001[Music] um good afternoon we will be calling forwarding to order enrollment and sps tv will begin broadcasting for those joining us by phone please remain needed until we reach the testimony period and your name is called this is president mercy and now calling to july 6 2022 regular ordnance order at 4 17 p.m this meeting is being recorded i would like to acknowledge that we are on the incentive millions in traditional territory of the computer sound coach sailor's people miss wilson jones for roll call please yes okay give me vice president campbell here director harris president director regan here say thank you i also want to take opportunity to uh acknowledge a celebration we have with our king makers and student leadership council they were crowned this month and it's a joy to watch the
002kings in their leadership journey and their brotherhood special thanks to the office of african-american male achievement for the time and care that they continue to invest in the youth really amplifying their brilliance and elevating the narrative of black student excellence our next regularly scheduled board meeting isn't until eight weeks there should be a round of applause for that but during the next eight weeks the work continues uh we had a great conversation two weeks ago where we clarified some of the board's goals and guardrails uh in the language staff are working on revising these interim guard rails and clarifying the goals and guardrails to bring forward to the bulk to the board in the fall president hersey has appointed an ad hoc board governance committee to develop the plan for further implementation of the student
003outcomes focused governance work that committee is meeting throughout the summer preparing recommendations for the board to adopt in september today the district opens summer school and we're welcoming 3 300 students ranging from preschool through high school skills center i want to acknowledge the work of our educators transportation custodial and nutrition workers and the central office staff who are standing up this extended learning opportunity and my staff is working diligently with our labor partners in education to bargain our next agreement we're also planning a four-day training for school building leaders in early august and an all-day training for educators and building leaders to kick off the 22-23 school year now we start in earnest planning for september 7th in the meantime it's my expectation that we rest and get ready for next school year i remain
004humbled but undaunted by our shared mission and to see us welcome every student and provide each students with a high quality education with that said i'm going to turn it back to you president hersey thank you thank you superintendent jones we have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda may have a motion for the consent agenda i move approval of the consent agenda second approval of the consent agenda has been moved by vice president hampson and seconded by director revere smith the directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda let's see direct appearance also wait one second one second we're going to get 30. yep no worries one more time just saying i have something to pull yes okay fantastic i will i will call on you in a
005moment director harris what would you like to pull from the consent agenda i'd like to pull the 1.6 billion budget please thank you okay director rivera smith um i'd like to pull number six and number fourteen um i am not going to pull 17 even though it has been updated since june show i just want to make a mention that i appreciate that the um applicable whack was added to that one so i'm not gonna have to pull it but i wouldn't appreciate that and i do want to pull number six and fourteen okay so six and fourteen and director rankin thank you i would like to paul i can't see what number it is but um the uh uh policy zero zero one zero and great i believe it's number thirteen all right director
006harris can you clarify what number the budget was yep six okay six uh director rehearsing this is director hampson yes ma'am uh i'd like to pull seven all right so as it stands just for clarity i know that was a little bit of a roundabout uh that stands for clarity uh i think we are pulling number six seven thirteen and fourteen is that correct all right may i have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended i move approval of the consent agenda as amended second all right approval of the consent agenda has been as amended has been moved by vice president hampson and seconded by director vera smith all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye aye those opposed the consent agenda has passed unanimously all right we will now
007turn to items removed from the consent agenda and i believe we will begin with item number six may have a motion for this item i move that the school board adopt resolution 2021-22 sorry slash 22-23 as attached to the board action report to fix and adopt the 2022-2023 budget the four-year budget plan summary and the four-year enrollment projections second this motion has been moved and properly seconded um director harris take it away thank you um several comments if i might please uh we've heard on our emails that it's somehow irresponsible for us to pass a 1.6 billion dollar budget via consent i would suggest that we have had probably 12 to 15 work sessions with the information uploaded to our website with the gold and the purple book i believe uploaded to our website now
008i'm one of those people that have voted against the budget in the past i believe i've abstained with respect to the budget in the past i will be voting for it tonight i would ask and this is not new news coming for me that we do a more transparent job of the weighted staffing standard formula and that we take i believe it was our research and evaluation gentleman dr eric anderson who was talking about doing more community engagement on that process this next year it has far reaching consequences and this time a year from now i would like to be very proud of our engagement in that process and and i think it would go a long way towards trust with our extraordinarily talented staff that have to make hobson's choices because as we all
009know mccleary is in fact fake news and we don't have enough money thank you thank you director harris um any other questions comments on item number six all right seeing them mrs wilson jones roll call please director rivera smith aye director sergio point of clarification what is the vote to approve the budget yes for sergio that was a yes correct director song moritz i vice president hampson aye director harris aye director rankin i president hersey aye this motion has passed unanimously thank you very much and thank you for that context director harris greatly appreciate it moving on to item number seven may i have a motion for this item please i move the school board approve the 2022 to 2023 students rights and responsibilities document as attached to the school board action report second this
010item has been moved and properly seconded by or moved by vice president hampson and seconded by director vera smith uh if i'm not mistaken director hanson you pulled this item correct i did um just one quick question superintendent jones has this changed since introduction not that i'm aware of okay um so per my comments at introduction uh i am uh why i pulled this because i plan to abstain because i don't as much as i believe that this um serves its purpose as an administrative document i don't think that it serves the um i think there's conflation with the purpose to provide students with a pathway to understand their rights and responsibilities so uh i believe we can do better um and i want to go on the record with an abstention that's it thank
011you director hampson any other questions comments for item number seven all right so you know miss wilson jones the roll call please director sergio hi director songwrites hi vice president hampson abstain director harris director rankin hi director rivera smith hi president hersey this vote has passed by a vote of six yes with one abstention thank you and thank you as well for the context director hampson moving on to item number 13 what perfect timing director ranking it's almost as if you planned it we have a motion for idol number 13. i move that the school board amend board policy number zero zero one zero instructional philosophy two one two six special education and two one six two education of students with disabilities under section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 as attached to the
012board action report oh i'm sorry um oh that's the i need to read the original motion and then there's an amendment okay so i have read the motion thank you second okay do any directors have amendments to this item i do please take it away director rankin um i move that the school board approve amendment 1 to the board action report titled approvement of a met approval of amendment to board policy 0-0-1-0 instructional philosophy 2161 special education and 2162 education of students with disabilities under section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 and substitute board policy number zero zero one zero and board policy number 2162 as attached to the amendment to the extent the attached substitute policy conflicts with the information presented in the underlying board action report the substitute policy shall control immediate
013action is in the best interest of the district do we need a second i don't think yes yes we do need a second well second second sorry that's fine all right lisa go with lisa works for me second thank you okay this has been moved and seconded uh director ranking would you like to speak to your amendment i would so um i um this item was presented for introduction at the last board meeting and i had committed at that time to based on feedback that was given to the diocese to look at strengthening the language in terms of excuse me our this board's values and so i'm well appreciate that you did not receive these changes very much in advance um between last board meeting and this board meeting i have had and recovered from
014govind and so that it interfered with my ability to um get that to you in a more timely fashion but i wanted to make sure that um i followed up on that commitment um the important thing to me and uh and staff and superintendent jones and in the work that led to this is the very clear very clear documentation in this philosophy about um inclusive and culturally responsive practices i think this is what uh reflects the priorities of the community the values of this board and um is is critical the actual language itself i'm fully open to amendments to the amendment in this moment in time if that's appropriate um uh because you know i understand that the you have not had a very much amount of time to look over the actual language the
015intent behind between introduction to now hasn't changed um i was looking to more clearly solidify our values in the introductory paragraph and so that is the purpose of this amendment fantastic thank you questions [Music] thank you director rankin uh for the amendment i um i'm so sorry you prove it that could have been fun and um comment continuing to avoid it i did not get anyone else in my family and as you acknowledged we haven't really we just came in like right as many of you started anything so if we could possibly take a little break to read it um if that's okay with president hersey um otherwise i would just have to abstain because i haven't read it and i'm sure i mean i hope i assume it's great but it would be irresponsible
016to like vote that i haven't read yet so what do you think that is perfectly fine with me um you may take how long do you think you need five minutes five minutes you think maybe less you wrote it three months substantially to the introductory paragraph there was some condensing of the bullet points but those remained largely the same to what you saw in introduction thank you for that context uh so take five minutes read the amendment so that everybody feels comfortable with what they're voting on and then we will proceed [Music] do [Music] and for anyone joining us remotely the um amendment materials are posted online with the meeting materials [Music] do [Music] do [Music] all right directors do we need more time have we read the amendment to our liking appears as though
017we need a few more moments [Music] do [Music] do okay we will just implement uh second grade classroom rules when you are done if you could just signify by putting one hand on your head that way i know that we are ready to move on let's go so any directors with questions comments edits to the amendment uh director rivera smith go ahead and then i see director hanson on the phone okay thank you for giving us opportunity to do that yeah um i was i wanted i guess my things are more questions why something was removed and you can just explain it to me um so in the first one policy zero zero one zero um it was removed the the paragraph about uh basic education designed to provide a broad-based culturally responsive education in
018areas not measured by state or federally mandated sunrise tests such as music visual and performing arts physical education and technical education experiential learning and so the whole paragraph was removed and i don't see where those elements were replaced so am i reading wrong dr pedroza do you want to maybe i downloaded it and it looks different so hold on no that was taken out um so yeah and i thought that was a little bit redundant with i just don't see how those they look before or reflect yeah in the amendment after taking action i can say you're trying to condense things awesome but again those specific elements were not unless you can point it out to me but maybe i missed it again this was kind of speed reading here hello everybody um this is
019i am dr kansey pedroza for the record uh associate superintendent so some of the pieces so the feedback we received last time we were here if you recall was that there was a repeat of some um some language so we worked on condensing language and specifically to your request is we took out things that were already part of state law things that redundant as part of state law so we're trying to streamline the language make it and as director hampson said really embody the vision of seattle public schools and make sure that we're really clear about what our intent was in the instructional vision for our district but removing all of the redundancies about things that were already in state law and then also if you look at even when i'm dealing with the policy
020504 later on making sure that all of our things are in lines with the state law that's already been passed as well so there was a lot of editing legal wise and then values wise around this document so did i answer your question specifically i think so but at the same time i i just i guess i'm going to say like i understand how like our policy doesn't necessarily need to be reflective of our policies reflect our vision and values it's not necessarily state law state law doesn't always align perfectly and and we're not here to just regurgitate state law right right um but i feel like that part is in line with our vision our values about music and performing arts and all that so and i and so while it's maybe and say
021i haven't read again this i mean i don't have it right here like side by side but we still do mention lots of other things that are probably in state also because they are part of our vision values i wonder if that one should be saved um because again like i'm trying to figure out how it's even touched on in every other part that's left and it's really not so that concerns me i will also add that so i would also add sort of interrupt you um just the piece about programmatic right versus content and then also the issue of pros procedures so where are things that should be living in procedure and what are things that should be living in policy and as we're trying to be more disciplined in that i think it's
022important that we take that eagle-eye approach and thinking and because i know this because having done many many policy revisions in the past and even having to take items out from the last several years i mean in every group i go in front of it's always we actually have to have almost a mini lesson with everybody in community about what are actually policy language versus procedural language and so those are some of the other pieces that we really paid attention to in this and so we felt some of that language was more in procedure okay um and i and i hear you again i still feel like i still feel that somehow i'm trying to figure out how maybe it's even a shorter paragraph maybe and i'm gonna say are you are you implying that
023the saying specifically music visual performing arts physical education that those are too prescriptive for policy well some we could make a whole litmus of lists for example somebody included outdoor education like all of these other pieces and i just think um many of us believe that those the arts are basic education okay i yeah and i i think that i agree and that's why i think it's important to say it because some people don't you know somebody said that's read and write arithmetic right and we're like no it's it's actually theirs so maybe i don't know if we can get the arts in there somewhere um if it's a shorter bullet as opposed to what i read because that was a long bullet um that's just my and if no one else is concerned then
024i know i'm concerned but that's that's my concern um so and that's that's one the other question i was going to have director rankin was and we talked about this one first the other one was in the other policy you want to finish this conversation on this one or there's two policies that play here so also be um happy if you want to make an amendment to the amendment to include that paragraph yeah you could do that at this point i'll probably do that yeah again i hear you that you think it's our basic education but not everyone does and i want to be very explicit that we hold that as um as as part of our idea of whatever student should be getting into public schools um so i guess i'll make an amendment
025to uh and to retain there's no numbers to the bullets it's a bullet i have to count them down [Music] all right uh so but please continue to draft your amendment uh director hanson um yeah i i thought it was a significant improvement so and i appreciate the more concise language um uh quite a bit it really you know i i think there's one bullet that i think still um is i struggle with in terms of how much is packed into it i think it's the fourth bullet um but i do think it it i'm a lot more comfortable with where it is in terms of the meaninglessness that comes with the kitchen the sink approach of feeling like you have to restate i feel really weird that i can't see your face constantly um
026but i'm feeling like you or liza's face feeling like you have we have to restate um everything this is instructional philosophy um which is a specific thing and um i believe that we will have more work to do on this uh in the coming years particularly i think it'll be key to and foundational um as superintendent jones um said during our last um at introduction to uh the next strategic plan uh which will be coming down the the wire and and so um i would just note um i don't think it's it's worth trying to deal with that fourth paragraph um and i i you know so i would i'm comfortable with it where it is and really appreciate the effort that went into trying to pair some of that stuff down because we know
027it's represented elsewhere and then also um there i believe we want to say we say an curriculum which is appropriate because curriculum is singular but i believe we want to use curricula plural that would just be a grammatical change so we don't have to make an amendment here but i just wanted to point that out that when when we're talking about it we're we're talking about curriculum um or curriculums are you talking about in the second bullet and engaging rewarding challenging relevant and identity affirming oh and engaging so you would just say engaging rewarding curriculum and i would say curricula because we have more than one curriculum right i don't know i'm just pointing it out in case somebody missed it so enough said um and yeah i mean i certainly think in terms of
028like the state has adequately defined basic education and i agree with the state's definition of basic education i think seattle has made it very clear that we agree with the state's definition of basic education and in terms of what it means to i think that first paragraph really flows much better now and i don't need i actually don't agree that we need to then spell out everything that that means because then that just becomes a laundry list of all the different parts of a whole child um of curricula that uh support the whole child education um of a student within our system which is their intellectual social emotional and physical health um so you know i would be more interested in something like that rather than listing arts and all those other things because i
029think that that's probably a different area or different policy and unless for some reason the state the state doesn't fund all those things but they've certainly made very clear that that's where they they stand so um that's it for me thanks for the the work on this and then of course just a reminder that this is about inclusionary i mean the the whole point of this even coming before us is about inclusionary practices and so i i don't want us to to look at this as if we're we are not doing a full engagement on an instructional philosophy and we shouldn't pretend that we are thank you director hampson director harris thank you i'm switzerland as to whether or not we put the paragraph back in however i am adamant that we need to have
030procedures come alongside with policy changes devil is in the details the second thing is the accountability if unfortunately we have staff that does not abide by the inclusionary practices that has to be enforced to bring back trust in this school district thank you thank you director harris um was your hand up but i don't think i'm switzerland i love that anyway i had to use that word um i i think it's good practice so for example there are things that are not called out in this that i would like to see called out and once we call out one thing i feel like we need to call out all of them and i recognize that the history has been to have the laundry list and i think we need to be careful of that because
031in creating a laundry list we always risk excluding something that may be important to others but not necessarily important to me for example as an individual and so um i feel like the removal of that paragraph doesn't change our philosophy but from my perspective of reading the document when i see it text out it does make it cleaner can i add or respond to that or just add some context that when we say meet or exceed state standard state and district learning standards that does include music art even though it's not explicitly stated here it's not absent because it is contained within state learning standards so there are state learning standards for music yeah and i get manual physical education definitely um i think i'm going to try and go back to the list here
032yeah they're not they're not funded but they exist yeah ah sorry i think they got big on me um social emotional learning no i mean well i don't know he what would the state center be for that like what does that fall under social emotional learning are standards on the ospi website that come from the state okay well so i will not make an amendment um did you say not yeah not okay but i have another question about the other policy if we're ready to go on to the next one by all means if um for the second one what should is the number a policy 2162. why was this the one that well the only one that was taken out can you explain the thinking behind that sorry i'll just go ahead and explain
033sorry that was loud um just to share that wasda made updates uh and so we had not made those updates in terms of when we did a policy review on all of our policies that connected to students for this from educational justice we did a you know trying to be lean and really look at that so we actually decided to align this policy in particular those weren't updated so when mazda made those updates to 504 uh we decided to make and outline those updates to that as well for our policy um for this 20 um excuse me 2162. so it was taken out because there was a technical there was technical fixes that we needed to make so we pulled it out as separately because um it needed uh revit revision so it's going to
034be coming back i believe it is we submitted it looking at julia yeah oh yeah this is the wasp so this is okay so it's an alignment with was the language gotcha okay yeah thank you i'm sorry i wasn't clear okay just wanted i wanted to be clear so yeah all right that was my question okay define wazda please for the audience the washington association of directors association can somebody give it cleanly for me washington state school directors association thank you appreciate it okay any other questions comments concerns about this particular amendment all right if i'm not mistaken we now move to a vote on the amendment is that correct all right miss wilson jones would you please call the roll for the vote on the amendment um calling the role on amendment 1 to
035consent agenda item 13 director song moritz aye vice president hampson aye director harris aye director rankin aye director rivera smith aye director sergey aye president hersey aye this motion is passed unanimously okay so do i need another motion for 13 as amended you will need another motion on 13 and vice president hampson you should have that teed up right under the uh motion for the amendment okay just pulling that up okay wait thank you approval of the underlying board action report titled approval of amendment to board policy zero zero one zero instructional philosophy two one six one special education and six two one six education of students with disabilities under section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 as amended by amendment one second this has been moved by vice president hampson and seconded by
036director rivera smith are there any questions on item number 13. all right seeing none miss wilson jones the roll call please vice president hampson hi director harris director rankin i director rivera smith i director sergio hi director song moritz hi president hersey aye this motion is passed unanimously thank you very much for the riveting discussion we will now move on to item number 14. can i just say thank you for all your patience and support and this is really exciting and um yay thank you you're welcome right on number 14 may i have a motion i move that the school board authorized the superintendent to execute a contract with recology king county covering the period from august 1st 2022 to july 31st 2025 in the amount of 894 879 and 23 cents annually or 2
037million 684 637.69 during the three-year term of contract for refuse disposal and mixed waste recycling collection with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the contract second all right this item has been moved and seconded um director harris i believe you oh sorry director rare smith by all means thank you so last time with this one when this was introduced there was links for basically all the important stuff like the vendor and the dollar amount so if assistant superintendent podesta can fill in those blanks first on the record i would be appreciated good evening fred podesta assistant superintendent of operations um this board action was introduced uh your last meeting prior to the opening of the bids which were open on june 10th
038i believe and uh we're proposing to award the contract to reco recology king county our current solid waste vendor that provides solid waste and recycling search services in the amount of eight hundred ninety four thousand eight hundred and seven eighty nine dollars and twenty three cents it's a three year contract and provides similar services as uh as we have now with a few operational modifications does that adequately address your question director smith hello there we go um no feedback sorry um so i should we can we read them into the record the dollars um i'm even confused by this so it's because i'm looking at it um in the amount of million maybe in that right 894 000. annually and it's a three-year contract term of the contract so how does this compare to the
039last contract we had with them uh the last contract uh was amended to a bit more than one million dollars a year so i can barely hear you the the current contract was amended to uh the amount of about a million dollars a year just slightly over a million dollars a year so this is a bit of a reduction okay sorry right now that is actually my question so i noticed the reduction is there um do we have a strong expectation that the services will be improved despite the reduction we did negotiate some operational changes and also um there were certain charges that were allowed to be um included in the billing under the current contract and the procurement process eliminated that ability so we expect it to be more efficient does that satisfy your
040question fantastic director smith i see your hand is on the mic do you have another question by all means just gonna say thank you awesome thank you thank you mr podesta any other questions comments concerns on item number 14. all right saying none miss wilson jones roll call please director harris director rankin hi director rivera smith hi director sergio aye director song moritz hi vice president hampson aye oh that was vice president but i'll take that as an eye for you president hersey and vice president hampson hi and uh director harris's um response was an audible just fyi thanks bye this motion um has passed unanimously me as i even though i am nowhere near as good looking as president hampshire [Music] we will go ahead and move on to item b quick excuse me
041public testimony thank you very much do we have committee reports do you have a committee report uh i mean it's on the agenda so if you have a report for the committee of the whole now would be the time by all means well as all of you know uh because i think you're all there we had a operations committee of the whole meeting last monday not not this one but the one before um to discuss the bus contract which we'll be uh discussing again tonight um that's all there is i mean we met the committee voted to move forward um with a recommendation for approval i believe um but we're all there and i think um again we'll talk about it more in a few here but i think we're all um prioritizing um safety
042of our students efficiency of service um and we have braces this year right because we have some um more than one vendor and it's exciting that we can offer that to our families thank you all for coming out last monday to be there for the committee of the home meeting and um well our next meeting isn't until august thanks thank you director revere smith we've now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda but it it is actually five o'clock so we will be taking public testimony by phone and in person as stated on the agenda board procedure 1430 bp provides the rules for public testimony and i ask that speakers are respectful of these rules i will summarize some important parts of this procedure first testimony will be taken today from those individuals called
043from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website only those who are called by names should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium and only one person should speak at a time speakers from the list may see their time to another person when the list 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 testimony list or waiting list those who do not wish to have time seated to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list the majority of
044the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about finally the board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects for itself i've also noticed that we have a number of representatives from our bus companies here this evening i ask though it is not required for clarity's sake as board directors are taking note if you could please uh share with us what company you are affiliated with that being said at this time moving speakers good afternoon for those who are joining remotely to provide testimony today we do take our testimony by phone i noticed that we do have additional people who have joined us via teams um so if you are intending to provide testimony please note that we generally
045take our testimony by a phone or in person however if you have joined the team's meeting today and you are intending to provide testimony um you may unmute when your name is called we will not be utilizing cameras just because that is not our teams is not our standard method for providing testimony for those who are in the room when you hear your name called you can simply step to the mic um if you are joining by phone you'll need to press star six to unmute when you hear your name called the first speaker on today's testimony list is ritu narayan hello uh good afternoon thank you for giving me an opportunity to participate in today's important discussion about the future student transportation in seattle public schools my name is ritu narayan and i'm the
046ceo and founder of zoom services i'm also a first generation immigrant and working mother of two children one middle schooler and one high schooler i started zoom in 2014 to solve a problem i faced personally as a working parent how to transport your children safely and reliably to meet their educational and development needs without actually having to leave my career or other responsibilities at home this is the same problem that i saw my mother face in past and thousands of other hard-working parents and families around me face every day i share this because i want you to know this work is deeply personal to me i started zoom to ensure that every child has easy and equal access to the educational opportunities and services they deserve we assume are thrilled to be expanding our partnership
047with seattle public school to bring a student and school bus driver-centric transportation service to seattle families starting september 2022 it is indeed a bold decision by the district leaders to recommend a change to the status quo and split the school bus contract to invite zoom this is the first time in decades when the district has opted for a change and we highly commend that decision i would also like to thank the parent community who highly advocated for a change and asked for a safe reliable and modern transportation system it's one thing to recommend for the contract but another to execute on it as a mother and ceo i know we would be transporting the most precious cargo in the world your children hence i want to tell you what you can expect from zoom the
048first is robust transfer operations where we keep safety and reliability at the forefront of everything a team that is proactive and responsive to the need of our students and customers and finally a company that is transparent and accountable we measure we measure ourselves rigorously and openly and are always hearing and acting on feedback as an employer zoom is hiring 200 school bus drivers in seattle you will see that boot goes above and beyond to make it make it a great place to work we are not a large corporation but more like a tight-knit family you will find in us as an employer we are labor friendly respectful inclusive and fair we compensate our employees competitively and look after them with a heart and soul also before i end i must say that i've been to
049so many boardrooms and it is indeed both rare and inspiring to see so many women leaders here today they cannot be more deserving example of equity and possibilities for the future generation being educated at the district thank you and we look forward to serving the spf community and employees in seattle for many years to come here okay thank you very much i just want to clarify um please try your best to stick to the two minutes for equity purposes because i know that there are a lot more folks who are going to be speaking on behalf of zoom today please try your best to stick to the two minutes thank you the next speaker is vivek garg good afternoon am i audible we can hear you good afternoon i'm vivek gerk from zoom uh myself
050along with the next two speaker sarah skinner and liz sanchez both from zoom we see our time to victoria plummer of zoom who will be speaking next thank you victoria the time is running i'd like to provide your testimony good evening my name is victoria plummer i'm the northwest regional director of operations for zoom transportation and i'm a local king county resident since 2005. with me today is paul ahn he is our general manager for our new seattle yard location we are here today to talk about the school transportation contract we commend district leadership on their decision to make a much needed change in the status quo and invite zoom to provide school transportation to sps families while any change is hard we believe a regular update to the community on our progress will go
051a long way collectively paul and i have over 60 years of service experience paul comes to the student transportation industry having worked previously as a senior manager in logistics and transportation with fedex my past experience includes 30 years working in hospitality overseeing various operations teams in addition to having been a successful small business owner coupled with paul's extensive experience we've hit the ground running and are quickly scaling zoom's operations locally in seattle we are ready for the start of school on september 7th last week we received keys for our new four and a half acre yard location in south seattle we're working closely with the teamsters local 174 and we've had the members of leadership team out to tour the facility we've been working collectively to ensure that we design the bus yard with driver's
052input and provide drivers plenty of space to relax during their downtime union leadership has been very complementary about the facility and what's been built out for the drivers the yard is conveniently located only two box blocks from the reyna beach light rail and less than half a mile from i-5 which provides accessibility and access points for our drivers we have ordered a brand new fleet of buses these will start arriving in a matter of weeks we are aggressively rounding out our management team and have been filling each position with high caliber professional team members we are hiring 200 bus drivers please conclude your comments we take pride in working for a district and city that is labor-friendly as we are working with the district on finalizing the contract zoom is advocating for wage parity for
053all seattle school bus drivers drivers whether affiliated to zoom or first student are all driving seattle public school students and should be paid both both competitively and similarly and there should not be a two class system of drivers with on our school bus community our hope is that we will work to with the district to make progress on the contract terms and ensure that school bus drivers who are the backbone of safe and reliable school transportation for sps families as celebrated and paid accurately across the contract thank you for your attention to this important matter i'll simply close by adding we can't wait to expand our partnership with seattle public schools and provide safe reliable transportation for the students and families of seattle thank you another reminder i know that the seating process can be
054uh tricky at times two minutes miss wilson jones the next speaker is sarah skinner we ceded our time to victoria thank you the next speaker is liz sanchez hi we ceded our time to victoria as well the next speaker is jonathan demela thank you i'd like to exceed my time to kim moore strong behalf of her student hello everyone i am kim worster senior vice president at first student and i want to thank the board for this opportunity to speak to you this evening i want to provide a bit of an overview of our company but first i would like to thank you seattle public schools for your partnership we are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue our 30-year relationship and want you to know that your continued confidence in us is not misplaced
055we have a long and rich history of providing student transportation that can be traced back over 100 years and we have more industry experience than any other provider presently we service over 1100 school districts across the nation representing tens of thousands of schools and we operate 5 million passenger journeys every day we care about our people our drivers are the foundation of our business and we appreciate our partnership with our union teamsters 174 we are committed to safety diversity equity and inclusion and are the leader in electrification for the school bus industry we support our respective missions to work towards zero emissions in seattle this past two and a half years with covet has certainly created some challenges for all of us however we work together with our district partners ashley davies and fred podesta
056and others to navigate these unprecedented times and the resulting labor shortages that we have all been struggling through we have made great strides in recruiting and retention this year and are prepared to provide any additional support over and above our awarded routes as required speaking of staffing we are presently staffed above the rfp requirements and despite being overstaffed for this upcoming school year we continue to actively recruit and train last week alone we received 95 new applicants in seattle in the pacific northwest we have more buses drivers and management than all of our competitors combined and we stand ready to service you we want you to know how much we appreciate your business and thank you again for this opportunity to speak to you about first student thank you the next speaker is samantha fogg
057hello hello my name is samantha fogg and i am a parent of three seattle public school students and i am on the testimony list to talk about inclusion and i want to start out by saying thank you thank you to director rankin and dr pedroza and thank you to the board for passing this important policy as we are heading into cba and as our superintendent and our staff is looking forward to developing the procedures and the processes that will make sure that every student in seattle public schools is given the education and the access to education that they deserve that is best practice this policy change that you have done is really important and i also want to acknowledge that july is disability pride month um and so it feels particularly um important that you
058started off your your month with with a vote on inclusion so i wanted to just say thank you and to say that we i look forward to working with our district with all of you to make sure that this is fully realized in every classroom across our district and that we support all of our students thank you the next speaker is michael hamill thank you board president hersey board members and superintendent jones for allowing me to speak today my name is mike hamill i am the area general manager for first student with oversight of our seattle operations i would like to give you a quick overview on safety in our drivers i would like to begin with our strong safety culture at first student first student is the only student transportation provider to receive the
059national safety council's green cross for safety and occupational excellence award we believe that safety culture begins with effective safety training you may recall hearing about programs like pddp which is our professional driver development program our program meets and exceeds any state and federal requirements which sets us apart from others our be safe leadership program focuses on leading with a safety and service mindset this program is centered around five key principles which are knowledge recognition learning and courage we also have a driver scoring program called mobile manager which promotes safe driving habits and behaviors our mobile manager program focus on positive recognition and coaching versus negativity and discipline we have seen a lot of success with this program we believe that these programs along with others help ensures the that our employees are set up for
060success i would also like to take the time to speak about our drivers because i know that there have been some mischaracterizations uh said about them which are not true bus drivers are some of the greatest people you're gonna meet on average it takes about three to five weeks to become a professional school bus driver there's a lot of training and requirements that each person must meet in order to become a professional school bus driver i would like to think that each board member today ran for their position because they are passionate about making saddle public schools the best that it can be our drivers also do that and do their job because of passion i assure you that they're not working as a school bus driver to pay off a vacation home somewhere else
061our drivers do the job because they have they care some of our drivers are not only driving today's students but they're driving their parents and grandparents our drivers don't only serve the seattle community but they're part of the seattle community we at first student are proud to have our drivers as part of our first student family and thank them for all that they do thank you the next speaker is alex zimmerman i want to speak about 5207 harassment humiliation and who pull it yeah you see it took director move out every time but as i come what is this two directors show to this 50 000 children to the policy yes exactly it's a harassment bullet is exactly intimidation to me this is exactly what's happened they show to 50 000 children into 750 000
062seattle so when i have different opinion they don't want listen to me we elect them for doing business here you have one billion dollars business why this happened why they doing this we speak to the policy i spoke to the policy i told you why you interrupt me don't interrupt them so we talk for five minutes you don't give me sean speak about this that's exactly what as i told you why are they moving i have only different opinion they said exactly what has happened right now in seattle council give me 12 responses for 1200 days only because i have different opinion so when you show to us children so seattle is number one for city in america so somebody who have a different opinion we speak to the policy i love you and guys
063you'll make me totally sick why you speak with maska when you can speak can you take moscow because this looked to me like you all freaking clown you understand what i mean you interrupt me one more time yeah it's your business that's exactly what is you show to us children for the last 30 years so seattle is number one for city in school right now and nobody won't go to this school right now because you by definition are nazi thank you very much the next speaker is chris jackins my name is chris jackins box 84063 seattle 98124 on the personnel report under separations the report lists noel treat and annie patoo i wish to express my appreciation for their service to the district on two contracts for transportation services five points number one a previous
064discussion suggested that having two contracts could increase costs but in any case in the fall the district was likely to not be able to transport all eligible students and that the problem was not a funding shortage but rather a shortage of drivers number two to get more drivers by simply having two companies recruiting from the same pool seems problematic number three so it seems good that the contracts are offering bonuses however this might not work if the bonuses are not significantly greater than previous bonuses how did the bonuses compare to previous bonuses number four the district had earlier proposed reusing drivers between three rather than two tiers but this was rejected this was at least a direct approach to the problem number five is the district prepared to do something such as including a special
065fund for further bonuses on the general fund the district should move away from its formulistic budget approach the slogan of money follows the student cemented competition rather than cooperation between schools and has led to annual disruption at individual schools on the capital fund the district is destroying the history of our school buildings shrinking playgrounds and converting natural grass to artificial turf please vote no thank you very much nice to see you today the next speaker is janice white janice white good afternoon i'm the immediate past president of the seattle special education ptsa and want to add my thanks to the board for passing the policies regarding inclusion today this is the third summer in a row that i've come before you to report on significant issues with the delivery of recovery services and summer school
066programs to students with disabilities we've heard from families who've been asking for summer recovery services for student behavioral needs for months but were given no information about their students enrollment in the summer social skills camp until they received a letter from transportation at the end of last week because of the lack of information and communication many families set up other summer programs for their children which they're paying for and it's too late for them to withdraw without losing their money they should be reimbursed for those costs also the district may be paying for programs that now turn out to be under enrolled we've seen an email from staff at one of the outside agencies the district contracted with to provide a social skills camp the email was dated last thursday in the late afternoon they
067reported that they had not received a final roster of students for a camp starting today and had no contact information for family some families had reached out to them and shared that they had not been told of the camp's location dates or times the agency representatives said they were writing from a place of desperation to try to find out the names and contact information of the students enrolled in their summer camp we continue to see a huge disconnect between the upbeat reports to the school board and the dysfunction that disabled children in our schools experienced separately our ptsa will be writing to you about the staffing crises that we have heard about in many schools this past year the failure of students who are among the hardest hit by the pandemic to have their needs
068met and our grave concerns about experienced special education staff who are leaving the district our disabled students are not okay please listen to families and teachers regarding these is reporting these issues there needs to be accountability starting with significant communication improvements and additional actions to fix the problems thank you very much the next speaker is greg newman good afternoon my name is greg newman i am the regional vice president for first student here in the pacific northwest and it's a pleasure to be here today speaking to you i want to highlight some of our technology that's included in my our proposal due to the uh working committee meeting that we watched two mondays ago first student has notoriously been the leader in student transportation innovation our proprietary state of the art technology technology seamlessly connects
069the bus the route and the student which facilitates a higher level of safety encourages open and transparent operations and continues to enhance communication between schools and parents some of our recent additions to technology that we will be introducing over the summer sea on smartreach which is a remote download system as our buses cross the geo fence at our bus yards video footage will be automatically downloaded giving us the the ability to get videos to the district faster we are upgrading our entire radio system to digital radios which will give us expanded coverage and better reception we are introducing our first view parent app this will give parents direct access to the status of their child's bus by cell phone or computer additionally i want to highlight some technology that we've introduced over the past couple
070of years district dashboard the district is using this in the district's dispatch control center this technology provides the district a complete transparent view into our operations driver workflow hub seattle was one of the first locations to receive this technology the tech the tablet uh ensures child check verification efficient start just daily routes dynamic navigation for stronger performance safer bus rides and streamlined ridership reporting finally focus our first onboard component utilization system our focus system is a dispatch dispatch system that focuses on three primary purposes schedule management tool it ensures route coverage and route performance we're excited about this next school year and we're looking forward to continue continuing our partnership with you thank you that was today's final speaker sure um before we move on to voting on today's action items thank you to all
071our speakers we really appreciate you sharing your time with us tonight i believe i made a mistake we have one more yeah thank you yeah thought you knew something i did the final speaker will be scott goldbrinson thank you for your patience scott thank you to the board for the time today my name is skyler branson i'm a senior director with first student and want to talk today too about a very important issue and i know it is for this board too which is the future of the bus fleet and electrification as you know first student is the leader in student transportation at the forefront of the industry's transition to electric we are well positioned to support the sustainability goals of the seattle public schools and through our partnership we work closely with sps and
072the clean energy task force to collectively develop a timeline that allows us to systematically transition from fossil fuel by replacing the existing diesel buses with electric throughout our time together we'll collaborate with your needs and develop a plan to design the infrastructure and apply for grant funding and execute a goal of having an all-electric fleet within 10 years or sooner as long as a long-term partner we will collectively be improving the student health and supporting a more sustainable and equitable community we'll provide the resources the operational expertise and the infrastructure to support that currently we have electric bus projects of various sizes underway in the following areas that includes 121 buses in service a number of 300 currently on order given the supply chain constraints we are averaging about 15 buses per month which is
073more than anyone in the industry we've reserved the uh and prioritized a number of evs uh with the manufacturer we're on schedule uh to continue uh as the leader we have more electric buses in north america than anyone else uh an unmatched team to support the sps and what you're doing that includes some of the leadership that i'll share with you which is kevin matthews who's our head of electrification served as the director of the clinton global initiative electric school bus project as well as serving 30 years in the epa as well he's at the forefront of not only implementing but of policy and also alex cook who was recently awarded the innovator of the year for his work in electrification infrastructure so we're very excited about this we support that and we're here to
074help you and to develop the plan thank you now that concludes our testimony list thank you miss wilson jones and again thank you to all our speakers we appreciate you spending your time with us this evening board directors we are going to take a brief five minute recess repeat a brief five minute recess if we could please try to be back by 5 that would be ideal thank you very much [Music] and on that note so that we can start saying things again and it's time to return director sean moritz if you will float your social butterfly self right back up here so we can wrap up so that would be great thank you all right we have now come to the action items portion of today's agenda may i have a motion for action
075item number one you may and just a moment no rush take your time i move that the school board repeal current board policy number 5207 prohibition of harassment intimidation and bullying second all right this has been moved by vice president hampson and seconded by director revere smith do we have a staff member who will be speaking to this item oh wait thank you dr pritchett good evening assistant superintendent sarah pritchett for hr there are no changes and there were no questions to be answered all right any new questions from directors at this time okay so there you go director harris by all means i'm troubled by this policy in that we have a history of not doing a great job in asking for accountability when it comes to adult behaviors harassment intimidation and bullying and
076um we could sit here and talk about a litany of things and i choose not to because i'd like to believe that we're better a little distressed that our former assistant superintendent of hr mr noel treat is not here to present it and he left town to go fishing in montana which he absolutely earned but i i'm having trouble with an hr policy superseding policy now do i think that the policy has been enforced as well as it could or should be or was written as well as it could or should be no i'm not going to claim that and again we have history to prove that but again i go back to the whole concept of devils in the details and i go back to the concept of enforcement and accountability and i'll be
077abstaining on this one thank you thank you director harris any other comments questions director mayor smith thanks um i actually plan on abstaining also because i remember at introduction um i expressed my concern with repealing this not having um anything really in its place to address the adults especially the ones on this board um because we don't really have anything that covers us um and i and i don't and but i but again like i get the argument about how this is used um inappropriately i guess a lot of times so um it's it you guys have done the research to show how it's problematic many instances i don't know what that is um anyhow i just anyhow i just wanted to reiterate so you understand why i will be able to know i am
078because i did mention that introduction thank you any other comments or concerns for this item um i also wanted to take a moment to explain why i plan to be voting an abstention um i was in favor of the civility policy that was drafted by our previous assistant superintendent of human resources no treat um you know i think the parallel i would draw is that earlier today i had a conversation with samantha fogg a parent who came and gave public testimony and she had explained to me the importance of having a board policy to kind of guide the direction of the work that the adults in our district do and so i am concerned that you know we just um don't have an overarching policy that outlines our expectations around civility as a governing board
079thank you director rankin um i just i want to respond to the concerns sorry with the um reminder that um this is really not about addressing all adult behavior in every scenario we've identified areas that we we need to have stronger policy around adults but this is specifically about the way that well so for one thing moss adams who has done um audits and reviews of a lot of things for for our district and others is has strongly recommended a repeal as have other lawyers and entities because this is such an unusual policy for a district to have as it applies to adults um it increases uh the risk of unnecessary liability and also the the bigger problem than that for me and the reason i'm bringing this forward is because it actually sort of
080allows people to allows adults to absolve themselves of navigating conflict and lets it fester until it reaches the level of harassment intimidation bullying and it's really um toxic and unhealthy uh to to expect people to operate in that way to have this either very um kind of emergency response or nothing um uh that being said there are still this doesn't affect mechanisms about um you know reporting as whistleblower uh student issues discrimination sexual harassment a whole host of other um behaviors and as we discussed the introduction um there are in bringing this forward i worked with noel treat and other staff to identify places in our policy that are missing in terms of addressing certain adult behaviors so i would say that i don't expect this to be able to be applied to everything that
081um i am trying to address the specific problem of the the way that the board policy 5207 is not serving um our system and the adults in it as it exists and it's much more appropriate to me for this to be an administrative policy as is ex as you know dictates and and responds to behavior of district employees director harris you may i have leave to ask director rankin what pieces she believes are missing that we need to follow up on so that i understand the context of her comments please dr rankin are you in a position to answer that question um uh yes let me find here we go um if i can find it because i don't want to leave anything out um [Music] i apologize do could we move to the next
082item and come back while i'm looking for that would that be more efficient yeah absolutely um i just want to be sure i'm giving complete information for sure okay so uh any other questions comments concerns on this particular item all right y'all have that conversation offline um with that being no we still need to vote on it but i just want i don't want you all to have to sit here while i'm digging around in my email i was literally getting oh sorry okay that you said offline i was confused you all can have the conversation about directors harris's question offline because we haven't we have an agenda that we need to get to so we can come back to it but we still need to take a vote and there are many other items
083that we need to get to so okay i just was under the understanding that i was going to be sharing that right now i thought you said you needed more time and to move on to another item yes but rather than offline i was going to answer your question are you ready to go right now no no you said offline i'm asking for you to move on so that i can find it so that when we return to this item i can share it right here the motion has been called for this particular item so we we have to address it before we move on to another item so if you want if we want to take if i'm not mistaken correct me if i'm wrong but we would need to move it again right
084if we leave it and then come back president i believe we can take a break in the discussion i don't know if greg is available to answer to and then come back to this item great uh yeah good evening this is uh greg narver general counsel that's correct this can be set aside for the time being would not need to be uh put back on the table with a motion uh as long as it's clear as to what we're taking back up and there's been no change to what the board's going to be voting on okay solid thank you for that clarification apologies for my misunderstanding of procedure so we're gonna we're gonna go ahead and move on to item number two and then board policy number 2140 guidance and counseling may have a motion
085for this item yes uh let's see i move that the school board amend and re-title board policy number two one four zero guidance counseling as attached to the board action report and i believe we have uh an amendment second okay this has been moved by vice president hampson seconded by director of smith we also have an amendment do any directors have amendments that they would like to share at this time so whose amendment is amendment on number two is it just staff's amendment sorry and i did find my my other thing um yes this is uh let's see do i need to make the motion for it is that uh i'm sorry i moved that the school board approved amendment 1 to the school board action report titled amend board policy number 2140 guidance and
086counseling and substitute board policy number 2140 as attached to the amendment to the extent the attached substitute policy conflicts with the information presented in the underlying board action report the substitute policy shall control immediate action is in the best interest of the district second thank you appreciate it dr scarlet thank you director ranking for rankin for proposing the amendment to this bar and policy i'd like to also introduce dr caleb perkins my colleague on this we agreed that the reasons you stated for making this amendment specifically would like to reiterate a few of them we amend the policy significantly so that there's much more high level and directs the superintendent to develop procedures for the details of the state requirements related to counseling and advising this is consistent with the guidance from the council of
087great city schools and the approach to student outcomes focused governance we've engaged with counselors who expressed concern at the introduction of this item and shared the basic plan to amend the policy to be higher level and to develop procedures in the coming fall they expressed support for this approach particularly since we plan to engage counselors in the development of the procedures that the amended policy directs the superintendent to develop we ask the board to take action on this item tonight so that we can stay on track toward implementing the requirements related to senate bill 5030 which requires all districts to begin transitioning in the 22-23 school year to have a comprehensive school counseling program in all schools we need to complete this transition by the start of the 23-24 school year the cai and college
088and career readiness team looks forward to bring in additional items related to this implementation of senate bill 5030 to the board particularly at the sscni committee committee in the fall also in response to the question on whether it required to have this whether we're required to have this policy the policy itself is not required but it is encouraged by wazda that we have this policy it provides necessary guidance and sets the broad mandate to develop procedures that we want in need related to counseling and advising and at the same time there will be a transition plan introduced to the board in the fall that flows from this policy that does legally require approval and with that i'll take your questions okay given that this amendment was also presented today i want to give directors the
089same opportunity to take a few moments and read if you feel so inclined to do so that being said let's take three minutes would that be enough time five minutes um and we will come back together promptly at 603. [Music] you your directors need more time you're good okay all right go ahead director ranking thank you i just wanted to refresh our memories that um when this item was introduced two meetings ago um uh i had indicated that i still still thought it was too long and we were working on it and and asked you all for some some time to um continue to work on it with staff and and get it more to our scope of governance um and so there haven't been any changes in the content or the intent i mean
090the what this is trying to address um it's just been uh and thank you very much for the patience and collaboration of our staff there's a lot of you know trying to really look at the language through the lens of our role as a board versus what is the staff role and so just thank you all for allowing us to take a moment and i think i mentioned at that meeting that i wasn't sure exactly what form it would be and when it came back since we had more work to do and um i think it's this is version is is much cleaner and and puts the uh appropriate level of governance in the policy as opposed to management which is in procedures so just as a reminder that we i had signaled that um
091so yeah thank you all right thank you director rankin do directors have any comments questions concerns on the amendment okay so with that being said seeing none uh miss wilson jones will you please call the roll following the role now on amendment one to action item two director song moritz hi vice president hampson aye director harris hi director rankin aye director rivera smith aye director sergey aye president hersey aye this motion is passed unanimously okay thank you very much and now we will move to the vote on the actual item correct it doesn't count you ready yep i move approval of the underlying board action report titled amend board policy number 2140 guidance and counseling as amended by amendment one second okay this has been moved and properly seconded do directors have any questions on
092the item before we move to the vote okay see you next wilson jones roll call please vice president hampson aye director harris hi director rankin aye director of era smith aye director sergio hi director song moritz hi president hersey hi this motion has passed unanimously thank you very much returning to action item number one uh for the opportunity for director rankin to answer director harris's question yes thank you so um uh again the uh item for consideration is explicitly about employees people who are um covered by hr who resp who are employed by the district from the superintendent on down but it's it's staff this is to address interactions between uh of staff so the other areas of adult behavior in looking at our policies is um i think that we need a whether it's
093a policy or i don't know what you know legal form it would be but i think we're missing a school board member code of conduct or norms agreement which could include communication with each other um expectations for how we treat each other um just kind of some some standard agreements as a board since we're not employees of the district we're elected officials and so i mean in some ways we're accountable to voters but we also are a body of seven who have to work together on a lot of things and i think it would be really helpful for us all to have just some sort of baseline foundational standards of agreement you know board directors come from so many different levels of work experience expectation and and i think that would just be really helpful
094as both sort of a a pledge of how we want to behave but also um in agreement with one another that we can hold ourselves and each other accountable to um i think is something that's missing that it would be great to have in terms of other adult relationships we have policy 1620 and a procedure which is the board superintendent relationship that also includes board and staff and that is something i think needs a refresh a look over that would address um interactions between board board and staff um [Music] and um and also the relationship between the board and the superintendent um and then there's other so this repeal and replacement would address um staff adult to adult interaction um we have a uh nondiscrimination policy 5010 sexual harassment of district staff prohibited which is
0955011. um there's also an unprofessional conduct of staff policy which is 5006 there's an anti-retaliation policy uh 5245 and there's a staff disciplinary action and discharge policy 5281 um i'm guessing that a lot of those have not or could use also a refresh but those are existing documents um and then we will still have a policy 3207 which is the prohibition of harassment intimidation or bullying of students which is the whole which is a state requirement and is why a hib policy was created to protect students because they are children that do not have other rights as um employees do for workplace protections and what not um there's also policy uh 3208 prohibition of sexual harassment of students uh policy 3210 prohibits discrimination acts of hostility and defamation of students and then there is policy
096um 5006 unprofessional conduct of staff and then policy 5253 maintaining professional staff and student boundaries so there's several different places where adult behavior addressed i you know this may be a discussion for another time but if we see this as a body of work that really needs to be focused together i would be happy to participate in or lead a work group or something that's that's specifically addressing these you know some of these i think belong to staff and but a lot of them do belong to the board um so i hope that is helpful about context and that this action item is very specific about adult adult interactions among staff i appreciate the clarification and the context thank you ever so much all right are all questions and concerns satisfied on this item okay
097miss wilson jones roll call please director rivera smith spain director sergio aye director song moritz abstain vice president hampson please come back to me director harris zane director rivera smith oh sorry director rankin aye vice president hampson are you ready did you go through everyone except for me do you want me to vote yes please bye and vice president hampson abstain this motion is passed with a vote of three yes and four abstentions all right moving on to item number three approval of the ospi school waiver applications and resolution number 2021 22-24 requesting a waiver from the past 180 day school year requirement for emergency school closures and for parent guardian teacher conferences i move that the school board approved the superintendent's school emergency closure applications to ospi which requests permission for seattle public schools
098to not make up a missed school day at west woodland elementary on may 23rd 2022 and at akikarosi middle school on june 6 2022. i additionally move that the school board approved resolution number two two zero two one slash twenty 22-24 is attached to this board action report immediate action is in the best interest of the district okay thank you fred podesta assistant superintendent of operations this action proves a resolution and an application to request free waivers from the office of the superintendent of public instruction from the 180 day school year requirement two of the waivers relate to emergency closures of schools and the third is to support parent guardian teacher conferences on may 23rd um seattle city light the city's public electric utility suffered a region uh neighborhood outage in the vicinity west woodland
099elementary school where was not able to restore power prior to the start of the school day given our covid protocols with various strong supports for ventilation and air quality in school buildings we do not operate school buildings of power as needed to support those ventilation requirements on june 5th the seattle police department received a very specific threat of violence against students at akikorosi middle school we conferred with the police department and school leaders and an interdepartmental team recommended to superintendent jones that we cancelled classes on june 6th at akikorosi so those are the two emergency closures and then we're asking for three days of waivers to support parent guardian teacher conferences at elementary schools and then one day for secondary schools to also have those conferences i'm happy to take any questions all right board
100directors any questions on this item okay thank you mr podesta saying none miss wilson jones roll call please director harris director rankin aye director rivera smith hi director sergio aye director song moritz aye vice president hampson aye president percy aye this motion has passed unanimously all right moving on to our last action item for the evening approval of contracts rfp022242a and rfp02242b [Music] student transportation services for the 2022-25 and succeeding years i move that the school board authorized the superintendent to execute contracts for student transportation services for 2022-25 and succeeding years with first student inc and zoom services inc and amounts not to exceed forty five million two hundred thousand dollars and in the form of the contract agreements attached to the school board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary
101by the superintendent to implement the contracts immediate action is in the best interest of the district second all right mr podesta great and again this action authorizes two transportation contracts that provide yellow bus transportation for students across the district i want to thank uh directors for the special committee of the whole operations committee meeting that was held on june 27th and we had very detailed discussions about these contracts so i'll try to recap quickly here for those that didn't spend the two hours in that meeting we have had a competitive process and again there's been a lot of attention to the competitive process itself but um we uh have uh are in a position of choice for the first time in many years in seattle public schools it's good to have choice we also talked
102in other contexts of the changes that we need to our transportation program we've talked about looking at eligibility standards from the lands of equity we have a task force that is encouraging us to have clean energy drive our transportation program and so we know we face changes so being in a position to have multiple vendors providing a services so we can see alternatives to how we're going to meet those changes is is a good problem to have even though deciding how to pick vendors and how how to conduct a competitive process it's a lot of work this has been really good analysis and really dive deeply into the capabilities of the vendors and we've are fortunate to have two very qualified vendors that are working in districts across the country be interested in providing services
103to seattle public schools what this board action report gives the superintendent authority to finalize and execute these contracts since we met in the operations committee of the whole there have been some revisions uh director harris had asked us to put it to look at the dispute resolution process that was built in the contract and those the general conditions of our contract was amended to include that we've revised the bar per your request to have um better language describing students who receive special education services and require specialized transportation and we've adjusted the total amount of the board action report the total contract amount and this is i'm sorry a little bit confusing but that amount represents the potential total value across both contracts it's not the amount for any individual contract we are still in very
104uh good faith productive conversations with our two i hope future business partners who have come to those discussions uh very constructively in good faith and um i really would urge moving ahead with these contracts as both our partners are making investments already to get started um because they need to given the the time of year we are and getting ready for school we have a lot of confidence in both of them appreciate the approach they've brought to the district and i think are really ready to get going to be able to be in a position to assess new new approaches and hopefully to be able to provide more complete service that was a challenge to us in the past school year given the needing to restore a transportation program that was effectively shut down when
105our school buildings were not open and dealing with a kind many dislocations in the labor market as many industries are so with that i'd be happy to take any questions you may have okay director rankin oh um my uh well i i'm gonna take this moment to say how much i love bus drivers um that for a lot of kids they're the start and end of the school day they're not they're not extra invisible they are in a lot of ways i had a child that was picked up door to door and um james our driver was a part of our lives that year um really important part of our lives so um uh the my only question is that this item it's titled approval of contracts but we're actually authorizing the superintendent to execute
106those contracts so my wonder is as negotiations continue or finish up um what will there be any more board approval needed as numbers fluctuate or or what kind of um [Music] i guess what updates or or subsequent information should we be expecting as as a board we will certainly advise the board again we're authorized uh as with all contracts to make you know minor additions and modifications to execute the contract the discussions we're having now really relate to um the fact that we have two potentially we'll have two contractors working at scale it's not been uncommon in recent years for seattle public schools to have a second yellow bus provider but usually only as a backup at a very small scale what we're envisioning is both contractors working at scale and that presents um a
107few valid concerns on the part of both but how is that going to work um in terms of managing that relationship so we're really down to fairly short strokes on you know some specific aspects of the contract that have always been there it's just really some final touches about how exactly that's going to work on a daily basis so unless um there's a major change in these uh contract terms we'll we'll advise the board but we really expect it to be pretty much in the details okay thank you dr harrison then director of rare smith first let me say thank you let me say thank you to you fred to ashley davies to greg narver to our outside counsel and to both contractors for coming to the table this is really exciting for some of
108us who have been most distressed for more than a few years uh hugely appreciate your negotiating and the alternative dispute resolution let's let's cut these lawyer fees out of here and and and put that money into students and student safety and i have a challenge for both contractors can we look forward to a time in the future that we embed our bus drivers in our schools as instructional assistants and work over labor partners and get together so that our bus drivers are part and parcel of our school communities we need the help first and last folks like director rankin said in the day that folks see i'm so tired of being told no and we can't and i challenge us to blow the box open thank you thank you director harris director smith thank you
109um i was i think dr rankin's question kind of uh was what i was going to ask about what was still coming and how much that would have changed what we're approving today um but you addressed that so thank you um i'm really looking forward to a lot of the technology solutions that were outlined uh especially for first student considering those are the challenges we've had in the past so i'm really excited to see those come online i have a question regarding um page 346 of the document um it's on delivery commitment for school plus fleet uh with bus west uh it's under zoom section there um i don't know if it's a type or what but um it says the bus west is committed to zoom services inc for confirmed delivery of following equipment
110staggered one third per month between august to june 2022. do they mean is that june 2023 and if so does that mean we get a third other can have a third of their buses between now and next june that's kind of concerning um i do believe um that was probably a typographical error with regard to the way the calendar lays out so in the case of of zoom services we're asking to stand up a new business they have orders placed um for a supply chain to own buses and they're making an arrangement to lease buses in the interim okay so we're working with them on on how they'll be able to ramp up services okay so they'll have them at least at least but they'll have they'll at least have leased buses sorry one um
111but their entire fleet of ownership may not be complete until next june um yes and and again we um given that we're allocating the contract to two contractors the fleet size is a bit different um during the process and that's why these negotiations take a little bit of um detailed work you know each um contractor was certainly preparing a proposal that um they were competing for 100 of the services and so how their supply chain how they're hiring some of their other logistical steps that they need to adjust given what we've decided to do to award two contracts yeah no and i definitely like again also as dr harris i'm very uh appreciative of all the work that was done to get this to get this worked out so that we can have two competitive
112vendors working for us and i especially appreciate our ability to allocate roots as best there's our students um how that lays out so um i don't know if that's anything that's still being worked on but i would i would hate to lose that ability um i know we'll be followed up with a part as far as what does still develop but um just what i guess i'll just go and record that that is to me um paramount to retain is the ability our ability to um allocate or distribute roots uh as again best serves our students understood it's an important issue yeah i uh given other questions thank you any other questions on this item all right see now i just want to extend my thanks again this has obviously been a very challenging endeavor
113to say the least um and just fred ashley everybody on the team who worked on this a huge thank you and very excited to get this done i'm very excited to get our students to school on time safely so what that means president hersley one thing i need to say is we do have existing relationships with both proposers we're really thankful they propose we really appreciate those relationships and um a few mention actually i cannot um praise the efforts of the incomparable ashley davies do not have literal flowers but please accept these figurative ones because you have certainly earned them so any more thank yous that we need to get out of the way before we move to the vote 751 oh yes thank you to unit 751 we really appreciate all of our labor
114partners and especially those representing um everybody was impacted by this contract so appreciate that reminder director harris and thank you also to the bus drivers i know a lot of folks didn't get to see them but um there were a host of bus drivers out there who were not able to join us in the room because of our coveted restrictions um there are about 15 or 20 of them so i'm not sure if they're still out there i see a few folks who are still in the room but um if you haven't gotten a chance to shake hands say thank you make sure that you do so okay i believe that's everyone that being said miss wilson jones roll call please director rankin hi director rivera smith i director sergio happily eyes there we go
115director song red hi vice president hampson hi director harris hi and president jersey you already know hi this motion has cost unanimously okay indeed um we have now reached the board comment section tonight's agenda director ranking you're looking at me with skepticism did i miss something oh no i was just getting ready to say i don't have any comments oh sick right on okay well let me stop talking so that we can get to the meat director hanson oh i'm sorry hang on one second hang on one second sorry do i have talking points for this announcement for the superintendent evaluation narrative so director hanson take it away oh um well we may need to give folks time to read it i don't have any um this was once again just my attempt to capture
116uh the overall sentiment relative to the evaluation and narrative form so um but like many things on this last meeting of our quote-unquote session um before a short break we folks just got it so i don't i think maybe giving folks ten five minutes to not ten five minutes to read it might be helpful and then i think if we have to vote on it or what or it's just part of the record in the materials of this meeting or right we don't know there's no expected vote yeah no and i think um i don't necessarily i don't know if the explanation is that i would take the edits or you would take the edits um president hersey or um somebody on staff would take the edits yeah so we can figure that out um
117just like the audit announcements this just needs to be publicly noted but if directors obviously read through and have edits feel free to send them to me and i will make sure that they are incorporated thank you director hanson for your diligence in getting that initial draft done so appreciate that immensely president hersey may i make a suggestion yes indeed thank you um can we upload that to the website and can we also have a deadline to get those comments or proposed edits back to you or forever hold our piece yes you know how i love deadlines as long as we follow them of course so let's do i mean take a week uh if you could get them back to me by next wednesday which i believe is the 13th um that would be
118ideal and then it is on the it is already it's in the agenda for today yeah the link is there so yeah so it exists on the website is that satisfactory okay cool so if you have any edits please get them to me by wednesday of next week and i will make sure that they are incorporated and that the online posting is updated right on okay board comments who's got comments go ahead director sumritz yeah um i'm going to use this opportunity to provide some comments on the budget that we approved earlier in this meeting i want to commend the finance department for a very clearly written budget um i did read the entire document it was very easy to follow um and i believe oh sorry thank you to the budget office for creating
119a budget that is easy to follow and helps us allocate our limited resources in the way that we best see fit and yet i think there are three areas of improvement that i would like for my colleagues and i to and the district staff to ponder for the next time we need to do this work um one observation is that we do not do enrollment planning in conjunction with our capital projects so within my director district i have observed three schools where we have done um significant capacity building because of capital capital projects and yet we didn't give the school time to fill those seats and i find it problematic the schools in my director district are lichten springs west woodland and magnolia elementary which is adjacent to the adams catherine blaine and lawton schools
120and what that has led is that we have projected enrollment declines in those individual schools and then we have to make staffing changes that creates a lot of instability and i think that we could do a concerted effort to give um schools who are impacted by capital projects because they have to be moved to no location they need to go to an interim site a chance to catch up and address their enrollment um number two um i think we are headed in a good direction around this but i would really love for us to see a budget that is tied directly to academic strategies and programs so that we can make a measure on the return of investment where um intentionally putting dollars behind these strategies to improve our reading math college readiness goals and
121that we can examine the results of that and in the subsequent years adjust our financial investment behind the strategies that work i really firmly believe that this is the direction that we will be moving towards and i'm excited about that and will continue to support that work as a school board director um and the the third thing that i have observed is that while we have a legal duty to balance our budget i think there is ways that we could approach cost savings in a way that doesn't drive instability in individual schools one suggestion i have here is that we develop our central office budgets and our individual school budgets at the same time and from the board perspective we are not really presented options for what changes we could make in the name of
122creating greater stability because the full budget is presented at the same time i think it would be helpful for my colleagues and i to be presented some options um i have a bias towards maintaining um schools close the money within schools um so i would like to see if that is our priority what are other things that would be cut and then we can have a robust conversation on how we would shift money to achieve our community's visions for our 50 000 students but thank you and i hope everybody has a good rest of their summer any other comments all right so with that being said i hope everybody has a wonderful summer like whether you're a student a parent a staff person especially an educator this year has been wild and i hope that
123your summer is restful and peaceful and you get to recharge and spend time with your family so with that being said this meeting stands adjourned at 6 39 p.m don't come here next week we will not be here but if you want to come hang out at the john stanford center you all pay taxes so that's your right that being said thank you all very much be safe getting home and we will see you in eight weeks you