001[Music] good afternoon everyone the board meeting will be called to order in a moment and SPS will begin broadcasting for those joining by phone please REM remain mute remain muted until we reach the testimony period and your name is called this is President Ranken I am now calling the August 28th 2024 regular board meeting to order at 49 p.m. this meeting is being recorded we would like to acknowledge that we are on ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound co- Salish people Miss Wilson Jones the roll call please direct director BRS present director Clark present director hery here director M Rahi present vice president sarju present director top here and president Ranken here I will now turn it over to superintendent Jones for his comments for the board thank you thank you president
002Rank and board members and those in attendance today uh in just one week we'll be welcome our students back for a brand new school year and we couldn't be more excited our top priority is to provide exceptional learning experiences from day one ensuring each student has a chance to thrive this summer we focused our our our efforts on equipping our administrators and educators with the best training to ensure they can continue to deliver high quality effective instruction we know that when students grasp Concepts early they are more likely to retain and apply that knowledge throughout the year I'm pleased to report our indicator suggests we are ready for a great year our buses are ready to roll our our schools are preparing to open their doors we are fortunate and thank thankful to our community's
003investment in our public Ed Educators and our staffing we are very good shape we also understand a safe and welcoming environment is essential for learning that's why we've partnered with mayor Herold to introduce a three-part strategy to enhance safety in and around our schools the school-based measures are that we are increasing Staffing and improving our infrastructure our community- based measures is that we are rolling out violence prevention programs and with our law enforcement collaboration we are strengthening our ties with law enforcement to better protect our schools the details of our safety strategy can be found on our website we've also been talking about well-resourced schools and as we look ahead we're committed to building a system of well-resourced schools that meets the diverse needs of our students this is a critical conversation and we're grateful
004for the support and engagement from our families and communities here's a brief update on how we got here Seattle public schools have seen a decline in enrollment over the years with our current student population about about half it was in 1980 despite this we still operate nearly the same number of school buildings over the past 7 years alone our enrollment has dropped by 4,000 students this decline has left many of our elementary schools with fewer than 300 students smaller schools often lack vital resources such as full-time nurses assistant principes and teachers for art music and PE our district has CH has CH excuse me has fa significant budget challenges with deficits totaling over 200 million in recent years for the upcoming year we're looking at another substantial deficit of approximately 100 million we've reached a
005point where it's no longer possible to close these gaps without making significant cuts to already underresourced schools to ensure the long-term health of our school system our board adopted a fiscal stabilization plan last December and this plan supports the development of well resource schools which unfortunately requires some school consolidations in May the board asked me to return with preliminary recommendations on how we can design a system that is the right size with the right programs and the right resources to fuel Student Success for generations to come we believe that every student deserves to attend a well-resourced school a place where pre pre kindergarten programs give children a strong start special education services are accessible in their neighborhood schools art music and PE are part of the regular curriculum grade level teachers can collaborate to ensure
006every student's needs are met Staffing and resources are stable so students have consistency with caring adults they know and love reducing the footprint of our elementary schools will help us achieve two goals creating Better Learning environments for students and balancing our budget for instance consolid validating schools not only saves money by reducing fixed operational costs but it also means more teachers per grade level which increases collaboration and helps teachers better understand and support their students it also saves money by reducing fixed costs associated with operating a school talk about the timeline here this summer our team has been hard at work prepping different scenarios to right siize our schools and ensure they're equipped with the resources necessary for Student Success when deciding which schools will remain open we're considering several factors one the number of
007schools in each geographic area to the physical physical conditions of each building and whether the buildings are designed to accommodate all students including those in special education receiving special education services and pre kindergarten programs our goal is not to Target schools for closure but rather to identify and develop a system of buildings that align with current and projected enrollment we estimate that creating a system of well-resourced schools will save our district approximately 30 million of our of our hundred million deficit while this may seem like a small portion relatively speaking it's crucial because this deficit compounds over time if it's not if it's unaddressed and this will threaten our long-term stability of our schools maintaining the status quo is simply not an option without these changes we risk further cuts to essential Services which could
008lead to larger class sizes limited preschool options and reductions in programs like Athletics and music moving forward during the week of September 9th we will be launching a new well resource schools Hub on our website this Hub will provide a detailed analysis of our current portfolio of elementary school buildings and offer insights into what these changes might mean for you and your families we want to be there alongside of you with every step of the way helping you to understand and navigate these changes we will also be connecting with families throughout September and into early October to host opportunities to gather feedback answer questions and continue continue to refine our plans we'll present another update to our board on September 18th with a preliminary recommendation expected in October site based hearings will follow follow this
009preliminary recommendation and then the board will then introduce and take formal action in the following months president Ranken this is my interpretation of the action to date and as we look forward I would like to ensure that the board uh is understanding that I'm not misinterpreting the action that the board took on my part so in closing we know this is a challenging time but we believe that together we can navigate these changes to build a brighter future for our students so thank you back to you president reik any directors have questions for the superintendent on what we just heard director top just a a lot of dates thrown out so September 9th the well resourc School hub goes up and between the between September and October there will be Community engagement on the information
010uh provided um and the preliminary recommendation from the district will come in our October meeting then that's correct okay perfect thank you so and then and sorry on our September 18th meeting we'll get an update essentially of how the engagement is going and and where things are at yes you will okay thank you that that that clears up any questions I have thank you Dr Jones vice president Sergio can you I didn't hear Community engagement I thought I heard something else like hearings yes so we'll be connecting with families throughout September and early October to uh host opportunity to gather their feedback and answer questions and that will help us continue to refine our plans all right thank you thank you um um what time is it we have now come to the board comments
011section on the agenda oh wait ah sorry um all right yes board comments we are excited to welcome our students back to school next week and just had the opportunity to welcome our new student members for this school year with an oath of office ceremony right before this meeting um as we kick off the school year thank you to all those joining you tonight for our first regular board meeting of the 20242 school year regular board meetings are business meetings of the board where we take official actions on items as required by our policies and state law um as just a reset refresher we hold board meetings in public but they are meetings of the board to do the business of the board um there's something called the open public meetings act that means that
012we cannot and do not make any decisions without being in front of the public we're not allowed to to meet in groups that would impact action taken by the board in public um just saying that to sort of reset Us in remembering that there are times when it seems like some things are happening very quickly some things maybe don't seem to happen happen as quickly as they could and it's because we we literally cannot and do not make any decisions as a board that are not here in front of the entire public um and so part of that also is taking public testimony which is again something that is required by all governing bodies to offer the public an opportunity to make comments on items that the board will be board or governing body will
013be voting on uh testimony period is is that opportunity for the public to to share their thoughts it's not engagement um it's not dialogue between the board and the public and this isn't unique to the school board this is if you do testimony at city council testimony at the legislature same same thing um so we invite the public to to take this time to share Thoughts with you the board does not respond to statements take questions or or engage in a discussion of back and forth during during this time this is time that is provided to the public to share your thoughts um we do look forward to partnership this year with continuing to engage in meaningful ways um that are much more satisfying for us and likely you than 2 minutes at the podium
014although of course that opportunity will remain available um this spring and summer of last year the our board completed several months of community engagement um in preparation for the next strategic plan of the district um as as the elected the body the elected body we are um representatives of the entire Seattle community and what it expects for children um not just to be responsive to those who are directly engaged in our system we we're responsible for the vision and values of the students of Seattle on behalf of the entire Seattle Community so um based on that we need to as a board determine the vision values of the community we represent to create goals to direct the superintendent for the ways that we all excuse me expect our district to provide education to Children um
015so to do that we held three open public meetings um two were in person and noticed as regular regular board meetings uh one in the North End one of the South End one was online that was also open to any member of the public um and then in addition to that we held 20 something um smaller engagements throughout the city uh to hear feedback on vision and values from Representatives all across our our community um our meeting tomorrow uh is a retreat of the board to come together look at all of the um the Fe what we heard from all of those different spaces in community and from that uh tease out or evaluate for our community's highest priorities for the next five years um and so that is like a five hour meeting so
016you're certainly welcome to watch it but you are also encouraged to just follow up for updates and things that we'll provide um in regular meetings and in minutes you certainly do not have to watch a five hour meeting um so that is what I have for now um I can go to other directors for Le on reports if we have them or we can go to public testimony and hold those can yeah all right do you want to I can give my very quick update great uh I have a community meeting on September 25th at 6 pm at West Seattle library um this will be after the Hub is up so I look forward to hearing comments on well resarch schools or anything um really a time for me to hear from my community Community
017what's going on and and where they're at so please come it will be posted on the School Board website here shortly all right we will go now to public testimony and we'll come back if other directors have comments whoops all right board procedure 1430 BP provides the rules for Testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules and uh a summary of some important parts of this procedure are that testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from the public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list and by applicable I mean as described in our policy um which are included on today's agenda posting on the Schoolboard website only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium and only one person should speak
018at a time listed speakers May Seed their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called the total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the list if they have already spoken a majority of the speakers time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about and the board expects the same standard of Civility for those participating in public comment as we expect of ourselves um I have the right to and will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of Civility required by the procedure um but I hate doing that so please keep keep
019an eye on that time and limit yourself to two minutes so we can get through and hear from everyone who has signed up um thank you uh staff will now read from the testimony list good afternoon um before we kick off I just a few additional announ ments if you are on the phone um you'll be allowed to unmute here um in a momentarily um and you'll need to press star 6 when your name is called to unmute on the conference call line please also make sure to unmute on your device um when you are called to testify please do reintroduce yourself I will um Endeavor to but fail to um pronounce everyone's name correctly today uh also when you see the red light flashing in the podium if you're here in person or you
020hear multiple beeps that indicates that your time has already been exhausted so the first speaker on today's testimony list is Haley getro Haley or hie I'm going to um check and see if we have hi remotely you should be able to unmute now if you are online I think we may have lost that caller so um we will go to the next speaker and come back around the next speaker is Ming joa rard hi good afternoon my name is m j rard and I am here um on behalf of dual language immersion my family is actually Chinese and Dominican I grew up in the Dominican Republic and now I live here in Seattle my dad grew up in New York City and he lost his Chinese language but he was able to maintain Spanish and
021now I'm raising my two girls here in Seattle and I am so blessed and thankful for these programs that offer dual language programming because we were able to maintain our language and our culture celebrate and I am also able to give back to the community by offering what I know um I also believe that this is a way to restore Justice in the United States there has been historically it has been horrible what has been done to communities um by telling them that they cannot speak their home languages so I really believe that um our state Washington State can become a beacon of light offering these programs and supporting communities in their culture and their Heritage thank you so much the next speaker is Sabrina Burr hello we can hear you my name is Sabrina
022Burr um and I wear Mini hats so I want to be clear on the hat that I'm wearing as a mother as an aunt and as a community member um how are the children September 4th we start school I hope they all have a sense of belonging but when I read the past contract and the language that is still in there from the last contract that gives principls the authority to investigate themselves it's troubling and I wonder how many lawsuits come from this the organization is not set up for this and if you vote on this please know that you are voting against the moral uh the moral and fiduciary responsibility that you have we do not support principles we have a culture of taking Fires at going up and a culture of asking questions
023and not knowing is not being good but what happens is families are harmed especially in a district with so much intergenerational trauma your enrollment is down last year I worked with a family multi-generational trauma with a principal right now that says that kids need to be their free and natural self as they climbing senses and hitting adults Dei denying them the ability to learn self-regulation I can go on and on when I was Seattle Council PTSA president two principles had to go and they were gone one principal I wrote to Dr Nyon because of what was going on and they quit they were like a thief of the night District leaders came in and their office was packed up the most job the most important hire is that of principles if we cannot respect the
024students the teacher and the families in the community that we are in then bad things happen we read it in the newspaper all the lawsuits happen and what it does is it doesn't protect principles I understand why this was in here and how principles were getting things that weren't true and and affecting their career this is not the way I come from Nordstroms with an open door policy that at 20 I could go and talk to John Nordstrom about our general manager and we could come with common understandings to get Solutions please do not vote with this clause on page 27 tonight because if you do you are going to put kids in grave harm and you're going to put principles in in hard situations Seattle Public Schools is not set up for this and
025I am begging you to make sure that this part of the contract is amended thank you the next speaker is Chris jackins and it it looks like Haley or hi may be back on the line so I will go to you next um after Chris jackins my name is Chris jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124 on the Personnel report under separations the report list Deputy superintendent of academics art Jarvis Native American education program manager Gail Morris and longtime director of Grants and strategic Partnerships Michael Stone I wish to thank each of them for their service to the district on the alai Elementary construction project seven points number one the board previously approved an amount not to exceed $53 million today's action would increase that amount by $10 million number two the district states that this increase
026is in cost is due to several factors including quote delay of the project and project revisions to address regulatory requ requirements unquote number three the district States the project will increase the building's capacity to 500 K5 students this is at a time when the district says it has an overc capacity of K5 space and wants to close schools this is a mega school project meant to close other schools number four the district states that quote construction was delayed due to appeals regarding the number of parking spaces unquote number five the original design had zero parking spaces including zero Ada spaces this is what the city rejected number six the district's contractors should be liable for a faulty design and the board failed in its oversight number seven board approval of the action would constitute negligence
027grounds for recall from office please vote no please do not close schools thank you very much going back to our first speaker on the list Haley grro if you're online if you could press star six to unmute hello can you hear me now we can hear you great I will be feeding my time to Sam Gutierrez um the time is going if there's somebody who would like to speak in this time who's had the time seated to them they would need to unmute or approach the podium hi this is Sam Gutierrez can you hear me yes we can hear you hello we can hear you okay perfect thank you so Sam born and raised Mexican I have a second and a fourth grader at J Stanford International School I'm here to ask that you protect
028access to di programs across the district as you address sbs's budget deficit my daughter did Kindergarten our neighborhood School in Ballard and will he was School her Spanish quickly started Vanishing because speaking it with me around her classmates signal her out as different we're not a wealthy family so we cannot afford private Bilingual School for first grade she was offered to spot at jsis and the change was immediate half of her day is in Spanish she has fears from other Latin American countries and her school has yearly events of celebrate elements of her culture her Spanish flourished and her confidence grew her brother fullo soon after and they can now hold conversations with my parents and my grandmother DLI helped preserve our language and culture SPSS DLI is a matter of equity so imagine my
029surprise when I learned that few among our authorities actively champion this programs last spring I asked how they might be affected during the upcoming Shuffle to stabilize their district and found the DLI was somewhat of f afterthought I have talked with other native inherited speakers and we are worried that DLI is going to go away to save money despite this fact DLI programs bring restorative justice to those who were not taught their own mother tongue because their parents were afraid that not assimilating would draw discrimination to their kids they have proven to help close achievement gaps for multilingual and English Learners a historically underserved group in the United States they are in line with the Washington superintendent's goal of extending dual language eliminating successful wellestablished G programs directly contradicts to State Direction they teach Multicultural
030awareness from experience not Theory you learn to appreciate a different Culture by sharing dinner with your best friend's Japanese family instead of by reading about it amidst of Decline and enrollment demand for these programs is high and access is limited a jsis for the second year in a row we have weight lists for all grades weight lists that we know include native and Heritage speakers despite the fact that we have open seats kids aren't been moved off the waight list SPS is directly failing their Equity goal here the option School model is the only way some native inheritage Seekers who do not live in neighborhood schools that offer Dei programs can access these essential programs I add to this point that I would be very careful to not push for segregation now we know that
031there is no escaping difficult decisions ahead of us and you can understand that the decisions SPS make about our DLI schools we'll send our community a message on how you see our culture so we just ask that you support Equity across the district by protecting access to adli programming that honors the cultural heritage of so many n SPS thank you the next speaker is Sheila appi who will be followed by Jose Estrada and then Christina Taria is Sheila here on the line Sheila if you're on the line you need to press star six to unmute oh it looks like we can hear you um I hi my name is Sheila and uh I wanted to testify about a school choice this item um personal to my child uh I am here to address the unresolved
032issues regarding my child's placement in the EU preschool program on February 29 2024 I sub application for my child I received immediate confirmation of the receipt despite this I have faced significant delays and a lack of communication from self of School concerning levice placement in early April and late may I follow up by phone on June 18 I was connected with King TR despite providing proof of my time vacation and uh my my fight couldn't be located and my placing the weight list a months pass without communication despite my followups your phone and email I also contacted the superintendent office and the special education because my child is a specialist child but I haven't received any U satisfactory resolution from that time when I finally was able to speak with someone recently the assistance provider
033was not helpful consistent I reive contradictory statements uh for example do working on the issue um is not the area of responsibility of the peer person but then they will get back to me and with the school year starting in in in just a few days I had not been able to receive resolution of of my issue however it was last yesterday that I got an email saying that my child could not be placed where I had decided even though throughout the communication I was made to understand that there was an error at SPS and that they were going to resolve it and be able to place my child but the email um that was received was very final it seems all the decisions that we made we made without engaging me from the different
034parties involved and I understand that it is sp's policy to involve the family of of the person that has a disability or the proxy this timing the parent in making this decision I choose this program because it is appropriate for my son uh who is autistic um with the school year starting just in a few days and after months of waiting and Promises of a favorable resolution the timing of this response is particularly concerning I am love with no alternative to or make necessary Arrangement and I will H the School Board to review the situation and consider a resolution that aligns with the initial request Levi needs and our family expectations should be taken into account we seek a fair and timely uh resolution to ensure that livei SP in the program that meets our
035originally Choice thank you so much for your attention to this matter the next speaker is Jose Estrada Jose it looks like you're unmuted on the conference call line so we should be able to hear you if you speak oh can you hear me now yes we can hear you great thank you uh my my name is Jose EST Strada I am uh Nick rwin born immigrant living in North Seattle uh I am a father to a beautiful 5-year-old girl who is about to start her school Journey uh at the Spanish Immersion kindergarten program at John Stanford international school and um we live outside of the geozone for the school so my daughter was admitted into the program through one of the spots which are set aside for Heritage speakers um I'd like to take some
036of your time today to Advocate uh for the option School dual language immersion programs available through SPS they are wonderful um as a mixed race family in North Seattle it can be a real challenge to expose my daughter to her Nicaraguan and Hispanic heritage and the public dual language immersion program has given my family access to a type of education that would otherwise be completely out of reach to a family of our means um in addition to exposing my daughter to the Spanish language this program has connected us to a network of other families of wide cultural and socioeconomic diversity many of whom share our circumstances um it's really important for me and my wife for my daughter to be exposed to Spanish and to have it more importantly normalized in her school Community um
037for us this opens a door for her to connect to a special part of her Heritage and share it with others in the community who would otherwise not be exposed to it either um as a Nicaraguan born former Refugee I've worked really hard to give my daughter a better life than uh you know than I had at at her age and um for me and my family having access to a public option with a language immersion program has been a complete Game Changer um even in the short week where my daughter attended jump start at the school camp campus she's already started showing more interest and curiosity in her Hispanic Roots um so all this to say I would like to ask you to consider two things um if you could please consider increasing the
038set aside um at the DI option schools to give more access to Heritage and native speakers like me outside of the geozone and also please consider stories like mine and my daughter um when voting on the future of our Public elementary schools especially the future of our public option D schools thank you the next speaker is Christina Toria Christina um if you press star six oh looks like you have good afternoon my name is Christina deia I'm a native Spanish speaker that benefited from attending a dual language immersion school and as consideration into the ongoing discussion on well research schools I'm here to express my strong support for the DI programs in Seattle Public Schools as we strive to attract new families and chain students who will leave the system if their preferred programs are
039eliminated dual language emerging programs offer a compelling solution to increase enrollment for my family and many others dual language immersion programs are the draw TOS they offer a unique educational opportunity that many parents actively seek out you have to look no further than the weight list of the schools that offer DLI education over non- DLI schools in the same neighborhoods by expanding these programs we can attract new family Source school district and provide a compelling reason for current families to stay other districts have successfully reversed dropping enrollment by expanding these programs this is especially important in the city like Seattle where families have numerous educational options D programs do not cost more to operate they are valuable asset and they have a proven record of academic achievement I urge the school board to not only
040continue supporting but consider expanding DLI programs ensuring that all students have the opportunity to benefit from this en reaching educational experience thank thank you for listening the next speaker is Nicole Salisbury who will be followed by Jackson Lum hi I'm Nicole Salsbury and I seed my time to Rebecca Sanchez hello my name is Rebecca Sanchez and my son will start third grade next week and John Stanford International School I'm here this evening to ask you to protect and support dual language immersion programming as you consider options to address the budget crisis I was born and raised in Santiago de Chile we moved with my family to Seattle 5 years ago when our son was not yet three as soon as he began preschool we observed with awe how fast he Incorporated English but our concerns
041about him losing his mother language emerged as well a Time came when he could not speak a whole sentence in Spanish when we first arrived we assumed sometimes when meeting other members of the Hispanic and Latino community that we could communicate in Spanish but we learned quickly how assimilation has made it so that whole generations of immigrants raised in the US have lost their linguistic Heritage so when we learn about the existence of DLI programs like John Stanford we felt deeply embraced by this city and I must say belonging does not come easy for immigrants um especially when many families like ours live from a single income my husband has a specialized worker visa and I have a spouse visa that does not allow me to work between that situation and how the cost of
042life has skyrocketed we simply can't afford a private school our son has thrived in his school where he can learn and share his mother language and culture with others and not just that our differences are celebrating within a diverse and Multicultural Community I know many families in the Latino community that haven't been able to access DLI programs and many families that didn't even know this option existed and the numbers of Spanish speakers in the state and the country are rising so I ask you what is sp SPS intending to do about about that if enrollments have dropped and this is the part and this is part of the cost for the budget crisis maybe a way to increase enrollments would be reinforce in programs like this and facilitating the access especially for native speakers it
043is a m a matter of social justice of protecting children's cultural identities and a matter of preparation for our youth for a future where we will live in even closer contact with other peoples and cultures because globalization is an ongoing reality that is not turning back thank you very much the next speaker is Jackson Lum okay go ahead my name is Jackson Lum and I'm proud to say that I'm an immigrant from Malaysia good afternoon niow Salat Pang Nom I speak four languages growing up in Malaysia I attended the public school that is dual language everywhere where classroom sizes range from 35 to 40 students um imagine this attending school in 90° heat with humidity so thick you can almost touch it no air conditioning to provide relief but we persevered and it was those
044challenging conditions that I first understood the power of language and education I'm here today to share reasons for retaining dual language education my grandma spoke only Cantonese selling cigarette ettes fruits and drinks from a small sweltering stall outside a movie theater outside we Rose above those humble beginnings it is the reason that a grandson Can Dream off and ultimately achieve a better life dual language education gave me the freedom to come to the United States where I could further my education live openly as a gay man and build a wonderful family without it I might still be in a country where my identity would be oppressed where even the Prime Minister who once who was once prosecuted and jailed simply because his political opponents alleged he had relationships with a man dual language serves a
045vital purpose the state superintendent has a vision to expand it and I believe um dual language is the superpower for Seattle Public Schools why would we want to weaken our superow it attracts enrollment to the district and can bring in students who require few resources and allow the district to allocate more where it's needed in closing dual language can and should be implemented in neighborhood schools and everywhere uh it has already successful model in Dearborn Beacon Hill and Concord um it can be cost effective as well so I strongly um encourage you to uh urge you to retain and expand these programs thank you ter C th there the next speaker is Maria Trinidad elas zua is Maria in the room or online Maria can't it not here okay um going to the next speaker
046Alicia duer hello we can hear you this is Alicia duer ice my time to Marisella Hernandez she will be giving her testimony in Spanish and we'll send a translation by email later are they online Alicia is the person that you seated time to remote or in the room I'm not I'm not sure uh if she was going who are in the room today we're not able to hear them in the room um and the time does run the way seating works so if you wanted to provide testimony instead okay I will go ahead and do so um hi I'm Alicia duer I live in Fremont I have a rising sixth grader heading to Hamilton and a rising fourth grader at John Stanford International School multilingual education is very important for my family we recently spent
047two years in Spain returning one year ago our children attended local school in Spain with full Spanish Immersion and are completely fluent I was deeply concerned that they would quickly lose their Spanish in Seattle we applied for spots for my son and daughter to attend John Stanford last year and my daughter was offered a spot and flourished in the DLI environment jsis provides a vital continuation for my daughter's Spanish cultural competency which she wouldn't be able to access without DLI and public schools dual language immersion promotes cultural awareness broadly with within the community and allows her language to be expanded shared and preserved children in dual language programs develop greater understanding of global and social issues as well as valuing different perspectives my daughter has conversations with her classmates about how current events affect families
048with different backgrounds which expands her level of empathy and understanding she shared her experiences living in Spain while learning about other famili family experiences living in their countries of origin she's been able to connect with other kids and their cultures due to her bilingualism C promotes diverse perspectives and multi multiculturalism in our schools elements of Education that are crucial to Preparing students for college career and life this is a program we should expand and reinforce thank you the next speaker is Juan [Applause] Garcia hi my name is Juan Garcia I'm originally from Peru I have uh two daughters that are attending McDonald's one is going to first grade the other one to kindergarten I'm here to advocate for the continuation of the program um uh of the Dual language immersion program this is important to
049me because I want my daughters to be bilingual that like I am and have the opportunity to communicate in Spanish with my family and other U like um um SP Spanish speaking people we've always told our daughters that being bilingual is their superpower my family lives in Peru and when uh we visit or they come to visit um I enjoy my my kids talking to them in Spanish and it's such a gift that they can do that and be able to keep the culture and Heritage this is a part of their culture and the DLI is an essential part of helping them preserve that culture the Heritage thank you the next speaker is Laura violante following Laura will be Cynthia Apprentice U my name is Laura viante and I seed my spot to Dorian Gorski
050hi everyone uh thanks for taking some time to listen to All us here and hear our hear our thoughts here I'm Dorian Gorski uh I'm a proud father of a 11-year-old trilingual Mexican Japanese American boy he's a recent graduate of John Stanford and he's moving on to Hamilton uh I'm here to express support for the DLI program uh to do that I need to tell you a bit about my history uh I'm a child of the 80s and at that time it was a very common misconception that it was a bad thing to teach your child multiple languages so my parents made the unfortunate decision not to teach me Japanese um and I guess the thought at the time was it was called confusion or it was unamerican but we now know that's incorrect Research
051indicates students in these programs often develop Superior levels of problem solving skills display higher creativity um and typically meet or exceed the academic performance of their non-immersion non-immersion peers uh proofs in the pudding look at the data you'll see these kids consistently are some of the top performers in the district as a child of the 80s growing up Asian was sometimes a bit of a liability I recall one day bringing Oni gidi to school and if you don't know what that is it's a little Japanese rice snack packed into a triangle and wrapped in seaweed it's delicious well there I was in school and a group of boys come and they see me eating it and they they proceed to bully and tease and you know say it's gross and it was just a really
052sad moment I from that day forward I did not bring onid to school uh fast forward to today I got to witness the polar opposite scenario I got to see kids bring all sorts of unique Foods who aren't grow outout but excited and envious to see someone eating onii for lunch they're excited to share the foods of their cultures and their language I'm so thankful uh to be part of this option language school program that we are able to write the wrongs of the past we couldn't afford to live in Wallingford and we're one of the lucky ones who were made managed to get in through the option program from my experience the district should not remotely be considering ending this program or the language program instead should be considering expanding it not just for
053Japanese and Spanish but for multiple languages in our bright and vibrant City embracing multiple cultures as American as it gets I'm proud of the city for having this program and it would be extremely shameful to see it end thank you the next speaker is Cynthia Apprentice after Cynthia will be Athena Batista thank you I'm Cynthia apprentis and I seed my time to Katie nafe thank you Cynthia directors of the Seattle public school board thank you for your hard work and commitment to our schools and for the opportunity to speak to you today my name is Katie Nave and I'm the parent of two SPS students in the Dual language immersion program at McDonald International School my kids are byci dual language Heritage speakers their father an immigrant from South America we are outside of the
054geozone so we participate in McDonald as an option school for Heritage speakers I'm here today to speak to you about the importance of dual language immersion DLI education in Seattle and ask the board to consider not only continuing to support these programs but to expand them SPS has committed to dual language education the evidence supporting this commitment is clear according to the US Department of educ ation multilingualism provides educational cognitive sociocultural and economic benefits and the research is compelling students who participate in dual language education academically outperform their monolingual peers and develop a stronger sense of identity empathy value of differences and ability adaptability to diverse cultural contexts there are 110 public schools in the state of Washington with dual language programs yet only nine are in SPS far too few for one of the
055most diverse school districts in the state where 86% of students are non-english English language Learners the bottom line is thats's dual language students and their schools are thriving as you hear as you heard today take McDonald for example over half of our students are non-white and 84% are non-english Learners our students score twice as high on average on all standards compared to the average SPS student an expenditure per pupil at McDonald is is lower on average than SPS other SPS schools we are 100 students plus overc capacity and we currently have a wait list of 85 families trying to get in in summary we love this program and there's great demand for it in our Collective Community personally DLI gives my children the gift of learning and appreciating the language and culture of their family
056building their identity as Hispanic Americans celebrating multiculturalism and building empathy for those who look or speak differently from them and when we visit Colombia they can communicate with their grandparents and their extended community in their native tongue so I ask why would we risk losing this why wouldn't we want this for more students in SPS please consider the value of the DLI program as you make tough decisions about the future of our of our school district thank you very much the next speaker is an Athena Batista followed by and Andrea rangle and then John RTO hi my name is Athena Bautista and I'm seaing my spot to pich aino good afternoon uh first I'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to speak today my name is pich an aino and I'm a parent
057of an incoming third grade student in Japanese class at the John Stanford International School I am here today as a parent of a biracial child to share the benefits of DLI programs and whys needs to preserve and strengthen these programs not only for the benefit of local families and those maintaining cultural heritage but also for immigrant families like mine who don't fit neatly into the either of this category and as you may all know more than half of the global population speaks more than two languages and there are numerous studies that have demonstrated the cognitive benefits of bilingualism including enhanced attention control problem solving skills and flexible thinking and I could go on and on and on but the benefits of DLI extend beyond academics schools like jsis actively promote cultural diversity and in my
058child's case for example in his class parents are invited to share books or stories or even traditional foods from their origin countries allowing kids to experience and appreciate different cultural perspectives as an immigrant parent from the Philippines I was really pleased to know about the DLI program when I moved here in Seattle about 8 years ago living in a predominantly wide Community I cannot overstate the importance of diversity for families like mine and I believe I speak for many immigrant parents when I say that while we want our children to thrive in American culture and language we also are concerned that they may lose their cultural heritage and racial identity in the process something that we've witnessed in our community and choosing jsis for my son was more than just about the program it was
059about its diverse student body it's important for me to see my child learn alongside children who look like him with parents who look like me for immigrant families DLI programs are not about getting ahead they're about ensuring that our children don't lose their racial and cultural identi identities as they navigate life in America for a city like Seattle which Prides itself on being Progressive and inclusive maintaining DLI school is an asset not a liability it provides an opportunity to demonstrate the city and the district's commitment to diversity and I strongly urge the board to support the schools to ensure that our children especially those from immigrant backgrounds thrive in a multilingual and Multicultural environment thank you for your time the next speaker is Andrea rangle Andrea if you press star 6 we should be able
060to hear you hi my name is Andrea Wrangle and I see my time to Candace rovski Andrea is the person that you seated time to remote we are not able to hear them in the room and the time does run so if you um wish the pride testimony you could I thought they were there oh okay good there can you hear me yes we can hear you great thanks um my name is Dr Candace rovski I'm uh I'm a product of the Seattle Public Schools a graduate of Ingram earned an Meed me in uh teaching and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Washington um I have spent my lifetime and in currently retired uh teaching uh students how to teach and eventually working uh at universities around the country on issues of women
061gender access to higher education and directed Two University women's centers um as a volunteer since uh I've retired whatever that means um I've been working with uh first gen nonnative uh newcomers non English-speaking newcomers and um most recently with a uh family from a Latin American country that came here as political Ayes to escape the violence which was um has been really destroying their country and personally affecting them um their experien I live in the same house where they're being housed uh now but this is the uh third iteration for them they were in a shelter they were in a home where they were uh for one week in dual Language School in the North End of Seattle um that placement didn't work out they went back to sleeping under a table at the church
062and then eventually came to us um we have been working with them in terms of all the social services but in particular with uh the seven and 11y old um uh who were assigned to a an elementary school in West Seattle that um effectively had no way uh despite being well intended and kind they were just totally unprepared for them eventually the kids uh stopped going to school because not just that they they were bored but as they said um they only let me play sports uh but when they get together to talk or to do lessons they asked me to sit alone and do math problems um and the 11-year-old daughter uh who was in fifth grade was also effectively isolated from her classmates and told to do uh du lingo um after a
063parent child intervention they were placed with a one teacher in the school not one of theirs uh one hour a week um no one thought that no parents no other students invited they were there for about two months invited them home invited them over uh made real connections with him it was an um and no one thought um that and no one gave them any information or me and I was working with them all the way through this um were given information about dual language schools they were also not told that because they qualified for um mckin vento earlier on in the first school that they still qualified for it uh this year the boy was again assigned to the same School in second grade and the girl was assigned to uh Madison Middle Middle
064School um that I am told by a staff member has not a great deal of MLL support and is she she will be thrust into uh an entirely white english- speaking program um I have tried as her advocate to get information all summer that would get them inform uh would get would help us trans transer and again it's vacation nobody was answering the pretty much nobody was answering the phone um I understand that uh both Concord and Denny have ACC have h space for the children I have since in the last few weeks talked with the Denny Middle School uh dual language immersion program teacher who has fully supported the girls enrollment there as have uh has another um certified dual language uh teacher today uh the girl's request was denied ma'am um ma'am can
065I since since you had your time seated to you I don't know if we have your information but I would like to ask staff to follow up with you since this is a um specific case um we're we're going to go to the next speaker but could you please email the board office your contact information so that they can make sure that this is addressed by the appropriate personnel yes may I also may I make two more sentences yes sorry okay denying their requests to be admitted to Denny and Concord is inequitable and it's not in the best interest both in the short and long term um I concur with other speakers that dual language program should be exp should be expanded so that all of the students who are in such situations can have
066access to programs designed to meet their needs their unique needs and help them Thrive socially emotionally psychologically and academically the next speaker is John R John redo after John will be benstein and then col Colleen Corby hi good evening board my name is John redo and I currently have three children enrolled at Dearborn Park Elementary in Beacon Hill they are part of the Spanish program it's D school I'm here today to give uh and speak for my community my school and my family and the continuing support of the Dual language programs in the Seattle Public Schools I strongly believe it'll drive enrollment like it has for our family our family considers ourselves extremely lucky to be able to send our kids to a school like Dearborn Park it's an ideal and fully realized success story
067and cultural diversity uh from the poliu they have the school dance programs after school Multicultural events it's absolutely an incredible school it grows from there uh it draws in the most passionate and caring people who we know they all share the same similar values and let's be honest the DLI program is what's the driving force behind a lot of the community at the school um there's a clear difference in quality in the community at that school versus other schools that we've had in other children in the past it's a real thing it's really working it's not just actions it's not just a mission statement or a value statement it's actually something out there in the real world that we're participating in our family is getting a lot of benefit from um our children are who
068they are because of the program uh it's not just Math and Science and reading it's all cultural it's all um tolerance understanding it's part of who they are it's part of their identity now how they experience the world and their enthusiasm for it and how important is this well we live in West Seattle dear park is in beon hill we were missing a bridge for a couple of years it's an oh not it's an hour door to door two times a day five days a week okay so we never once ever questioned whether or not we should be going to the school it was absolutely part of who we are as a family uh never crossed our mind never to keep going there um and again the DLI program was really what drives this so
069it drives enrollment it really kind of engages us we have a lot of options our family does we're very fortunate to be able to send our kids to a variety of different schools with a lot of different options we choose deborn Park we choose the Seattle public school district because it's so important to us that these programs exist and then we ask that you continue to support these programs now and in the future and you allow them to grow and mature thank you so much the next speaker is Ben and then Colleen and then Valentina Al alante thank you very much my name is Colleen Cor and I see my CH Patty Lo was that me next uh we'll go to you if and Ben can wait till go next if that works sorry we
070had a little switch I'll go I'll go um actually before I start I do want to thank Dorian for sharing his story about the onigiri as a kid I experienced the same thing and um I'm very grateful that through the da programs our kids don't have to live with the same trauma as we do so thank you for sharing um hi my name is Patty Le I'm the parent of two incredible kids a third grader at Dearborn Park International and an incoming kindergarten kindergartener who is still on the wait list um I'm also an employee uh at King County I'm with the solid waste division um that's garbage Recycling and compost not poop that's common misconception um so I come here today as a public servant to other public servants um um to advocate for
071the district's dual language uh immersion programs my parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in their early 20s when my older brother was born their pediatrician a supposed expert in children told my parents that speaking Mandarin to my brother would affect his ability to learn English and hinder his academics so this as any Asian knows strikes at the deepest fear of many Asian parents um so my mom and dad limited their their Mandarin uh around my brother and later to me um as an adult I Grievous loss of culture it's just another example of Western Society stripping away the richness of diversity but instead of Native American boarding schools it's now passed under the guise of medical expertise um when I became a parent I was delighted to learn of the district's dual language
072immersion programs debor Park International was only two less than two miles away from my house um and they offered a mandrin language track which was great uh when my eldest was accepted into Dearborn Park through school choice it felt like winning the freaking Lottery uh the Dual language programs are a form of restorative justice to me and my family to help Ro write the wrongs um of the past to not only accept other cultures but to celebrate them and to Center them uh hearing my children speak Mandarin to their grandparents has been such a healing gift and now that the experts have finally caught up and agree that multilingual education builds more robust minds and primes children for academic success I ask the district to make the decision that is best for our children and
073preserve and grow our dual language programs thank you the next speaker is Ben gensen hi everyone my name is Ben gin uh though I'm about to be critical of this board's actions I want to start by thanking you all for your public service I'm an SPS parent here to speak on behalf of other SPS parents who are deeply worried about the future of our schools in the budget you will view to later today the projected deficit Will Rise by 43% over the next 4 years if every cost saving measure outlined on page 21 of that budget were maximally successful which has never happened in the history of budgets we would continue to face deficits in 2027 and Beyond we are at an inflection point and the only remedy is a radically new approach built on
074a broader Coalition I urge you as the leaders and stewards of our public education system to change course now you are losing faith and the faith and trust of the public whose support funds your your levies and Powers our advocacy in Olympia this board is failing the families of the district in four distinct and deeply disturbing ways first this board embarked on a rushed and improper School closure process this process has been flawed from the beginning it was introduced and acted on in the same meeting is not supported by the public is built on faulty and all too frequently changing assumptions and has been mismanaged from the beginning second the board has repeatedly failed to provide transparency and Community engagement on decisions critical to the well-being of the district third the board has abdicated its
075oversight role in clear violation of their oath of office any reasonable definition of which includes actively overseeing cost overruns and investigating operational failures fourth and most glaringly the board has not taken enough action to keep our students safe and has while we removed SRO we have not replaced them with a clear alternative I urge you to press pause on your current strategy to re-engage your community and to move in a New Direction the next speaker is Valentina Al alady valentinia you'll need to press star six on the conference line Valentina it looks like it's still muted if you want to press star six one more time and see if that works I am going to go to the first um speaker on our wait list but then I will come back to you Valentina because
076I can see that you are trying on the line uh first Speaker or the next speaker will be Aon Colmes hi I know I'm the last one so I will be uh cognizant of my two minutes um I am a parent of a second grader in SPS um I also am a volunteer with allog together for Seattle schools which is a Grassroots group of parents from across the city who jointly oppose the district's Mass school school closure plan um this plan is not only unpopular and it is um but it is also ineffective and also misguided the school board um has presented minimal if any evidence that the plan will result in positive outcomes for students on the contrary the district is ignoring data that point to the long-term harm that this plan will cause
077five examples number one school closures will not solve the budget deficit data from other large cities has shown that comparable school closures only saved an average of $17.5 million per year not the 30 that superintendent Jones cited at the in his opening statements and that is an even smaller fraction of the city's 998 million deficit that we currently are facing number two no equity analysis has been presented and there is evidence from other cities again that school closures actually further inequities number three school closures will negatively impact students again looking at data from other cities consistently shown that school closures are linked to worsen student outcomes and Seattle has not shown how we will avoid those outcomes here number four the school board has not engaged in meaningful dialogue with students and teachers this two
078minutes I don't believe is sufficient or parents to truly understand the effects that the closure will have in practice simply put school closures are not the solution to the crises that SPS faces in closing it is deeply distressing to me as a parent that the school board is seriously pursuing a plan that will be devastating for thousands of students and their families from the most privileged families in the cities all the way to those that are the furthest from educational Justice school closures will severely and negatively impact every student in the city it is as if the school board is taking the city in a snow globe and shaking it up and seeing where the pieces are going to fall it is reckless it is irresponsible and it is damaging our students deserve better our
079city deserves better and frankly Seattle needs to do better thank you for your time the next speaker um going back to Valentina aldunate to see if you able to unmute if you're listening in please press star six now we see you're unmuted hello everyone my name is Valentina alate I was born and raised in Santiago Chile and have been living in Seattle for the last eight years as a native Spanish Spanish speaker and as an SBS parent I am excited to advocate for our Spanish Immersion program back in Chile I had the opportunity to attend a school with an English immersion program and I can confidently say it was lifechanging at home older members of my family don't speak English so it's crucial for me to ensure that my children not only communicate effectively but
080also maintain their connection with our relatives learning a second language from an early age enhances cognitive abilities improves problem solving skills and increases multitasking and cognitive flexibility the challenge of switching between languages strengthens overall brain function sorry um additionally research shows that bilingual students often outperform their monolingual peers in various academic areas language is not just a tool for communication it help us understand diverse cultures build meaningful relationships and open doors to numerous opportunities our community has benefited greatly from DLI schools which are highly popular and attract many students each year these programs connect connect us with other families in similar situations and help us build a supported Network this is fundamental for families like ours um living abroad and having to build new connections we are deeply grateful for the benefits that DLI schools
081provide our children that is why I'm here today not only to demonstrate the importance of representation but also to advocate for the expansion of the DLI Pro program this program brings significant advantages to many children in our district and I urge you to not only retain it but also extend it to more families like ours in conclusion D programs do not cost our D District more they are efficient highly successful and in high demand the true cost would be the lifetime impact on our children if this programs were not available thank you for your attention and support president rank that was the 20th and final speaker for tonight thank you um I have two two more things and then I know at least uh vice president seru has director comments uh what I would like
082to do is get through that see if any other directors have anything take a break and then come back for their for our business items um so thank you everybody for coming um uh I would like to ask staff to uh one of the uh Sheila OPI who I hope we have her contact information that was a very specific instance that I would like somebody to okay staff staff is on and contacting her thank you um and then hopefully the person who's time who has had time seated to so we may not have her information we'll reach out to board so we can get that um specific instance addressed add to the right staff uh more generally um we as I said in our in my earlier comments we just did a a considerable engagement
083effort and heard across the boards in in all kinds of different communities how important dual language and access to learning a second language to multilingual Ed education is to our entire Seattle Community um so I just wanted to you'll hear we'll we'll be talking more about that as we review our uh feedback data that we received through that through those engagements um but you can see in the materials that have been posted already for tomorrow's Retreat that access to multilingual learning is a high priority for all of the SE the whole Seattle Community um so just saying I I I know that with talk about schools and talk about programs it can be really confusing as to what conversation is being had when um and that a a building is not the same necessarily as
084what's being provided in it so I just wanted to to point that out that that we have heard as a body how important um multilingual learning is to our entire Seattle Community and so as you're watching us go through the process and participating in the process with us of developing our next strategic plan um I feel pretty confident in saying that that issue is going to continue to be one that is it's a high priority for us to address um in the next strategic plan so just to share that um that it's it's we've got we've got a great group here that's passionate about it but also that as we went to all these different groups it was a it was a constant thing that came up so um uh again regarding some uh engagement
085things I want to just um and this is turning out to be my favorite thing to do is find old studies and reports that have recommendations that have come to the board and read aloud um so just for a moment here just as a reminder for ourselves to ground Us in what our job is here and for um folks who may be listening or watching right now uh a school board is a governing body whose members are individually without Authority all authority resides in actions taken by the body as a whole organized as a governing body with an appointed chief executive officer to my right here um a board a board's primary responsibilities is recruiting and selecting the most highly qualified chief executive officer the superintendent to manage and lead the school district and undertaking
086selected actions to direct the management by the CEO these actions include establishing a policy framework ensuring the effectiveness of plans goals and expectations for the district ensuring an effectively functioning top management team and providing overall direction monitoring and accountability for principal Management areas this model which is directed in state law is different from that of a legislative body which is literally the legislature or like a city council um in a legislative body each member represents a particular District or group of constituents and policy is developed by reaching consensus among different interests while a school board has both overall legislative and executive responsibilities the governing body model is the defining concept um something this is from 1990 by the way uh another piece of recommend here that was made is that uh no compreh no comprehensive
087policy has been developed for handling long-term enrollment decline the decline of recent years has not been accompanied by commencant reductions in number of school staff or dollars the board has been unwilling to close schools and unwilling to lay off staff and has proceeded without realistic perspective on controlling costs this problem is not a new one the decline so it wasn't new in 1990 and it's not new today the decline in students and the need for commensurate Cost Containment have existed for a number of years moreover the board has been subject to public pressure not to reduce Services nonetheless it is fundamentally the board's responsibility to effectively allocate scarce resources even in times of Decline and this also noted that in Seattle at the time the board was functioning essentially as a group of individual decision
088makers each representing his or her own district and constituents the reason I bring this up is because it's not just in 1990 but also in 2006 in 2018 many other times it has been pointed out to the school board of Seattle that behaving in response to the specific interest of individual groups and allowing ourselves to forget that we're actually all together for Seattle's students has caused harm and exacerbated the situation over and over and over and put us where we are today enrollment has de declined from 50, 53380 in 2017 to 49,28318 the district expanded opening new buildings for option and highly capable cohort schools and reopening some existing buildings all of which added over 5,800 new seats all north of the ship canal all his enrollment was projected to decline so we have hard
089decisions to make we have decisions that have not been not presented before and we have decisions that have been made Harder by the fact that people were unwilling to make them in the past and we have run out of onetime funding there's no Levy funding coming to save us there's no like the state if we if we were to go into binding conditions if we refuse to make significant changes to the way this District operates and serve children what we would get would be direction from the state to close schools reduce programs cut staff and have not no say over it so this is the very hard time where you have a board right now who is not really For Better or For Worse being popular is actually not our goal doing the right thing
090for children is our goal well this is going to seem like Liza and I planned this but we did not um so I need to give a a warning that um there's going to be one cuss word in a quote because my friend used a cuss word you have to bleep yourself or you get an FCC violation because okay then I'll just abbreviate the word oh Lord we don't want no FCC violations here okay y'all will get the meaning with the with the letter um but I just wanted to let people know that so this afternoon um and despite that there was cake back there it's like man they just lier ruined it for me the cake ruined it for me but I'm going to ask my fellow board directors to bake a cake with
091me but before I do that I'm going to share a brief story to to help frame this ask years ago I had a friend who was engaged in a seven plus year battle with can breast cancer she ultimately won and I miss her one evening I'm at her house for an event in the kitchen there's a full spread of food including the most Exquisite desserts I have ever tasted I asked how is it that she's baking giv her situation before every chemo appointment she baked for her care team she told me Michelle when life gives you lemons you bake a chocolate cake and let the bees wonder how you did it before us we have a bowl of lemons which includes a very large budget deficit tough decisions that none of us and I mean
092not a single one of these seven board members are excited about making and we have very very serious structural issues in this District that need to be solved just to name a few what I'm asking my fellow board directors is to take this bowl of limens that we've been given which elza just read from the report I don't know how it is I had a baby in 1990 you do the math 34 years later it's still the same he's not but the rest of this situation is exactly the same that it was in 1990 I'm asking us to take this bowl of lemons and bake the best possible cake we can for the kids in our district well okay I thought my computer died we have very hard decisions ahead of us our job is
093to focus on outcomes for students which includes making tough decisions so will you bake this cake with me because our kids are depending on it do any directors have any other comments all right it is now 5:45 can we take 10 five okay we're going to take a f minute break when we come back we will do our um business items and uh I think a budget review we'll be back at 550 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] go we have [Music] we popping your head back in there and letting them know that we started thank [Music] youa I move for approval of the consent agenda I second are there uh let's see sorry hold on approval of the consent agenda has been moved by vice president sarju and seconded
094by uh director Briggs do directors have any items to be removed from consent agenda not so he doesn't get to say seeing none all those in favor of the consent agenda please signify by saying I I I I did you no um oh Joe You're Just in Time approval of the consent agenda nobody has pulled anything that we have six sorry I six eyes on the table I all right um the consent approval of the consent agenda has passed unanimously we are now moving on to the action item on today's agenda which is approval of the 2024 2027 collective bargaining agreement between Seattle public schools and the principal Association of Seattle schools may I please have a motion to consider this item motion to or sorry a motion for this item I move for approval
095of this item I second uh oh is that the wrong language the let me just take a moment and thank my colleague Miss Ellie for keeping us moving as we should I moved at the school board of approv the 2024 through 2027 collective bargaining agreement between s Seattle public schools and the principal's Association of Seattle public schools and authorize the superintendent on behalf of the board board of directors to execute the agreement in the form attached to the Schoolboard Action Report with any minor additions addition minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the terms of this agreement immediate action is in best interest of the district I second all right this item is before us today for introduction and action so I see staff
096approaching the podium please uh introduce good evening my name is Dr Sarah pritet Goodman not quite officially yet but officially on on the 11th of of August so congratulations thank you thank you I'll pull the mic up a little bit so you can hear me a little better um as you stated this um CBA is for three years it would be starting July of this year and expiring June 30th of 2027 um we worked collaboratively with past members and I want to just take a moment to appreciate their um hard work in understanding where we are financially as a district and willing to work with us hard to get to a place where um we are at a three-year agreement um with only ipd an increase of ipd over those three years each year and
097that is um um equivalent to a cola raise for three years so um appreciative of that we were also able to get through a number of things um common interest and also removal of um language that wasn't appropriate or wasn't um accurate anymore didn't accurately reflect our practices we were able to clean up leave language um reduce the number of days that are being cashed out for vacation um also clarify um again rules around leave around personal leave and things of that nature and we've been able to clarify um or continue with professional development funds for past members um clean up on the job injury language so that it is reflective of other um labor Partners as well and then we were able to um clarify some of the evaluation language um that had inconsistencies
098and there were also a number of things that we were able to language that we were able to clean up and I will stop there and just um open it up for questions this um I do have a question and I will start by uh apologies for not sending it in advance um it's something that had come to my mind on a number of occasions and I uh failed to submit that to you ahead of time which then would appear in informational items as an answer as is our practice um so apologies for not getting that to you I still have the question though so I'm going to ask it would which is um uh regarding the process of investigation that overlaps with some issues that we had come before us um at the end
099of last school year along with some recommendations of procedure specifically the the reer viiew evaluation so my question is that as staff consider and implements the recommendations about elevating different complaints and and investigations and how that goes um if it impacts what is currently in this agreement would we have the ability to or would staff have the ability to reopen the agreement and examine that language before 2027 does my question make sense kind of we're um we certainly can reopen an agreement at any time um with parties to to talk about um process or procedure um I think that there are some there's some open language that would allow us to do to implement some of our recommendations and may not necessarily need to renegotiate um I think that there are um I think there
100are some misinterpretations around how we handle complaints and so at a different time I'd love to have an opportunity to talk through that so that we have a solid understanding of what um what we actually mean when we're talking about I think that there was um an illusion to people investigating themselves and that really isn't how that works um it's actually meant to for people to be able to address complaints first with the person that they're having the complaint with similar to if we had um parents or somebody come in to talk with say you know Mr Smith is is you know I'm upset with whatever and we ask the person have you talked to the teacher yet and so that's a little bit of what was referenced earlier um in that you we would
101like for people to be able to talk with the principal um if it's appropriate um that language is also in there if it is appropriate um so we certainly can address and look at any um complaint process procedures and work through those and are more than happy to work with pass um as an organization to change or modify language as necessary so it sounds like if I might just briefly rephrase superintendent that as we and I I know the the board is looking at its own processes and procedures and that we I would say have have uh identified the need to clarify complaint processes and how they are handled as we are in the process of doing that to ensure that everybody involved knows how to go to have things resolved um if it does
102have implications will we be able to add address them so that any new recommendations could be implemented immediately because I I mean I would like to approve this I understand it's important for us to have an agreement with our principles um I don't want to uh potentially lock us into anything that may prevent us from making practice changes in practice at the district level that we know will support students and having um families have concerns addressed yes uh president Rank and I I believe uh there is mutual interest in having efficient effective uh processes for investigations Andor complaints that come come before uh or with or about principles I think that's been something that uh we've been talking constructively with pass about over the last year or so uh in the context of some of
103these some of these more complex issues that we've been dealing with over the last year and so um I I believe we're we're all uh interested meaning all SPS pass around having a a process that uh solves things at the lowest level when it when it starts to emerge and brings it all the way to closure and completion um going through these these uh situations over this last year really daylighted uh maybe some gaps in how we understand how we move through complex issues uh who are the who are the players involved with trying to bring uh reconciliation restoration uh but we've learned a a lot over the last uh year and I just want to take my hat off to to pass because they've been very open for how we would go about doing
104this uh in the future and I think we have latitude within the Collective barrowing Agreement as it's written right now to uh address it and bring some more clarity around what does that actually mean in practice Dr Pritchard is that your uh your assessment as well that's accurate and I also want to make sure that we are also protecting the rights of all of our employees on due process and I think that those were some of the issues that we had um we're also around due process and the ability for any employee to be able to be represented be able to address complaints as they come in um and when we skip past some of the due process sometimes we violate their rights as well so we just want to make sure that we whatever
105process we do ensures that we're keeping to um due process rights for all employees that's helpful thank you both both welcome any other questions from directors director hery yeah just for my own Clarity can you articulate to me if like um do all of the complaints or if a complaint were to be like issued against a particular principle do every single or rather does every single complaint go to that principal or is there a hierarchy or are there any instances where a complaint would not go to that principle depending on the nature of the complaint it would depend upon the nature of the complaints right not not all complaints um go back to the principal I think that there are there is language that so if you were to go back to that page and
106look at um the actual full paragraph that talks about it talks about um complaints or problems going to the principal as a first step also talks about going to the supervisor um it also talks about senior leadership making a decision so if I get a complaint as a senior leader or as a board member um there's a point in time where you where you actually need to make a decision on whether it is appropriate um for that complaint to go back to the principal so we are counting on the adults the senior leaders um or others who get complaints about principles to actually make a determination on whether that is appropriate or not it does not um negate the complaint if you don't first bring it to the principle there may be other times where
107we say you do need to bring this one to the principal cuz if complain about the master schedule or something that's that's in there within their purview and those are the types of things that we're talking about but if somebody was um I'm not sure just there was someone that was doing something inappropriate with children you know there's things that are that that are obvious and then there are also things and we certainly as HR consult with many people around what to do next so if there's ever an occasion where a senior leader or for that matter a board member um receives a complaint we certainly are there for a consult to talk about what would be the most appropriate way to handle um whatever the whatever the issue is yeah no and and that
108makes perfect sense to me the only reason that I asked that question is that it seems like there could be some clarity on the procedural end on our part um and maybe you know in some way um trying to see if there's some distinction that could be forward- facing to the person who's issuing the complaint like I don't know what that would look like the the ultimate thing there though is I think um there's likely something that we could do on the senior level to provide some reassurance um to people who are like bringing these complaints forward that in extreme cases or cases where it could be tense and because ultimately when it boils down to I get it from both sides a we want people to be handling their business like adults and B
109we know that within our system especially in schools uh adult ISS can very quickly be waged against a child and I'm sure that there's probably some pathway forward that we could explore to try to circumvent that as much as possible um so yeah that's all I'm really interested in thanks just just one technical thing that's really important I believe that we just need to acknowledge lots of times complaints are handled but I think the loop doesn't get closed from a communication perspective and I and sometimes it's not to the satisfaction of different parties but I I think one of the areas where we can probably tie up a little bit is just the closure piece getting back to uh the complaintant and then maybe other people feel they they are also party to it just
110that closure piece is where I think we we see where we where we collectively struggle a little bit so I think that's an area we can work on I think the complaints are handled pretty frequently pretty often I don't think many of them slip through uh and a lot of them are ha are addressed all the way to completion and closure sometimes we don't we don't tie that Loop so I think that's a piece that we can we can collectively work on any other questions director top I think it's less of a question and more of a comment I appreciate uh director her's comments and I think a lot of what we see we and we also see here from public comment is the need to address some of the issues we saw in the
111Rainer view audit and uh how do we make sure that we Implement some of those great opportunities that they they led us to have how we can better Comm communicate um with folks who have complaints but also to address them and provide Clarity yeah the only thing that I would say to that is just like there might be some folks out there who might not know that it's going directly to the principal and I think at least having some of that information on the front end would probably inform how good people go about leveraging those complaints I think the key here is Clarity and consistency and just that everyone has access to the same same information and understanding and we're getting pretty far a field from the from the actual item um but thank you
112uh do any directors have anything that you need to address before we vote on this item to approve this contract oh director m a very technical I was looking at the um the pay schedule and it looks like it shows 11 Step 11 12 13 but I didn't see steps 1 through 10 is that does this does the is that because there was no change to it or does the pay schedule start at Step 11 I'd have to actually look back at what page are you on page 44 it says page 44 of 29 which can't right so if you're on page 44 of 29 then you're probably looking at our previous the redline version of the contract so that um which may not show you everything that's one of the appendix from the previous
113contract and it was and so there are um there's a new past salary schedule that will be made and um that will reflect the pay scale for the um for ipd for this year got it m but it's it's a 13 step scale but it just wasn't showing step one through 10 is that right I believe so okay and I can I can respond back to you as well a little bit we'll respond back to the board sorry any other questions seeing none Miss Wilson Jones the roll call please director Clark um it's approval of the contract I know I forgot my language yay yes I I director hery I director M Rahi I vice president seru no director top I director Briggs no president Ranken I this motion has passed with a vote of
1145 to2 thank you um moving on to let's see that was our only action item right yes uh we will now move to the introduction items on today's agenda the first of which is the scoring and ranking method for selecting schools for building Excellence Beck six Capital Levy approval of this item would approve the proposed scoring and ranking method for selecting schools and projects for the levy uh the vote of which will to go will go before voters next year uh thank you president Ranken I'm Richard bass I'm the executive director of capital projects planning and Facilities operations and I'd also like to just introduce my colleague sitting in the back of the room there Becky enso who is the K12 planning uh manager for Seattle public schools and has really um spent a significant
115amount of her time and her staff's time you know preparing the Beck 6 um Capital Levy and so so Ellie can I ask you to go to the next slide please and in uh considering the scoring and the ranking of Beck six projects I want to note that the work that Capital planning does is Guided by board policy 6901 which is capital Levy planning and in their in that uh policy are really nine principles of which I would really like to highlight three and first and foremost is the um board policy 0030 educational and racial Equity is a driving consideration in our uh weighted Staffing criteria you'll see that uh as we present the weighted Staffing criteria um later tonight then um second guiding principle is that we align with the district Mission Vision and
116strategic plan and then the third guiding principle that Becky and I spend a lot of time in conversation is capital projects shall be planned to meet District's educational needs in the short in the intermediate and in the long term and what does that mean well that means educational Elementary specifications Middle School specifications High School specifications need to be able to address today's educational program but we also need to think about the flexibility in our facility that we're constructing so that we can address tomorrow's educational program as well technology 30 years ago was not a significant part of Education today it is a driving portion of education and so that's just one change that I've seen over the course of my career so I spent a lot of time thinking about what does that look like
117um for the um for the educational program but I also spend a lot of time thinking about what does that look like for asset preservation and then what does that look like for asset restoration um and so those are um just three of the nine principles that I wanted to highlight in board policy 691 that we do um look at and um take very um um into great consideration second item I want to highlight is the board six uh the Beck six board guiding principles that were approved in October of 2023 um six criteria were established five of them we are recommending that you score um and that's School Equity index health safety security and building condition the learning environment accessibility and facility planning and then there's one that we are setting up as a
118separate category um and that is environmental sustainability and I'll get to why we're setting up environmental sustainability just a little bit later in this presentation next slide Julia so the proposed scoring and ranking methods include waiting scores to reflect the board's priorities and I'll note that this effort began really with our beex 5 Capital Levy back in 2018 we have not uh diverted significantly from the board uh criteria that was established back for the beex 5 Capital Levy or for from the scoring criteria that was established um for the beex 5 Capital Levy and again when we look at the uh recommendation I'll speak to both the beex Five Capital Levy scoring percentages what the new category is the new category is accessibility and the scoring that we're recommending for accessibility and then um uh
119the um Equity index as well I will note that technology is evaluated separately by the department of Technology services and it's reviewed with the information technology advisory committee and then as I've mentioned previously environmental sustainability um was not scored for construction projects because it is a separate category and I want to highlight there are some regulatory changes but I also want to highlight um some board resolutions that we took into to consideration um as we scored or as we looked at projects um the first is the climate pledge res resolution that this board passed in 2006 second is the green resolution that this board passed in 2012 and the third is the clean energy resolution that this board passed in 2019 and the clean energy resol resolution really directed facilities Capital um transportation to develop
120a pathway forward in which we were fossil free by the year 2040 and so our project recommendations are heavily weighted to being fossil free by the year 2040 consistent with your resolution but then I'll also note that there are some regulatory changes on the horizon as well uh state of Washington has passed the clean building performance standards um in 2027 we will have to meet the energy use index that the state of Washington has identified for schools that are greater than 200,000 square fet and actually I could say public facilities greater than 200,000 Square ft² because it is for all public facilities and then um in 2028 for facilities greater than 100,000 square ft 2029 uh for facilities greater than 50,000 Square ft and in 2030 for facilities greater than 20,000 Square ft so this
121has had a significant impact Upon Our thinking because there's a fiscal penalty for non-compliance and so that fiscal penalty will hit the general fund for they exacerbating our um general fund expenditures city of Seattle has also passed what they call a building emissions performance standard so this is addressing carbon emissions which Seattle public schools has been at the Forefront of really our nation in addressing carbon emissions through uh installation of geothermal Wells on our projects I think um with uh schools that opened in 2023 we now have 19 schools um in which we utilize geothermal Wells uh in Li of um power but again we're looking at having to uh eliminate the use of fossil fuels um for uh uh as a um fuel source for our school facilities and this is a measure the
122city of Seattle has passed uh they do allow a portfolio approach unlike the state of Washington we're well positioned for the portfolio approach um but they too have fiscal penalties for nonconformance and again those fiscal penalties will hit the general fund next slide please Julia so in our recommendation for scoring we're recommending that health safety security and building condition um be combined uh previously these were two uh categories health and safety and security as one category in the beex 5 Capital Levy building condition as another category each were scored at 16.75 we're recommending combine those into one category and score that at 30% uh learning environment this was scored in the beex 5 Capital Levy at 16.75% we're recommending we score this at 16% accessibility is a new category that we have added this is
123path of travel from parking lot all the way into the building out to um Portables we're recommending this be scored at 5% I'll also note that we now utilize an ADA consultant on all of our beex five projects to make sure that we are addressing um the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements um then facilities planning uh looking at Future trends for um capacity future trends for enrollment growth making sure we're able to address those future Trends I think this board is very aware that last year we had two um demographic um Consultants prepare analysis there there while there are subtle differences the overall projections I would say were the same for Seattle Public Schools through 2032 we're looking at that data um and scoring that at 16% that was scored at 16.75% in the beex
1245 Capital Levy and then the equities um index which we have left the same at 33% so the sum total of those categories is 100% I'll note that we did normalize um the score on a scale of 1 to five using minmax normalization procedure that's standard in statistical analysis um and so uh um our Capital planning staff implemented that effort next slide um Julia so this will help us with the building improvements Renovations and Replacements to support the district schools for well resourc schools learning environments we will note that the decisions that this board makes about well resourced schools will impact the final Beck six Capital Levy list um major construction projects will be assessed and ranked um per the criteria that um has been presented unless Modified by the board um scoring and ranking
125we will provide a list of projects and how they scored and then if a project is recommended to be removed or added to the list other projects May shift up and down up and down the list as well so with that I'll open it up to questions from the school board thank you and a reminder that this is Introduction tonight and so at the next regular board meeting um it will be for Action so if if you don't have all your questions come to mind right now you still have some time to check in with staff so um does anyone have questions now though as this item is being introduced vice president Sergio um I just had a clarification you mentioned the word security when you were combining I think the three different areas Safety
126Safety and Security and building condition we're looking at combining into one category I'm just curious what secur like I'm can you give me an example of uh security systems are safety system security systems and our buildings would be intercom uh AI phones um Door and Window intrusion alarms security cameras things of that nature thank you director top sure I have two questions uh the first one was in your scoring where where does the outdoor SL playground space fall into the category is that building condition that would be building condition perfect and I will note also director top that um we have made that a priority um since um I'm going to say um director Harris um arriving on the board that was an inequity that we recognized in capital projects and planning um in conversations
127with director Harris in that some schools had beautiful playgrounds um and some schools that did not and those schools that did not generally um relied in more economically distressed areas of of uh um the city of Seattle and so consequently we have a 15year playground plan in which every school in K through 5 or um K through 8 is on a playground replacement cycle perfect and it will not be a PTA funded I was going to add that yes and it's funded through the levy not not based on individual Community ability to fundraise correct I I appreciate that I know that I use the playgrounds as just essentially parks for my kids a lot of the times too so I think they're integral to the community um can you provide just a a second question
128is provide just a little bit of background of reasoning why you combine the building condition and the health Safety and Security categories I think uh they are int intrinsically linked um a lot of those are on um looking at Building Systems I will say that we are um going to be making a recommendation for a significant amount of safety improvements uh within um the Beck 6 Capital Levy uh related to intercom uh throughout um all of our schools uh implementing intercom improvements and then also security camera improvements as well but uh a lot of those uh Safety and Security measures were uh Building Systems we have uh criteria that an outside third party can consultant has provided us on our building systems and safety systems and so it seemed more that they should be linked
129rather than broken apart thank you so much y any other questions on this item all right thank you Mr best thank you uh let's see are next introduction item is amendment to board policy number 2190 highly capable Services approval of this item would amend board policy number 2190 highly capable Services as attached to the board action report this is my item I guess so I'll introduce I'll introduce it so um uh as it states in the board action report I think um oh I see something happening on the screen no not related to this okay so um uh this item is before us to amend the policy to uh specify the board's direction to the superintendent that uh part of the annual report to OS so sorry back up there's an annual report required to
130Opi to affirm that school districts are providing highly capable Services um to identifi student that they're identifying and providing the service as required by state law there's a form that ospi requires that's a series of check boxes once OPI gets that form from the district they say okay great and they send the dist District's uh money for providing those Services um for me and I know many other directors the the receiving a copy of what is being sent to Opi is not sufficient for our understanding of how these services are actually being provided um so the change to this policy would require that annually for this approval we would also the board also needs to be provided with a description of what is reported in the form that goes to Opi so that uh the
131board has an understanding of um what it is we're actually approving um and that the the public also has the opportunity to to annually see that and understand what um what the expectation is across the district so the change and policy is is in my opinion bringing it in line with what I believe the intent of um the legislative direction is um and um just providing an additional level of transparency and Clarity for the board upon approval of the item so uh we approved in the consent agenda the 2324 plan um that item as you I'm sure noticed because nobody pulled it was was amended to include the information that I'm talking about now the description and so uh if we approve this change to policy that level of information would be provided annually to
132us for the it for the item approval going forward and I would be happy to answer any questions if I again director top I'll just ask all the questions uh so I want to just uh I I think we have a week to work on it because I want to clarify we talk about you interchangeably here use the word program and services and I think that we want to make sure that we classify this as Services correct it's a little bit it's in state the state interchanges them also what they consider a program and what is a service um I don't know if well we we actually have between I mean this is introduction now we have actually a whole another month to make sure we um make sure that's aligned uh I in the
133state language my interpretation anyway is that the service is how the student receives it and the program is what's established in this like the the district would say this is our program and then through the program the services provided it's a little I mean is the is the uh I guess the question is just looking for consistency of language yeah okay we can definitely check that and I can also reach out to Opi and ask well and I think that it's important specifically as we look at our well resource schools plan because we're talking about a difference between services that we provide and programs in our schools so making sure that we're real clear here what the differen is and how how we're just talking about them thank you any other questions um yeah director
134picks okay so I'm just looking at this part here uh in order to better communicate the work of the advanced learning department and the highly capable program offered by Seattle Public Schools this action would require an additional report be provided to the board as an informational item so do we do we have that additional informational item here or so that so so for the for the one we just approved that additional information was was added to the actual item okay and that was for last year yeah okay and um the reason it's the additional report and staff please correct me if I'm wrong is because the The OSI timeline for when they require the form sometimes shifts it could be anytime between like February and April I think so they will sometimes make updates to
135the form so um what I what the intent is and I hope is clear is that we expect the information that we the form is actually not what the board is interested in the board is interested in the information about how we're meeting the needs of students and so depending on the timing of the OPI form I am personally agnostic as to whether that comes together at the same time as the form or if it's you know we have this for you in January and the OPI plan is being approved in March okay did I does that ACC that yes though I so I guess what I'm wondering now is at what point will we actually find out what is going on with highly capable like when will we get that information about the plan
136going forward I guess what do you mean by the I'm starting to hate the word plan that means so so a report of how students were served last year is attached to the item that we just received so are you asking when we when we'll get that same information for this year yeah so basically if we're phasing out the cohort program if that's going away what is going in its place and when is that what is the timeline for that how what is that going to look like how is it going to be implemented when are we going to get that information if that's not yeah like I I get that this is just like a for formality a checkbox thing that we have to do for OPI but but I think there's still a
137lot of questions around what is the future of Highly capable in Seattle public schools are you asking for the longer term strategy yeah like what that's a staff question yeah oh yeah okay I mean I I'm not expecting you to answer that necessarily but um but that like it feels weird should be talking about this but then not acknowledge that we don't actually have any information about where where we're going with highly capable which I feel like has been a lingering question for some time now um like for quite a while so it feels like past time to know what's going on with that that's all not and I know that's not on you I'm just because we're talking about it so my intent with this is that we receive annual information yeah okay that's
138it's a somewhat separate like that's still a good question but for for the purposes of this item and what could be addressed in this policy my uh the reason I am asking the board to consider this is so that annually we get what is outlined in the the whack Washington Administrative Code which is the number of students the district expects to serve um the methods use for identification uh the um how the service is being provided what what professional development there is instead of what we've had before which is just that like yes there's professional development yes there's you know right right so in terms of the the longer term academic strategy that would still be a a question but this my hope is that this policy means that every year we and our and
139the public have access to a description of the intent for that year got it Dr Jones so I I I think what's a solution here is by X date we'll get a report every year and and I think director's tops director Topps distinction between program and services is is relevant here in that uh how we how we administer highly capable uh Services is uh is important and that's the programmatic aspect but did our students receive the the service that we are mandated to provide is more of a compliance piece and so if if the board is interested in understanding kind of the how we're providing it uh what is the what is the plan for uh service Del Service delivery that's that's one model and then the other piece is uh did you do what
140you were supposed to do in terms of compliance by providing those students who are who are qualified for highly capable service did they receive those Services both of those can be written up and I just think the the the need here is to say annually on the month of by the month of August every year there'll be a report to confirm Services were provided and this is how they were provided through programmatic means is that satisfact would you think that'd be satisfactory yeah um these are so tricky uh I think yeah I guess I think what I'm getting at is just like go going forward H how how will we even know if the services are being delivered if we don't know what the services are so that that's that's really the my plain and
141simple question I would if I may suggest and because I'm going to do this myself too is to look again at um I think we should relate our questions to the information that was provided for the one that we just received that that does designate what the training is what the different models of service are and if we want to drill down on that then we can figure out how how to ask that does that help because we should also be I mean we should also be seeing in our role as oversight building cips now are required to have in them how they're providing the service since it is meant to be provided to any child who is identified and so we should have this policy change means District tell us tell us how you're
142getting this money from OPI what did you do to meet this requirement so that we can understand what has been what has been put into place and then the CIP should tell us at a school basis did it happen or what's or or if there's choices that are being given by staff which one did they Implement um president Ranken uh I'm wondering if we could in a future date set a work session on just highly capable because looking if I did my math correctly onethird of our students or 34% essentially are either Advanced learning or highly capable and that's a large proportion of students that we need like L wug on so uh so if that is if that if that is the all the children are above average uh I know that I approved
143today the the information on the training that is being provided along with you know that lot of the information is in the cips but I would love a further breakdown and just dive into some of the questions and the information provided So Pro making this a work session here in the future I think would be ideal to be able to answer some of these questions and to learn more about uh uh the strategies that will be used to support students in advanced learning and highly capable in the different schools I'm hearing the need for us to especially with uh a a number of new to this work directors for us to get have a foundational understanding of of the program and services and how it works into the whole complement in addition to this policy
144providing additional transparency for um what's submitted to OSI for funding yes okay may I triple down on that uh there are three main services that we are mandated to provide elll what we call it ml here special education services and highly capable Services I I would I would submit that we would report on all three of those to to ensure that you all have a uh accountabil an accounting of what we're doing as we go forward and so uh we are right now developing a a pathway for bringing this information to you uh on a on a routine basis and so if if this board is interested in that we can also tee up information on those essential service that were mandated to provide can I quadruple down on that seeing how it impacts our
145goals would also uh or receiving that presentation in the context of our goals I think would be appropriate 100% thank you for that um and I I also just want to name that I I I don't think that the parent Community understands what's happening with highly capable services so I don't I don't think I mean I I hear that a lot um especially you know having a a a cohort School in my district um people it it is very unclear to parents when that goes away what is replacing it um that I don't think that's been communicated in a way that uh I've never seen any communication about it I guess um so I think that's an important piece of this as well all right um as the uh sponsor of this item if anybody
146has suggestions questions amendments between now and action please let me know okay um that's that for business items we now have a um we'll be moving to the tables down there for a review of last year's budget development process please take your mics with you Poli where you going test okay um do I have my talking I don't even know if I have my talking points with me um uh we we're now having a review of this what is in front of us the budget process for last year Dr bman has joined us and so I will hand it off to Dr Jones or Dr bman whichever of you is kicking us off here yeah I'll start off in hand over to Dr Bulman uh this is uh study session one if you recall we've
147had the as we refer the snake and that was uh several sessions of uh orienting the board getting feedback from the board around our our budget and so this is uh session number one of the next uh session of a next set of sessions to uh really show you what we're trying to do for 20 2425 um and so with that said there's two objectives today is to review the and assess the 2425 budget development process like your feedback on that and then we want to uh provide the foundation for the budget development process for 2526 and so we're kind of closing the books on the 2425 process and then opening the books on the 2526 so the agenda is one we'll recap but we'll recap the budget for 2425 Lessons Learned and then we'll
148talk about our proposed goals and principles uh we'll do a 2526 preview uh and a proposed timeline and then we'll summarize and uh talk about next steps uh with that said I'll walk through the budget highlights for 2425 and then I'll hand it over to Dr Bulman so in 20 next next two slides please one one more so in 2425 we uh adopted Seattle Public Schools adopted a general fund operating budget of $1.25 billion and uh part of this effort where we maintain strategic plan Investments making sure that we're focusing on our academic goals making sure those are fully funded uh we want we kept all schools open for the 2425 school year we've had ongoing reductions of more than $90 million over the last two years um and then in 2425 the the key
149budget changes uh that we got to really balance our budget were central office staffing and expense reductions School Staffing allocation reductions uh nonre rep presented staff compensation reductions and then we had other one-time Solutions and then we have uh as we talked about earlier convenience fees for voluntary athletic fee implementation uh and to round it out we had a shortterm inter fund loan of two $27.5 million to balance the budget so uh Dr bman is going to take us through some expenditures and uh he'll he'll carry the balance of this presentation here try this one next slide please thank you again for kicking off budget season with this one of 10 work sessions that we're planning we just actually submitted the budget formally to OSBI yesterday so the budget team got an afternoon off to
150prepare for this next season so it it never stops we well of the of focusing on the budget we got lunch period um so just a little context setting because this year there's a lot of variables that are going to be in play around will resource schools a full legislative session bargaining of two of the major labor contracts some other variables so just want to make sure everybody was set on um where we stand from the last year and going into the next year's process as Dr Jones said it's about 1.25 billion the majority large majority is in teaching activities and teaching support so around 75% in those activties activities we can go to the next slide and as you all know about 83 85% is in Staffing costs so salaries wages benefits of the
151staff who serve the Seattle Public Schools um so that is something that is um important to keep in mind as the reduction planning goes forward for next year and then the next slide another piece of context where the funding comes from you'll see the state funds approximately 2third of that 1.23 billion because the 27.5 million loan is the other portion of that for next year um and then the levy which is due in February is about 16% of the total so two significant parts of the revenue resource equation um have some significant um opportunity this coming year want to spend a little time on this next slide so this is sort of what we gleaned um from the administration for some of the things that the board liked or wanted more of or less of
152in the next year's budget process so want some feedback here if you want to give it um loud and clear continue to highlight whatever connections are to the Strategic plan as additions or reductions are being made to the budget be clear about that is something we heard loud and clear um Regular review of financial information maintaining that context if things change or if there's information that comes forward that has some um utility and making decisions around the budget make sure that information is cleanly conveyed to the board um the staff found good utility in the resolution um practice that started the last few years getting direction from the board not in the details but sort of general direction on how to approach the budget decisions um good utility of that has happened so want to
153continue that um clarifying the timing of board decisions there were some questions around early spring around how the board does or does not weigh in on some of the school Staffing allocation model decisions so want to get ahead of that this year if things are changing looking at director top I think you raised the question I think you were sitting over there when you raised the question um want to be ahead of that and clarify when those things are coming forward and how the board wants to interact with those um related to that board interest in the waiting Stafford weighted Staffing standards model and if changes are going to happen with that in reaction to a change in the well resource schools model um want to make sure the board has adequate opportunity to weigh
154in on that as appropriate I think director sarju was good about a couple times reminding us why are we just discussing this are we deciding something here today so want to be clear about that as we're moving forward um in the budget discussion because again there's all these variables that are going to happen next year and so the more we can sort of be on the same page when things are coming for decision I think it be better off for the the families that utilize Seattle public schools and then continue to be transparent and clear information I think the bo or the district has been very good for a long time and providing lots of information and I think we want to continue to improve the clarity of that information so it's more digestible for
155people that aren't me that have AR doing this for a living but are trying to do their best to participate in the process those are some of the things that I and others sort of took away from the discussions we had at this table last year did we miss anything did we misrepresent anything is this an okay time to pause for absolutely this is question slide is next yep mine's given feedback I'll turn it off all right director hery all right check mine is like mad loud which I appreciate so if we could turn that down just I don't know um okay so the the big thing for me is that I see that it's like pseudo captured in the first one what I really want to see is a not necessarily a highlight to
156the connections to the Strategic plan but an unavoidable and inextricable link to our goals um and specifically like broken out like how is this money being spent toward our math goal how is this being spent toward our literacy goal how is this being spent toward College and Career Readiness the other piece that I think is really missing here is like the storytelling aspect of how this is impacting students I think that it's like I love these right but I've also been here for half of a decade at this point and so what I can also know is that Community right it's when you put it like that it's kind of ridiculous Community is looking at this and they're like okay these are a lot of numbers but I'm not really sure how this impacts my
157child right and I would also really like to see um especially as we are going into what is likely going to be a very different year what budget allocations are going to be impacting uh like how are those dollars following students that could potentially be impacted by closures and how are those dollars like being distributed by um portion of the city does that make sense lit okay um so those would all be I would say the first thing is not really a nice to have it would be like I I would not want to go into another session if I don't have Clarity around how our money is flowing through our goals and making it to students the other pieces about like geographical breakdown those things are new that I'm asking for so I would
158understand if it's going to take some time to implement but um those are really important things to me I have a couple things do any before I go all right um uh plus one to Brandon's first comment about um you know I would almost rather see zerob based budgeting where um instead of trying to tie tie strings to the Strategic plan actually the whole function of how the budget is implemented should be in service of nothing else other than to meet the needs of our students so increasing decreasing by light item I I want to see wholesale like operational like we're we're looking for major Behavior change on the part of of this whole system and I want to be able to see how things do or don't support the level of of educational access
159and achievement in our students that we expect um uh tied to that with the regular review of financial information um I would like to see progress in um aligning our reporting more with uh the State financial codes in terms of Revenue and expenses every program has a number that I know is somewhere in the balance of this building um but I think we we need that additional level of transparency about where our money is actually going title $1 dolls should be a direct line to how they are spent on the students who qualify for that additional support special education dollars should be a direct line to how they actually go to provide services for students who receive special education services right now we have a lot of money going into pots and and I would
160actually like to see quite like a higher level of detail of Revenue versus expense um using those those State codes um and and in particularly with title dollars Title One title six title two title four those are intended to from the federal government intended to address the needs of student students that have certain traits and qualifications and I don't believe I have seen that Clarity before about meeting the goals of the students who are identified and we need to be able to see not just oh we have this title one money that now becomes part of our general fund but actually these dollars are providing additional service to the students St who are eligible for them same with like title six students native students we should be able to say benefit from title $6 intended
161for them through this program this service whatever the expenditure is um in terms of the clarifying the timing of board decisions I think that's important and also ties directly to our governance manual which uh is if we provide stronger Direction up front um we would then expect that what is presented to us in a budget would be you wouldn't have to ask us do you think this is okay you you can say here's how we have arrived at this recommendation because it aligns with priorities that you have already said you have um and then the weighted Staffing standards uh in some ways I care a lot about that in some ways I don't care at all because that is a technical distribution number what I do care about a lot is I personally believe that
162we cannot make progress on our goals under the current weighted Staffing standards I believe that the current method of Distributing funds and allocating based on a number of students is a barrier to addressing Equity gaps um and so my interest in the weighted Staffing standards is not in getting into the model with you but in understanding that the allocation of staff and resources is directly connected to meeting the needs of students um that's it dror hery one other thing that uh came to mind just in small part to kind of paint a picture of what I'm expecting I think we're really at an opportune time given that we have some retroactive data from um last year being able to look at okay we have our budget we have our goals now we've talked a lot
163about strategic abandonment right and not even necessarily orienting the conversation to that particular piece but I think that it is possible and you tell me if it's not um to really take a look at like okay we are investing in X Y and Z strategies to get to X Y and Z goal or aspect of our goal right to be able to see last year how much we spent on X and this year how much we spend on X tied directly to what the actual outcome is in that goal line will help us give y'all better Direction about where we want to see money go I think it will also help the public see yo we have been spending this much money on X we are arguing that we should increase this funding or leave
164it alone based on are we getting an outcome that aligns with our goals specifically for our students I think that's just the type of conversation that like a lot of us are hungry for and will provide a lot of I would say context for the decisions that we're making especially as we're you know moving into some very difficult times financially yeah I I will just say I really appreciate how the budget process went last time minus a few tweaks here and there um I thought you it kept the directors well informed it kept the public well informed we got a lot of information it seemed very a very transparent process to me so I appreciate that and I appreciate us setting up the same sort of structure this coming year um the one very tiny
165thing that I have is um from our past budget our 2425 highlights was the voluntary athletic fle fee implementation you know I think that sports are critical to students and access to sports allows kids to stay interested and excited about going to school at least it did for me um so I will I want to or I will be looking for to make sure that access or the number of students participating in sports has not decreased since we have put in the voluntary athletic fee um fees for our students actually have one other thing and um appreciate what director top said about the process that gave us access to information iteratively and it did give information to the public in as much as as they can watch our meetings my request or or actually urging
166would be that there is also a different presentation of budget information that is specifically for the public I don't know what that looks like that wouldn't be our job to determine but I think that um it would greatly benefit the district and our community to have the opportunity to engage directly with staff not to say well the board said this but what do you guys think do you want to argue about it but for that Clarity and to understand how it impacts their kids to understand how their elected representatives are protecting these assets um I think you know obviously having the public have access to this is really valuable and I think that you know we require a different level of information as the people who are the fiduciary have hold the fiduciary responsibility um
167and that the Public's engagement with it and information need uh still exists and it should be met in a different way um so I would like to see a level of direct Community engagement or customer engagement from staff on the budget would be a change uh generally uh I embrace all that and I think this is this team will will be responsive to that um one of the things I'm thinking about when we talk about budgets budget is an articulation of your priorities and with that in mind uh I'm I'm believing that if we have third grade reading seventh grade math College and Career Readiness as our key key goals Not only would you see Dr Bulman up here presenting but perhaps some some conversation with those who are leading those initiatives to be talking
168about how they accessing those resources for Service delivery and so I'm I'm thinking if this board would like to have that level of connectivity to actually the implementation of of these strategies in the context of budget that might be an additional feature that we could we could provide I think to some extent that would come through in progress monitoring but particularly adding the the fiscal impact would be I mean you know when we talk about the the strategies that are being implemented monitoring their effectiveness part of that would be recommendations to the board that we no longer invest in X that we invest more in y um so I wonder if we can tie that to the progress monitoring or tie the progress monitoring into budg there yeah I think we're probably saying the same
169thing I think I mean yeah I think that that's important um and I know that came up in past progress monitoring where it was unclear to us like um which strategies were the fact that we couldn't that we didn't know which strategy were working or not made it hard to know where to allocate resources um so I do think that should be something that's discussed in progress monitoring um that then can be reprised in a budget conversation cuz I think it sounds like maybe information overload if we tried to do it all at at one time but if we talked about it in the context of progress monitoring and then could be reminded of this is what we said in the progress monitoring in the context of a budget conversation that could be really helpful
170all right thank you for pleas proed um you mentioned zerob based budgeting and I had a colleague in district office here before the meetings there are we doing did zero based budgeting this year because we've already started meeting with people about the 256 budget and what their needs are and how they tie to the current strategic plan so just trying to anticipate some of that stuff a little earlier um not all the way to zero based budgeting but trying to clean out the things that need to be uh strategically abandoned earlier before they sort of have traction going forward into the 256 years so some of that I think that one of the key takeaways from that 1990 report is that our worst enemy is like well that's the way we've always done it right
171yep all right Ellie if you can go on to the next slide um one more please so these were our budget development goals and principles um you all have seen these uh multiple times we we're purposeful in bringing these up each time we have a session and so want to just ask a very clear uh clarifying question any changes to the budget development goals and principles for 2526 uh go on to the next slide please Ellie and then come back to this one all right tole back thank you Dr hery yeah so just going back to the progress monitoring piece we often times see somewhere on that document like unless you know significant changes we are not likely to hit that goal the only thing that I would say is let us know what the
172significant change that you suggest is um because it's one thing to say like oh unless we just change something then we don't have an action item so I think uh part of what I want to see is like some clear direction that y'all have done the work to look into it and say okay unless y'all do X or Y then we're not going to see progress in that particular goal and that would be really helpful so that we can do X or Y president excuse me I want to keep call President hery uh president rank everybody's a doctor president merus president Meritus hery um your your comments uh and requests was in context of new goals or yeah so just in terms of the budgeting process because I see them as like really linked right
173and so just to be super clear the part that I'm looking at is be clear on the challenges and opportunities and so I think that there is a c and you y'all correct me if I'm wrong because this might be my own head Cannon but when we have received progress monitoring reports often times it says like I mentioned unless there are significant changes we're unlikely to hit the goal we can't say that without also looking at the budget and knowing what those changes could be and so having a very a clear link between the two and be Clarity on what y'all think those changes should be would help us give you better Direction and context to the budget is that clear that's that's clear so so double down on this fourth um goal and principle
174100% 100% with specificity yes yeah I would say the budget development goals and principles for the 2425 budget are to achieve the goals and remain within the guard rails director top oh okay sorry so this isn't the speak now forever hold your peace opportunity so if there are other goals and principles that we want to uh stand up you know let's let's make that happen and we can be um we can be formative along the way okay next next slide please Dr bman back to you sir so the next slide please ell so a quick preview of what the 25 26 year is going to look like when I don't know about yall but whenever I'm doing a project I like to sort of get all the puzzle pieces on the table and look at
175them for a little bit before I start to put them together and so today is getting the puzzle pieces on the table seeing if you've got any other puzzle pieces that you want to interject there and then in Subs Square meetings we'll start putting together those pieces to put that puzzle together um the next slide is just a quick snapshot of what the future deficits would look like if we don't do anything so if nothing were to change in C public schools financial situation for 256 we'd end the year with a $94 million defit and it would grow over time so this is nothing happens nothing changes this is the problem that's not I hope what the plan is director top generally speaking I know this is a not an easy question to ask her
176what is our average UND spend each year that's not an easy question uh in the years that are most recent the average under the the range has been between 10 and $30 million um for the last five years and there's some Co impacts in there that are making that less useful information but but there will likely be some underspend this year from lap salaries and things which will help at least for one year to offset some of that so this year for 2425 I believe that was $32 million that was that one time carry forward there will be a number when we end this year that will not be zero it won't be 94 million either but there'll be something that will contribute to that for that short term thank you and Kurt that comes
177from FTE UND spend yeah so typically when the superintendent fires me my salary lapses for a while that money is part of that $30 million that's accumulating over time somebody quits that sort of things we don't spend dollar supply money in the payroll department that all sort of contributes to that um two things I wanted to say so we uh one of the decisions that we made to balance the budget for this coming school year is to spend down the r day fund so years past there may have been a we can put off this hard decision or you know we can extend this timeline or we can do what CU there's eser money because there's a rainy day we're out of it we're out of all those things um other thing again refer back
178to my favorite book that 1990 report it's a hot read um that another thing that was true then is true now is even if we were to implement every single recommendation and make every modification we could due to the chronic underfunding by our state legislature we would still be looking at a deficit yes and I've got sort this a good place to I guess insert that um you re you approved the pass contract today and you noticed in the fiscal note there was a cost to the district of I think it's $600 and something, every labor group that we have non-represented and represented that on average the state funds about a little more than half of that ipd so the state says here's 2% for ipt they're only funding about a little more than 1%
179of that 2% if that's the example and so that's part of that structural problem um and the the prototypical the prototypical school funding model that is how the state allocates funds to districts is from 2009 we are trying to meet the needs of 2024 and 25 with a formula that was created in 2009 and just inflation alone I mean we you know yeah I was going to say it wasn't it it didn't actually you know that that formula by Design provides nine nurses to Seattle Public Schools right so that formula five security officers right and so when we talk about full funding too that formula has been fully funded that formula is completely inadequate right so president Rankin and I did not rehearse this but the next slide is to that point um this is
180the state version of that so per student funding is going down for the state of Washington sale or public school system um so if you look at the line in the middle in 2010 or 1819 per student funding across the state was 12,525 and now it's 11,588 about $1,000 L adjusted for inflation adjusted for inflation so the dollar amount has gone up the value of those dollars is such that the actual value of what's being allocated to provide for public education in Washington state is less than it used to be which brings us to the next topic the legislature and the legislative agenda um so soon finalizing legislative agendas the session convenes January 13th scheduled to adjourn April 27th which is after all the school Staffing process happens and so that will be a challenge
181this year because of the the closeness of the margins where there is no more buffer with the rainy day fund and some other things so the S public schools has to make some decisions before that session has adjourned around Staffing and other things um so that's a a thing that's one of the pieces that we're going to have to work through over the course of the next few months um and then it's a 105 full full 105 day full session and the next slide is just a summary of the three major areas that are I think there's some coalescing of the superintendents around across the state I can let Dr Jones speak to that if he'd like but special education uh Material supplies and operating costs at the school districts and then Transportation the current
182requests for all those is in the billion dollar range um the Wasa is putting forward and essentially this is mutual interest of most of the superintendents however as we looked at the inflationary piece this doesn't exactly address that and so uh these are things that we are confident that will be considered by the legislature but uh there's probably a list of 20 things that we need to be pursuing so please um and so so Wasa is the Washington Association of school administrators there's also wasda Washington State School Directors Association which we are all members of and I am a on the board um and then there's wasbo which is the Washington Association of school business officers those three entities are state are the are the Statewide um uh non represented so so WEA obviously is
183a huge Statewide body um that's a union these these other organizations are not unions um but we do annually have a joint legislative conference um which last year I think I was the only one from SPS to go so I highly encourage more of us to go um but but the conversation amongst various representatives from those groups was shared interests these are likely to also be the top in the top three for wasda and um other groups special education and transportation are the two areas of largest deficit for districts across the state MSO is on here because it's the most it it also includes um insurance and like our insurance costs and SPS for example have increased um uh from I think $4 million pre pandemic to over $7 million now that's just a small
184example of something that's a required cost that has expanded without additional um addition there's not additional value for that for students it's just the same thing it just is more expensive so these three things are likely to be um what wda and other entities organize around because they're the largest sources of the deficit I have to take this opportunity though to say that without increasing Progressive revenue and without addressing the underlying prototypical school funding model these will still never be adequate to meet the educational needs in Washington state my understanding and discussing with people from other districts and with legislators addressing the prototypical funding model is a big lift that people are not interested in but we we have to be really clear that even this is not a long-term fix cuz inflation is going
185to continue student needs are going to continue to change and the problem is we inequitably and in un amply provide like the the state's Revenue stream for Education will never be adequate because of our regressive tax structure and these while addressing these in terms of gaps is significant and meaningful it still cannot make up for the fact that the underlying formula is also flawed and inadequate right so yes on these let's do it this also is still somewhat of a immediate it's addressing a crisis and not so much addressing like The Chronic underfunding and under valuing of education and kids in Washington state by our state yes plus one to that the whole country oh and we've got a federal legislature who continues to propose reducing their allocations to that point Seattle this is not
186we're not the only District in this situation the it was just brought to my attention Yesterday by superintendent reall that OPI has created a binding conditions website because there are five districts in binding conditions now so if you want to learn more about that and what some of the communications are so this is not unique to Seattle situation the alarm to be raised by five districts going into binding conditions which is what it means when OPI comes in and takes over your books and says here's how you need to eliminate costs uh Maryville could actually be dissolved as a school district because they went into binding conditions OSP said we've looked at your books here's the cuts you need to make let them make them so there's no well you guys tried we're going to
187come in with millions of dollars and bail you out no one of the outcomes is that district is chopped up and the schools become parts of neighboring districts and Maryville school district no longer exists that has only happened once in like the last 30 years binding conditions is something that one or two districts go into every few years five in one year is alarming that the response is a website for binding conditions instead of making like a calling a special session and addressing the fact that districts have been sounding this alarm and that last year we asked for last year we asked for um uh temporary increase Levy Authority for districts and then increased Lea funding from the school from the state to say we know that you don't have the money allow us to
188use our own money to keep this ship afloat and increase the levy author increase Levy assistance for school districts that can't raise large amounts of dollars that didn't even get I mean I wasn't laughed at when I suggested that and I actually had a letter that multiple districts across the State signed asking for that it didn't even get a hearing um so we've got a website for what to do when you're in binding conditions instead of the acknowledgement by the state that this is not unique it's not mismanagement it's a huge problem that's going to impact over a million kids and um we got a website instead of a solution and then we get to sit here for free and make impossible horrible decisions that nobody wants to make yeah we can go to the
189next slide director juice that speed this along so I'm trying uh so what the next three months look like um today trying to provide some foundational information you'll notice the change in language on September 18th instead of a fiscal stabilization plan program plan resolution it's an educational program resolution which is in congruence with the new policy number 006 that was passed um last summer fall um so participating doing that in September so we've given Direction and policy that if there is a significant Surplus or significant deficit from the previous budget that an additional uh level of approval by the board is required in staff coming to us and explaining how they're approaching the a significant change in in the budget to kind of give us additional like heads up you know this is really different
190from last year in these ways to so that when we get to the end of the year we're not going whoa whoa whoa where did that that came out of nowhere you know so that's what and it's a educational program resolution that's consistent with what other districts across the country call it um and it's it's so that we understand if there's significant changes ahead of time what they might be president Ranken you are absolutely cooking I love all of the information that you're giving us you want to go home I'm sorry I'm just we got a we got a presentation and it's just like I feel like I want to hear everything you have to say and there's probably a more appropriate venue than this particular instance because it is it is critically important and
191I think it should be given the prime time space that it deserves I agree El zit save it I I appreciate the gentle redirection I think I honestly do many at the same time I think we touched on this a bit already so many of the Fairly significant variables that will be happening over the next year decisions around well resource Schools Enrollment development of the new strategic plan to drive the budget decisions um the big legislative session two of the main labor partner Agreements are expiring um to see how public schools levy is uper vote in February and then the city uh families education preschool and promise Levy is up for vote in November and that is a big supplemental source of funding for seal public schools and the other there is if there are
192other things that folks are thinking about that should be considered at that level we can go to the next slide this you've seen before just sort of a a highlight of the the first thing that's coming up around decisions around WB Source School um and the projected savings with a change in the number of school systems and operational savings versus trying to achieve or uh collect those savings from changes within the existing system of schools so things such as increasing class sizes reducing assistant principles things like that or um operational costs with less building so this is not new information but just wanted to share that that's something that's coming to a head more quickly than some of those other items next slide and then here sorry really quick question so just that because I'm
193recognizing that this is a graphic we've seen before but this is but you it's specifically spelled out for 25 25 26 yes okay yeah the the numbers have been updated for here's more terrible choices that could be made yeah and here's the comprehensive list of terrible choices um so the green decision point though it has FTE positions as well can we get the same sort of data and information there yes hello there we go uh just the green the these are FTE positions as well so just getting the same information we H we have on the red in the Green Space yeah yeah yeah so we can compare it yes understood so here's a list of the tools or alternatives to be considered this list adds up to $99 million of course it's not all
194going to happen there's ranges for each of them but just sort of a first attempt at trying to outline what those ranges could be so first one for example is if the transition to a system will resource schools from the previous slide could save up to 29.7 million in operational costs transitioning to three bell times could say between $9 And1 million there some dependencies there on the number of schools of course um restructuring the administration of some of the non-comprehensive high schools um could save some funding combining some of the administrative staff functions and other things school programs such as and this is not a proposal but things such as the international baloria program the University of Washington Herring program some of those things our school programs that are within that $10 million that could
195be saved if all of that were just changed in some way number five is just a sort of an example of if everybody was reduced in terms of salary what the savings would be P by percentage um central office reductions there's been um significant work on that over the last few years um but there's some more that could be done of course with some changes to priorities of the the district so yes estimating there between 0 and $5 million implementing a fee that's not voluntary the estimate there could be up to $2 million and then you the other side of the equation on the previous Slide the Staffing reductions that were contemplated on that um somewhere between 0 and $31 million so part of the exercise going forward over the next few months little be
196bring more detail on that information and then I think for to time two no please go for it okay I'm good okay or not this is just looking at these things you know as we talk about State underfunding and the very difficult hard awful decisions that are in front of us yeah so next did Je some yeah uh just uh director Rank and going back to um that Prime Time allocation piece I think what I am seeing a need for not saying that it's going to yield anything because doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result you know the rest um we have not done a coordinated like full board press in terms of lobbying before and so like I'm wondering from your Vantage Point does it make sense for like
197the seven of us and we could call it a public meeting if we want to uh go show up at a couple of offices and just like at least make this like very clear that this this is a problem that is not going to be solved by just showing people what receivership looks like on a website so I'm just wondering do you think that that would be a useful a useful Venture on our part State certainly does not want SPS I don't care what they want um I think that we definitely need to talk about that some somewhere uh we've already discuss in our B meeting you know we have our our monthly regular meetings we're still calendaring the second meeting legislative session is definitely something we need to talk about this fall um would
198love to get into that more in a public conversation there Seattle is we we do and I've said this before and and people don't necessarily love it because they're like well we'll all just go Seattle comes with a whole lot of baggage in Olympia there have been a lot of historical decisions that have meant that other districts are pissed because when Seattle has or hasn't done something the rest of this like the legislature will create some new restriction or requirement based on something that just happened in Seattle that now everybody has to follow and it pisses people off so our I believe personally and what I have experienced too given the gains that we made in special education funding the last long session best strategy is to work in collaboration with other boards across the
199state yeah totally get that um yeah okay let's find a better way to talk about it yep couple of timelines to note today the first one is just the budget development timeline you saw a version of this last year um this contemplates 10 meetings of the budget discussions um over that period of time and then the next one is a timeline of sorts so mentioned earlier the policies 0060 and 0061 um were introduced last year um with the direction for the superintendent to begin the process of creating alignment with these policies and provide a general implementation timeline by August of 2024 which is now um and so the third bullet point the second bullet point all the way to the left um the discussion here is in an effort to minimize the disruption of schools
200and in light of the fact that a number of the items outlined in that policy 0060 are dependent on the new strategic plan the implementation of decisions around a system of what SC Source schools um it is recommended that the full implementation start with the 25 26 year when some of those issues are more resolved um and it is anticipated that full imple full implementation will take more than one year and there are a few specific items in that policy around the way to the Staffing standards model or whatever it would be called in the future um more Equitable access um the uh lowering the dependence on PTA and other external funding to make it more Equitable across the system so all of that is interdependent on the the Strategic plan and some of the
201decisions around the number of school buildings that will continue and so this is saying we need to make sure all that context isn't taken into uh account as implementation of polic policy 0060 um goes forward so just want to be responsive to the requests for timeline update and I think we're near any concerns of either of those I have a quick question about the snake um in uh before last year it was typical that there would be like three or four several hours long budget work sessions um you know to to debatable effect um uh is the intent I mean I'm I'm at first glance I'm like that's a lot of budget meetings I understand why we did it last year but now am I uh I guess what I want to reflect is this
202is more frequent timely uh meaningful updates uh yeah more frequent rather than the sit down for two hours and go through a ton of that's the idea here yes more timely I think the Cadence I mean I feel like this Cadence is helpful I get that and we very rarely stick to the time so let's not fool ourselves into thinking that like oh we're going to chop these three long meetings into like 10 short ones and just give them the time that's appropriate cuz I know that a lot of folks will be frustrated if we say it's going to be an hour and we hear till the chickens come home so I'm hearing the need to be more realistic about the amount of time we allocate and set appropriate expectations got good ears on you
203president rank got it all right I think we're near the end any other questions just to summarize some areas of focus for the coming years the wealth resource schools transition special education improved funding through the prototypical model the major labor contracts and then continue to search for efficiencies and reductions that are furthest away from kids um that's it more does it just oh oh provided already provided so um uh thank you very much rather than move us back up there to adjourn let's just stay here very briefly um thank you to directors and Miss Rahi for doing time use evaluations which are attached um I would like to request that somebody volunteer to do time use evaluation for August and September and even actually ask that um maybe somebody take on the responsibility of making
204sure that somebody does time use I'll do it for October and November okay that's on record who is who can do it August September but August is over because it's a it's a oh you watch you don't have to what well I'm gonna I'm gonna actually I will help director Briggs well I would be willing if I have a partner not and uh I have a couple ideas about ways we can improve efficiency yeah okay so uh director YouTube chapters director Briggs will do August September director hery okay director hery will do um October November thank you very much there being no further business on the agenda this meeting stands adjourned at 7:44 p.m. the Lord [Music] oh it's tomorrow we have a board retreat e e for