001[Music] good afternoon we will call the meeting uh to order momentarily and SPS TV will begin recording all right the January 29th 2025 special board meeting is called to order at 4:31 we would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people also today we mark the Lunar New Year and move into the year of the snake I wish everyone a Happy New Year uh for the record I will call the role vice president Briggs here director Clark president director hery here director Mahi I believe he's online SO waiting just a second here presid all right director Ranken here director sarju here and this is President top um we will begin tonight with public hearing on action item number one and accompanying amendments action item
002one is adoption of the board policy number 0020 goals for the district and 0025 guard rails for the district and amendment to board policy number 1010 oversight and progress monitoring today's hearing is limited to this item but we can but you can join us for our regular meeting to provide feedback on other issues before the board we have a signup sheet for those who are here in person um and we will begin with in-person testimony and then move through remote testimony for which we had Advanced signups speakers will have a maximum of two minutes speaking time I'm going to work hard to keep Folks at that TW minute speaking Mark um but if you're unable to finish your comments we invite you to provide the rest of your comments in writing um I want to
003thank everyone for joining us this afternoon and for being part of this this many month Journey um our community has partnered with us to define a shared vision for what our district can deliver for our students reflected in our goals and our values of how we get there as reflected our guard whs the earlier opportunities we've had to engage with our Community are summarized in material posted for tonight thank you for your time and Reflections throughout this work moving into our public hearing board procedure 1430 BP provides our rules for Testimony the board expects the same standard of Civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects for itself as board president I have the right and will interrupt speakers who fail to observe the standard of Civility required by our procedure a
004speaker 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 this meeting going to now pass it to staff to summarize a few additional points and to read off the testimony speakers for tonight thank you president top um please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute and only one person may speak at a time the board's um sorry uh the timer at the podium will indicate your time remaining and we'll with a red light and a beep will mean that the time has been exhausted and then I will move to the next speaker for those who are joining remotely for our remote testimony today we're going to go through our speakers list for those who are here in
005person we've currently got about six people on the speakers list and then we will start to call from the remote testimony signups um the first speaker on today's list is Gerard montejo Thompson uh hi there Gerard uh vice president of Seattle Education Association uh and uh we find ourselves in a time of fear and uncertainty uh echoing some of the darkest moments in our history as a country uh we are scared we are confused uh and that is by design by those that have taken power uh because they are scared too and In Their Fear they have retreated into hate and bigotry they bully and oppress the disenfranchised with the intent to divide us it's easy to assert our values when times are good but now is the time to meet the moment to face
006our fear and resist the urge to abandon our principles at the first test of Honor let's remember what we teach our students about how to deal with a bully call out the behavior and name it for what it is we know that SPS Sea and the school board have already laid a solid foundation to fight back because of our shared Paramount duty to keep our children safe we know there's much more work to do and I want you to know that sea is ready to stand together United with SPS and the board to protect every student and family in our charge and to uphold our values and protections in place now is the time to strengthen our resolve and move together as a united front for our students and communities because that is the right
007thing to do because this is the land of the free and the home of the brave so I urge us all to be brave right now when it is hard to uphold uphold the values of the Seattle we know and love let us be the example by which other school districts are emboldened to be strong for their schools thank you the next speaker is M Vio want to give thanks to vice president Jared monteo Thompson say good afternoon superintendent Jones and directors I'm M veio my pronounce are they them formerly a special education teacher at the Nova project and current president of the Seattle Education Association I also want to name the fear that our students and educators are facing and in response to the executive orders on sex and gender I want us to
008heed Gerard's call this is an opportunity for us to stand together in our values which do guide our goals and guardrail work our responsibility is to make sure our students feel supported and welcomed in our schools and I'm Resolute in working with you to protect our students and the policies that support them let me be clear the executive order signed on January 20th is anti-science and an alarming attempt to erase trans interex and non-binary students from existence further it's an attack on the inclusive policies that we fought so very hard to enact this policy in combination with the other executive orders has overwhelmed and Confused those working with our students we have questions on if our federal funding will be affected if we continue to support students with exgender markers on how to ensure IEPs
009are federally compliant for our transgender students and how to ensure free and reduced lunch signups within our Statewide and local systems are not jeopardized we need to call this for what it is it's a divide and conquer tactic that potentially places our protection and acceptance of our trans students in the way of us receiving federal funds we've seen these tactics before and I know that our Educators communities families and you the board and superintendent are steadfast in commitment to our students we have stood together before In This Very Room with our trans Educators and students and we can stand together again finally to the students of Seattle Public Schools who may be listening and may be afraid I want to take this moment to say as a trans educator even when our federal government refuses
010to see you I see you we see you I am committed to working together to protect you in our community and our schools thank you the next speaker is Sabrina bur good evening superintendent Jones and Schoolboard director I'm Sabrina Burr co-president of Seattle Council of PTSA um and an advocate for this district for over 20 years um I am concerned about your goals and how low they are um these are lives and what we are saying is we're willing to fail some student students and we know what students those are those are the black and brown students that I know in my lifetime you've been failing for 70 years what you may not know is I went back to school with my daughter my brother was murdered in the streets of downtown Seattle where a
011knife went into his heart his second trial 10 years later I realized the first knife that went in his heart came from this institution when I went back to school with my daughter for 11 years in her building building I saw it happening to a bunch of people I have people from her graduating class with leaders from the city and this District that I know cannot read write and compute people from my generation that we used as athletes who used their body they're all broke down if they did not get a job and a pension I'm asking you to see our children stop being about adults in this District in this time this district has become more about adults we have a moral responsibility to produce students who can live with ease to have all
012the tools who to be who they were divinely created to be we know the science of reading I want to make sure that 10% is not what we're doing it is unacceptable and I also want to ask you how are you holding the superintendent responsible for the guard rails because I don't see it happening what I want you to know is these are lives this is generational and what's going on in this city has to do with failure of generations from this District it is too rich we should have too many Partnerships Seattle promise we're grading waiting them out and they're not even getting to get the promise so what I want you to know is this is about life and death for students let's get real and let's get some high standards and tell
013them they matter the next speaker is Caitlyn [Applause] Murdoch superintendent Jones and elected representatives thank you for your delay on action for goals and guard rails and providing us this limited opportunity to speak you heard us and showed and slowed the process us down we hope that this is a sign of more robust Community engagement moving forward while this was necessary it is still not sufficient I urge you to delay once again your vote on guardrails tomorrow families will head to Olympia to ask our representatives to hold true to our vision of a fully funded public education we are hopeful in the face of devastating Federal actions this week our state lawmakers have stood up for our children bills are moving forward that affirm our deepest B values green gender affirming schools with food and
014mental health supports access to inclusionary special education services evidence-based instruction living wage salaries and an affirmation of our right to teach the histories of the marginalized State lawmakers representing Seattle constituents have essentially established guard rails to their goal of providing a basic education to all I ask that you follow their governance leadership and rewrite our SPS guard rails in the sofg model goals and guardrails are the most foundational work from these criteria are derived for all accountability budgeting board time and a five-year strategic plan they are guiding instrument by which you and District staff make all of your decisions they are the singular public statement of the values of the Seattle education Community as presented today they fall woefully short due to a rushed engagement strategy many of the values from the spring are still
015missing missing namely a commitment to social emotional learning multilingual education cross-cultural collaboration neighborhood and Community connections personalized choices options for schools and programs student to teacher ratios quality staff transparency fiscal management and accountability these are what your constituents expressed as their most basic requirements from SPS and what you have an oblig to monitor closely and consistently delay a vote on guard rails until comprehensive collaborative Community engagement can take place so that those of us headed to Olympia tomorrow will not just stand behind our state legislators but will also stand behind you as we work towards a brighter future thank you the next speaker is Chris [Applause] jackins I don't think anybody else has entered the room if they but if they have you can sign up the half of a piece of paper at the
016back of my name is Chris Jackson Box 84063 Seattle 98124 nine points number one the board action and amendments are tweaking targets to improve test scores by a total of 10% or 15% over a 5-year period number two District staff gave estimates of costs of millions of dollars for every 5% Improvement number three these costs are based on using certain proposed approaches some of which are Tech heavy and uniform number four but to make more significant progress the Board needs to direct the superintendent and District staff to look at other approaches number five the board vice president brought up the question of why not targets of 95% rather than 10% or 15% number six that seemed to be at least partly related to testimony from a decades long teacher that every year all of his
017students made at least a Year's reading progress number seven you can if you get other things right so circumstances can produce 95% results you don't need the targets number eight schools are not widget factories you need human teachers you need alternative education number nine I had a math teacher Lou wit who taught at Ballard High School for decades Mr wit told me that when he first started teaching a Schoolboard director came and sat in the back of his class perhaps Mr wit is sitting in the back of some room watching this meeting thank you very much and I do have written information which I place to the back I hope it's been distributed thanks again the next speaker is Manuel Sly and after Manuela we will go to those who signed up to provide remote
018testimony good afternoon uh sub Jones and School Board my name is Manuela Sly and uh I'm sorry if I'm unprepared for my testimony I spent my morning uh reaching out to those families that uh were part of the um spring engagements so I do know and I hear other people and their disappointment at the way the engagement has happened but I also want to acknowledge the work that was done and that I was a witness to and thank you uh director ranking for being that force behind it and for working in Partnership because you did come to people that otherwise don't have a voice and I'm including um the garifuna women in Seattle many people don't even know what that means it's the indigenous and um African people from um mostly from Honduras the people
019that I engage with Seattle Public Schools over the last few months Lake City Collective uh place where uh immigrant families and refugees find uh a safe haven because in North Seattle there's a lot of um you know white communities that don't necessarily understand the lives and the the Journey of people um that are served by Lake City Collective and also Mento AF Latino that also just texted me that they couldn't be here but they have a message for you uh one of the things is they're developing a program for Youth and it's a leadership program and I'm happy to give that information to to the um Board office but most importantly after I get got done with all this I want to say that Beyond thanking you I want to hold you accountable to implement
020all these things that you have started few a few months ago so this is not once and done I my PE my people and the people that I spoke to feel disengaged and feel disappointed and disrespected if all you did was to come and grab and harvest their thoughts their feelings and not do anything with it I just need five more seconds please make sure that all this wisdom that you gather is used to Center our students we cannot afford for you not to do the work that has been started do not do that to our communities thank you we're going now to those who signed up to provide um testimony remotely the first uh speaker on that list is Sam paw after Sam we have Janice White then Jessica Chong starting with Sam though
021if you're on the conference line please press star six to unmute I'm going to go back to I'm going to go to the next speaker and we can come back to Sam um Janice White are you on the line Janice if he could press star six to unmute oh looks like you've done that hi can you hear me we can hear you great um my name is Janice White I'm the parent of three SPS graduat and president of all youth belong a new nonprofit according to the board Action Report the vision and values of the school district are represented by the goals and guard rails you are going to adopt but the word disability is not mentioned in any of the goals and guard rails and also doesn't appear in the last strategic plan why
022does this matter aside from the obvious the number of students with disabilities it matters because in order to reduce the gaps and outcomes for specific groups of students we have to take into account the intersection of student identities as examples and this is not unique to Seattle black boys are overidentified in special education categories that lead to them being segregated from their general education peers and at the same time they're underidentified as having specific learning disabilities like dyslexia I've watched many presentations to the board about the important work to improve student outcomes but those presentations have not addressed the intersection of disability and other student identities if black students are underidentified as having specific learning disabilities like dyslexia don't we have to address that first to see improved outcomes if black students are overidentified and
023placed in self-contained special education classrooms where we know they are not likely to make as much progress don't we need to address that first to see improved outcomes it's imperative for the School Board to give specific direction to the superintendent whether it's in the goals and guard rails or the Strategic plan that the board expects our schools to use a disability Justice framework developed by disabled activists of color that centers intersectionality respectfully the work does not hinge on whether you adopt a goal for 10% or 15% Improvement the work requires centering intersectionality and making changes to our special education system that will produce dramatic Improvement in student outcomes thank you the next speaker is Jessica Chong okay can you hear me we can yes okay thank you um all right so I wanted to thank
024the board for responding to community feedback and proposing a new goal for Middle School progress and here now is a now adult child of two parents who are both English language Learners and first generation college students and his family history is a testament to the power of public education to lift families out of the circumstances to which they were born in 2018 Seattle was cited as third among the nation's 200 largest districts for student achievement growth for grade 3 to eight finding that on average white black Latino and Asian students all made a minimum of 5 point years 5.4 years of academic growth over five years of school this was recognized as an encouraging find at the time today I'm echoing the community feedback collected to this meeting and asking the board to add a
025goal in garil so SPS can continue to live up to our 2018 achievement we need to know if any and I mean any groups of students are not making or been given the opportunity to make a year of academic growth annually for example not only are the proposed goals not sensitive to subgroups of students who may be left behind because they're averaging across the district the proposals also do not account for students who may have started out ahead but are falling behind for example if a student enters fourth grade doing math at a sixth grade level and then learns nothing for the next 3 years they would still count as being ready for seventh grade but in reality they would be wildly unprepared to start learning I suggest adding a goal that all students make
026at least one year of academic growth or progress for Academic Year and to measure the percent of students meeting the far in every major identity grouping tracked by spds including but not limited to race ethnicity gender income family income academic needs special education EOL MML and highly capable and I think it would actually be easy to modify director Rankin's amendment to Gill luns from the superint superintendent will not allow students School assignment family income race ethnicity deed or identity to limit instead of determined access to high standard High rigorous programming high quality teaching and support and an ad that would enable the student to make at least one year of academic growth per year thank you I'm going to go back now to Sam paw if you are on the line Samu you need to
027press oh I understand that we have one additional person who is joined us online who I don't have on my list um if there's a speaker who has not provided testimony yet who is on the phone line if you could press star 6 to unmute and we can take your name and then you can have 2 minutes of testimony Miss Wilson Jones you want to repeat that one more time yes um on the line we have somebody who with a phone number of nine um the ends in 463 your phone number ends in 463 if you called in to provide testimony you can press star 6 to unmute on the conference line also unmute on your device and we will take your testimony unless Our Community member in the room has heard otherwise we may
028have just I believe that concludes today's public hearing then all right thank you everyone that it's Miss Wilson Jones stated that concludes our public testimony for today I appreciate everyone coming out here and and providing testimony I do want to send it over to uh Dr Jones for a few brief comments recent developments uh directives coming from us from uh back East have uh really done what my colleagues and sea have talked about really try to create Division and Discord and um just an array of things that we need Chase uh we're trying to figure out what we need to react to immediately what we need to take time to respond to and what we need to just wait to settle to see what happens um SPS as an as an organization has been committed
029to a safe and welcoming environment for several years and we want to embody that as we move forward more specifically we have recently provided uh guidance to our school leaders providing them protocols around uh immigration enforcement uh uh the the ice uh efforts we've sent a message to our community today from me recommitting to a safe and welcoming environment uh for a sense of belonging for both our immigrant and Refugee communities as well as our lgbtq plus I wanted to make sure that we have affirmed those things that we've been about for the last several years uh We've adapted a procedure uh recently uh 4310 superintendent procedure to speak specifically to the guidelines that we're providing to our school leaders and in schools and we also are working on a FAQ as as things emerge
030so that we can stay current on our responses to uh the newest and latest developments and so my I I accept the partnership from Gerard and me sh around us staying solid in solidarity around these issues uh we cannot be divided and confused about what our mission is we we must stay committed to supporting our students unequivocally and so I just wanted to give a update and I'll be providing more updates as we go along as and as we learn more thank you thank you Dr Jones uh we are now going to move to the U uh tables for the remainder of our meeting please take your microphones with you we're g to take a quick 5 minute recess for folks so we will reconvene at uh 5 05 [Music] okay [Music] okay [Music] okay
031there's no [Music] all right it is 50:05 let's come back together here we're going to go into our action items for this evening uh we will now go to action item of today's agenda adoption of board policy number 0020 goals for the district and 0025 guard rails for the district an amendment to board policy number 1010 oversight and progress monitoring can I get a motion for this item is it is it this one Oh I thought that was for the vote it's this one oh okay no I'm sorry um I move that the Schoolboard adopt board policies number 0020 and 0025 setting new goals and guard rails for the district and amend board policy number 1010 as attached to the board Action Report can I get a second second okay this item has been moved
032by vice president Briggs and seconded by director Mahi uh we will now consider our amendments so folks should be looking at the amendment packet in front of them after discussing and voting on these amendments I'll ask then for a new motion for the underlying item as amended if applicable uh there are five amendments that have uh been proposed and we will take them up in numerical order starting with Amendment one and I will begin each amendment by asking the sponsor to make a motion for the amendment then I'll ask for a second and then the sponsor will be asked to read the proposed language into the record before we move into discussion so I'm going to read that one more time uh I'll I'll begin by asking each I I'll begin each amendment by asking
033the sponsor to make a motion for the amendment then I'll ask for a second and then the sponsor will be asked to actually read the language proposed into the record before we move on to discussion all right I'm seeing shaking heads like folks know where what we're doing here so we will begin with Amendment one can I get a motion from the sponsor thank you um I move that this I move that the school board approve Amendment one to action item 1 to substitute the language posted today to today's agenda for this amendment to replace the language provided for goal one in the underlying item now now do I read the Lang oh no we need a second I need a second first can I get a second second perfect um so this amendment has
034been moved by director Rankin and seconded by director Mahi um just before we move into discussion I just want to let folks know that staff is here just to answer questions if we may have questions but we will um so now I will ask the sponsor to read the proposed language into the record and then share brief remarks on the proposed change we will then move to a discussion and close out with a vote on the amendment staff are here to support this conversation um and uh with us both our education staff and our board staff so I will now go to director Rankin to uh for her brief remarks great thank you and I read the language first yes sorry let's Okay um all right so the proposed substitute language for this amendment is
035the percentage of students in second grade that meet or exceed key grade level standards for foundational literacy skills will increase from Spring 2025 Baseline data in June 2025 to Plus 15 percentage points in junee 2030 and um as discussed at the last meeting my reasoning for that is through a um a really kind of uh simple analysis of looking at different groups that it would be possible to it would theoretically be possible to meet the 10% growth without impacting change to the magnitude of um addressing the students further from educational Justice and so I propose that 15% um uh is more uh we're able to to look at to in order to achieve 15% or get close to 15% changes in delivery and resources would have to be made to make progress um that would
036uh not allow um for only groups of students who are um already at or above to be the sole uh beneficiaries looking now to board directors for discussion here um I have a question for staff it um I understand that we don't have Baseline data yet because it's too early in the year but it's actually I find it really challenging to evaluate this goal without any numbers um is there can we have like a standin estimate type number here or um something you know just to as like a a grounding kind of figure I think our bar has stand in numbers that where where we're currently at if we could provide those uh Dr Anderson you have a a response to that and we we've kind of walked through these but please yeah I think
037I'm pretty sure the numbers will match but the number I have for the spring of 20 2024 last spring on the second grade map the percent of students second graders who were projected to be frent or above was 56.5% director Briggs any further clarifying questions um no I don't think so so we're talking about then roughly getting up to a little over 70% assuming that there's not a huge change okay thank you other questions all right could staff please call the vote on this amendment Vice oop sorry uh director Clark um I'm sorry I was distracted for a second we're doing the 10 to 15% yeah Amendment 1 10 to 15 um nay director hery I'm thinking I director Miss Rahi may direct director Ranken I director sarju abstain vice president BRS abstain president top
038nay this motion uh has not passed by a vote of two yes to three no and two extensions okay going to thank you thank you Miss Wilson Jones can we move on we're going to move on to I believe amendment number two again um can I get a motion for amendment number two from the sponsor director Ranken uh wait I have a clarifying question I believe that we have to vote on the underlying item uh so we're going we we're going to consider each of the Amendments first and then afterwards we're going to vote on the underlying item as uh described in the procedure so we'll go through each of the uh amendments uh each of the Amendments and then we will vote on the underlying item is it because it amends the same yes
039oh because it's the policy not the yes not the not the I was thinking of the items as the goals but there's the same policy got it thank you um all right Amendment two uh I move that the school board amend uh approve Amendment two to action item one to substitute the language posted to today's agenda for this amendment to replace the language provided for goal 2 in the underlying item can I get a second second okay uh this amendment has been moved by director Ranken and seconded by director Mahi uh we will now go to the sponsor to read the proposed language into the record and for brief remarks director Ranken thank you um for the record The Substitute language is as follows the percentage of students that graduate having completed Washington State graduation
040requirements as consistent with their individual high school and Beyond plan and having completed one of the following dual credit work in ela World Language the Arts social studies stem or CTE or a formal work-based learning experience FAFSA and wafa uh was Wasa applications applications to one or more college work-based program or other postsecondary program will increase from to be determined pending available Baseline data in June 25 to pending Baseline data um uh June 2030 um so uh since last week and in the process of our as we've traveled along this journey of getting to this place um I've engaged with a number of people in the State Board of Education and in trades and um some of R CTE teachers and um uh wanted to just read um one of the comments oh and I
041will say from the State Board of Ed very overwhelming um support that using the high school and Beyond plan is what they would like to see us do and a lot of the priorities that our community reflected is uh are are aligned with their portrait of a graduate and the support that they're providing through this tool and they are um excited about seeing us use this this thing that they've worked so hard to develop to support Student Success um and uh so then uh I got a longer email which I'm happy to share with anybody but just briefly from one of our um incredible CTE teachers in SPS he said I am excited about these goals I love working with students as their plans come together and connecting students with talented trades people through our
042school Community Workforce agreement all of our uh and then he goes on to say that um he likes the flexibility also that students learn about different about 19 different trades in the pre-apprenticeship and they all change their mind with every unit the one the one that they're doing is the one that they like which is so awesome um and he's glad that it was broad because if they offered one and track students to the one they chose we would end up with a lot of graduates who only learned that they're not as sure about what they wanted to do as they thought they were um and after each unit he they they fill out a worker profile for the trade and think about whether that is a profile that makes sense for them or not
043and there's a lot of really exciting um uh collaboration with local entities and bringing in guest guest professionals from the field and so um he and some others in Building Trades are really excited to see CTE specifically called out in the graduation goal um as are many others to have both the not just graduate but have developed with the support of teachers and our school system um a a plan for their future success and then take a step to get to it um and so and also with the because some of these are new things we haven't collected before we don't have we can't use last year's Baseline because we don't know how many students filled out waet applications for example um and and that's that's totally great and fine and um uh I don't
044know if if staff want to provide more about what we would expect to hear along the way in terms of a baseline because we don't want to just say oh we don't know um so how how would you recommend we uh provide Baseline data as we can they gave me a paragraph they gave me a paragraph to read about that but I I I defer to staff who will know better than my gra that I'm supposed to read and Dr Perkins part of that response can you talk about uh how well we've been filling out um FAFSA forms and wafa and uh kind of how we're leading the state perhaps in that effort thank you yes sir um I hope I match the paragraph but I think the the basic just is that there are
045effectively four or five different components that we're going to look need to look at some of which we have a reasonable certainty about what they're going to look like so for example it's about 73% of the class of 2024 graduated without State waivers and therefore that's what we're since the state waivers are going away the two major ones at least um so so that's you know the ballpark for graduation high school Beyond planning is currently I think that's more in the TBD C it's still you know we high percentage but that's mainly from a compliance perspective and we're trying to get to something a bit higher for the state's conversation do dual credit you just heard about last time was is at 80% in terms of 80% of students complete at least one dual credit
046class when they graduate we uh to Dr Jones's point we are as a state we are not doing so well in Fafa we as a district are actually well uh above average and about 80% Seattle promis has helped a lot in that uh so you you notice I'm saying 80% a number of times 70 to 80% the question is then how do you you bring those all together to have a baseline that has graduation high school beond plan and one of these and so what we will be able to do with some of these very quickly is be able to give that percentage by this spring I think the things we're going to have to work on is application to one or more College work based program I'm really excited about that that's going to
047take a little bit of time to make sure we don't have lagging data because right now it's you know we it's hard to get that data from the tools we have but the state is helping us with the school links transition I hope that helps and so after that data becomes available we'll be able to establish those baselines and targets and be able to amend this as needed but other directors for discussion all right then could staff please call the vote on this amendment director hery I director Miss Rahi I director Ranken I director seru abstain vice president Briggs I director Clark I president top I this motion has passed by a vote of six yes with one abstention thank you we will now move on to amendment number three um can I get a
048motion for the for Amendment Three from the sponsor I move that the school board approve Amendment Three to action item 1 to insert an additional goal as posted to today's agenda to the version of board policy number 0020 proposed in the underlying item and a second second okay this this amendment has been moved by director Clark and seconded by director Mahi we will now go to the sponsor to read the proposed language into record and for brief remarks all right I'll read the additional goal into the record the percentage of sixth graders prepared to succeed in grade level coursework in si 7th grade as measured by the sixth grade SBA will increase um from TBD spring 2025 SBA data for Baseline um in June 2025 to plus 10 percentage points in June 2030 and and
049um so we as we kind of chatted about um last week um we um we really heard strongly from the community um that there was a desire for a math goal um specifically a middle school math goal um and last week we had some great discussion around should it happen should the should we be targeting students that are younger maybe in fourth grade or fifth grade um but in reviewing the data that we have um from the needs assessment and also from our progress monitoring um we can see that the decline in SBA scores happens most significantly in sixth grade um and so um I thought using um the sixth grade SBA as a measure would um allow us to um better prepare H better prepare students to take um higher level math courses if
050they choose later in their in later grades um you know we live in a city with tons of innovation in Tech and Health Sciences and um you know I really feel like it's our responsibility to prepare all of our students to take advantage of these opportunities um in their own backyard um uh jobs in these sectors would be lifechanging um for a lot of students and families um so I think I'll stop there see if okay looking to other directors for comment director Ranken I have a question which is probably for staff um our math PA so I I would maybe posit that the decline in sixth grade comes from inconsistent preparation in elementary school but I don't know um and this is very anecdotal because this is just my experience as parent with one
051of my kids in particular was that his his um uh he was able to be reasonably accommodated for different math abilities in a neighborhood Elementary School by by his classroom teachers who encouraged and supported that um and it was the transition to sixth grade that kind of halted that and so you're a sixth grader you take sixth grade math because that's the school that you came from and really was the the um to be quite honest the start of hating really hating school um and so I wonder what if if we're looking at the sixth grade measure and again this is just this is my my own child so I don't have data other than that um except for knowing that our math pathway requires everybody to take math 6 if they didn't come from
052um a cohort school this may be a bigger conversation about the pathways and whatnot but I I'm wondering how the goal being in sixth grade could either um um hinder or support uh a a little more flexibility as six as kids enter Middle School I and that's yeah that's my curiosity is that if we're saying well after sixth grade then we'll think about what you could do is that is that limiting so if uh Dr Anderson you talk about just sixth grade in general what happens at six grade and then Dr Perkins if you can talk about the pathway aspect that director Rankin spoke to I assume you mean the uh results assessment results yes so um one thing we did take a look at we looked at sort of the year-over-year comparisons um what
053happens as kids progress over time and where we actually see the biggest drop off in the last three years of the pandemic is between fifth and sixth grade and that is um a larger drop off um for African-American males or students of color um fact there's a 10% decline in the proficiency rates in sixth grade for African-American boys compared to fifth grade and so um so there is some evidence that I mean there is a a sort of a downward Trend um there has historically also been a drop in fifth grade although we are seeing some indications that that drop from fourth to fifth grade isn't quite as pronounced but it's too early to say of how strong that pattern is um post pandemic yeah and I'll I'll just share that I really appreciate the
054board's conversation and flagging the direct hery and direct Clark about what's going on in elementary grade and so I mean the good news on on just from the data front it looks like the high water Market is is fourth grade and then there's this this Decline and I think you're bringing up another hypothesis director ranking that this focusing on this goal would help us unpack which is is it that they're students some students aren't being challenged so they tune out um there's other kind of just pedagogical reasons the fact that they're needing to develop a certain level of fluency in sixth grade in order to be able to succeed in in seven and eight I think it's a much longer conversation about how much we differentiate math Six within math 6 um which I think
055is a a healthy one um but we should be measured by by whether we're making that transition from fifth to sixth grade right now we're not supporting it well and I think it's helpful that the school board has shined shining a light on that um director Clark than oh sorry thank you um does um just for the academic team do you guys feel that um the way that this amendment the um the math goal is worded will allow us to focus on that transition from 5th to 6th yes and and I'll say even more more specifically that we have noting that you still have to vote and as you recall uh this has already sparked conversations about how we would do a better job of looking at the feeder schools the elementary schools going into
056the middle school and I think what Dr Jones was alluding to in this ultimately is the the foundational block for Success um in later in middle school and high school so yes Absol absolutely this means that we're going to have to shift some of our work to Elementary um and be more focused there on that thanks for clarifying and I would just add in the development of the interims we would take that duly into consideration as as we construct that so so it's not just sixth grade we might say what do we need as a precursor uh how do we avoid that that uh drop off between fourth and fifth and and sixth so uh just wanted to add that piece yeah um I'm just going to ask the question I asked about the literacy
057can we get standed numbers I don't I actually don't see them in the bar um unless they're buried in here somewhere 56% I believe is okay Baseline like 55 to 56% depending yet on is the sixth grade math SBA okay thank you any others okay then could staff please call the vote on this amendment director Mahi I director Ranken I director sarju abstain vice president pres Briggs abstain director Clark I director hery I president top I this motion is passed with a vote of five yes and two abstentions two versions of this amendment were posted uh uh Amendment Three with a 10% increase and Amendment four with a 15% increase I want to confirm with the sponsor that it is amendment three with a 10% that you wish to put before us and we can
058move on without taking the alternative version up that is correct president top thank you then that then we will move to amendment number five can I get a motion for amendment number five from the sponsor director rinken okay sorry this is a technical question because this is for the other policy oh but the motion is for both of them I got it I got it motion is for both policies I'm with it thank you um I move that the school board approve amendment five to action item 1 to substitute the language posted to today's agenda for this amendment to replace the language provided for guardrail one in the underlying item and a second second this amendment has been moved by director Ranken and seconded by director mizari we'll now go to the sponsor to read
059the proposed language into the records and for brief remarks director Ranken thank you um for the record The Substitute language is as follows the superintendent will not allow a student's School assignment family income race or ethnicity need or identity determine access to high standards rigorous programming high quality teaching and supports and this proposal was in response to concerns from directors and community members that the um draft that we had introduced in December uh could inadvertently lead to if everybody doesn't have it nobody has it as opposed to working for Access for every child um and I I I do like the suggestion made to switch determine to limit however that's not what is on here and also I would um uh I feel like when we get um interim measures proposed from the superintendent that
060would be an additional opportunity for us to determine based on the the interpretation provided by the superintendent um might let us know if we needed to go back and revisit that or not um uh yeah other discussion director Clark um just a quick clarifying question um maybe I'm reading this wrong on my handouts but um the amendment looks the same to me as the I'm trying to find out is is this what was before and we're changing it to this okay okay thank you perfect other discussion okay seeing none could staff please call the vote on this amendment and I'm going to call the vote on this with an understanding and hopeful head nod from our legal council that I can correct a graphical error in the current language that's on the screen there's the
061word the word two is missing and will be added um either as by whatever power you grant me here or as an administrative update per 1310 calling the vote uh director sarju hi sorry I didn't catch that was it was was that an i this time or is it no what you really mean is you was expecting something different I was said it was an I though okay um vice president breaks I director Clark I director hery I I director mrai I director Ranken I president top I this motion is passed unanimously great we have now reached consideration of the underlying item director ranking you've been waiting for this moment uh I I will ask now for a new motion for the underlying item as amended by tonight's adopted amendments can I get a revised
062motion for this item um yeah thanks I understand why you thought maybe I didn't though is this right two two three and five four okay so no one didn't pass I'm so sorry but four but you go on your own okay okay okay we got this we got this okay thank you there we go okay um I move that the school board approve action item one as amended by amendments 2 3 and 5 to the extent the adopted amendments to action item one conflict with the information presented in the underlying board Action Report the adopted Amendment M ments shall control can I and a second second okay this item has been moved by vice president Briggs and seconded by director Mahi could staff please call the vote on the motion pause for second I think
063there's confusion around what we're actually voting on right now can we just have clar are we voting to adopt the full package of gos and guard rails yes the full package of goals and guard rails as amended uh with amendments 2 three and five perfect thank thank you director bricks oh discussion yes sorry director Ranken um yeah before we go yes to the vote um I just want to take a minute to um appreciate the time and effort that a team has put in to getting to this point when I think back on last year in April we had a board of five two of whom had just been elected in December and starting in May we embarked on a hit the ground running engagement campaign to try to get to this point and um
064adopting goals and guardrails that we can point to and lead us and um align a budget to is huge and so I just kind I just wanted to kind of acknowledge that um in spite of all of the other things going on last year that took a lot of time and attention in spite of all of the things happening right now that are putting in a lot of uncertainty and taking a lot of time and attention attention and causing a lot of stress um we stuck to this process and we're we're here through a you know every process isn't perfect there's always ways we could have done it better but we're here today before the end of the month of January um to to hopefully set us uh forward to be able to get some
065really good things done for kids and continue to go through the budget process aligned with investing in the the pieces that will be necessary for us to achieve these goals um and we're going to be able should these should this pass we will be able to have conversations about budgets Staffing our operations as a district in a way connected to these that um is is what will change outcomes for our kids even though we want more progress we want everybody to read we want everybody to graduate um but this will give us the tools to have the conversations with ourselves and with our community Community about how the district is doing how we're doing our work and provide additional transparency to the to the budget and resource allocation process that in this moment in time
066is really really important because we don't know what the legislature is going to do and we have to be prepared to meet the needs of kids whether we get the resources we need or whether we don't so I just wanted to say to say thank you and and just appreciate that we all went through this process and are still here other directors discussion okay now Miss Wilson Jones will you please call the vote vice president Briggs no director Clark I director hery I director mrai I director Ranken I director sarju no president top I this motion is passed with a vote of five to two thank you everyone and this concludes uh the business action items on today's agenda uh we are now going to move into executive session for the remainder of this meeting
067there you go um so I do have one more little paragraph to read the board is now immediately recessing uh Rec re recessing the special meeting into executive session to review the performance of a Public Employee per RCW 4230 110 1G the session is scheduled for for 45 minutes with an anticipated end time of uh 6:30 [Music] for [Music] okay [Music] okay [Music] okay [Music] uh the executive session review the performance of a Public Employee was or originally scheduled for 45 minutes we are running long and the session is now expected to go in additional 10 minutes within an anticipated end time of 6:40 [Music] okay [Music] come [Music] uh there being no further business to come before the board the executive session is now adjourned at 6:45 e