than the state allows to collect. So, should this levy bill pass, we will immediately be able to collect that higher amount. Some other districts will have to go back out and ask again for the higher amount. Um, we've planned for it. Um the really unfortunate side of what's happening in addition to a not closing our full deficit but is that there was a um ask with this levy bill to provide uh what's called LEA which is state assistance for districts who struggle to pass levies and that has been eliminated right now. So um that is rough for for districts who already struggle to pass levies. Um and
038so so we're still, you know, it's not done till it's done. There's still several days left. It's a great time to contact your legislators and let them know what you would like to see and the governor. Um and uh you know, we will have to grapple with whatever we're able to get um when we get it. And I do want to thank our Seattle delegation for their really steadfast commitment to trying to push that envelope. Um it really just comes down to at the end what both sides and the governor will agree to sign off on at the end of the day. So other chair or liaison reports. All right. So we have 10 minutes. So we start public testimony. Do we want to go to the tables and start progress monitoring or do we
039want to take a break for 10 minutes is sort of the question here. All right. So, I'm hearing a break. So, we will be in recess till 5 o'clock when we will start public testimony. Um, [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] from recess looking to board directors to come find their seats. We are going to start public testimony here on time. So, calling board directors Dr. Jones back to the podium. Okay, we are missing Director Clark, Director Ranken, Director Jones. I'm going to start calling him out by name. All right, we're going to start here. Um,
040we have now we have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda. Uh, board procedure 14:30 BP provides rules for the 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 this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting. I'm going to pass it to staff now to summarize a few additional points and read off the testimony speakers. Thank you, President Top. The board will take testimony from those today on the testimony list and will go to the
041waiting list if we are missing speakers. Please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute if you're online and only one person may speak at a time. The board's procedure provides that most of your time should be spent on the topic you signed up to speak to. Speakers may seed their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called. Time isn't restarted and the total time remains 2 minutes. The timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person. When the light is red and a beep sounds, that means your time has already been exhausted and it is we will call the next speaker. For those joining by phone, the beep will be an indication that time um has been exhausted. Moving into our
042list now, um for those joining by phone, you'll need to press star six to unmute on the conference line. And for everyone, please do reintroduce yourself when called as I will uh miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list. The first speaker today is Janice White. Hi, I'm Janice White and I'm running for the school board in District 5. First of all, tonight I want to send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Salvador Jr. Grano, a Garfield High School senior who lost his life to gun violence on Sunday. I'm holding the Garfield community in my heart as they cope with the loss of another beloved student. Please remove items six and seven from the consent agenda. The Emerald Learning Center is located in the former Northwest soil with many of the
043same staff after OSPI and school districts failed to address years of complaints about Northwest soil. Please see the April 18th Seattle Times article I have provided. You are responsible for making sure that we don't make the same mistake again and send vulnerable students to a harmful program. I've heard generally positive things about Emerald, but you need to be sure that district staff are monitoring it closely. Also, do you know the racial demographics of the children being sent there? And do you know how many children we are sending out of district to receive special education services? The bar for the Emerald contract states that three students are being added, but all three students have been there since the fall. Why did it take so long to ask to increase the contract amount? Both Emerald and Elevate
044provide ABA services. ABA is controversial among autistic people, many of whom consider it abusive. Is the district making sure that families are informed before they consent? And are we offering alternatives to ABA for families that want an alternative? In light of the vile comments made last week by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about autistic people and autistic children, we must make sure that our autistic and disabled children receive the education they are entitled to and deserve to reach their full potential. Thank you. The next speaker is Samantha Fog. Hello, this is Samantha Fog. I'm a parent of three students in Seattle public schools and co-president of Seattle Council PTSA. Everything begins and ends in the classroom. Every child who comes into our school deserves not only access to academics but to actually getting to achieve academic
045growth in a safe and welcoming environment whether they can where they can navigate challenges with the support of educators who value them. We need a superintendent who cares about every child in their education who is comfortable with and wants to connect with the full diversity of our students. I am asking that as you choose a process engagement be inclusive of those students who have been least well served, most excluded, most ignored. We need to see that our next superintendent enjoys communicating with, listening to, and engaging with students in transition services, inter agency, virtual option, our deaf and heart of hearing students, our highly capable cohort students, elementary, middle, high school, LGBTQ students, students with 504 plans and IEPs, students who do and who do not speak English, and more. We need a superintendent who values
046community and family engagement. Of course, care and connection are not enough. We need a superintendent who can hire and fire, who can implement board policies, and we need a superintendent who will stand up for the civil rights of our students, whether or not our legal system continues to do so. I must note that in the joy and celebration of Rainineer Beach High School, which I too share, it's a little bit painful knowing that the students at Rockill Annex who should be part of the beach community, who thought they were part of the beach community, haven't had communication about a potential return to beach and have been completely left out and are continuing to be in a building without hot lunch, without adequate portable water, and with other myriad breakdowns. We hope to see a more
047inclusive Seattle public schools as we move through the search process. Thank you. The next speaker is Chris Jkins. My name is Chris Jkins. Box 84063, Seattle 98124. On the personnel report, Superintendent Brent Jones has announced his resignation. I wish to thank Mr. Jones for his service to the district on authorizing $4 million of capital fund interest for use by the operating budget. I have advocated such use for years, but the amount should be much more, tens of millions of dollars. On items in the consent agenda, six points. Number one, pull items off the consent agenda for public discussion rather than silent rubber stamping, or else vote no. Number two, carpenters contract wage rates for the final two years will later be reopened for negotiations. Is there a similar approach for the SEA contract? Number three,
048BFA windows contract. $34,000 per window for each of 212 windows. Seems like pretty pricey windows. Number four, final acceptance of Northgate. This mega school project toward closing schools is not really final. Number five, on Mercer and Maple, both projects involve installing plastic grass with forever chemicals. Number six, on Van Asel and Jane Adams, the board reports site change orders of 10% and 28%. We need many more schoolboard candidates who will say, "Don't close schools." So, drop me a card. PO Box 84063, Seattle 98124. Four seats are up. We need at least three candidates for each seat or else there will be no primary and discussion of issues. It's really great to have everybody here today. Thank you all. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye for now. The next speaker is Manuelis Sly. We can hear you. Hello.
049Good afternoon. My name is Manola Sly. I am a parent at West Seattle High School and also a board member of Seattle Council PTSA. On behalf of our immigrant and refugee families and students, I request that I request that important decisions such as superintendent search and selection and strategic plan development honor the voices of those with language barriers. I see the rest of my time to fellow parent Sean Ser and he's in the in the room. Thank you. H. Hello. Hello board. My name is Sam Sanders. Um hopefully you can hear me. Uh I'm a parent here uh in Seattle. I have four children. Um, three are going through the Seattle public school system now. And when I started, uh, I was, we had a very hard time getting interpreters, uh, for family meetings, uh,
050concerts, plays, school events, and now, uh, I feel like I've given up. I I haven't bothered with getting interpreters because there's a lot of work and it's not, uh, yielding any results. I also believe that we should, uh, not be responsible for that extra responsibility. Heard it. um for the SPS community and I was a I am a Seattle uh public school teacher. I work at the Rosen School and a big part of our program is de uh development and developing the community and a sense of belonging and I feel like it's very important to grow and have the success for our children. So really what I'm asking for and it's it's not for just language access but a welcoming community to build our community no matter what barriers we have and to be able
051to have an open access to our culture and us as deaf people and our kodas our children of deaf adults have a very vast culture and and we need to see it at TOPS and we want to see and the deaf parents should be able to have recognition for that. Our next superintendent, please uh recognize our deaf families, our language access needs, and because now Oh, no. Now we want to be able to be part of this. Thank you so much. The next speaker is Jessica Chong. Jessica was going to seed her time to me. Is she online? Jessica, if you're online, you'll need to press star six. We will need to hear from you um in order for you to seed time. I'm going to go to the next speaker, but we will come
052back around to Jessica in case she's able to join at that point. So, the next speaker on our list is uh Chi Krenetta. Good evening. Uh my name is Chi Krenetta and I have two highly capable kids at a West Seattle K8 school, a first grader and a third grader. Both of my kids say that their grade level material in class is too easy for them and they're often bored. For my first grader, this boredom unfortunately translates into disengagement, disruptive behavior, and loss of interest in school. Their teachers are often busy helping the students with the highest needs and have little if any time left to give the advanced learners more challenging instructions and material. On paper, SPS said that there is a plan to provide advanced learning and highly capable services at every neighborhood
053school, but in reality, there's nothing. I know because I volunteered my kids' classrooms. There also has been no guidance, training, or resources from SPS on how to provide AL and HC services within the classroom, and the teachers would very much welcome such supplemental support. In both of my kids classes, about 20% of the students are advanced learners or are highly capable. In West Seattle, there are at least 156 HC elementary students who currently have no cohort and practically no HC services. We used to have a cohort in West Seattle at Fair Mount Park Elementary, uh, but that was ended. So, if West Seattle students want to go to a school with an HC cohort, they must take a bus ride that could be up to 80 minutes long each way to the nearest school, which
054is Third Grade, uh, Third Grade Marshall Elementary. That long commute is unreasonable and unfair, and it's the reason why many West Seattle families choose not to send their kids to a cohort school. West Seattle families would like to have a reasonable access to HC services and to have a cohort in our region. Again, we also want the curriculum department to allow acceleration in math, to allow students to take above grade level classes if that's where they're at, and to allow all middle school students to test into and access advanced math. We should be pushing our students to excel and not to be holding them back. Thank you. The next speaker is Lindseay Blum. Lindsey Blum. Hi, Lindsay Blum. I am a member of the Seattle Student Options Coalition, which is a parent group that advocates
055for option schools in SPS. I'm also a mom of two option school kids and a PTSA president. I'm going to tell you the story of our school, but the same thing is happening at many other schools, including neighborhood schools across the district. A thousand students were left on waiting lists at neighborhood schools with another thousand left on option school waiting lists. SPS's enrollment cap is affecting all schools. Thanks to a capital project in 2018, Queen Elementary's capacity was increased by 67% to 500 students. However, despite having a new building and highly engaged school community, SPS left students on the waiting list last year when there was ample physical space. This year, the district has further curtailed enrollment to 152 students, leaving 350 spots open and limiting us to one kindergarten class for the second year
056in a row. Meanwhile, as of yesterday, we have 32 students weight listed with no clarity on whether any of them will be admitted. The board is referring to this as stability, but I can tell you from my conversations with 17 families on the waiting list yesterday that this is anything but stability for these families. The 350 spots in our school, however, these families found out yesterday that they're on the waiting list, including a family with sibling with siblings in our geo zone. Can you tell how can you tell me how that family is feeling stability? Our community wrote over 50 letters to the district on this issue. Each letter received a form response citing elements of privilege, power, equity, and fairness. No doubt there are equity issues that need to be addressed. However, it's a
057grave mistake to confuse those issues with that of enrollment policy. Indeed, public schools are meant to be open to anyone. Yet, the district is artificially capping enrollment at a fictional number that is wholly unrelated to the school's capacity. We implore you to enroll in interested families at all schools that have physical space to accommodate them. Likewise, we urge SPS to resolve issues with small schools responsibly by engaging those communities to define their future. If enrollment policy doesn't change, these schools and the success stories they embody are going to wither and die on the vine. Thank you. The next speaker is Anna Manel Carigginus. The next speaker is Anna Manel Cariganis. Hi, it's fine. It's Anna Manel Kajjan is here. I seed my time to Patrick Conway. One moment, Miss Wilson Jones. Let's make sure time
058has not started here. Okay, thank you. Hello, my name is Patrick. I am back again to comment on the access policy here in SPS for Kodas. I met um Liza recently in February and I thank you for your support. Um, and uh, for the rest of you for standing by uh, when we take the vote for the TAP, just FYI, my daughter is on the waiting list. Um, and they haven't done anything yet. It's very low impact for you and life-changing for us. Honestly, I don't understand why the enrollment office is pushing back on this. It's cheaper to reduce your legal liability. To be blunt, this is why parents we don't need a big study to tell us why we don't feel like we're being heard. We don't know what it feels like to be
059isolated without access. You don't know what it feels like to be isolated without access. You don't know what it feels like to have your children grow up speaking a different language. You don't know what it feels like to be told that someone else uh knows better than you about the access means. Just because I use my voice, where are our voices? We want to commit to SPS and the deaf community within. My wife works 4 days a week at TOPS as an SLP for the deaf children. She is a skilled signer and culturally sensitive, a rare thing. I went there a few weeks ago as a part of a career fair and I am on the board for a hearing, speech, and deaf center. many TOPS parents signed the petition. Um, they want us there,
060but if SPS doesn't want to commit to us, then we're leaving. We want a district that will give us the needs without making it so painful. When the T-AP vote comes, you guys have the power to make a meaningful change and win the trust of deaf people. Thank you. Next. Next is Erin McDougall. Hi, my name is Aaron McDougall and I seed my time to Tammy Morales. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Tammy Morales. I'm a Southoun resident and the parent of a Cleveland senior. Uh today we'll hear that school assignment decisions are being made to balance enrollment across the district. But from my perspective, what's really happening is that families are being pushed out of the district. As a Cleveland parent, I've seen how an option school can really support kids in thriving. Cleveland is the
061only option high school in the South End, a part of town where students and classrooms are underresourced. And right now, Cleveland has 129 students on the wait list. And full disclosure, my daughter is one of them. The answer isn't to block students from enrolling in their preferred school. The answer is to staff and resource schools appropriately. Your argument is that you want to protect stability and that choice is a threat to that stability, which is frankly absurd and is deeply wrong of SPS to frame it in that way. Cleveland has fewer than 900 students. Giving choice is protecting learning stability for families and you must accept all 129 students on that weight list. Families make decisions about what's best for their children and it is not radical to send your kid to the school that
062best supports their learning needs. STEM is an important opportunity to access highquality public education and it's especially important in the south end where families have few options. Pushing kids away, keeping them on a waiting list for reasons that are still unclear means that families are looking to charter schools. You should be focused on growing enrollment. List lift the weight list for families who know the school system stronger is stronger because of school choice, not despite of it. Your internal policy decision-making process has been opaque and confusing and you must rebuild the trust of Seattle families because our kids deserve better. Thank you. The next speaker is Alicia Ducker. Alicia Ducker, please press star six to unmute on the conference line. Hello. Can you hear me? We can. Great. Thank you. I'm Alicia Ducker here to
063testify on the weight list dissonance within SPS. We've heard repeatedly that there's an enrollment issue in the district which constrains school budgets during an extreme budget crisis. Meanwhile, the district is refusing to move weight lists when spots are available. At John Stanford International School, this has been extremely frustrating for many families. As you know, only students who are already fluent or native speakers are able to join DLI schools from second grade and above with natural attrition from schools that lease empty spots in classrooms. In the 2324 academic year, I had rising third and fifth graders, both fluent in Spanish, and my third grader was offered a spot at JSIS. My fifth grader was refused a spot along with every other child on the wait list for fifth grade despite the fact that there were 19
064free spots in the grade. My kids attended two different elementary schools last year, which was difficult for our family. The district enrollment director told me and I quote, "Capacity is managed centrally to ensure equitable practices in balancing enrollment for all schools are met. We do not have any seats available in fifth grade to make an offer to your son." This was dishonest and a distortion of the truth that there were spots available. Obviously, this erodess trust in the district. Along with that, the district is assuming that one, all families refuse a spot at their desired school will go to another SPS school, which we know is false. and two, it is somehow equitable to refuse to allow children to learn in their preferred language. My story is only one of many. Our parent community knows
065a mother who is a refugee from Venezuela with a son who was in the fifth grade in November last academic year. JSIS is located near the mother's workplace and continued to have space in the fifth grade Spanish program. And our community encouraged this mother to apply for her son. She applied and despite the support of our principal, SPS rejected her request. She appealed but lost her case. Her son suffered socially and academically in an all-English-speaking school while there were spots available at John Stanford. And this mother had to reduce her working hours to be able to get him to from his school far from where she works. How is that equity? Quoting a native speaking family in the Japanese program. Our middle child is at JSIS. Our oldest child, currently in third grade at another
066school, has been trying unsuccessfully to get into one of the Japanese DLI programs for four years now. The process last year was particularly confusing as friends with children at both McDonald and JSIS knew firsthand that there were open spaces. Please, we call on you to consider the impact of refusing to spill schools from the wait list. SPS is eroding trust, losing enrollment, and causing harm to families. Please conclude your remarks. The data published this week shows 118 kids on the wait list from K through 5 at JSIS for next year. Please let those kids in. Please fill our school and do the same for other option in neighborhood schools. Thank you. The next speaker is Elias Cass. Elias Cass. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hi, my name is Elias Cass
067and I'm the father of two SPS students. SPS must answer two very simple questions about highly capable programming in neighborhood schools. One, will acceleration be allowed? and two, will advanced coursework be allowed? If the answer is no, then highly capable programming will not be available in neighborhood schools. You cannot accelerate within grade level curriculum without eventually running out of material. If the answer is yes, then the district can move on to implementation. This must be a district-wide plan, not left up to each building individually. There must be a clear standard that defines HC services in neighborhood schools so services are consistently delivered and can be consistently assessed. And though this may seem obvious, so that parents can know whether or not their child is actually receiving services. Current CIPs say things like, "Students who are
068achieving well above grade level standards are targeted under MTSS for tier 2 interventions. But how is that assessed? And what are those interventions? If I don't know what they are, how do I know if my child is receiving them?" Overturning the ban on advanced curriculum in neighborhood schools will open so many doors for so many students. Acceleration allows for students qualifying in a single subject and for HC students with higher support needs to have their academic needs met as well. It will allow for multil- language learners to accelerate in math. Though, if you really want to identify multil- language learners as highly capable, you should probably stop giving the test solely in English. The question of acceleration is fundamental to determining our path forward. True acceleration belongs in all schools, not just cohort schools. If
069you can't get advanced course work in your neighborhood school, then you don't have highly capable services. You just have extra worksheets. Thank you. The next speaker is Kim Stefen Stefins Meyer. Hello. Can you hear me? We can. Uh I see my time to fisel aure. [Music] Hello everyone. I'm Fisizel Actor. Uh I'm a resident of Northeast Seattle, US Army veteran actually and a father of three children in Seattle. The oldest of whom is a kindergartenner in the Seattle public school system. Perhaps most importantly is I'm a vested stakeholder in the Seattle public school system. Deeply vested. And I'm here to talk about the underenrollment of the Seattle public school system as I understand it. And yet I see 400 families on the wait list that turned them that turn that stepped away from the Seattle
070public school system due to being on the wait list. I say that as a father, the oldest of whom is on a wait list in Seattle public school system. And I wonder about this self-purported crisis of underenrollment as I sit here with all these other families on the wait list here asking the board to please open the wait list. It's not a crisis of enrollment or demand, but clearly a crisis of people and families not being heard. And so I ask the school system, please open up the wait list and meet the demand that exists for families to access the Seattle public school system. Thank you. The next speaker is Kim Gold. Kim Gold. Kim, if you're online, please press star six to unmute. I'm going to go to the next speaker. I'm here. Oh,
071are you Kim? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Good evening, board members, Dr. Jones, SPS staff. Um, my name is Kim Gould. I'm a I and my entire family are proud graduates of SPS. Uh, and I'm here to advocate for full-time librarians in the high schools. Uh, in the 25 Thank you. in the 2526 budget. Uh, there's a concern out there that they'll be cut to half time. I work as a volunteer at Garfield High School. Our librarian asked me to share with you my front row view of what he does all day. So you can you can see why this position is critical to ensuring our students achieve the life ready goal that you set as the 2025 2030 uh SPS adopted goals. A group of girls wants to compare the Quran to the Bible.
072A display of 3D printed pyramids leads to discussions of the ancient wonders of the world. A student loves a book and can immediately help order similar additional books for the library. These one-on- ons take time and effort. Um, but they but they are high engagement moments uh that get our kids to fall in love with reading. He supports this studentr run effort called the weekly news quiz which is such a success it led to a write up in the Seattle Times, a radio show interview and a presentation to W polyai class. Last year he took six students to UW for the misinformation day where they learned to think critically about disinformation and fake news. This year it was expanded to 15 students are hoping to take 25 next year. He runs a very popular library
073club for a number of students. The library for many students is a safe place. And there's tech support with 1500 students a continuous stream of them need help with laptops, printers and xeroxing. So in summary, for our kids to be life ready, they need to become critical thinkers, which in turn requires strong media literacy and a lifelong love of reading. It is our professional librarians that will provide this necessary environment for this. Please continue to prioritize full-time librarians in our high schools. Thank you. The next speaker is J Lee. I I seed my time to Mary Dixon. She's calling in on the phone. Hi, this is Mary. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. I am a parent in South Seattle and I live in Reneer Beach, a few blocks away
074from a neighborhood school that we are not zoned for and a K8 option school where I currently have a second grader with an HC designation and a kindergartener. Southeast Seattle has weight lists that don't move because we are told the district does not want to hurt enrollment at small or quote underenrolled schools by moving families out of them. But denying families choice is not the way to maintain or increase enrollment. Why not take those programs that are in demand like dual language immersion, STEM education, and advanced learning cohorts and start new programs at the schools in need of an enrollment boost. This could be a win for everyone. Universal screening increased HC kids at my school from 3 to 20 in one year. This is great. We should celebrate an influx of newly identified kids
075from diverse backgrounds who qualify for advanced learning. But instead of using programs that work like walk to math and reading, a student's HC experience today is entirely teacher dependent. Because we can't predict what our child's experience will be in our neighborhood school, we decided to bust them to the cohort school next year. But South Seattle has enough students to support its own HC elementary cohort, and it could definitely support more dual language programs. Spanish and Vietnamese are two of the most common languages spoken at our school, and the DLI schools have huge weight lists. Like HC, more dual language programming would provide culturally relevant options for families who crave rigor and don't want to bus an hour away. We know that every school can't have every program, but every school can have its own unique
076and compelling program and let families choose their path. By providing culturally relevant and academically rigorous options, we can recover families who have left the district and retain the ones who are here. Thank you. [Applause] The next speaker is Liz Barry. Liz Barry, hi. Hey, good afternoon. I'm Liz Barry. I'm an SPS dual language teacher at Denny International Middle School. I'm on the Seattle Council PTSA board and I'm an SPS parent and I want to seed my time today to Wy Kenny. Hi, I'm Welsie Kenny, a highly capable student in SPS and a dual language student as well. I'm here to talk about student mental health. Um, so in 2022, there was a proposal to divert $20 million to mental health services for students in the Seattle public schools district. This proposal was quickly vetoed and
077only $4 million were set aside for these resources. That year, we saw a significant spike in anxiety and depression rates among students. And by now about 20% of youth, that's one in every five, experience a mental health disorder. This is a huge problem. The SPS 2025 to 26 budget for mental health is 19.25 million. This may seem like a lot, but considering that the average salary for a mental health counselor in Seattle is $70,000, it may be noted that this money is only enough to fund approximately 205 uh sorry, 275 counselors across 106 schools and 52,000 students in Seattle. That would be an overwhelming 189 students for every single mental health counselor. and statewide a approximately 448 students for every one counselor. My proposal is increased funding to diverse counselors and mental health education. If
078we increase funding by only $5 million, bumping up the budget to $31 million in 2025 to 26, we could get over 70 more counselors in schools or hire staff to teach about mental health and healthy coping mechanisms. We need more people learning to identify their emotions and cope with them healthfully if we want our students to get the educations they deserve. Thank you. The next speaker is Emily Merrill. Emily Merrill. Hi, I'm Emily Merrill. I uh I'm an instructional assistant at Ingram High School and I'm here to I'll have to start from the top of what I actually wrote. Um the other the other last meeting I was at uh a transgender student came up and said something like 20% of transgender students had attempted suicide in the last year. And that's both incredibly bleak
079and also I remember saying when I was 19 that that number was 40%. It's both there's a lot of work left to do, right? But also I want to say that the work that we are doing matters and that's particularly important with the deteriorating federal conditions, you know, and the attempts to roll back the improvements we've made over that last, you know, 10-15 years. And so I wanted to thank you for um you know restating superintendent policy 3211 when the um when the federal government started putting pressure on the schools to you know remove transgender supportive policies in schools and I want to say that if more pressure comes your way you know please please maintain those policies please protect superintendent policy 3211 you know even if there are threats to federal funding even if
080there's you significant federal pressure. Those are these things are a matter of life and death, right? You know, we have basically cut in half over a generation the suicide rate of children of a particular group. We need to keep working on that. Obviously, like this is Seattle is a island of stability, I think, for transgender people in so far as there is a place that is stable in the world right now. And let's build that island of stability into, you know, a fortress of equality. Let's keep working on this. Let's keep making sure that our, you know, transgender students have equal, fair, and just access to the world they live in. You know, thank you. Keep up the good work. And also, keep working on this. The next speaker is Erica Block. Erica Block. I
081do not believe Erica was going to be able to join us, but I want to scan the room real quick. She is on the phone. Okay, Erica, if you could press star six to unmute. Erica, if you're on the line, you'll need to press star six to unmute on the conference call line. I'm not seeing Erica's number, so I'm going to go to the next speaker, but we will go back around to those we missed. The next speaker is Katie Roberts. Hello everyone. My name is Katie Katie Roberts. Hi. I am a professor at Seattle Center Community College SEC. I am deaf. I am a parent of a child who is hearing. My son is a kota, a child of a deaf adult. And uh they are now in the third grade at SPS through
082SPS. And I want to explain a little bit more about my uh experience once my son was going into kindergarten. I was wondering how I would find interpreter services for myself and how I would be able to do that. So I went on to the website and I saw that they were using or on the search bar I searched deaf and I didn't see any results for interpreters. I searched ASL. Again, no results. So I tried for an IEP search and I was able to find a result for deaf students, disabled students and they that came up with uh resources. However, for the school system and public schools, do you guys not cons consider deaf parents as part of the community? Do you not have readily available services and guides and and things for deaf
083parents? So how am I able to contact my child's school? Luckily, my son's teacher, his kindergarten teacher, emailed me and said, "Hi, I'm your child's teacher." And I thought, "Yes, great. Now I have a contact. Am I able to get an interpreter for you or am I able to uh contact them and get an interpreter?" Um, you know, everyone was so friendly and so nice with uh when I wanted to go talk to them, but I was trying to figure out how I could contact them. Did I need to use my video phone to be able to talk with the principal? I was having a really hard time getting services. And then um when my uh son was in first grade, we had a parent teacher conference and they forgot to get an interpreter. They
084forgot to bring an interpreter for our meeting. So my wife is hearing and so she was able to interpret the meeting while trying to attend the meeting at the same time. But that's not her role. She needed to be able to communicate for herself and I need to be able to communicate for myself. The communication was lost. There was miscommunication and it was really a bad experience. So I so since then I have been seeing other issues uh through SPS. However, I did decide to contact the vice president and say, "Hey, it doesn't seem like you have any information available for or guidelines. Um, would you mind if I wrote a guideline for you? Would I be able to type something out to make uh a flyer? I'm I'm willing to do that for you
085and explain the process of getting interpreters. So, I uh I wanted to be able to give that to them for their school for other deaf parents. And since then, I have noticed improvement and I am very lucky u because my child's school is so friendly and they're willing to communicate with me. However, I know that other schools are not as willing. They don't these other deaf parents don't have the same uh experience that I do. We want to make sure that all deaf parents are having access to language and the ability um to communicate with their child's teachers. And if I need to teach you guys, I'm willing to do that. We need to figure out how we can have interpreting services available for parents. Looking back um when my son started preschool at uh
086the Rosen family preschool, uh that was a an amazing bilingual program. ASL and English were both taught and it was a beautiful experience. I was able to go to my child's school and know that I'm going to have communication access when I'm going to talk to my children's teachers. It was a beautiful community that had um but I don't always have that access and I need to be able to have that access instead of having to reexplain that I need an interpreter every single time I need to talk with a teacher or talk with someone at the school. And I want to explain that we have to use interpreters and what we use interpreters for. I'm willing to send flyers and advocate but I have to do that every single year. And now I'm thinking
087about the cons about the future and I'm concerned about my son entering middle school and high school. Am I going to have the same opportunities? Am I going to be lucky to be able to contact those schools and be able to get interpreters? I don't know. I know that these schools are very overwhelmed, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to have uh communication with them. I think it's really important that you guys prioritize deaf parents to have support and to have support services for their hearing children. There needs this needs to be a more of a priority. Have the students be put at tops like my son. I want to be able to have them enter at tops so they can have uh access to a community and be able to
088communicate with their peers with deaf and hearing peers. So, that's my f my vision for my son. But I also want to add that yes, I am a white middle-aged woman. I have education and I have time to advocate for myself. I understand my privilege in that right. But other parents who may be immigrants and other deaf parents don't have that access and they are not able to be involved with their children's education. That needs to change with SPS. And I believe in SPS. I believe in the people here that you guys have a good heart, but you guys need to improve and we need to provide better access to education, educate teachers, educate the admin, and figure out how we can improve these services for the future. Thank you so much and listening to
089my testimony. The next speaker is Julia Sandler. Julia Sandler. Hi there. Thanks for hearing me out. Um, I agree with the other speakers, please, for more dual language programs and interpreting services. But today, I'm here to tell you about our experience so far with your current math sequence policies. I'm the parent of a seventh grader in Northeast Seattle. So, our son enjoyed attending a diverse neighborhood elementary school, but what we saw in terms of math instruction was nothing more than a race to the bottom. A few extra problems or computerized curriculum was not enough enrichment for him or many of the diverse advanced learners um who chose to stay and HC peers who chose to stay at the neighborhood school. Even though my son had become designated HC and consistently showed mastery of the high
090school level content on district administered tests, when we entered middle school, he was not allowed to join the middle school highly capable cohort, which was uh one or two years ahead. And neither he nor the cohort kids were assessed to place them into the most appropriate course. I want to say that your restrictive policies against acceleration above grade level acceleration lie in stark contrast to our neighboring Northshore district where they are expanding access by qualifying students as highly capable in math only so they can access appropriate math curriculum at all elementary and middle schools. And they do readiness testing for algebra 1 in sixth grade for all. So they kind of reset at that time. The math pathways you've laid out hold kids like my son back at the standard grade level for years when
091they're young and eager to move forward and they have time and attention to study the subject they love. Then they have to play catchup later on. And I'm really appalled at the policy of having students double up in math at the cost of music, foreign language, and other electives, or having to kind of rush at the end and take just one year of calculus instead of AB and BC, which is such a big topic, they need more time to study it. In a world-class tech hub city like Seattle, you have a sizable minority of exceptional math students, and you're not providing their statemandated accelerated and enhanced instruction. So, it's no wonder that Seattle companies have to import and sponsor visas for so many of their computer scientists. Um, I urge you to once again, as
092you used to do, allow above grade acceleration in neighborhood schools and allow some procedure for achievement and readiness based placement in middle school math. Thank you. Next is Will Roach. Will Roach. My name is Will Roach. Um before I get into my testimony, I would like to disclose something to everyone here. Um uh on my because of my schedule this evening, I wasn't able to go in person to testify. Um so I had to call in on the telephone, which is audio only. There is no way for me to make a webcam call. Now, I am deaf and I'm speaking through a sign language interpreter. I had to secure my own interpreter this evening so I could testify. I want you to unpack that and take a look at what kind of autism I am
093experiencing right now during this meeting. Now, on with my testimony. Um, as I said, I'm speaking through an ASL interpreter. I am an active deaf community member in Seattle, a deaf parent to a kota child of deaf adult toddler, former president of Puet Sound Association of the Deaf, and a senior engineer at an aerospace company. I'm asking for priority enrollment for my Kota child in Seattle public schools with the deaf and heart of hearing program such as TOPS. This supports their first language which is American Sign Language connection to deaf and heart of hearing peers and allows me to stay actively involved in their education. Growing up isolated in Wyoming, my life changed when I attended a signing school in Arizona. My grades and confidence improved. Kota peers bring real benefits to deaf and heart
094of hearing students through shared language and community belonging. I highly recommend looking at the hearing speech and deafness centers Rosen preschool as a strong inclusive model that gives deaf families full access to their child's education. It is strong bilingual ASL and English program that helps so many deaf and heart of hearing and kota kids thrive and go on to signing inclusive schools like TOPS. It's the kind of support I wish I had had and what I want for my child and others like her. Thank you very much for your time and your consideration. The next speaker is Julie Schneider. Julie Schneider. Hi, I'm Julie Schneider and I seed my time to students Nat Schneider, Owen Wayland, and Olivia Walters. Hi, I'm Nathaniel Schneider, a fifth grader at Salmon Bay. I've been paying attention to the
095work my mom and her friends have been doing to advocate for enrollment and funding of our school. Students are who you are supposed to be paying the most attention to. I'm here to tell you that you are creating the problem by not allowing kids to come to Sam Bay who want to be at my school. I know that many of the kids who don't get in are choosing to homeschool or go to private school, which means less money for all public schools. Hi, I'm Owen Wayland. I'm also a fifth grader at Salmon Bay. I know the school district has already chosen to take away one of our school's K1 teachers for the next year, but there are 19 kindergarteners on the wait list to get in, which will be another whole class. Also, my brother
096is about to go to high school and wants to go to Ballard. We are zoned for Lincoln. Ironically, there are 45 kids on both Ballard and Lincoln 9th grade wait list. Why can't the district honor student and family choice figure out how to get kids enrolled and where they want to attend? I seed the rest of my time to Olivia Walters who's in the room. Hello, my name is Olivia Walters. I am a sixth grader at Hazel Hazelwolf K8. I am concerned that you are not enrolling students into their preferred schools. I really love my school at and I want you others to go to schools that they love. Thank you. [Applause] Next is Jennifer Schaefer. Good evening. I'm Jennifer Schaefer, a Southwest Seattle parent. I can relate to the constraints of teachers, administrators in
097the district. So much so that I hesitated to speak tonight. But then I looked at my younger fourth grades child and remembered my commitment to advocate for him and to be honest with you about the experiences of highly capable learners. The bottom line is this. Act now. do better for advanced learners in West Seattle. Right now, we face the impossible choice of keeping our children in southwest neighborhood schools who are trying their best, but class sizes and instruction approaches mean that our children get little to no differentiation. Or a bus can pick up our child at 6:32 a.m. 83 minutes before the start of the school day to be challenged. We looked at the numbers. Southwest Elementary students represent 12% of HC identified students in the district, but only 2% of HC cohort students. Parents
098do not see the options as reasonable access, and they're voting with their feet, which is impacting enrollment. That wasn't the case a few years ago when my older sixth grade child was in the last cohort in West Seattle. He was thriving in a full class, engaged with the material, embedded in his community, not commuting on reasonable lengths. My sixth grader and my fourth graders experience are worlds apart, and the HC program decisions made that gap. You can close the gap, reinstate West Seattle cohort school, give neighborhood schools support for meaningful differentiation, and ensure advanced learning opportunities into middle school, including math placement. Act now to ensure reasonable access for Southwest Seattle. Act now because my fourth graders time is running out and even a year deferred on this is another class lost. Please act now.
099Thank you. The next speaker is Jamie Kine. Jamie Keane. Hi, my name is Jamie Keane and I seed my time to Marian Wner. Hi, I'm Marian Wagner. I've been a teacher in Seattle public schools alternative and option schools for 20 years now. Most of those have been at Salmon Bay, uh, also a year at Hazelwolf and now at Thornton Creek. As a teacher leader in Seattle public schools, I've also been lucky to see the excellent work of teaching and learning happening across so many of our schools. So, there will be no pitting of option schools versus neighborhood schools against each other by me. What I'm here to daylight today is the real harm being intentionally done to our option schools that we need some answers for. In the last two years, enrollment has been manipulated
100to allow fewer students into our schools and is intentionally shrinking our programs. Our services are being cut. Our support staff has been reduced. Weight lists don't move. I'm a special education resource teacher now and I can see the impact of redo support staff on our most vulnerable students because of our declining enrollment. I understand if there are fewer students enrolling these cuts would happen somewhere. But why has SPS made the choice for families by eliminating options spots? It's demoralizing to feel like option schools are not valued by our leadership. It is confusing to what to tell families weight listed what to expect since you have dramatically changed your enrollment process so much in the last two years. What we should be doing is growing our creative options in our program offerings and honoring families trying
101to make a choice for their own kids. Whether it's going to an option school or a different neighborhood school. Families are not one-sizefits-all. Kids are not one-sizefits-all. Of course, all schools have the same high standards for learning and high-quality teaching, but not all schools need to follow the same path to reach those standards and to meet students needs. I know Dr. Jones has said he values creative options and wants to keep our option schools in SPS. I thank him for articulating that. Can the school board enroll or enrollment speak up and give us some answers about why they are shrinking our option programs by removing option seats and leaving kids on weight list when we have seats for them? Thank you. The next speaker is Sabrina Burr. Sabrina Burr. Good evening. I am Sabrina Burr,
102the co-president of Seattle Council PTSA, and I have some different things to say. School board testimony sign up is problematic. I signed up at 801 and I'm on 24. Last school board meeting, you guys didn't even print the whole weight list. There's something going on with this and I think it needs to be investigated. How are the children? The children are not well. There was a time in this district that we valued family engagement under Dr. Nland. family engagement, MTSS, and equity or a braid. We talk about multi-ter systems of support, but we don't talk about families. If a student needs support and their family's not involved, that is problematic. We sit here and we have these work sessions and we talk about how it is, but how we hear in these work sessions is
103in no reality of what we hear in schools and from students. You guys are excited about Dibbles for your assessment and you think dibbles is a great thing and I just want to tell you a lot of school districts have tried dibbles in the past and most of them have moved away. My question is why are we moving toward it? We have to do better. And the fact that we have all these families here shows that we don't value family engagement. And our families who are not privileged enough to be here, they can't even get access to even get the support or to even get their problems taken care of. That's right. You know, we have to do better. and enrollment services. We are in a huge deficit. Why are we pushing families out not
104only for highly capable? And one thing I do want to say, we do not talk about differentated differentiated learning. And if we're not talking about it, we're not teaching our highest learners or our learnings learners who need acceleration. Every last student in Seattle public schools deserve adequate growth. And so we stopped uh we capped it two grade levels and I don't know when we did that and that's bad. We used to have 15 and 20 students from Southshore walking over to Reineer Beach for Walk to Math. Why did we stop Walk to Math? We have the solutions but we are not engaging in families. And the last thing I do want to say is why are these meetings that we have community meetings at a time where most of our families can't? 5:30 is the
105height of traffic and you're not going to get your diverse families that you need to hear from. I just need all of us to do better. Go look at the work of Dr. Nil and let's get back to that. The next speaker is Gabe de los de los Angeles. Gabe de los handles. Who did you announce? We couldn't hear have Gabe in the room. Sure is. Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel D. Los Angeles. I am son of Chief Andy D. Los Angeles of the Snowqualami Nation. I'm here as the board president for the Indian parent advisory committee for Seattle public schools. I'm here to make two direct asks that are dependent on the things that have historically happened this year under the leadership and watch of Brent Jones and this current school board. I
106have already met with the board to ask about how to follow up on these as well. They instructed that I try to meet with Brent and also come in and give this on public record. We have an ask of creating a Native American education department on its own, not reliant or underneath any other departments. And the other ask is for that the IPAC, the Indian parent advisory committee that has signs its name on federal documents to get federal monies here under title six to be represented more deeply and prioritized as the first people to go to when talking about Native American families, students, and their communities. SPS has failed the Native Families under the leadership of Brent Jones because they destroyed the Native American Education Department with the forced removal of Gail Morris, the dispersal
107of all of its staff within a matter of weeks, ending a 11-year run as a nationally recognized model for Native American education. Along with that, the education d the executive director of curriculum assessment instruction also continued to antagonize defend deny and delay communications and information that was highly needed for IPAC to do its job. There's a lot more and I would love to be able to go into conversations with you on this. You already know that Brent had already agreed to talk to a CBO of native groups before he talked to the native family organization and committee that he signs his name on for title 6 dollars. I urge you to consider these two requests and meet with the IPAC as soon as possible. I'm going to go back now to the two speakers who
108were not on the line earlier when we tried. Um, first going to Jessica Chong. Jessica Chong, if you're on the line, please unmute now. Okay, I'm going to go. Oh, yes, we can hear you, Jessica. Yes. Oh, good. I'm feeding my time to Emily Wheeler. Thank you. Hi. Why does South Seattle have fewer HC education opportunities than North Seattle? Why? Actually, let's not discuss how the situation was created. The facts are that South Seattle has fewer options for accelerated learning than North Seattle. Let's figure out how to expand South Seattle opportunities and restore parody of education and opportunities throughout the city. My older son graduated from high school, sorry, from Garfield last year and is at UDub. He started HCC at Thood Marshall in 2014 and then went to Washington Middle School in Garfield. My
109younger son is now at Thood Marshall and will not have similar experiences moving ahead to middle school. With eight years between kids, I've seen the arc of change in Seattle public schools. From changing the name from A to HCC, expanding HCC to West Seattle and North Seattle, then bringing Taff to Washington Middle School, the reduction in HC services, especially in South and West Seattle, and a huge reduction in communication about these services over the past 5 years. SPS needs to offer quality science, world language, and math opportunities at all middle schools. Why don't all middle schools offer world languages? Washington Middle School has no foreign languages. None. We don't think our middle schoolers need to learn a second language or a third. Why don't all middle schools offer advanced science classes? Why don't they offer
110algebra 1 and geometry? Why can't kids test into higher math? Why are we holding our kids back? Seriously, what data shows that limiting our kids opportunities is helpful? Just seven years ago, Washington Middle School offered algebra 1 in sixth grade. Kids could take a test and then challenge themselves. My younger son does not have this opportunity. Why are we holding our kids back? Washington Middle School feeds into Garfield. With Washington Middle School's reduction in class options over the past 5 years, Garfield is now struggling to offer their AP classes. They're having to reduce opportunities, which limits opportunities for all kids in South Seattle. Garfield has amazing teachers and unbelievable quality classes. It is struggling. It is losing students and part of the reason is the removal of HCC opportunities in South Seattle. We urge the
111district to implement all middle schools to have three years of world language. Washington Middle School has none. We are an international city. We need to be teaching our kids more than one language. Seattle public schools needs to require all middle schools to offer algebra and geometry and to offer testing in. We can't be limiting our kids. South Seattle needs its HC middle school services restored to and on equal footing with the rest of the city. We need to ask ourselves why not. Thank you. Also, I provided Going back now to an earlier speaker. We didn't I'd appreciate that. Handouts can go to staff here and they will they were already distributed and you should have them. It shows the reduction of school of students at Washington Middle School. It shows what's going on with the
112middle schools. It shows that Thood Marshall is not even on the current map for HCC. Why? Going back now to the other speaker we didn't hear from that was um Katie Roberts. Is Katie Roberts on the line or here in person? Oh, I'm sorry. Erica Block. I and I don't believe Erica was planning to be with us. She is on the phone or is not? Okay, Erica, you'll need to press star six to unmute. Okay. Oh, are you there, Erica? Can you hear Erica block? Yes, we can. Perfect. I'd like to see my time to Mike Monroe. This is the first school board meeting I've ever attended. I don't love public speaking, but I'm here because what's happening is completely unacceptable. Tonight, you're going to see a presentation that poses a false decision, stability or
113choice. The district is going to suggest we can either protect the stability of our schools or allow families the freedom to choose what's best for their kids. That's completely absurd and I urge the board to reject this narrative. Here are the facts. Number one, last year SPS blocked over 2700 students from enrolling in the schools they wanted to attend. 20% of those students left the district entirely. That's over 11 million in lost revenue. Losing 456 students doesn't create stability. It deepens the budget crisis. Number two, this isn't about option versus assigned schools. Half of those students were weight listed at neighborhood schools. Nor is this about north versus south. The highest concentration of choice applications come from southeast Seattle. But you won't see that in the presentation tonight because that data was removed this afternoon
114from the deck. Number three, the district hasn't asked families why they're trying to leave. Not the mother moving her son to escape a bad social crowd. Not the immigrant family choosing a school for their child to be with their cousins. Not the parents assigned to a school over a mile away while another student sits down another school sits down the block. I run a small property management company and when a tenant wants to leave, I don't block the door. I ask what's wrong. If I force people to stay where they didn't want to be, I'd be out of business. It's not about what I want. It's about what they need. So, here's my call to action. Enroll every student into the school they want to attend. Full stop. You can't save small schools by forcing
115people into them. You save them by listening and building schools people want to be a part of. Thank you, President Top. That was the 25th speaker and concludes public testimony. Great. Thank you all for being here this evening. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy lives to come and engage with the school board. We also, as I mentioned at the start, have three enga engagement sessions coming up in the next few weeks. We're going to board members continue on with our agenda this evening. We're going to go to progress monitoring which is back at the tables. We're going to pro we're going to power through progress monitoring after which we will take a break um before moving into the rest of the agenda. Please bring your microphones with you. Right, board directors,
116we are not taking a recess here. We're going to start right away. All right. I am missing director Miseri. I'm missing Director Sarju. All right. For for folks who came to testify this evening, if you want to continue your conversations out in the lobby, we are going to continue our meeting this evening. Thank you. All right. Uh so we are moving into progress monitoring. Uh Director Hersy is our progress monitoring lead and will facilitate this portion of the meeting. Um yeah, we'll we'll just take a second as folks continue to relocate. No rush. Thank you for continuing your conversations on the other side of that door. Really appreciate it. Thank y'all. Y'all are the best. Awesome. Okay. Uh assuming that everybody at home can still hear us quickly, uh we will begin with progress monitoring
117this evening and I will turn it over to uh Dr. Jones and his team to take it away. Yes. Uh thank you for your time to talk about uh one of our guard rails and and according to our cadence, we will do uh written reports on guard rails and then uh one annual and one annual uh verbal report. Uh this is an annual verbal report on guardrail number five. We're going to talk about safe and welcoming environments. Uh Dr. Torres Morales is going to be leading us through this uh area this this uh initiative and talk about you know the progress that we made uh accordingly. So uh guardrail and we have uh new guardrails coming forward later on in the presentation about the guardrail um the interim guard rails which will be separate than
118this. This is uh the completion of this year's set of five guardrails. Next year we have another set of five guard rails which we'll be talking about just so you don't get confused. And with that without without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Torres Morales. Please, I'm getting feedback here. There we go. Good evening, board directors. So, I'm going to walk us through this presentation on guard row 5 over safe and welcoming environments. Next slide, please. As a reminder, this is the color scale for the indicators for each of the guardrails. This guardrail contains three components, component 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. So each of those would be rated according to this scale as one of these colors. And then overall, a rating for the guardrail. Overall, at this time, we did
119give this a rating of an orange, which means the interim metrics indicate the results are unlikely to be delivered without significant changes. Next slide please. So as you see here um interim guardrail 5.1 we rated as green and 5.2 we rated as green but 5.3 we did rate as orange. Therefore that is why we gave the guardrail as a whole in orange overall. But in terms of guardrail 5.1 and 5.2 I do want to share what these data tell us. So for example the con the guardrail that relates to belonging and relationships. This is based on panorama student data. So this is student reported about how they feel. So I just want to share with you the questions that the students are asked that are related to this guardrail. So for belonging and relationship students
120are asked, I feel comfortable talking to adults at my school if I have a problem. Adults at school care about me. There are adults at my school who share my same culture and life experiences. And I feel like people accept me for who I am as a person at school. Students can then decide whether they strongly agree with that statement, agree, or kind of agree. In terms of equity and anti-racism, the questions that they are asked on the survey are, "This school is safe and welcoming place for people of all races and cultural backgrounds. Adults take action to address racial issues and acts of racism at school. And at this school, students of different races and cultural backgrounds treat each other with respect. and I feel safe and welcome at my school. Next slide, please.
121So, this is the belonging and relationships data. And if you see here, you can see in grades 3 through 5, we've actually been fairly flat at this. This isn't something we've been particularly excited about because we would have liked to see that number go up, but also want to recognize that 81% is a strong number and we've held strong on that. When you get to our sixth through eighth grade data, you will see that we did have a 6% increase over time in this construct based on, you know, students reporting whether they agree with these statements or not. And additionally, we also did see that in 9th through 12th grade, a 6% increase over time. So, what this lets us to to know is that what we're doing is indeed working in terms of these
122constructs. However, it does give us some pause and wants us to think about what are we doing in our elementary programming potentially to get those numbers to move as well, not just our middle school and high school numbers. Next slide, please. This is 5.2. So, this was equity and anti-racism. Uh, same similar to the questions I had just shared with you all. This is student reported whether they kind of agree, agree or strongly agree. If we look at third through fifth grade, we actually saw somewhat of a decline in this of three percentage points over the trend data from fall of 21 to fall of 24. 6th through 8th grade, we also saw a decline from 82% to 78%. In 9th through 12th grade, it was flat from 86 to 86%. However, we still rated
123this green because if you go to fall of 2023, once again, we know that we have some work to do in our elementaryaries, partially because our third through fifth grade data is not the strongest. But if you look through 6th through 8th grade data, we did see a 2% increase. And if you look through 9th through 12th grade data, we saw a 5% increase. What is this telling us? There's a term often when you get into student outcomes focused governance called strategic abandonment. So what this is showing us is that we had declines going up until fall of 23. We started doing things differently and we're seeing the data go in the other direction. So this is letting us know that some of the shifts that we've made are actually having a positive impact on
124this. Hence why it was rated green because the things we are doing are starting to show some some fruit here. Next slide please. This is our gu interim guardrail on attendance and this is the one that we rated orange. If you look we actually had it's this trend data goes all the way back to 201819 and this has been very interesting data for us because where we see that we've had our strongest increase was during remote school. What we did was we ended up engaging with families to find out what was happening. How is it that this number went up drastically for us while kids were in remote school versus when they were in our buildings. What we heard oftentimes, particularly from our African-American families, were that students actually felt safer when we were in
125remote school than they did in our school buildings. So, we were aware of this. When we got back into school, we saw a dip in in our attendance and it shows clearly in 21-22. This data or these data particularly were actually also part of a national trend. When we came back in a postcoid world, attendance was down overall. not just for African-American males and African-American students, but in schools in general as a whole. Given that, one of the things that we did were some different strategies to get this number up. And so, we still rated this orange because we see that we're starting to go in the right direction on this. This does correlate with our safe and welcoming data that you'll that you saw in 5.1 because there is some sort of work you
126can see there where when kids feel more safe and welcome, they're more likely to go to school. While that is true, we still see that we're drastically below where we would want to be. And so that's why this thing is rated orange as of now because we do need to do some additional work in that area. And so if we can go to the next slide, please. There is a little bit more detail there on the strategies and next steps that we're going to be taking. A lot of this is related to that last guardrail 5.3 because that's where we saw we needed the most support and attention. But we have a system called Atlas and Atlas's data reports. So there were many things done. For example, our office of African-American male achievement created quick
127reference docs for all school leaders on how to access that information in the easiest way possible so that all school leaders could see their students attendance quickly. They didn't have to look around to see how do I get this. They also started compiling reports for each school around attendance, around behavioral incidents, around course completion, and started sharing that more broadly across the system. There are coordinated efforts currently among counselors, family support workers, and community based partners to help remove any barriers that may exist through conversations with families to get kids into school. Expansion of restorative practices across the system. and then additional mental health supports for students that need them. These are some of the things that are in process now and coming forward to work on that attendance number that we were looking at.
128Next slide, please. In terms of board support and action, I want to be clear that we have clear policy in Seattle public schools, which is policy 0030 and 0010 to support this work. In terms of additional support from the board, uh want to say that the continued board engagement has been great because we're getting more information from families, but just the reaffirmation to stay the course on these and that these are our values is is where we're at. I I do want to be clear that we already have existing policy on this. It is us getting to a space of doubling down and saying this is still where we're at and this is where we want to go. And I'm going to turn it back over to Dr. Jones at this time. Uh, Director Hersy,
129please uh, feel free to facilitate some questions from the board. Uh, and I see Director Sarju is eager to be the first participant. By all means, please, Director Sargu. Thank you. Um, so I want to check my assumption that the results of the um that you presented to us were done via survey like meaning we surveyed students. Is that correct? Okay. Because otherwise my question is going to be irrelevant. So I wasn't going to ask it. Um, what is the N? Like what was the the N at like in a when you're doing a study you have N of 250 or whatever the number is and then how does that in compare to the total number in this case of was it just black male students? Yeah, this these data were pulled specifically based on
130African African-American male responses. Yeah, I will have to get you the actual insights, but I do know that when we were doing some analysis on this, we did see that we had um a high level of responses. So, it wasn't as if we only had two students respond. It was a very high level and then the d these data were disagregated to slice out this these were the responses from the African-American male students because that aligns with the guardrail, but we'll be able to get you the actual number and we can share it in a memo to the board. Dr. Dr. Torres Morales, will you speak a little bit about just the construct of how we do surveys and kind of the history of we've had this climate survey for x amount of years and
131we we have some muscle memory around doing this. Can you speak a little bit about that? Yeah, so this is done through what what we what is called the panorama survey and if you see here it's been going on for several years now. We have data that go all the way back to fall. I can't think of the exact date but it's been for I believe it was 2011. Yep. And so what happens is the D it is done multiple times during the year. One of the things that you'll note in these data is that this is fall data, but that's because we're currently getting into the spring administration. We'll have fresh data coming out here shortly for what spring is. So you're getting a fall over fall look. But um these are student responses.
132There's time given during the school day for them to answer these questions. We've had very good response rates letting us know that we can rely on these data because we've had enough students respond that give us confidence that this is this is valid and reliable. Um and then one of the good things about this as well is that we've been able to do certain shifts when we needed to. So for example, when you think about policy 0010, a lot of the work I do in one of my other departments is around the inclusion initiative. We were able to create our own constructs to really check on that. Are we living the values of policy 0010? And we have data aligned to that as well. And so it's been something that's been very helpful for us.
133And it's something where we often hear about, you know, what do the students think? What do the students think? This really gives us a look at this is what the students are saying. And it's a broad group. So it's not that we're just only hearing from the loudest voices in the room. We are really hearing from across the city, across demographic groups, what they're thinking. Uh let's see director Rankin and then director Misrahi. Thank you. Um this question is about the uh uh attendance interim. Mhm. Um have I'm looking at the next steps and so I'm wondering if maybe this is part of a next step or if we have it now. um if the root cause of I mean we know that it's it's this is aligned with postco trends in a lot of
134places um but for Seattle specifically have we identified root cause of the lowered attendance to think about you know like I appreciate you know prioritizing student belonging coordinating efforts to remove barriers have we yet identified what those barriers are if there are trends in the barriers Um what do we know I guess more about the reason for students lack of attendance? A lot of what we heard has been around the idea of safe and welcoming. And so that's where I was pointing to some of the data earlier around like yeah that's moving in the right direction. But I would say that we do need to do a little bit more work on that to get a little bit deeper like what does that actually mean? Just uh students saying I feel safe in my building
135or I don't or I feel welcome in my building and I don't. Fair. Good. Now, we know that, but what do you mean by that? Like, what is the thing? What is the thing? Like, where are we at with that? Dr. Mia Williams has done a lot of work with this. If we go through what the 2019 through 24 strategic plan was, was around targeted universalism. And so, she's done a lot of work with this and has great insights. And that's where some of the um ideas around like ABC reports came forward around attendance, behavior, coursework for us to actually see which kids are potentially off track, what's going on with their attendance. And then she was able to do a broad a broad brush around this where it went from this was with kingmakers
136and certain schools to how are we doing this for other schools. How are we meeting with principles through professional learning networks so that they can do that at their school with their existing staff. So those are some of the things that we're working on. But to say ultimately we know exactly what the barrier is not quite but we do know that it lives somewhere in primarily how kids are reporting how they feel safe and welcome in the space. have not nailed down yet exactly. Well, what is that thing though? What is it that that has you feeling unsafe and unwelcomed? And then um this is a curiosity that may need to be answered later, but I'm curious about how this student group compares with students overall. Again, I we'll pull it for you. Thank you.
137Yeah, director Ms. Rahi. Yeah, two questions. So, one, um I'm looking at the third to fifth grade data uh for both guardrail 5.1 and 5.2. too. And it just it strikes me that just remarkably stable. And I'm wondering if there's any theories about like are is it that the strategies that we're working aren't moving the needle or is that just how kids at age are answering questions? Like what's the theory behind why it just seems to be holding very very steady? I apologize. Were you saying for third through fifth grade? Yes. Yeah. That's that's some of the stuff that we're looking at now because we did see that in 9th through 12th grade we're seeing some movement. we're seeing in different places and we're working to figure out what is it in elementary that's not
138moving. The numbers are are are nice. It's nice to see 81%. But then it makes me wonder like how do we get to the 90s? What are we missing? So, we do know that something is missing there and we're not all the way sure as to what that is just yet. Is it something that we can do curricularly? Is it something with programming? We don't know. But I do want to note and receive the feedback on is it potentially some way that we're administering the survey? the way the kids are answering the way it you know conditions beforehand is it something we can do with the way the teachers are asking the question or assisting with it I'm not certain but um it was surprising as well when I started looking at this like how
139is it that we have not moved it at all it's been 81% 81% or gone down even right that it's just very stable right yeah um okay and then my other question so I I I assume that that the survey results are all anonymous So you're not drilling down to like individual students, but thinking about like so a ninth grader in 2021 would now be a 12th grader. So they're sort of living within the same band. They're surveyed now four times. Can we see like is the improvement is it is it is it the new incoming class that's sort of improving those numbers? Or is it actually those students who in ninth grade were answering at the 80% now that they're 12th graders that their scores are higher? You get my question? Yes. And just
140I I don't know that. We can we can try to do some analysis to pull that for you. We have a team that can do that, but it is anonymous. Right. Right. Yeah. But we we should be able to see in some ways because I think we can break it out um by grade by grade a bit more. But we'll find out. And then director rank and to your question if we look at the attendance graph I believe there there is an all students line on there as well. So we should be able to see that there. Yeah. And it and we are seeing it's sim it's going up and down similarly for all students as well. Okay. Oh yeah. Yeah. I have a question. Um so given the fact that we're in we're categorized
141in orange um and without significant change or you know impact from the board we're likely not to hit target. Uh what are we suggesting? Like are we in a situation where we're going to keep course and continue to see if the strategies that we are utilizing uh need more time to take post pandemic or are y'all anticipating that y'all will bring something that the board will need to consider in terms of uh funding for us to move the needle on this in a more significant way? Yeah, let me let me take a crack at that. So, uh, if we're looking at guardrail 5.1, uh, belonging and relationships, and guardrail 5.2, equity and anti-racism, we've been doing that work for almost decades plural now. And so those two uh, interim measures are relatively high. Uh, they're
14280 80% that that overall is pretty high. So, we we know what to do with that. We have policy 0030 that focused on welcoming environment. We we've been doing that really deep belonging uh welcoming environment work for for many years. Similarly around equity and anti-racism. We've had racial equity teams. We've had the office of African-American male achievement. We've we've been doing this type of work for for many years. where we haven't focused uh with the level of specificity is on the the on attendance specifically that that became uh uh very vivid to us during the pandemic and then coming back from the pandemic and so we've just now started to implement uh new specific uh relevant strategies for attendance and so what I think is it's going to take a little more time I think
143we we have really good u expertise peace. Again, I'm safe and welcoming anti-racism and equity, but we haven't collectively decided that attendance is a is a place for us to focus. And so, with that level of focus, embedding that in our uh uh school improvement plans, uh bringing bringing different groups together to look at data through atlas on those uh in those areas, I think we'll start to see that. The other piece that we're asking our community-based organizations and our partners to do is also report their data on what they're doing to also improve attendance. And so I think we're we're working in the right direction. Uh and I think the things that we're talking about um again reporting this information wasn't something that we did on a on a ongoing basis. And so I
144think that's the difference between why we're seeing 5.1 5.2 2 success there and why we're uh not meaning to mark 5.3. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense to me. Um, another follow-up question, and this is more of a strategy question when I think about the types of questions that would be on a survey about belonging and X, Y, and Z. It's not a easy connection or jump to make for me to then relate that to like, okay, well, why aren't you coming to school? You know what I mean? So what my question there in is is there like any question on the survey that asks the respondent what they like about school? like what are the things that get them excited about coming to school in addition to the parts about like do you
145feel X Y or Z right because that might the reason that I asked that question is that it might be something really tangible right like you know I don't know if for whatever reason I could imagine if like a kid was getting lunch at school lunch is no longer paid for less of an incentive to go to school right so those types of things I'm wondering like What do our students consider to be the part of school that gets them up that's not their parent or their alarm clock to come to school that day? Like what are the tangible human day-to-day benefits of going to school? And I'm wondering is that represented already in the survey? If not, have we given some consideration to it? I would just love to hear y'all riff a little
146bit on that. Can I can I geek out just for a second? Okay. Absolutely. Go for Dr. Hart came to us a couple months ago uh and he he was doing our learning needs analysis for us. He g he shared some information with us particularly at the at the secondary level when students don't uh progress and metriculate through the curriculum uh and see themselves as scholarly uh early on. when they get to the second secondary experience, they tend to not um participate and be engaged in ways that um we've we would see if a if a student had early success. And so, as we start to look at some of these factors, we need to start to say, particularly in our new goals, why is it so important to to be on track in in
147second grade reading? Why is it so important to be on track with sixth grade math? So by the time you get to that secondary level, you will be engaged and you will have a sense of you you'll have an academic identity going forward. That's one of the factors. But I think there's some things we need to take from that study that Dr. Hart gave us around our learning needs analysis to see what are some of the things because it's not just belonging. It's also a sense that I belong as a scholar that we need to start to add some more uh detail to and some more analysis. I think that's great. follow-up question to that is has there been any conversation or is there any research that shows because something that you said in that
148moment like really stuck out to me is like it's why it's critical that by second grade a student is on track. Is there any framework to help a student identify as a scholar regardless of if they're on track or not? I'm wondering if we're taking a targeted well more so a universal approach to what scholarship is because it's a spectrum like many things and just because you may not necessarily be on track in this area. I wonder if the way that our system is thinking about like we need to get these kids on track so that they can identify as scholars and they that can be an accurate title as opposed to every child is a scholar that has areas where they excel in areas where they might need to walk a little bit more
149slowly. I'm wondering if from y'all's vantage point we are doing enough in that area or anything in that area to communicate and like really universalize the idea that every child is academically gifted. [Music] I'll let Dr. Torres Morales take it. But but there's a couple things. Um one is when we start talking about concepts like being kindergarten ready. Yeah. Uh those aren't just academic competencies. Those are kind of get being ready for school being ready for school competencies. You start to and in the wisdom of this board, you all have thought about this concept of fast strong start, strong finish. So to to get on basically a pathway for success and so we've we've implemented some of those things at the high school level. Now, with the pathways that we've talked about in in our
150goal three, now we need to try to uh make sure that with the with the prek experiences that our students have moving into elementary school, moving into middle school, that we put some scaffolding up so that they can stay on track and they can be uh engaged all the way through. And so, I think there's some intentionality along the way that we need to just that's our next level of that's got our 2.0 of this I would say. Dr. Torres Morales, do you have anything to add to that? No, I think um just to say a different way if I hear you director Hershey, it's around is there a way we are intentionally looking at recognizing the brilliance in the kids and our students so that they do feel safe and welcome because I may
151I may be brilliant in reading chapter books but maybe not great in math but that doesn't mean that I'm not brilliant. And how are we doing that in a in the vein of is that going to impact attendance potentially? Right. So I just I think it's it I thank you for the feedback and the probe. It's something that we'll take back with the team and really really talk through around you know because it could be anything. I think one of the things especially when we think about giftedness, highly capable and those sort of things we often talk about math and we talk about reading but there's actually the arts and there's other things that people can be highly gifted in that we don't talk enough about and see the brilliance in. Yeah. And and this
152is the last thing I'll say about this is that like to me the 8020 principle really comes into play here, right? Um the idea that 80% of school could be great. And for me, knowing that I'm going to do really well on a test is not a motivator for me to get up and go to school, right? However, knowing that I'm going to bomb a test is a really good reason to not go to school. So from the perspective of like yes kids, I'm wondering if there's enough on the 80 side to minimize that 20 because if I know that I'm struggling in math, that fear that or that feeling that comes along with that is especially at a young age, fear is a stronger motivator than excitement. You know what I mean? So that's
153that's just what I'm trying to tease out is really building an understanding of like are we doing enough to really I would say characterize the identity of our students as scholars capable whatever the word is regardless of their academic acumen at that particular moment. and are we bringing in what we know about motivating and demotivating factors for attendance to that. So that's not a question that's just me processing um and we'll move on. I see that we have student member um over here and then we will go around the rest of the room. Are y'all's are yours excuse me is yours back up back up but I will bet. Yep. Students first. So please take it away. Um, I am interested in how the metrics reflect student voice and lived experience. I asked this because
154Guard Rail 5 is supposed to center student well-being and I think that has to include our voices, especially from underserved communities. Success isn't just test scores. So, I want to make sure students are helping define what really matters in their school experience. Okay. No. Yeah, I know. I know when we um when we pick questions for the survey constructs, there is involvement from students from my understanding, but I want to say thank you for that feedback and for the push because what it's going to do is make us go back and look and say make sure double triple check did they get involvement? Because when we work with Panorama, it's actually a bank of questions and then when we think about creating one of the constructs or for this is for safe and welcoming, what
155are the questions we think align to safe and welcoming? my understanding that there was some form of student involvement in that when we selected the questions. However, um want to we'll get more information in the moment. Want to say um thank you. Thank you for that and make it so that we can make sure give a little give a little background. Yeah, no problem. So, Eric Anderson, director of research and evaluation and thank you. So, just a little bit more context. So we use PL panorama as a platform but we historically have developed our own survey items and survey scales and constructs and we've done that because we wanted to make sure it was intentionally aligned to our strategic plan goals and also to take the time to get the student feedback and input. So
156yes we met with the superintendent um advisory committee at the time. This was back in 2021. We had the um Mia's student group, Dr. Williams' student group. So we got a lot of feedback. I I have those notes still to this day. Um there are advantages and disadvantages to doing it ourselves. And so we do do some psychometric validation work. We field tested it. We adjusted the item bank accordingly. The one thing that we can't make the same level of claims that like Panorama can about their survey scales in terms of the amount of research that goes into them. The other thing that something like Panorama offers is that surveys are are subjective and Panorama's results. you can actually benchmark how our schools compare to national averages because they're in like 30% of the districts
157around the country. So, we are going to be weighing the the pros and cons of redeveloping or refining our surveys that we design ourselves again with more input aligned to the new strategic plan and thinking about the advantages of using some scales that have been developed by other um experts uh in this area. Oh, sorry. I did want to make one other quick point because uh Director Hersy, we have in the past included open-ended survey responses. We don't currently have them, but we could uh we can use AI assisted algorithms to quickly summarize what 5,000 kids say. So, whatever we want to think about, if it is about what brings you to school, we can do that. And I think we need to slow down, Dr. Torres, to make sure we've thought through thoughtfully what
158refinements we'll want to make for next year. So, I wasn't expecting you ended up addressing some of the things I was planning on addressing because as a student, like of course I have experienced you you don't want to go to school if you're going to fail a test. Yeah, that's just real. Um, and especially when it comes to the attendance versus the belonging things and on these questions, which having the unique experiencing of I've answered these um, when it comes to that, when I'm answering these questions and when I've seen my peers talk about answering these questions, feeling comfortable at your school is a primary reason to attend it, but it's also feeling confident in the curriculum you're taking and feeling represented in it. Uh, one thing I would like to see that I don't
159I don't know if it's possible in this memo is that I've a lot of these presented uh uh statistics are following the all of these questions, but I know that there I would it be possible to see the statistics for specific questions because when I hear um when I answer a question, adults at my school care about me, That's different than me answering and me going to school for that than me answering a question at this school uh different like or I feel welcomed at my school or the um I do not remember if there's questions it's not on here um going into attendance rates feeling welcome at school versus feeling repres like feeling like you have people at the school who represent your identities versus feeling the curriculum represents your identities also affects attendance
160and I would like to see if those questions were answered what those statistics are lined up with attendance cuz if I saw people if I felt really safe at school but I didn't like the curriculum that's going to affect my attendance versus if I really liked the curriculum but I didn't feel safe. Those are two very different reasons to not attend school. One, thank you for that. That was great. And then two, yes, we can pull data by question and get that for you all. So, so, so an adult that cares about me was one of the key questions that we've been looking at for for years. And we and and Dr. Anderson can speak a little bit about kind of that construct. But I'd also like to mention that when we start talking about
161absenteeism, there's a range of absenteeism. So you can talk about chronic absenteeism which is missing 10% of your school year or you can talk about the other side of that being at school and not being engaged. And so there's all those variables in between. So when we talk about absenteeism it's not just are you physically at school. It's do you have the confidence when it comes to test taking time? Do you have a friend group? Do you have an adult that cares about you? These are all ways that we're talking about either time on task or engage in the subject matter. There's a lot of contours about uh absenteeism. And so I'd like Eric to maybe speak a little bit about just the the question bank and how we kind of work through those. Um,
162one thing that I can say, I'm sure you'll recall, is that we actually did some statistical analyses, um, probably around 2018 19, um, where we were looking at the relationship between how students responded on the climate survey and kind of the academic growth they were getting. And we were able to actually detect uh statistically significant correlations between students um black black boys responses uh to the extent to which they felt that the adults cared about them to extent to which um they felt that adults cared if they weren't there at school and the actual academic growth that they were getting. And so this was actually really foundational stuff that we did in cabinet and and we talked through that because it really kind of propelled the push at the time around positive relationships and belonging.
163I mean that's that's a construct that's been around for a long time but to try to be more intentional about it we obviously could be better at it than we even than we are now but I think there has been a fair amount of intentional that was data grounded based on what we were seeing in those patterns director Briggs and then we'll go to director Clark. Um, okay. I'm I am just I've been looking at this for the last 10 minutes trying to figure out um what's going on with these numbers. Uh so guardrail 5.1, the increase in percentage of African-American males from third 3rd through 12th graders feeling a sense of belonging um will go from 56 to 75% but then 56% in 2021. But then it in the in the chart next uh
164you know down below that um in the fall of 2021 there's nothing that there's no category of student that is saying it's 56%. So when these data are reported out it's looking at students that answered kind of agree agree and strongly agree. And so when you see the 56% when we think about that as a baseline we took the kind of agree out of there for certain purposes and then when we were doing the actual analysis what we're looking at is for kind of agree agree and strongly agree because if a student kind of kind of agreed we wanted to know we wanted to know basically and so that's why those are what those numbers are for that anyone that gave us any sort of agree versus the other side was I I believe it's
165strongly disagree agree kind of disagree Let me know if it's I'm confused. Okay. I I just I I Well, just because it it it it maybe it's just me and the way my brain works, but it it's hard for me to actually see what what the trend is here. If we're saying that we started at 56% um our baseline was 56% and the goal was to get to 75%. Um but then we're using different metrics or some and ending up with a totally different number set that is actually saying that in the fall of 2021 it wasn't 56% but actually 81%. I I'm just having I'm I'm sorry I might need that explained again. Yep. So what this is saying in this chart this is presenting the kind of agree they agree and strongly agree.
166When you think of the 56% that would have been if you take out the kind of agree wait I'm sorry can you go back to the where is it saying agree strongly agree somewhat agree um if you look under at the top of figure 1.1 it has it there and then it's in the memo where it talks about the number of students who what page what page are we on yeah can uh is it is it document or this document slide for 5.1 there at the top. Yeah, that's what I'm on. Third through sec 12th graders, right? Oh, oh, oh, oh. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Thank you. The proportion of third all right who who were favorable agrees or kind of kind of Yes. You think about the 56% that's if you took off the
167kind of agree. So you could say that there were 20ome% of students that basically said they kind of agreed and that's what it would got to the 81. Okay. So Director Briggs, I see why I I see I see why why you're confused and we'll we'll we'll make this better. I get it cuz we this is So yes, we we get it. I just want I just want to affirm confirm what you're saying. We need to fix that. Okay. Um yeah, I it just in order to compare apples to apples, I feel like we have to use the same, you know. Mhm. Um and then my my second comment was around the um attendance issue and um and just you know I know these are our old guardrails that are on their way out and
168I don't believe we have an attendance related guardrail and our new crop of guardrails which is great because I have heard many times our governance coaches um advise against that simply because there are so many factors that prevent a student from coming to school that are are actually totally out of our control. Um, but what is in our control and as the parent of a child who routinely skips class, I'm wondering about um like you know measuring attendance versus skipping class. Like so we have we know a a kid is coming to school. Their parent thinks that they're at school until they get the ROOC call at saying your kid has marked absent for periods 3 4 and 5. Please remind your student to attend class. Um, like I I'm curious about what is being
169done there because I I know that I get the rooc call every day and I'm like but I'm not in the building so I don't I can't really do anything about that. So what adults are keeping track of the kids who are chronically not showing up to class and what are we doing about that because we do have we do have control over that. Whether or not they set foot in the building in the morning is largely out of our control. I mean, we can't know how much control we have over that, but once they're there in the building, we have we have some control over that at that point. So, I just wanted to to call attention to that that distinction. So, one of the things I I think we might change the language
170instead of absenteeism is missed instructional time. You know what I'm saying? cuz that that's really what we're talking about whether you're there 180 days or not. But if you're there 180 days and then you get the robocall because you miss math every day because you it's just not working for you or you don't have a sense of belonging. I think what we're really talking about is missed instructional time. whether you have a dentist appointment and you take it during the school day or whether uh maybe a teacher wasn't on point that day and wasn't really providing the instructional rigor that we needed. Missed instructional time is missed instructional time and I think that's really what we're talking about particularly when we're trying to uh have this differentiated instruction. and we're trying to have this UDL
171approach that means our students have to be present absorbing the absorbing the learning. And so I I think it's about instructional time that we're really concerned about and parents probably have a a deep concern about that as well. Okay. So just in the interest of time, our last two questions are going to be Director Clark and Director Ranken. Thank you. Um, okay. I'll be really brief then. I just had a question about um I got confused when you guys were talking about the Panorama platform that we develop our own bank of questions. It sounded to me like every time the students take the survey, they're answering different questions. Is that correct? Clean that up, Dr. Anderson. No. Uh, good question. So, no, we've it's I would say about every 3 to five years we redo
172the questions. The last time that we did re redesigned the questions was 2021. That's when we built our core set of questions, we field tested them and then developed them. And then, as Dr. Torres Morales also mentioned, we have added to it. For example, we have a new inclusionary practices construct that is more recently developed and added to the survey. But we're probably at that stage where we need to decide are we going to retool it or switch to another uh system. Okay. Thank you. Um uh related to the back to the root cause um and it was sort of addressed by Director Briggs and what you just said Dr. Jones. Uh I would I'm curious about uh academic outcomes for these students. I wouldn't necessarily assume or I wonder I guess um that the
173students who are not coming to school are not necessarily struggling academically. Some of them might be, but some of them might not be. And I just I I in in examining what the root cause is if we assume that they're all students who are struggling academically, I think we're going to miss a lot of what's what's going on. Um and uh connected also I appreciate the the missed instructional time cuz that would include skipping class. That would include being totally disengaged. It would also include exclusionary discipline. Oh, which is really really important. And um my kid doesn't skip class. He just doesn't go to school. He does not feel unsafe. He doesn't feel unwelcome. He just doesn't think it matters, which is a whole other ball of wax and a heartbreaker as a schoolboard director.
174But um so I that's I I'm like more about in terms of root cause this group of students here if there are trends related to academic outcomes because I don't believe they're necessarily going to be low, but I would like to see it. We'll get you more on that. I'll just give you a little piece cuz this was something when I was talking about the ABCs earlier that uh Dr. Mia Williams did and she pulled some of the data. What we were able to see was that some of our students who actually didn't appear in this attendance at all. They were above 90%. Yet their course completion and their grades actually weren't great. So that led us into a conversation on so what is happening? So if the kids are there and they're going to
175school, what's going on in the classroom? And I think that relates to what director Bragg is saying like there is there is something there around like curriculum seeing yourself something is there what that is we just don't know yet but yes we did see some of that and I'm not trying to steal director Hershey's thunder but I think one of the student board directors had one more question we will always add time for our student members so please [Music] um I had a question about the mental health support mentioned on the strategy implementation slide. It's the fourth bullet point on like the last uh paragraph under strate strategies and next steps. So what does this support look like and what resources or initiatives are we adding to schools that will help students? Like if I
176mean if a student is missing school due to mental health challenges, there's probably something serious going on on that student's end. And I just want to know what this process will look like because and I just really need more context because as I said if a student is missing school for mental health it's probably something serious and it they're probably not getting sufficient support from the school. So I'm just curious about like what's being added or if not what's what are the next steps and plans for those. Yeah, this is some of the work I think we've heard mentioned a couple times around 20 million and work with the city and those sort of things. So the there is some intentional work coming now around one universal screening particularly for all of our high schools.
177So for any areas around potential substance abuse and those sort of things, we often know that when those things occur, it is because of some other underlying issue. And the other thing is we're working with the city now to examine, we're not all the way there yet, what it would look like to be able to have telealth options for all students across the city. We're not there yet, so I don't want to make any commitments to that. But that is some of the investments and when we're talking about strategy difference going in those directions to make those things happen to to basically make better impacts and outcomes for kids. Um how exactly are you guys ensuring that you get every student to fill out this form? Um I have not filled out this form in
178the past two years because I'm a Running Start student. So, uh, yeah, like maybe you guys should approach it a different way. Mhm. Like we need every single student to fill out this form to accurately um get data. And um yeah, maybe an incent incentive for schools that get all of their students to fill it out. I don't I don't really know, but um yeah, there's definitely students that are missing. So, yeah. elevating that. I think it's a it's something I was been thinking about just recently. So before the pandemic, we used to do a paperbased version of the survey and there were kind of stricter protocols around doing it. We've got about 85 to 90% of students in the district would complete the survey. since the pandemic and and other things and now that
179we're doing it all computer-based or online, we're probably getting closer to 65% completion across the board. And uh we haven't really addressed that issue like how are we going to solve that problem and I definitely think there are ways to address it. Um and I I think even some incentives or even healthy competition or things like that, there definitely some creative ways to do it. We've reached out to some other districts and how they've addressed that issue. So, so thank you for elevating that. It's something that we really need to pay attention to because just like with our families, the kids that we're not hearing from are sometimes the kids we want to hear from the most. [Music] All right, that wraps up progress monitoring. Thank you, Director Hersy. So, we have a packed agenda,
180but I promised a quick break. We will have a 7m minute break. That means back at 710. Uh 710, we will be back at the dis [Music] la. La. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] We still have a lot to go through this evening. There's so much. We've got a packed packed agenda. So, I'm going to try to move us along here and make this next section as smooth as possible. Who are we? Okay. Uh we have reached the consent portion of today's agenda. May I have a motion for the
181consent agenda? I move I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. All right. Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by uh Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director Miseri. Do directors have any items they'd like to remove from the consent agenda? I do. Director Ranken. Thank you. I would like to pull um item seven. All right. Item seven has been pulled from the consent agenda. So this means that we are going to Are there any other items to be removed from the consent agenda? Okay, seeing none, what we're going to do is first take a vote on the remaining items on the consent agenda. And I thought we had to take a vote for the amended. Yeah, that's what we're going to do. Yeah. Yes. So, we've got our But we're going to
182have first see if there is a motion. Uh may I have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended? I move approval of the consent agenda as amended. One more time. Director Ms. Rahi. Second. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Uh, approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director M. Rahee. Um, all those in favor of the consent agenda as amended signify by saying I. I I I I. Those opposed. Okay, we've passed unanimously. Thank you. So now we are going to move to items removed from the consent agenda. First I'm going to read uh the item removed from the consent agenda. Approval of the Emerald Learning Center contract amendment for 2024 to 2025 school year. Uh uh do I have a motion for this
183item? Um no. She'll make the regular motion and then they'll have Yeah. Okay, please stop me if this is not the right thing to read. I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to approve the contract amendment with Elevate LLC in the amount of No. Okay, number seven. Oh, number seven. I thought you said six. Um, okay. To be fair, I did say six earlier when I spoke to you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thanks. We got this. Um, okay. I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to approve the contract amendment with Emerald Learning Center in the amount of $414,47 for a total contract amount of 1,329-287 um with any minor additions solutions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement this contract. Immediate action is in
184the best interest of the district. Second. Okay. Director Ranken, thank you. Uh, yeah, I can you hear me? No, let's see here. All right. Oh, thank you. Um, yeah, so it was actually noted in uh public testimony, but I had planned to pull it already. Um, I had a wonder about uh Emerald Learning Center as that was a new outside vendor, new new name to me. um and also noticed that it is the same address as Northwest Soil and so I would like to know more about uh the I guess comfort level or what's what's I mean given given the history of Northwest Soil I am uncomfortable with the same story different name and would like to know um who we're contracting So, we have staff. Is your microphone on? Go. Go for it. Yep.
185Thank you, Director Ranken. Um, in order for us to begin work with them, we we would of course have to have gone through our standing processes and procedures. We have not heard any issues from families as of yet that I am aware of. But I do want to note that um we I we receive your feedback and I want to take some time to go back to the team so we can do more looking into this given the history that we've had and others have had with Northwest Soil just to make sure before we would we would move forward on something like that. Okay. Um I appreciate that. Uh so would that mean is there a if there's not a time constraint um I well other directors might have questions too but uh I would
186propose that we move this vote to a future meeting if that is appropriate but I don't do we have to close out the existing motion I I no you would make that motion okay so I I'm I'm ready to move that we table the vote but does anybody else have questions before I director Sarju has questions. I I don't have a question but I have a expectation and request that there be an assurance that it's not a new name like they've same same thing different day. Mhm. Um I I don't want any I don't want any illusions here like this is serious. Mhm. I don't think it's a coincidence that it's the same address. Mhm. So, I need 100% assurance that it is a completely different organization and it is coincidental that it's at the
187same address. Yep. We will get that information for you. So, uh, Director Miseri has a question as well. Yeah, just just for my understanding. So what we're what we would be tableabling and then maybe approving at a future meeting. This is for services that have already occurred or this for a future is this for future services. What generally happens is when the contract hits a certain amount meaning we're getting build for or getting ready to build for that's when we have to bring it forward. So there there could be potential impacts on our students servicing. However, I am in a space of given the context going back to the vendor and saying, "No, we need you to provide the service while you pro answer some questions for us." And I don't think that that's unreasonable
188of an ask on our end. So, there won't be delays in any services that we're I will be pushing for no delays and then if for some reason that does become problematic, I'd be sure to get with you all fairly quick order. Okay. Director Ranken, you want to make your motion? Yes. Thank Thank you everybody. Um, I move that the board postpone consideration of consent agenda item number seven until the May 14th, 2025 regular board meeting or sooner if staff brings it to us. Second. Do we have a second? Second. All right, we have a motion made by Sorry. No, you should. So the the proper motion under Robert's rules of order is a motion to postpone to a certain time. So I think it's better if the motion just identify the May 14th regular
189board meeting as the time this will be taken up for consideration. The if sooner ready runs into some parliamentary issues. It's better if we set the time now for when it will be. So but then should it become necessary to call a special meeting sooner than that that would just be the motion at the time. That would be the motion at that time, but for now to take it off the agenda, we're moving it to a time in the future. Yes. Thank you. All right. So, I will restate my motion. I move that the board postpone consideration of consent agenda number seven until the May 14th, 2025 regular board meeting. Second. Okay. We have a motion from director, sorry, director Rankin, seconded by director Mahi. Miss Wilson Jones, please call the role. Please. Uh yeah,
190she needs a microphone. Our micro our meeting's going so long, our microphones are dying. You know why I'm laughing? Vice President Briggs, I. Director Clark, I. Director Hersy I. Director Miss Rahi I Director Ranken I. Director Sarju I and President Top I. This motion has passed unanimously. Okay. Thank you. We are uh now move to the action items on today's agenda. Action item one is the authorization to execute a contract with an executive search firm for the superintendent search. Um, can I have a motion for the item? I move that the school board authorize the board president to execute a contract with HYA to support the board's search process for the next superintendent. Second. All right. Um, this uh uh motion is uh uh sorry, moved by uh Vice President Briggs, second by Director Misrai.
191This was uh introduced at our April 9th special meeting. Uh since that time, we've reviews reviewed proposals from five different firms, narrowed it down to three finalists, and interviewed those firms. And finally, today we finished our scoring for the finalists. Uh the firm we discussed selecting during our earlier meeting is HYA. So we're going to update this process slightly because uh we have to make we we have to make a motion to amend but Ellie's coming to say the same thing to me. Okay. So do we need to amend or not? No. Okay. All right. So we are going to then uh move in for discussion I guess. Director Ranken. Oh no. Um so I have a question that uh well I guess my question is whether or not to ask this question now or
192at a future date. So I this has all um been very clear and transparent and very quick and so we haven't had a conversation as a board about our expectations for transition or about the timing of this contract. Um I think we need to be really clear about by what date we would if we don't find the right. So we don't want to pick a candidate to pick a candidate. We want to pick the right the right successor, right? And so if at some point we realize that time is running short, we haven't found the right person, we want to pivot to an interim, I think we need to agree on what date that is and what will happen. So my question is, is now in relation to the contract the time to talk about
193that expectation of timeline or is the contract the contract and we can sometime soon um discuss well so I think we need we need expectations for outgoing superintendent. We need expectations for transition and then we would need dates by which we have an interim or or a permanent and how that is all going to work. We haven't had that conversation. The uh announcement of the termination of our um employment of Dr. Jones and then all of this has happened very quickly. We haven't had that conversation as a board. Um so or not the termination of the contract, the termination of the contract. Sorry, sorry. The end of the the end of the agreement, the end of the employment agreement. Sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry. The the um uh resignation of our superintendent. Sorry. So I think
194it'll bring us back to this is just a vote on the selection of the search firm. Okay. So when then yes is our conversation as a full board about exit strategy transition date by which we would pivot to an interim versus a there's just there's so many factors in there and time's not on our side and I think we need to be really clear as a body how we're what our expectations are for between now and September for ourselves for the firm and for our um retiring superintendent. Other comments, Director Clark. Um, I think that we do need to have that conversation. I agree with Director Ranken. I think it would be helpful for us to try to have that conversation before we begin um the actual search process. But I also noted and that
195the search firms did talk about their abilities to help us navigate that process. It's not clear to me um what the financial implication would be of us depending upon or adding that to the contract or not, but I do think that we need to um set some of those markers in the sand for ourselves. um and go into the conversation with the search firm with those lines in the sand. Director Misrai, I I agree with everything that you just said and I would add that now that we have selected a search firm, I think it would be helpful to engage their expertise and also like what are the what are the pinch points of knowing okay so now that we have identified candidates that seems like a good pinch point for us to say like
196yesesh none of these people are right like let's you know uh um uh or or is it uh after some of the community engagement like what do they what do they think the benchmark marks are of of the points that we should be checking in as a board to say this process doesn't seem to be working. We need to go with an interim versus let's at least keep moving to the next step. Other board directors. All right, that concludes discussion. I'll ask Miss Wilson Jones for a roll call for the vote. Director Hersy. Hi director Miss Rahi. I director Ranken. Hi Director Sarju. I Vice President Briggs I. Director Clark I. President Top I. This motion is passed unanimously. Great. Uh moving right along. We're going to So, how do we schedule that next that
197conversation that we were discussing? I think that uh we first have to contract with the search firm because I think they'll help facilitate some of that conversation um as sort of the next step in that process. And so now that we have the ability and authority to do that to do that, we will be able to set up some of those structures in place. Okay. When uh Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'm wondering do do you need a request from a board member for something on an agenda? Do we need to request a separate meeting? I just I don't want to get us caught to where we start the process and haven't established that as a board. Okay. I I've heard the request. I don't have an answer right off the top of my head.
198I know that we I I'm going to do what the next step is, which is contracting with a search firm and figuring out how we structure the the conversation, those conversations within our meeting timeline here. We're at the start of D. We're at the start of the process. Make a suggestion. We can make whatever process we want. I just think that like asking the same question, it she doesn't have an answer for you at this moment. And I think that it's perfectly reasonable. I think we should do those things. Just make a suggestion, send an email. I'll back you up. We'll get it done. Let's keep moving because we got an intense agenda. That's Yep. That answers that answers the question. All right. We are going to move into in Okay, we're going to move
199into introduced items on today's agenda. So the first item introduc for introduction is approval of board resolution 242517 authoriz authorizing an amendment to the repayment plan of the economic stabilization account and authorizing the use of capital fund interest earnings for instructional supplies equipment or capital outlay purposes. Um I think we have staff here Dr. Buttleman to to walk us through this. Yes, I can briefly introduce this Kurt Bleman, uh, assistant superintendent for finance. Um, this school board action report is being brought to the board today for first reading in anticipation of needing to utilize these resources for the 2526 budget. Although, as Director Rankin indicated, we do not have final information on the outcome of the legislative session and how that financial situation for Seattle public schools will be impacted, we felt it was prudent
200to bring this forward now as a first step in the budget submission process. I should note that in the unlikely event that the legislature provides more funding than currently anticipated, we' amend amend this board action request accordingly. This board action report and resolution specifically requests amending the economic stabilization account repayment plan and authorizing the use of capital fund interest earnings for instructional supplies, equipment, or capital outlays. The total of these two actions would provide $18 million in resources to be applied to closing the budget gap for 2526. As we have said and will continue to discuss, this is not a long-term solution to the structural deficit facing Seattle public schools and many other districts in the state of Washington. However, believe we believe the utilization of these options in the short term is the preferred
201alternative to additional reductions in resources that directly support students and student learning. Questions from directors from this introduced item. Director Ranken. Um would the anticipated action on this item be at our May 14th board meeting? That's what it's currently scheduled for. Yes. Okay. Um so my question actually has more to do with the context of this. I am still we we asked in January for preliminary budget proposals that covered multiple scenarios. I do not feel we have gotten those. So, uh, for I I understand this item as presented, but for the context of what choices we're making, I don't have enough information, um, about the budget as a whole and what's being proposed, what uh, what other options might there be, might not there be, what's going to be recommended to us, um, for the
2022526 budget. [Music] Director Sarju. So did you say May 15th? May 14th. May 14th. So you know scene die is is it Sunday? Yes. Right. But so at that time the legislature will They could extend. So we may not actually have information. And so I'm wondering about the logic of the May 14th since we don't have a crystal ball where we can predict whether April 27th is actually going to be the be all end all and nothing further. Just a thought other directors. All right, director Rank. Yeah, I'll just add that uh regardless of the end date, we still have a decent idea of what the options are or aren't. And I am staff definitely has you're not waiting for the last day of legislative session to put together a budget. So, we still need
203to see what the options are, what's being considered, and um the public certainly needs to see that as well to understand what the impact is going to be to their students um next year. Any other questions for Dr. Bman? All right, then we're going to move on to our next introduced item. Amending and renaming board policy number 249 competency competency/proficiencybased credit and board policy number 2413 evaluate evaluency credit for career and technical courses. Dr. Perkins. Thank you, President Top. Uh, good evening. Caleb Perkins, executive director for college readiness to briefly introduce this bar. This is enabling two credit earning options for our students uh related to recent changes in state laws and regulations. So 2409 and 2413 each provides a different way for students to earn credit for work-based learning. We're excited to provide these
204additional opportunities. We appreciate your consideration and I'm going to turn it over briefly to our director of STEM and CTE to quickly just share a little bit more about those benefits. Good evening all. Very briefly, a policy 2409 is an update to the policy that expands access to work site learning by allowing a mastery based option for earning credit through internships and work experience. Instead of requiring 180 documented hours, which is a fund driven threshold, students can now earn credit for demonstrating core competencies. This reduces barriers for students and community partners. Though enabled by state law, districts must adopt the policy in order to implement it. The policy 2413 update allows students to earn elective credit for work experience without a CTE learning plan. This provides an alternative for students needing elective credit to graduate.
205The policy is established in law and must be adopted by the district in order to implement. Thank you. Questions from directors for this introduced item. Questions? All right. Thank you so much. Uh all right, board directors, we're going to move to the tables for uh we're going into interim metrics for new guard rails. Um and we will be at the tables for the rest of the remaining rest of this board meeting executive session. Oh, thank you. What's up? What's up? What's up? How are you testing? Oh, it still works. Yeah. I mean How long? All right. In an effort to keep us moving, uh, I'm going to pass this now to Superintendent Jones now to begin the presentation on interim metrics. Uh, thank you board members. Uh, you all did your work in establishing guard
206rails. Uh, the superintendent's role, aka staff's role, is to, uh, develop interim guard rails. Uh each of these people at the table uh to my right and to my left are what we're referencing as guardrail owners. And so we want to uh walk you through what we've what we've developed. And this these guardrails are consistent with governance best practices. The school board and the superintendent have adopted goals and guardrails to guide the development of our district's next strategic plan. Uh, and just to ground us, goals describe our strategic priorities for improving student outcomes and guard rails reflect the non-negotiable community values that must be honored while pursuing those goals. And so the values reflected in our guardrails are aligned with Seattle public schools instructional philosophy and commitment to uh three things. Providing rigorous, equitable, and
207inclusive educational experiences for all SPS students. providing safe and welcoming learning environments and high expectations for adult practices for creating the necessary conditions in schools for student outcomes to improve consistent with our goals. Uh and so I'm going to stop right there and I'm allow the team to keep moving on this. But, uh, we're going to try to be efficient and, uh, make sure that we are clear on what we're trying to get done, our interpretation of your the guardrails that you established, and really trying to tie them to some to some outcomes. And so, pass I'm passing on to accountability officer Howard. All right. Uh, good afternoon everyone. Uh, our director, superintendent, I want to set the stage by inviting you to dinner. you guys have set the stage. We are accountability. We're the
208appetizer before you get to the main dinner over here. And so, uh, as I state that, I want to talk to you a little bit about, uh, how we have developed these, uh, guardrails. Uh, we started off by taking a look at what we consider outcome focus, which is, uh, starting off approaching students to meeting students to mastering students. And when you look at that in the governance model, you can see how we started, where we're at. So, I want you to just kind of take that under consideration as we're moving through talking about our guard rails. Uh, are we at no student focus, approaching students, meeting students, and then mastering students? And so, I'm honored to be able to talk to you tonight about the continuous work that we'll be doing together. As we
209learn more and more, we'll adjust and pivot and continue to grow. Seattle Public Schools is pledging to our students and families. And what we're saying is no matter where you go to school, who you are, or what you need, your success matters. We've created five guard rails to ensure every school moves in the right direction. Guardrail one, geographic equity. Uh this means where a student lives shouldn't decide what kind of school experience they'll have. We want every student, no matter their zip code, background, or family income, to have great teachers, challenging classes like AP or IB offerings, and have a safe, supportive learning environment. We'll track the number of schools that consistently offer these opportunities and ensure that all students are included. Guardrail 2, safety. Every student and staff members deserve to feel safe physically
210and emotionally. And we'll look at student surveys that ask, "Do you feel safe at school?" Emergency drills that help schools get ready for any situation. But drills aren't enough. We're also We will also ensure schools feel safe from fights, bullying, and threats because students can't learn if they don't feel safe. Guard rail three, anti-racism. We're saying clearly racism has no place in our schools. Adults and schools need to take anti-racism training, use fair and respectful teaching materials, and show students and families that they care about issues of race and equity. We'll ask students and families if they see uh this happening, their voice will guide us. Guardrail four, engagement. We believe that the best decisions come from working together and building trust, which means two-way communication. We listen and learn from students, families, and staff.
211Principles and leaders will support in communicating and inviting feedback and planning with their school communities before finalizing any major decisions that impact students and families will ask questions, stay open to new ideas and improve uh based on what students, staff, and communities share with SPS. Engagement is more than a survey. It's ongoing relationship and building trust. Guardrail five, uh allocation. We must ensure resources are focused on what matters most, teaching and learning for every student. We'll focus on how our resources flow into the classroom, instruction, tutoring, and teaching support. If some of our schools uh or areas that need more help, we'll redistribute resources to meet those uh student needs. when spending doesn't align with teaching and learning priorities will provide school professional development and clear direction to understand how and why to make necessary
212changes. Every dollar should help improve student learning and we'll work together to ensure that happens. And in closing, these guards are more than a checklist. They reflect our promise to every student. We're listening with care. We're learning with humility. And we're acting with a purpose. We're not just setting goals. We're walking alongside our schools, ensuring each step honors every child's dignity, brilliance, and potential because we are creating a future filled with hope, opportunity, and belonging. And I will turn it over to Dr. Anderson. Uh thank you. Thank you, uh, Assistant Superintendent Howard. That was a very helpful overview. And I think that's one thing to keep in mind that we we want don't want to think of these as disperate measures that taken together our guard rails we believe reflect a coherent theory of action
213that connects our expectations for adult professional practice to creating the necessary conditions in every school for student outcomes to improve consistent with our goals. So it's it's it's a connected piece and we want you to if you're not seeing that then we want you to keep pressing us till you do see that in how we are looking at our guard rails. Before I turn it over to the each of our guard rail leads to speak specifically to their measures for which they'll be providing oversight, I just want to provide a couple of general uh thoughts and considerations about our approach to measurement. First, for most guardrails, we'll be instituting new measures and collecting data that we have not collected before. So therefore, the baseline will in most cases be established in the fall of next
214year and then we will be setting targets for improvement for the following spring or the following fall. So that's why they're not currently constructed with actual baseline and targets just yet. Um, next, it's helpful to keep in mind that unlike the goals, the guardrails themselves are not smart capital S m uh there's no topline measure. So we can't really prove or show that our interim guardrails are predictive of the topline or the guardrail itself in the same way that we can with the academic goals. So our approach was to provide a rationale for the construct that we're measuring and then to develop a reasonably reliable and valid measure for that construct. So you should be asking yourself, does this seem like a good construct to measure and do you have questions about what we're proposing
215as a valid and reliable measure? And those are fair things to be asking about. Um also we are using a fair amount of surveys, not entirely, but you'll see surveys show up in more than one occasion. So I just want to make a couple of general points about that. Um it's undeniable that in most cases surveys are subjective measures. And so um but that that being said, they are valid and reliable indicators of stakeholder perceptions. What students feel, what staff feels, what's what families feel. And in some cases, we believe that is important to measure and to prove over time improve over time. For example, how students feel about their safety while at school, we believe is is an important construct to measure, even if it isn't necessarily a wholly objective measure of school safety.
216So, that's one thing to keep in mind. Another point about surveys, particularly our family surveys, is we know that we typically receive racially disproportionate responses to the surveys we send out to families. And so to account for any either low response rates and/or disproportionality in who's responding, we would we would propose to use a cistical waiting methodology to estimate overall population percentages accounting for over and under reppresented respondent group. So just that's one common theme I wanted to you to keep in mind. And then lastly, we recognize that these are imperfect measures and still a work in progress. We ne n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n nonetheless have endeavored to align the intent of each guardrail to the adult behaviors we
217seek to ensure and to student, staff and family experiences that are reflective of these values. So your feedback is highly valued. We hope to listen and absorb your input tonight so that we can continue to refine and improve our measures before they are finalized. So with that, I think I'll turn it over to Dr. Saraski. Uh good evening everyone. Uh so we have a a clear theory of action uh on the previous slide uh that I think is really important for um all of us to uh be clear about as Dr. Anderson spoke about is that we're really focusing the the guardrails on the adult behaviors uh in service of students. And so our theory of action is if Seattle public schools establishes clear and actionable expectations for adult professional practice while respecting and leveraging
218the expertise of our educators. Then schools in collaboration with central office will create the necessary conditions for educators to effectively support highquality student learning. So by honoring professional knowledge and providing clear guidance, this alignment will foster consistent improvement in student outcomes, promoting progress toward our district's established goals. So we feel very much that the guardrails that have been chosen uh through le listening sessions uh with our community uh is reflected in our interpretations of these guardrails. Um next slide, please. So as we go through each of the guardrails, the repetition that you can be expecting is that we'll uh discuss specifically and define the guardrail. We'll uh share the key metrics that we are have arrived to at this moment in time and then the rationale behind that and then provide uh opportunities for for
219questions before we moving on to the each uh next guardrail. So guardrail one is geographic equity. The superintendent will not allow a student's school assignment, family income, race or ethnicity, need or identity to determine access to high standards, rigorous programming, highquality teaching and supports. And what that is resulted in, next slide please. is for um our key metrics are three main areas and as Dr. Anderson uh spoke to uh we don't have yet have our baselines but we will be having those in the future and you see those reflected in our draft here. Uh so our key metrics for guardrail one is access to consistently effective learning environments, access to highquality standards aligned instruction and completion of advanced courses. So for uh the first one, access to consistently effective learning environments, the percentage of foundational
220schools as measured by the Washington School improvement framework will increase from X in 2020 24 to blank in 2029, indicating improvement in consistent highquality educational experiences. two, access to high quality standards aligned instruction. The percentage of students receiving appropriately placed or paced uh instruction as measured by their participation in the curriculum embedded assessments will increase from X to Y year-over-year. And finally, completion of advanced courses. The percentage of students of color furthest from educational justice who complete advanced courses during high school as defined by advanced placement international balora or IB classes college in the high school tech prep or running start will increase from X to Y uh year-over-year. And so for us, our rationale is consistent with the guardrail in that it's uh focusing on high quality teaching and support using our district adopted
221curriculum aligned to standards, providing access to challenging coursework for all of our students and creating positive effective learning environments. So to ensure that this is working for all of our students, clearly calling out our students um based on race, ethnicity, needs, identities, family incomes, where they live in our city, um is that they have equitable access to all of these great things that we want to provide for our students through the training and support of our educators. So what you see in those three bo bottom bullets there is the consistent implementation of our district adopted curriculum matters for our students across our city. Access to and completion of advanced courses. It's just not access to advanced courses. It's passing and doing well in advanced courses is equally important which we want to measure. And then
222the percentage of schools rated as foundational which for our board and our public moving forward will need to provide more information and uh teaching around the Washington school uh improvement framework. But it's the percentage of schools foundational and that is strong in the state school improvement framework which measures both academic outcomes and learning environment metrics. And so for us uh next slide please is that we believe that by focusing on the adults and our measures looking out for all of our students regardless of who they are and where they are uh is where this guardrail lands. And so for us, and you'll see this replicated for each guardrail, is how will these metrics allow you to monitor progress towards the guardrail? And if it does, or if it does not, what information is missing so
223that our staff uh can go back and try to get some of those answers for you, Director Sergio. [Music] Um, I don't necessarily have a question formed, but I'm going to connect what I heard in public testimony tonight. Um, and I'm I'm going to try to do it without emotion, specifically the emotion of anger. Um I what I witnessed from our deaf participants was not um they were not asking for anything extreme. Um we've had them come before. Um, I am almost at the end of my term and I find it really hard to believe that our deaf families um are still not able to access interpreters for parent teacher conferences. It is not okay for children or family members to be interpreting either in sign language or any other language for their parents. That
224is not best practice. it puts an undue burden on the children or the other family member. Um, and so when I hear about need and for all, um, I'm skeptical because we wouldn't have them coming asking for basic, they're asking for basic deserving support. And so when I read that, I'm skeptical because it actually right now we are not including all. And so how do we get to that? What is the actual real tangible plan? It took me one too many emails to get interpreters at schoolboard meetings. I h and I don't have a deaf child, but when we talk about need, when we talk about equity, I care about it all. I care about it all cuz there are black deaf kids in our schools. Yes, we have highlighted African-American males. There are there
225are deaf black boys in our midst. So how can we assure families like our deaf and heart of hearing families that we can actually deliver on this? They should never have to come to another schoolboard meeting and express for I don't know how many eenth time what we w what we witnessed tonight. If we're going to put it on paper then we've got to deliver it. No excuses, no explanations because otherwise we're lying to them. We're lying. It's just a boldfaced lie. And I really want to be I want us to take this seriously. If we don't mean all, then remove the word. If we don't actually we're not serious about those in need, remove the word. Let's be real with the families and then let them make their decision based on that. But we
226should never have to witness again what we witnessed tonight. This should be a uh this should be done deal. And when I read this, I don't even see us doing it now. Director Sarju, are you asking for some or suggesting maybe some information is missing in the key metrics along that line in some way? I specifically said I did not have a question. I said I was going to connect what I saw tonight with what has been written on the paper because I can tell you the deaf and heart of hearing families, we still have someone signing. They're likely online. They're go they're sitting there saying that doesn't match with my experience that I showed up and testified about. So, it's not a question, but we've put it on the paper. If we're not if
227we cannot live up to it, it's performance. We're performing around this table. And I'm asking if we're going to put it on the paper, we need to figure out how to deliver it because we're not doing it now. Director Ranken. Um, so I Yeah, I am I don't know what was the state measure that you said the Washington school improvement framework. Okay. So I don't know enough about that now to be able to know whether or not this is going to be a meaningful um metric. But for the other ones there uh so what I'm looking for in an interim metric is how do we is evidence that our guardrail is becoming more true. So, if we're saying the superintendent will not allow a school's a student's school assignment, family income, race or ethnicity, need
228or identity to determine access to these things. I don't think that the percentage of students overall receiving appropriately paced instruction measured by curriculum embedded assessments actually tells me whether or not that's true or becoming more true. Um, and the same with the completion of advanced courses. I I don't see the I don't see how knowing the percentage of students of color, further from educational justice who complete advanced courses would tell me whether or not the superintendent is or allowing is or isn't allowing a student school assignment, family income rate, etc., etc. So, I there's a there's something not quite lining up here. it. Uh these feel a little bit more goalie than guardraily. Um uh so um yeah, that's the the information for me that's missing is I want to know how do we know
229whether or not our guardrail is true? And I don't think that the answers to these questions tell me that. So would it be most appropriate for staff to take the question, put an answer uh down on paper and respond or should we be doing that now? So I mean in general the superintendent is in charge of the these interimm measures and we're supposed to ask we're supposed to specifically answer, you know, do do these align? Do these do these guardrails get to what we're trying to measure? And I think Liza is saying they don't. So I think maybe an explanation of what or or reasoning why you think they they measure the guardrail would be helpful. Is that correct? Yeah, I think if if if there's something I'm missing like convince me convince me otherwise.
230I just wanted to add that I had the exact same comment slashquest. I don't understand how I would love to know how you all arrived at these three choices for the metrics for this guard rail because they don't seem to me to be um providing the information that we are um meeting the guard rail. So I'll I'll step in uh a little bit here. So with the the the issue of equity, I'll just I'm just going to start with equity first and foremost for the the rationale be behind curriculum embedded assessments. We've been spending uh time together this year really focusing on just reporting back out to you the curriculum embedded assessments. The investments that this school board, this community has made in our curriculum uh aligned to standards matters. And also we know that
231we have inconsistent implementation of curriculum that plays itself out in varying ways across our system that some students get access to the standardsbased uh grade level curriculum and some students do not. And one of the ways that we're wanting to measure that is through curriculum embedded assessments so that we can say uh confidently that our superintendent can say confidently to you and to the public that our students are receiving our district adopted curriculum. Our students are receiving the instruction. Our educators are getting the support that they need to be able to teach that uh content. and we're also measuring it all across um our system uh all across the city. That's one of the rationale for the curriculum embedded assessments uh being a part of that. It also supports our interim uh and topline measures
232of our goals. It's aligned uh into in support of that. The other uh issue uh specifically about bringing up uh advanced coursework um uh specifically is that we do have inconsistent um uh course offerings in our secondary schools that um for any number of reasons that we want to improve on. And so it's not just for us. In some of our own research, what we've seen is that we have students who we can say at a specific school they have the class. It doesn't mean that all of our students are getting access to that class or prepared for that class. specifically in goals to our second grade, sixth grade are in alignment of building the um the the skills of our students, the confidence of our students so that they are prepared to go into
233those advanced classes. Those advanced classes can look any number of ways depending on the school community which is why we had the varying uh definitions of what advanced coursework looks like. So for our students it's not just the access but it's also how well they are doing in the classes and then also measuring who those students are who are getting access to those classes and how well they're doing is our rationale for why go uh guardrail one uh is measuring about uh equity access and then also to give the superintendent the opportunity to say for us hey if something's not happening uh for our students in our secondary schools specifically around advanced courses then we need to do something about it. We are required to do it in support of not only our goals but
234the guardrail supports us in helping um support the adult behaviors connected to uh this guardrail is some of the rationale for staff um in our interpretation of this guardrail one and why these three metrics. Director Clark. No, director. Sorry, I forgot to put my tab down. I'm still thinking. Director Ranken, thank you. Um, that's helpful and I think indicates that the interpretation may be a little different than what I believe the board intended. So, um, and somebody jump in if I'm misremembering, but what we really heard strongly from our community was that a student who lives in the Rainer Beach attendance area should not have less access to option schools, highly capable I whatever it is than a student who lives in the Ingram attendance area. So, the preparedness for the students to be successful
235of course is important. This specifically was about families really being families and students being very aware of how different their experience with Seattle public schools is based on where they live. And that is about the services and access. That is about knowing because I live here, I don't get to do what those students do. It's not even available where my kid goes to school. So that's what this one was actually getting at equity in terms of what's available and the other part that you're talking about is important. I think we address that more in our goals and this value was more like we cannot have this system where it's by chance. If a principal feels strongly about dual language, you get dual language. The district's not going to pay for curriculum, but the principal decided
236they're going to have it and now we have it. or with an option school. Again, this community, this principal decided we want an option school and now they have one. And it's just this this hodgepodge of people fighting over resources and us being willing to perpetuate a system where some kids have what they need and some kids don't. Some kids have the option of option school, neighborhood school, highly capable, whatever. Some kids because they have a disability are on a separate option school weight list than all this other weightless stuff. Some kids because they have a disability and are highly capable are told you either have to forgo highly capable services or wave your IEP. So that is what this was getting at is how completely inequitably we resource and serve and provide basic education
237and how acutely aware students, families and communities are about the inequities and we have to address it. Everybody deserves access to a highquality basic education and where we offer option schools, cohort, whatever, whatever, it has to be in a way that anybody who could benefit from it can access it. Right now we don't have that. That is what this is about. So, um, hearing that, uh, take on the definition, our reminder, um, what we can do is, uh, go back and, uh, revisit it with a different lens. Thank you for your call response to my agitatedness. I apologize for that. So, um, board and director Ranken, uh, will you can we skip to guard rail five? Um, I want to see what guardrail 5 is looking like versus guardrail one cuz my interpretation of guardrail
2385 is your interpretation of guardrail one in part. So, I just want to see if we can do a little bit of back and forth with that. So, with that said, if if uh President Top will allow me, I want to jump to five and then see if Let's go. Yeah, let's go to let's go to five and then we can continue this conversation. Okay. Do you just want us to introduce this? And no, do you want me just introduce this? Should I just introduce this? Let's continue on, Dr. Bleman. So guardrail five is around um superintendent will not allow people, time, money, and other resources to be allocated in a manner inconsistent with student need. Rude. That's rude. All right, we're going to take a a quick 10-minute recess and we will come back.
239So, we will come back at uh 8:20. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] All [Music] right. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] All right, we're going to come back together here. [Music] We believe it'd be helpful to everybody. We're trying to do we're at the beginning of this. Sure. Let's Yeah. All right. Thank you everyone for taking a a short breather with me as we go through this evening. There is a
240lot to cover and there's a lot of dense material because we are getting later in the evening here. Uh we're going to cover uh we're going to go through interimm guardrail number five. We're going to have staff uh review guardrail five. Um and then I think we're going to take a pause on the guardrails this evening um and continue on with our agenda and board members uh allow this to sit with district staff for a little bit and then we uh board directors who have additional feedback. This will come back up to us. Um but additional feedback as we're looking at this. Let's get this to staff and then I think uh uh how director Howard, accountability officer Howard, Dr. I I'm not sure Mr. Howard uh is going to uh kind of ground us
241in a little bit of the process of where we're at from the student outcomes focused section. Um talking about sort of where we are in the process, I think to kind of help ground us as we as we're setting these these guardrails. So that's the that's the goal. So, I'm going to send it to Dr. uh uh Jones here to start with interimm guardrail 5. Uh thank you, President Todd. Real quick, is anybody cold? Cuz I will close the door. Okay. Yeah. And and just to try to bridge guard rail one with guardrail 5 to see to director Rankin's point about what uh the board's interpretation of the guardrail was. I was trying to see if there were elements in guardrail 5 that touched that. And if it doesn't, that's fine. I just was trying
242to uh see if there was some synergy there. So, let's walk through guardrail 5 and then accountability officer Howard's going to do his piece. Okay. Thank you. So, I just wanted to ground us really quickly. Um Dr. Jones wanted to make sure that we had interpreted the guard rail in collaboration with you. So, as we do the root cause analysis around the goals, what we're getting into in guardrail 5 is actually at the beginning level. So, if you say we're at a zero and we're trying to get to five, we're at a zero right now. We're just starting out, but as we continue to work with the board, we will hone that to get to a five. And so, right now, we're getting our baseline. We're going to discover things. And then, as we continue
243to keep coming back during progress monitoring and we discover things, we will share that 80% of that Dr. Jones has control over what's going to shift. The superintendent has 80% and that's why we picked a guardrail that 80% can shift. So if we discover something, it will shift. If we learn something in the process, it will shift. So we understand that we're expanding um our supports. So in guardrail 5, I just wanted to ground us and says what we're trying to do is make sure we ensure all our resources are focused on what matters most, which is teaching and learning. And so we want to make sure as we're focusing on teaching and learning, we'll focus on how resources flow into the classroom, instruction, tutoring, and teaching support. That's what this guardrail 5 is meant
244to do to make sure we're aligned and that there's equity there. But that's what we're doing right now. But we're starting at ground zero. And as we learn, we come back during progress monitoring, you'll see us say, we learned this and these are adjustments we're making. we learn more about this and we're making these adjustments. And so as we get feedback from the community, feedback from the board, feedback from our uh initial baseline, getting it from our students and families and our staff, these things will shift. So, I just wanted you to to see that we're not to perfection yet, but this is a learning process. And we're used to bringing you guys a baked cake all done, and then you say, "Well, what about the icing? What about this?" No, this cake is hasn't
245even been baked yet. Hasn't been started. We're just looking at the ingredients and trying to put it together. There we are. Marne's excited over there. I can see her. So, uh, just wanted to ground us there and then I want to give it over to Fred and, uh, and Dr. Bleman. I'll let Dr. Bleman um, take the lead on this. I I do think we wanted to note that um we heard the board that you wanted to do more than finances in this that it was people, time and money and all sorts of resources given where we are in kind of financial planning and dealing with our situation and that our you know accounting practices or budgeting practices uh payroll costs is the easiest way to get data about the allocation of resources. we're going
246in through that door, but we understand that the board's interest is a lot broader than just examining expenditures, but but that is an entree and as um as uh Mr. Howard alluded to, you know, we're building this as we go. So, we we would see this evolving and getting richer over time. Um but I think we'll lean heavily on finance. So, I'll turn it over to Dr. Everybody, so I can if we can go back to the other slide just to read the guardrail itself so we can ground there. The superintendent will not allow people, time, money, and other resources to be allocated in a manner inconsistent with student need. That's the guard rail we're trying to present metrics, intermetric proposals on. Um to Mr. Howard's point, the there will be shifts in this one
247particularly. Um you'll see a note on the next slide and on the documentation that this will be further informed by the resource and strategy analysis work that's going on with ERS and the strategic plan um community task force that's being formed. So this is one a good example of something that will evolve over time and probably fairly quickly um fairly soon. On the next slide you'll see the proposed interim metrics. As Chief Podesta said, they're around spending and spending of funding at school. So, the first one leans into teaching and teaching support being the the business of the school district and making sure that percentage of spending is appropriate um out of the entire budget. Just for context, those numbers currently are about 74%. So, if you combine teaching and teaching support, it's in the
248mid 70% range currently. So again, just a proposed metric at this point. We're going to work further on the resource and strategy analysis findings to see if there's more depth there that can be um used in these. But that's one of the proposed tonight. The other is around spending at schools. So the board and the superintendent allocates funding to schools with the intent of using that funding for the students that year. Um there are schools within our district that spend 80 something% of their funding each year and there's other schools that spend 100% or more. And so trying to be more proactive in being on top of that with principles and with the district and with leadership to ensure that those funds are being spent appropriately um in those schools um is what that second
249metric is trying to capture. And then on the next slide, you'll see the sort of repeat there about high quality teaching and support. Um, we'll continue to monitor that spending and share that information. Um, I think it's good information to also share because the way Seattle public schools currently reports sort of through the state system, there's a lot of folks that don't appear to be sp spending their time in schools but are spending their time in schools. So this is a give us a good opportunity to refine some of that information so an accurate accounting of how uh dollars are being spent in schools is represented. And then you'll see there we're proposing that student need which is part of that guard rail is um defined by students impacted by poverty for this guardrail. So
250that's the the definition we're using for need as we're looking at this guardrail. Fred or Dr. Pritchette, anything to add? This was kind of a joint effort. You're good. And I think as you see this all come together, uh, give you an a kind of a preview of what it will look like when we're all aligned. Uh the collaboration means going back to guard railroad one that if we looked at uh highly capable at Rainer Beach, you would see the same thing at Ingram, you would see the same thing at Garfield, you would see the same thing at Lincoln, you'd see the same thing at Cleveland. It wouldn't be something where uh the staff decided not to offer a highly capable or a world language course. And so when we start putting everything together, you'll
251start to see it come together. But we're looking at it now in just little pieces of it. So this governance process coming together, that's collaboration, the goals that are setting is starting to come together. It's not there yet, but you're going to see us start to talk more in continuity as we start to talk more and more and we do our progress monitoring around this. Director Ranken. Uh thanks. Yes, this uh this interpretation makes a lot I I I see the interpretation here and I think it aligns with what we were looking for especially as a place to start because the important thing about the interim guard rails is the topline one we expect to remain for the the top line expectation should remain for the life of the strategic plan but as you said
252as we go we'll discover new things will be discovered or we'll complete something and then pivot to something else or whatever. So it is important that the interims are able to be um adjusted if we as we discover new things. What I appreciate about this one and I'm not I'm not proportion of expenditure yes maybe no because I don't know I don't know how I don't know what that impact is actually on meeting the needs of students because I know that it takes a whole system to support what happens in the classroom also. Um, but the individual school spending feels really important to know that like, hey, we can tell from your student population, you have these student needs. We want to move the needle for those kids and here's here's resources that are being
253provided to do that. They need to be spent in this way. Um, that we should be able to see we should be able to kind of follow the money and see that where there is more need, more resources are going um to meet the need. uh I you know as we progress through the strategic plan I think it'd be interesting to look at you know get a little bit more refined in terms of what that means for staffing allocation what that means for for different things but I think to start with this makes a lot of sense to just monitor making sure that money that it's allocated is spent as intended and then money that is spent evaluate whether or not it's it's it's effective and we want to keep that expenditure. I think that
254will be al also just for general transparency for the for the budget. Um really really helpful to understand just where the dollars go and whether or not they're being used to their um their best uh purpose. So yeah, thank you other directors. So, I'm going to ask seeing these two and hearing the working together, are we still seeing a misalignment for our guardrail one? I am. Yes. Yeah. So, so I think what we'll do is we'll pause here um and give staff an opportunity to come back um with a little bit of refinement for what for the alignment for the interimm metrics to get to our guard rails. and we'll pick this up um at a later at at a a future board meeting. Um for the metrics or the guardrails that we are not
255covering tonight, please review and get any questions you may have to staff beforehand so we can save a little bit of time now that we have this packet. Um and we're going to keep going unless I see folks need a break. Okay, then we're going to keep going into the the next portion of our agenda, which is going to be um enrollment planning update. So, give staff just a moment here. [Music] All right. Enrollment planning update. Um, so we have heard a lot of testimony, uh, some many emails. Um I'm going to try to frame up uh how this is going to go in the next month or so. Um so tonight uh the goal is to hear from staff really just framing the issue and the problem. I think then in the next month
256both the superintendent uh and staff will do uh some outreach a survey it sounds like as well as our March 7th full board engagement will be May 7th thank you not March um on uh on this topic and then um we will receive a recommendation sort of from the superintendent about how to move forward. So tonight really trying to uh understand the issue and get our questions answered um about the issue um and so we better understand what is going on or what is going on in enrollment um and and that being the the goal for this evening. So it shouldn't be as um so yeah and that being the goal for the evening. So uh with that I'm going to pass it to Dr. Jones. Thank you president. Thank you, President Top. And um
257we've uh in full transparency, we've been working on a deck and we've changed the deck a bit. Uh we also have access to the previous deck. So if folks need to see those numbers for reference, we can do that. Um but this is just an evolving uh piece so that we can really try to frame it in a way that here's the context of where we are. Here's what it is. uh in a way that it's it's uh easy to digest and then I think as president top talked about we'll start to build some understanding and then we'll take some actions around uh what do we want to do um going forward. So I have Dr. Campbell here with me and I have Chief Podesta here and we're going to uh just kind of walk
258through again what is what is what are we dealing with here? I mean it's it's very complex. Uh we've had multiple different conversations today all kind of related to this in in some way or fashion particularly that last conversation we talked about you know what is our service delivery model ultimately and so um and how do we do that with some assurances for families that they will have the experience that their students want. So with that said uh we're going to we're going to go right into the to the framing slide uh and then we can I'll pass it over to uh Dr. Campbell and and Fred to uh move this through. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Dr. Jones, I'll provide some contextual information and then um turn it over to Dr. Campbell to see
259how that plays out with specific circumstances um on the part of the enrollment planning team. So um the tradeoffs here in terms of poly perspective are really about um the balance between um choice and stability in as much as um a system that provides more choice um creates u mobility within the system for student enrollment and um resources follow students. So um the more mobility that we provide within the system, the more resources are going to move around. It's not a value judgment. It's just these are the things we need to consider that um as as uh families make choices, as students make choices and move from one school to the other, we'd be moving resources from one school to the other. And that um that has impacts. uh it's uh it's not again it's
260not a a a value proposition say it's just something to consider as we think about the level of choice that we want to build into enrollment policies. Can can I double down on something? This this again this isn't a value we may value judgment. We may may even sound defensive. We're just really trying to explain kind of what is what are our operational considerations. And so uh forgive us in advance if we sound defensive. We're really just trying to explain what is and I think there'll be time to say this is a direction that we're recommending that we go in. So, I want to put that out there as a disclaimer. Uh we we're defensive in terms of want to make sure that the data is right and the framing is right, but in terms
261of what we're doing and where we go later, uh I wouldn't say we're agnostic, but we we are very very open into what the future may look like. So, I just wanted to mention that upfront. And these structures are totally of our making and totally within our control. So um so we have choice, you know, about how we balance this. Um and that that just is what it is. Um uh and and that's why we're having this conversation. So there's just how much choice there is. And if we could advance the slide. Um and it's worth just talking about the timeline. We don't need to go through this in detail but the again the options before us come from a policy and practice consideration are you know how much choice do we build into the
262system and over what period of time um that I I don't know if this is a a fruitful analogy but you know how big a window do we have for choice and how long is it open because again the the more time over the course of planning for a school year that people have to make choice choices, the more we'd be moving staff around later into the the budgeting process and the school staffing process. So, that's a that's another consideration. The system now is um you know, and the decisions we make are trying to be relative to projections that we make um in late winter and trying to plan for the coming school year. And again, as if um we have more things changing over that period of time, that that's just what it'll be.
263we can advance the slide. So just in terms of the scale of this on average and this has been pretty stable about 10% of the district's um families participate in the school choice process each year and of those um you know it's roughly 50/50 pick either an option school or a different attendance area school. it's not really weighted one to the other um uh for a variety of reasons. And thank you. We can move this one more. And so, and it's also been pretty stable in terms of scale relative to our enrollment overall that that 10% actually 10 years ago was a bit higher than 10%, but that number has been fairly stable. And then the number of families that end up at the start of school with their first choice is typically about half
264of those that participate in the process. And that's been so um the the general practice has been operating the same way over that period of time. Um what this doesn't reflect is in that same period of time we've gone um from a a period of uh big enrollment increases to enrollment decline. So that makes the consequences decisions um greater and you know lands different for people participating in the process. So um that that's kind of masked by this but but through that period in terms of the way enrollment planning is working the system that's been fairly consistent. So I'll turn it over to Dr. Campbell to talk about kind of at the micro level how uh what considerations were currently being considered as part of this process. Thank you. And I do want to acknowledge
265Brent Cone who's behind me uh member of our enrollment planning team. Um the enrollment planning team is a very very intelligent analytical group of folks with doctorates and uh they're demographers and um they're they're that I want to just emphasize and so Brenda is here and I want to thank him for being here has been doing this work for more than a decade in Seattle and in other districts as well and he's agreed to come here tonight and I mentioned that also to say that the projections that the team puts out are based on a lot of anal analysis. Um it's not just we're not just going with last year's numbers where we're looking at housing around the city. We're looking at um historical attrition rates, but largely within a school, you're looking at the
266incoming class and the outgoing class because you know that by and large students are going to be with with some variability from grade to grade. Um they're going to be staying there. So those projections then become the basis for how we then budget and staff um our buildings. And as Fred said, there's a point at which we somewhat freeze the design to say this is where we think that school is going to be. Um, so I want to really emphasize that that enrollment planning team manages the school choice process. Um, the process again is a product of of decisions. It's a product of our current the way we approach enrollment which emphasizes um since 2010. Uh, we moved toward a a guaranteed neighborhood assignment. That's something that was new prior to that. And I was
267a parent um in the day when you weren't guaranteed any school assignment. You actually made a number of choices and everybody went into the lottery. That changed after the Pix decision, the Supreme Court decision and some other things. So um they manage the process that's and the procedures that are defined by that. And the policy and procedure is 3130. Um and it does guarantee a neighborhood assignment for every student. Um and the premise at that time was that all neighborhood schools would have academic asurances that no matter where you went, you would be guaranteed uh things that you need and deserve. Um enrollment stability again is that idea of balance and I think it was some folks presented as a competition between choice and stability. I don't see it that way. I tend to think
268in terms of um abundance for lack of a better term. I think we can work with both. I think that we absolutely need to find both because families need different things, but we also have a baseline of needing to provide those schools that are stable for all of our students. I just wanted to address another thing that was said tonight. Families when they submit a choice form offer five options. So although we're talking about first choice, um no student is kept at a school they absolutely don't want to be at or they might be, but they're they're given if they've elected three or four other options, they're almost always be able to be matched with another school. And I just think that's important to know for context that if you know if you're in a
269school that is really not working for you, you might again not get your first choice, but you will be able to find another school that might work better. Um, when we review those school choice applications, you know, there are tiebreers that if they're on time applications, there are sibling tiebreaker and there's a geo zone tiebreaker. And then every ontime application receives a lottery number. So that's how those assignments are made. Um, so again, at each of these schools, quite a few students have been moved in after the initial assignment decision. We're now talking about those who are left on the um on the wait list. There's also on the enrollment planning website weight list historical data that you can look at that's quite detailed and quite clear if you're interested in prior years and weight
270lists. So, but we do look at the impacts to the assigned school that is where the student is currently assigned and the requested choice school. We have to just again in the interest of stability and choice balancing those we have to do that. So the next slide please. So when we look at that requested school um we look at whether or not it has capacity. So, um, some things have been said and and I think there's a perception that, well, there's room in the building. Let's just fill it full, but as we know, many of our buildings are not full right now. So, it's really not just about the size of the building. It's about where did we staff that building. And that was based again on our projections. So, we look at here are
271the grade levels, here are the number of classes or sections per grade level. So capacity is really about um where there is space within the current staffing allocation. Um we do make adjustments in June and again in October, but the idea is to by and large um avoid really massive shifts. Um bear in mind that different grade levels might have different space for different students. So it might not be a question of let's just move all six students because there might be space at a grade level and not at another one. Um, so again, you can see that second bullet, the capacity is not just the physical space. And then we're looking at the student scenario. So families can elect to say, if I have siblings or twins, I only want to move if they
272can go together. And then some people can say, you know what, I'll take a single spot. So those are other things that the enrollment planning team does. So this is very very um refined work that is very specific to each individual case and each individual family. And the next slide, please. And so again, we do look at the assigned school where the student currently attends. We do look at is that school underenrolled? Is it declining? And will, I think more importantly, will moving students and or a bunch of students result in a change in class configuration. We're not saying that would mean we would not move students, but we have to ask that question. Does that mean we're going to actually lose a classroom? Um and we'll talk about that in a moment about the
273student experience and the impact when we don't have that stability. Um the would it benefit the assigned school? So the current school is it overcrowded? Is it a case where you know it actually would benefit that school to move students? That's also taken into consideration. Um so you know we're going to look at all of those factors when we look at moving those weight lists. And again we come back the next slide to just again really the Dr. Campbell. Yes. I think director hersy you had a question. Do you want to ask it now or do you want to ask it? Ah okay let so I hear all that right. I also have a college degree and have been coming to this building for the past six years. So, what I would say is that
274like could you explain this process to me like I am an incredibly intelligent 8-year-old because like what I'm hearing while it might make some sense to me, I think a lot of families when they look at all of these different factors that are impacting where their kids going to school, not every factor impacts their individual family and then yet every factor does impact their individual family. So, I could see as a parent looking at all these different factors and being like, well, where the hell does my kid fit into all of this? This still doesn't make me feel better about the situation, right? That and I say all that that to say what you're saying is not inaccurate and it does not like not make sense. So, if we could just back it up a
275little bit and take another look at these things and pass through this again because I think that there are probably a lot of folks out there who are likely still confused. Yeah. So, Dr. Campbell, I want go go go respond and then I want to save questions till the end of the presentation then as well if that's okay with board directors just in the ability to get through the the material. No, you're fine. No, I think it's a great question. Um, this is pretty specific. So, when a family submits a choice application, it it says repeatedly on the application, this does not guarantee your assignment. That's pretty clear from the start. You are requesting something. there are some factors that will push you up the list. So if you're have a sibling at that requested
276school that puts you because we have valued that right. So if you live within the geo zone of that school that puts you up. So really I think that to me is the clearest. There's no guarantee but here are the factors that could result in an assignment. So on that timeline what we couldn't quite see is there's a mass assignment. So, if you submit an on-time uh choice form and we do our wonderful enrollment fair here and we talked to lots of families about this, get that in in February, you will be part of that mass assignment. Many, many thousands of students were actually moved to their top choice school at that time. Now, what we usually see is the weight lists come when we have a later choice application, which we don't want to
277exclude anybody. We don't want to make that, you know, prohibitive, but um it becomes a little more difficult to do that. So basically, we're looking at maintaining moving students if and when there's space. Again, we're not talking about space in the building. We're talking about we have two fourth grade classes here. They're both full right now. We can't exactly move a student in there without going over a ratio. So that would just be something. So if that makes sense. That makes total sense. And the only and I just something to come back to two questions that I would love to have answered after the presentation. One, do we give what rationale a decision is made off of if it goes not the parent or family's way? Right? Like do we say because of X, Y,
278or Z reason, we can't move your kid into this school? That's question number one. Number two, it seems like we still have like weight lists with hundreds of kids on them in some scenario where there's no movement. It then begs the question to me, what's the point of the weight list? Because maybe if we reduce the weight list, I I don't know what the average is year-over-year of how many kids actually get moved off of a weight list into a building or if that changes drastically. Having an eternal weight list, I think provides some sense of confusion or hope that might not necessarily be there for some families. So, I'm wondering if the weight list structure is even effective. So, two questions that could be answered at the end. Great questions. And again, I would
279really encourage you and I if we had world enough in time, I would show you actually the weight list data and it's quite clear. The numbers are actually quite low where we have a weight list of over 100 is in our high schools. Um, elementary schools are not anywhere near that high. Um, and is the rationale there. Again, I think it's, you know, we've tried to lay out here here are the things that would make you a candidate to, you know, to be more likely to be assigned. And again, quite a few students have been assigned. And even at this latest date, families yesterday found out, you know, if they got their choice. And quite a few families did. And and then typically speaking, it has more to do with that lottery. And um and
280and you're on a wait list. That's the only way to describe it. You you know, and but we do offer um the seats. And just so you know, procedurally, families have two days to accept it. If they don't accept it, we move on. So we're moving. It's literally a wait list. And some families are like, you know what, I'm cool. I'm fine. I got what I want. And so we keep moving through that weight list. So it actually does have a utility and it goes on throughout the summer. So that we're going to try to place as many students as we can where they want to go. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Real quick, can we do something about this computer restart, please? Snooze. We It's not a so subtle hint. I know we're
281going we're going to go faster. gives me a little anxiety because it always happens in the middle of it. There we go. All right. Thank you. Um, so just for just again for context, if we can go ahead to the table and hopefully I don't, this is going to be small. You may want to pull this up, but we just we had a number of tables. This is the one we thought was most germanine to illustrate um what we're really working with in terms of stability. So these are the schools where the net negative change would clearly result in some instability around just the core structure of the school. So you look at John Haye and and the choosing weight listed that means families that are choosing John Haye. There's one person weight listed right
282now that's choosing John Haye. There are 30 uh and I have the I got to put on my glasses here. 39 thank you that are choosing another school. That means and I got it here. Thank you. A net loss of 38. So they would John Hay would go from 254 to 216. So just just to get a sense of the scale and if you go down that net change column, you'll see that's a fair amount of movement. If we were to say let's just move all the weight lists. Um Reindeer Beach, you can see down a little further um stands to potentially lose quite a few students. So um so that just kind of gives you an idea of the scale of where schools you know so when we say let just give everybody what
283they want we can do that absolutely but it will result in some turbulence around staffing and some core things. Um so if we can go to the next slide and just to make a comparison about that um we've done kind of summary level analysis with the weighted staffing model and this would result in changes if we move the weight list more aggressively. The model would indicate changes at more of 80 schools and um you know pushing maybe 50 um ads and of staffing in those schools and uh combined with a commensurate number of polls in other schools. So that's a lot bigger adjust I mean you've all experienced the adjustments that sometime get made in June and sometimes get made in October that's kind of dwarfed by what this would be. So when we So
284that part is real and not saying that we shouldn't do it but that's that would be kind of baked into the system. Dr. Jones, did you have something you want? No, I I just I just wanted folks to sit with that last slide because I think it's pretty vivid. And if you go back to that last slide, um, net change the the column in the middle, uh, figure 25 or so is a staff member. So that changed. So for example, Nathan Hail right there, that's 2.2 educators, for example. that would that would shift and that would that would cause just uh more of that October shuffle that we none of us really like. But that's that that's really important to kind of understand that this is this is what that looks like. Not a value
285statement, just that's kind of what it looks like. Does this make sense? I mean, does this is this confusing or is this is this illust illustrative of something? I don't think it matters for the board. I don't think this is a board conversation. Keep keep going through the presentation, please. Yeah, I think this is an opport this is an opportunity for board members to understand what's going on, what we're talking about in our community and this is our opportunity to learn that. So, let's keep going. Keep going. Next slide. Thank you. This is where I think it's really germaine like the what is the student experience? our students who are here at the table, board directors, you know, that instability. What does that do for our students, that's just a loss of teachers and other
286staff. So there's a, you know, second grade teacher that we really wanted to have that might be the least senior teacher that gets pulled and moved to another school. Loss of course offerings. So in the prior slide, you saw a school like Mccclure stands to lose a fair amount of, you know, students potentially. That could mean we're not, you know, we heard about world language offerings. you know when we get small enough we're not able to provide those basic things that we think students should have or music PE and art in elementary school and then increased shifts in grade uh configurations. So when we make those allocations we try to you know have students come in in for lack of a better word you know sort of groups or packages that are going to allow
287for nice grade level cohorts. So it just creates a little bit more instability too in how in how students experience school. So that's the bulk of the process. Now another thing that folks have asked and you heard I think expressed tonight is well you're going to lose us anyhow if we don't get our first choice. So this is just from 2021 and I can't emphasize enough I mean our postcoid data is it is what it is. that still we're still getting a sense of normal normalizing after COVID dips. Um but you can see that of a number of students who did not get their choice that that is meaning their first choice and then did not enroll in Seattle public schools. Um you can see um an anomalous figure in 2024. I will just note
288that we had actually double the number of late choice applications in 2024. I suspect and theorize that that's connected to the potential school closures. So just again, we had another table that showed, but these are all students um who were enrolled the prior year who then decided not to enroll because they did not have the choice that they wanted. So this is certainly not insignificant. It's something we want to think about, but just to give a sense of the scale of that impact on overall enrollment. So that's the bulk of the presentation. Um, and I had a question from Director Hersy. Let's see. You said, "Do we give a rationale to families when they don't get their choice?" Um, so that's a great question. I might have to lean on my colleague uh Brent, but
289I think when students I think I would say on the back end when we tell people this is not a guarantee and here are the variables please give us your five options. Um that's where we really do explain that. Um we have had people reach out specifically to enrollment planning and say hey what gives my kids on the wait list? There is a standardized response that comes back that does detail some of the policies around that. So that tends to be, but I know that we do engage in specific conversations because people reach out and we do want to explain that. We want to make that clear. Um, and I would ask Brent, is there anything else? You said, okay, thank you. Yeah, I hear that. That makes total sense from a from a system
290standpoint. And there is a lot of ne not negative space in the sense that it's not good but just like clear space where folks will make up their own reasons based on their experience which for them is valid if we don't give them some type of feedback about why this decision is. It's a very different experience to say oh these fourth grade classrooms are full so we can't move your fourth grade in your fourth grader in versus like saying like you've been denied. And so if there is something that is like simple to account, it might be interesting. Abs. Yeah, absolutely. And I think I I I know the team well enough to know that they have those conversations about those very specific things. The fourth grade classrooms are full. Your child is next on
291the weight list. You know that. Yeah. And I appreciate that though when and I appreciated um uh Chief of Accountability Officer Howard's framing uh where he said, you know, ultimately this all of this and I've been a parent and I've been a principal and I've handled weight list before when it was all lottery and I've handled weight lists after. All of this is a very human thing, right? You've only got the one kid that's going to go into kinder. Like that really matters. And so while I'm describing this from a systems perspective, I'm very very aware of the human story that is behind that. So you know we we always want to approach it in that way. Yeah. Right. So I do want to open it up for questions uh as an opportunity for board
292members to understand what is going on and and I will start. So just so I understand, if I if if I I have a kid at a smaller school, say Santaow, um and I want to go to an option school or just a different school, would I have a harder chance leaving that school because my school is smaller and you know I would have uh maybe split classes or you know my leaving would negatively affect that school. Yeah, thank you for that question and I double checked with a number of people on the enrollment planning team. The answer is no. So if you're first on the wait list, we're not going to jump over you because you go to Santais slow. We're going to when that space becomes available, we're going to move the weight
293list in accordance with the way that that weight list is structured. We might not move 10 students all at once. So I mean that's where some of the judgment comes, but we're going to move that weight list prudently as those spaces become available. Um, again, according to where you are on the weight list, which would again be dependent on those factors that we're very clear with families about that we want to hold to the integrity of that, you know, you're on the weight list because of the factors that influenced, you know, the lottery and then sibling and gozone. So, so follow So, just a followup. So, if you're number one on the weight list, but you have some negative criteria for against you, you wouldn't move to number two. you'd be we'd be stuck sort
294of at number one until we felt like we could move that student or correct we wouldn't jump over a student and I and I I know what you're saying about negative criteria and because we said considerations for the for the assigned school I wouldn't say those are negative criteria the criteria for the weight list and the weightless movement are very clear and we don't vary from that that's just more in how we manage the overall process that we we just are mindful of that and I and Sorry. I think that what has come up I will just say is look there's tons and tons of room at this particular school. Why can't we move these kids in here? When a rationale is given that well to do so would actually impact these other two schools.
295That's not to say that we're going to punish kids who go to those schools. What it says is we are not going to increase the staffing at this receiving school, which is in most cases what would have to happen if we were to do that. All right, board director's questions and I'm sorry I was not paying attention to table tents. So, we'll just gonna start going around director Briggs. I'm actually happy for these guys to go because I did have a two by two today. Um, and got to talk through some of the stuff and just cuz you know it's late and they might actually say the same thing that I already said. So, you guys go ahead. Okay. Director Misrai. Yeah. So, I have a few questions, but I'll just start with a with
296an easy one for my because I I couldn't make the 2 by two, but um I like what you said, uh friend about this is like a this is this is a construct that we've made. So, I guess I'm I'm curious with the staffing question. Why couldn't the choice process be moved earlier to try and help with that staffing so you know earlier how many students are choicing into different different areas? Yeah, you that's an excellent question. This is why the open enrollment is that February. So, we give that full month. We try to be really really clear and open with people. You know what your assigned school is. It's, you know, it's it's your neighborhood school or maybe you're already assigned to that school. Here's the month to get those choice applications in. So,
297that way we have the best possible information about what people want at that time. So, we we have that full month. We call those on-time choice applications. at the end of that period, we move as many students as we can um at that point. But, you know, again, we could say, "Hey, we're gonna wait until I I don't know what it would be August 31st to really know where we are before we staff." So, I will say that there is a May 15th deadline um by which we do have to uh notify staff. That's a state deadline. So, we're always kind of working in this environment if we want as much data as possible. um we give people that opportunity to have that open enrollment time period and then um it proceeds from there. I
298don't know if that directly answers the question. No, that's helpful. But I mean I guess I guess what and and really I I just don't know how this works. So I'm really asking for an explanation with it. So like why so so if part of the problem is that there's been staffing allocations. So you want to say, okay, well, we'd have to take the staff that we thought was going to be in this building and they're going to be in this building for the following year. And we've already made some of those decisions, and now we know that people need to move around. So why I mean I mean could the is there a reason just timing wise why the choice forms couldn't be in January or in December or whatever, whatever is the right
299time period to say, okay, well actually now we know a whole lot more information about where families want to be before we make even that initial allocation of staffing. I think it's a great question. I think we can always look at our timelines. One of the things is that the projections we we October one is our count where we actually know how many kids are in the building. So we then have to take that information and again the enrollment planning team is working with a lot of other factors to come up with those initial allocations um and then we move into that choice phase. But all of those time frames could be moved certainly. I think that's a great question. And then sorry, one more follow up just on this one point. And then so
300and then also I I'd be curious if there's sort of like a consistent pattern to it to knowing like you know what you know you know last year there were 50 kids that wanted to go to Queen Elementary and next year there'll probably be 50 kids you know that is there some consistency where even if the the choice couldn't be moved so early that you like if you're making decisions in October for the following school year that you can sort of predict hey there's going to be around this number of families that are trying to go to Queen Anne Elementary. That's exactly what we do. And I think that, you know, and you I don't want to get too specific, but um the school you're referencing um was initially, again, those initial projections were based
301on, you know, looking at the balance of enrollment between a couple of schools that are very close to each other. Um there are sometimes actions on behalf of the schools that might change the mix. So, um there's a question of a kindergarten being at one school versus another. um th those are things that we you know schools can do. They can encourage people um to advocate for certain things and again I don't want to get too specific about it but certainly there yes we can plan on it and there are uh unexpected things around choice behavior that will come up and that's where we have to say okay let's pay attention to this. So there are always going to be those I want to say anomalies but you know we certainly learn from those and
302again our enrollment planning team has you know through historical data and current data has built in many uh for accounted for many of those possible um anomalies or changes. Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Director Ranken. Um, I I think this was a good topic for 2 by twos, although I wasn't able to do one. Not a great topic for a full board discussion. This is highly operational and the detail that's being shared here. Directors might want to know it, and that's that's totally fine, especially if you're newer to the system. I've been having this conversation for a decade. Um, the weight list used to wipe at May and I was part of advocating for waiting until until August because people's plans change over the summer and a family the the argument was
303well we want people to have predictability and the argument that I gave and others gave was if a family really wants their choice if they find out that day before school starts they will they deserve to have that option. It was also creating a situation where um you know neighborhood schools take all take all in the attendance area option schools were um essentially disproportionately staffed. So we had we would have kids that wouldn't show up and so it was creating an inequity where um smaller you know essentially enrollment in an option school was kept contained while neighborhood schools were this was in the time when we were having the opposite problem that we're having now where we're adding portables and things and that was an inequity. Um, so but in terms of our role as
304a board, what I I don't think that seven of us should try to entertain what we think you should do. That is dangerous. That is why we are where we are. And Fred is laughing because he knows I'm right. That is why we are where we are because we have had seven people trying to please different people. No, I'm I'm I'm just historically historically trying to please different groups of people and lose the big picture and and make decisions based on you know so we as a board have said what our values are based on what our community has said is important. I would like to see proposal from staff to deal with this in a way that aligns with our values. I don't know what that looks like. I think, you know, and I
305also the kind of elephant in the room for me is we're at 65% capacity in our elementary schools. And that is like rearranging duck chairs on the Titanic because the smallest little shift means a lot more in change of staffing than if we had elementary schools with three grade levels per classroom. And I don't understand why we're not talking about that. director. So what I this conversation should be having should be have being had out in the families who are impacted because we have stated as a board what our values are our expectations for student outcomes the values that we um on behalf of the entire community don't want violated. We already there is a policy board policy that says that students have a guaranteed assignment at their neighborhood school may also be placed in
306a school um with a specific service and also have access to the choice process. The superintendent or their designate is authorized to create the procedure. So the board should not be creating the procedure. Our role is to evaluate whatever your recommendations are whether or not it fits the big picture. So is that like we don't need to actually even vote on that. We unless um so yeah this is not this is this is not a this is not going to show up well in our time use evaluation. Um do you need something from the board right now or was this this is fully a learning session as I started this framing at the beginning. This is our opportunity as a board to learn and to ask questions. Yes, we had 2 by twos. The next
307step was the superintendent is going to do a survey of a a survey and we are also because the he's going to come back with recommendation for us but the first step was just a framing. So question do you have a So okay that's what we're do trying to get to the I guess is a a common understanding as a board of what exactly is is happening in our schools and we're getting a ton of incoming questions about this exact thing. So having an understanding that we all know what's going on all know all are able to ask questions and hear what our questions are and where folks are coming from on the board because there are a variety of differing opinions on this board. So that's the goal tonight is just to get that
308common understanding amongst us all. So the next thing that happens is go to the people impacted and figure out because they're going to come to a recommendation with us on our May 7th engagement meeting. I got the date right, not March 7th. Um we are going this will be a topic that we will engage the community with because we will be having to to hear the recommendations. So we will be engaging. So there's a two-part there. Why is that board engagement and not staff engagement? Because we ultimately have to hear the recommendation as well and decide if that's the way to go. So we need to also hear from community. Are they voting on it? I don't know. I don't know yet. I don't know what the recommendations are. That's unclear to me what the
309recommendations will be. Vote on it on May 7th. We have No, I'm just I'm just we're really blurring the lines here between governance and operations. We're going to continue through I I need to make an We're going to continue through questions for staff on the enrollment planning update. This is a question for staff. Perfect. Great. Um I need I need you to check my ears because what I thought I heard you say is that you tell every family why they were declined. that you have a conversation with the family so they understand. Can you clarify what you said because that and that's why I said I need you to check my ears because it was in complete disagreement. The families that are sending me emails and coming to me don't understand. They say they don't
310get any calls back. They don't get their emails answered. And so there's a disconnect. And so I want to understand exactly what you said in terms of how you communicate with families when they've been declined. Thank you. Um I would say first the starting place is to say here are the conditions under which you would receive or at least be prioritized and be likely to be assigned to a choice school. Um no none of it is guaranteed. So I think that's really important. No, you you said that it's all over the application. I'm talking about after. So, after um No, but every family that um emails or calls does receive a response and I can check that with my team, but I know that I have seen the responses. So, again, if that is not
311the case, I will make sure that that is not the case. Um but, uh families that do call or email are do get a response from someone on the team and they're they're actually getting an explanation. Yes. Of the why. Yes. Okay. Is it Sorry. Yeah. No, I But that I'm going to say that that is not that's actually not in line with what I'm hearing. And I actually don't think it's in line with what we heard tonight during testimony. And so there's a disconnect here. Um and I and I did say, are they getting a call or an email? What I'm I don't want to like be prescriptive, but just a general call or an email like families need to understand. And if they understand, they may not agree with the with the declination,
312but they're they're going to come testify if they don't understand, if they didn't actually get an answer that makes sense. And so my clarity is around not did you dial, you know, 2069994434 or send an email to, you know, michellehotmail.com. I don't have a Hotmail account, but so don't even try it. Um, but that the families actually understand there is a difference between just getting a courtesy call or a courtesy email. Thank you. No, that's a I appreciate that. super as a follow up to your question [Music] like here's the criteria that we use or is it specific to that family? Is it like you did not get into the school because of this criteria that we were using and it's because you know I think the example you gave because you're in a because
313you applied for a fourth grade class and here's the class size right now or is it like a sort of generic email of this is the criteria that we use. I think there is a generic email when people email I know that when people talk on the phone they get a more maybe specific explanation but I will make sure that the team understands that that communication needs to be as clear as possible. Yeah. Thank you. So I have a question. Um student Oh okay. Yes. Go for it. Um how so earlier I'm a little hung up on this. Earlier you said um parents have 2 days to decide whether their you know kid goes to the school and you know accepts the offer. Um how does that work if it's an immigrant family? Like um
314for instance, my parents have me read their emails all the time and because I'm the first child, it if we went back a couple of years, it would have been um you know, the offer would have passed and it would have you know sucked. So how do you guys go about that? That's a wonderful, wonderful question. Thank you for asking it. Our amazing admissions team uh has staff members who speak almost all of our top languages. So those calls are made in home languages and a special care is taken to ensure that families understand what is being offered. That is a huge priority for the team and I'm really glad that you asked that question. Thank you. So I just want mine mine is just a fully logistical question just so I understand how how
315this works. So we say that this is a construct we've created resources follow students but we decide on where those students are going to go before we actually we do the assignment wait for the there's a a projection and then there's an open enrollment process and most of this discussion is about weight list after the first mass assignment ment is made. So there are adjustments made um with the uh school choice that goes on in February. Um and then that leads to the first allocation. It's the where it gets tougher is we go later and later in the year. And bear in mind that in a say in a K5 school by and large if you have 400 kids at a K5 school where the biggest variable is is in the outgoing fifth graders and
316the incoming kindergarteners, but you kind of know who's at that school, right? So we're not we're not wiping the slate every year. We're really looking at what is the gradetograde um progression which is usually pretty close to one one right so we're not just coming up with a whole new number every single year we're looking at how many kinders are coming in versus how many fifth graders are going out does that that doesn't I I think I'm still confused and it's too late to try to get money yeah it's getting late I'm getting confused but I'm just trying to understand are we we project our enrollment based on numbers from October the year before am I think if I so let's say February projections are based on the October a few months prior right so
317that number plus sorry the calendar year before not the school year before plus then looking at how many fifth graders are leaving. Yes. And how many kindergarteners are coming up based on demographic information. So there's a lot of data that goes into that projection. And so and then we assign staff first before we allocate all of the students to the buildings that they're going to for the next school year. Is that what you were getting at President Top? That was roughly my question. So like as we look at the timeline here, we we uh again resources follow students. So the resources go where the students go. But we decide before we fig know where all our students want to go where our resources are going to go. Is that correct? Because we keep the weight
318list open until August. is you keep that part. I'm not understanding the weight list is really a creation after the first mass assignment is made and those um early on time school choice options are built into um staffing allocations but and then the budget process starts and we keep trying to move the weight lists up until the start of the school year and that's where things get more constrained based on what's been allocated. it. So, if I get my application in time, I get my first choice. Well, there could still be other considerations. There just may not be physical space in the school. Um, it, you know, grade configurations there. All those considerations are part of it. The um uh instability and the moving staff around become is a little bit less of a consideration
319for those on time applications. All right, other questions. I would like to know if we can expect to hear anything about the DHH assignment on as part of this conversation on in in May. Slightly different but related to weight list. So the deaf and heart of hearing the families that were here um are I believe should be given uh that deaf deaf parents of hearing children should be given priority much like a heritage speaker to a dual language school in terms of our DHS pathways because of the the cultural aspect of the DHA community and the services that are available. I've had many families, deaf parents of hearing students for whom ASL is a home language and their uh interpretation of how they were responded to by enrollment was that they were trying to skip
320the line and I think that's really an unfair characterization because this is much like giving set aides or priority for heritage speakers at a dual language school ASL this is not this is a It is a language. It's a language. It's a culture. It's a family heritage. And it's also about access. And so I there's, you know, our policy already um would allow the superintendent or their design to make that make that direction in the assignment to give priority to those families right now. You don't need our permission to follow our policies um in terms of access. So, is that something that we can expect to hear about? And I have I this is not the first time I brought this up. I emailed last month and maybe before that. Um, is that something we
321can expect to hear about or is that are we strictly talking about optional placements? I I've made a note. If that's something we want to follow up on, we can follow up. I just want to add to this point on interpretation. [Music] Uh, sorry, I'll be quick. Go ahead. No. So, director Sergio, I think you know earlier spoke very eloquently and I I completely agree on this point about interpretation for parents and I just wanted to make the point that it's also the value of having having enrollment at a school like TOPS so that you're consolidating resources so it is much easier to get an interpreter for parents at a school that has more deaf students. So, thank you. I I believe 3130 does speak to that when it talks about unless the school designated
322by au by a student's home address does not have the appropriate services for the students needs. So it's it's it's uh it addresses that but it's not in the pro it's not in the procedure. It's not in the superintendent procedure. So it doesn't it doesn't manifest. Yeah. All right. We are going to move on to the next item on our agenda. Um, yep. There's We're We're getting there. We're getting there. It's It's not It's not the latest meeting ever. Before you possible Hang on. Before you move on, I need to make a point here. So, at 9:00, our sign language interpreters are paid until 9:00. We're at 9:32. So they're likely there were some uh DHH people on line at 9 they likely have dropped off because they can no longer participate. And so at
323we we have to make a different decision. either we split these meetings up, but what we're saying is well, not our problem that you can't hear and your interpreter is gone after 9:00 like that. It doesn't matter if that's what we're saying. That is the message we're sending. So now we have alienated once again the very group that showed up here to testify. And so I am requesting in the future that we reconsider packing an agenda like this. We we Wednesdays we know we have board meetings on Wednesdays. If that means one month we have four meetings then let's do that. Otherwise, I need a statement from the president of the board to those families that this is what we're going to do because you are actually the person who gets to call that and
324now we have alienated an entire group of folks that came here and testified. Not my intention at all. And we have two items left on the agenda that we can push until next time. We will hear the uh strategic plan update which I think addresses some of the things we wanted to talk about with the superintendent and what uh the superintendent plans to do before his uh before he ends his term here on September 3rd. And we will push the board self- evaluation uh for another day. Um we will now uh move to into uh executive session. I have a quick uh before adjourning tonight. The board will immediately be recessing anti-executives session to discuss legal counsel representing the agency matters relating to agency enforcement actions or to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency
325litigation or potential litigation to which the agency or the governing body or member acting in an official capacity is or likely to become a party when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency per RCW423110. I um uh legal council has also offered to just send a memo. So if folks would just like a memo, we can do that. Please let me know now. Or if we want to go into legal counsel uh or into executive session with legal counsel, we can do that. Can I uh address the board for a second? Uh good evening, Greg Narver, general counsel. I also have uh outside counsel with me as well. We are prepared if the board wants to give a briefing on a piece of pending
326litigation that I believe the board has interest in. You have been sitting here for something like seven hours. Uh there's a lot to cover on this. I would make the offer with a promise to have to each of you tomorrow in your inbox a very comprehensive memo about this piece of litigation and make myself available for individual directors to contact me with questions and also hold open the possibility of an executive session at another time. I just know you've been dealing with complex issues here for a long long time and I want to make sure this is a productive session and you get a chance to have all your questions answered. I will stay if that's your preference or I will brief you fully in an attorney client privileged uh memo tomorrow uh and uh
327you can you can indicate your preference uh now. I I think we need to talk about it now. Okay. Some of us have full-time jobs. Okay. Okay. All right. We will have we are then the board is recessed or we are moving into executive session. Um the session is scheduled for 30 minutes with an anticipated end time of uh 1010. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay. Daddy. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Grand [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.
328[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I feel [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Yeah, [Music] the [Music] Oh, wait. We need one more person. Uh, yep. Can someone The remedy is that you're Oh, okay. So, we All right. The board has recessed out of executive session at 10:07 and the regular board meeting is now uh is now reconvened at it only says I I oh 10:0 Oh oh wait so okay the board has recessed out of executive session at 10:03 and the regular board meeting is now convened at 10:04 there being no further business to
329come before the board the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 10:04. Okay. See?