001[Music] this is president hersey i am now calling the february 9th 2022 regular board meeting to order at 4 15 p.m this meeting is being recorded we would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territory stories of the puget sound coast salish people miss wilson jones the roll call please vice president hampson here director harris present director rankin here director rivera smith present director sergio present director song moritz present and president hersey here okay this meeting is being held remotely consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings the publicly is being provided remote access today through sps tv by broadcast and streaming on youtube and by phone consistent with the governor's proclamation on open public meetings for those joining us by phone please remain muted until we reach the
002testimony period and your name is called i will now turn it over to superintendent jones for his comments we can't hear you brent or at least i can't all right we will keep going and we'll double back to uh superintendent jones in just a moment okay we have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda may i have a motion for the consent agenda this is director hanson i move approval of the consent agenda we have a second can kenny can it this is michelle talking can you hear me there we go it's not working no worries don't worry okay approval of the consent agenda has been moved by vice president hampson and seconded by member at large director rivera smith do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda
003i do okay i think i saw director harris's hand first and then we will move to direct reverse smith lowering my hand first i would like to move number five approval of the student assignment transition plan for 2022-23 off the consent agenda please thank you okay director revere smith uh is that congruent with what you were going to do or do you have another item the same one thank you awesome okay may i have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended i move approval of the consent agenda as amended second fantastic approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by vice president hampson and seconded by director rivera smith all those in favor oh wait hold on one second all those in favor of the consent agenda as amended please signify
004by saying aye hi hi hi i fantastic this passes unanimously okay we will now move uh into items removed from the consent agenda okay all right so we are going to be taking a look superintendent jones are you back do you have sound now can you hear me now yes we can hear you now so let's greg do we need to do anything special to go to superintendent jones and then come back i don't believe so no i think that's your call to make okay fantastic so let's go ahead and hear from superintendent jones and then we will address the items removed from the consent agenda take it away superintendent jones my apologies about the technical difficulties um let me start out by saying thank you to the seattle residents by the overwhelming support they
005had for our bta and epo levy uh we are just honored that you all have entrusted us with the resources that we need to continue uh the good work that we're doing at seattle public schools so so thank you today we will hear from a few members of the public later in remembrance of billy frank jr i look forward to honoring him at our next regular board meeting on march 2nd and as i normally do when i talk a little bit about student outcome focused governance you know our strategic plan seattle excellence identifies the need to prioritize academic outcomes for african-american males our goals and guard rails that are embedded in that plan reflects the priorities and we set the metrics for monitoring our progress to meeting those goals our african-american male achievement office is
006working closely with black families to bring those voices into our schools so seattle excellence goals and guardrails our african-american achievement plans they explicitly state our intention to make our systems so that they work for african-american males this is our system improvement model over time our system has not generated the ideal outcomes for african-american males and this has to change so all of our planning every goal and guard rail every work plan every corner of my cabinet cabinet is about changing that trajectory the board you the board have embraced the goals and guardrails that express this value and vision of our community and you have tasked me with changing that trajectory next week we will do a pr another progress monitoring session as a step to ensure the clarity of where we are and what strategies
007we will we will use to meet our targets you know our black families are telling us loudly and clearly that their students need cultural safety strong identity and a diverse teaching staff and that correlation between safety cultural identity and learning is backed up by years of academic research so listening to our families embracing culture building a diverse workforce these are the strategies that we're going to invest in improving academic outcomes these will change our that trajectory so on february 1st uh my cabinet kicked off black history month this was a celebration that embraces the black lives and part of cultivating a strong cultural identity among african-american students i'd like to take a few minutes to share the power of that celebration from the sps kickoff to black history month sing till earth and heaven ring
008today marks the first day of black history month in 2022 but your celebration does not have to be limited or confined to february so i just want to emphasize that use today and use this month as a kickstart to celebrating black lives love legacy for the rest of the year quote from elsa davis because it resonates for me and i hope you know that i find in being black a thing of beauty a joy a strength a secret cup of gladness i hope you all see that when you encounter me because when i know how to love myself i love others better thank you i appreciate how the young people are stepping up asking for more and they're pushing us and that's how we should all move every day to make sure we keep them
009in our front and center in designing the best education for them and the last thing i want to say is shirley chisholm had a quote that said tremendous amount of talent is lost to society because they wore a skirt and i want to just change that to a tremendous amount of talent is lost in society because of the color of our skin and so i want you to name that and love our babies and we commit today to have the moral obligation to make sure that we're doing right by our babies every day in celebrating black life love and legacy it's important to analyze the systems that hinder our ability and to take space to celebrate all three in this time where community are more socially distant than ever opportunities to connect and celebrate in
010spaces like this is a gift let's recognize this opportunity as a gift and pass it forward and figure out opportunities where we could pass it on and spend this kind of time with our kids throughout the rest of this month and the rest of this year and every day moving forward the black space manifesto is an amazing document it's a set of leadership principles i think there's some guidelines maybe there's some goals and some guardrails in there right dr jones i'm in here and there's some beautiful um pieces in here so i'm just going to pick a couple of them that stand out for me one of them is create circles and not lines move at the speed of trust celebrate catalyze and amplify black joy center lived experience promote excellence manifest the future the
011value of this month is that it lets us know on an annual basis we matter we still rise and we are still strong affirming the identity and the strength and the power of our black students and staff evokes a movement of seeing all people in their best light with love the spirit of love life and legacy we raise the pan-african black liberation afro-american universal african flag [Music] we are fueled by their efforts so that we can go on and make greater progress my hope is that you'll take this moment and commit everybody say commit not just celebrate but commit to the things that we're going to love and work more boldly together that we're going to challenge each other in that love that we're going to live with grace and take our place in history
012[Music] may we forever stand true to our god [Music] so in the spirit of life love and legacy i can complete my remarks and back to you board thank you so much thank you for that superintendent jones what a moving opportunity to be reminded of the importance of not only this month but the entire year returning back to our agenda may i have a motion for the item that was removed from the consent agenda which was number five i moved that the school board approved the student assignment plan for 2022-23 is attached to the board action report second fantastic thank you before we go to director harris is there someone on staff who could speak to this just to tee it up a little bit if not we will move directly to director harris all
013right go ahead director harris i pulled this off of the concent calendar because i believe that it deserves more transparency for the members of the public families and indeed this week voters thank you voters on the two levees yay this is significant stuff and i think that having something other than what went through committee be front and center is appropriate i also have some questions about consulting and involve under community engagement and i know that community engagement is paramount in everyone's mind thank you all right so uh we we should go ahead and be prepared for director harris to ask her questions and then we will go to other directors as they have them again is there someone on staff who can stand to answer director harris's questions director hersey we will i will try
014to find someone to answer those questions immediately fantastic thank you and i was director jones i was just coming superintendent jones i was just gonna say that i believe um um uh ashley davis is online and i'm sure fred podesta is too so we're working on who's best to answer that right now take your time yes executive director davies would be the appropriate person and she has joined the meeting so i'm not sure if she's having trouble connecting um so i'll try to check with her offline there is no rush uh hi this is this is um ashley davies so is the question of in regards to um the student assignment transition plan being on the consent agenda and the engagement that was done no no no i don't even think director harris has even
015asked her specific questions yet so i'm going to turn it off okay got it great those are my concerns i think that the student assignment transition plan is terribly important i think that it deserves a public record and a recap and i do have questions about what community engagement was done thank you so do you have the one question about what community engagement is done i'm just trying to understand so that we can make sure that you get the information that you need so are you only looking for a report back on what community engagement was done that would be correct and again i think that for transparency and accountability purposes this particular item doesn't belong on the consent agenda thank you all right director davies if you could speak to the community engagement around
016this item that would be incredibly helpful sure so the pieces that are included in the student assignment transition plan going for action today include some information that we have gotten feedback from over the course of many years so we don't have any specific engagement as it relates to the changes that we've done around the move rules the other pieces that are changed that are updated within the plan are several which are just updates to language and terminology that have already been addressed outside of this document and then the last piece that is actually a change from intro to action is updated information around the virtual option pilot program and so i can will be able to share more information about it when it comes back for discussion around action but the clarifying pieces that are
017in there and again a change from intro to action identifies the fact that there will no longer be um the option for the virtual option pilot program at queen anne in pre-k through 5 and that the virtual option will be incorporated at cascade parent partnership for grades k through 12 for the 20 to 23 school year and that's consistent with the fact that this year was a pilot for us to offer a virtual option and given current enrollment and anticipated enrollment for the coming school year we have decided to have that all under cascade parent partnership all right thank you director davies i saw uh director sargyu's hand first and then we will move on to director song merits i think to go back to what director harris said specifically around community engagement when i
018look at number six there are one two three four things the following tier of community engagement not applicable that's not community engagement inform that's not community engagement i'm not sure what consult and involve means but i'm really sure that collaborate is actually the true definition includes the true definition of community engagement and so i think part of the the transparency has to be we can't just call something community engagement and think that people are not paying attention like consulting and involving i'm not even sure as a board director what that means um but i do know what collaborate means because i that's what i do in my day job with community i know what it looks like i know what it feels like i know what it sounds like and so i think it's important
019for parents and the public because if we try to sell inform as community engagement or consult and involve there are many people who are not going to buy that and i think i think that that's really important so i think maybe structurally we need to to think about how we define community engagement and get really clear on that so when we're talking with parents our families in the district that they understand what we mean but honestly i don't understand what consult and involved means and how that is actually community engagement um in the specifically in the context of this and maybe this is not the time to have that discussion but i do think it's really important that we get we begin to get really clear about what real authentic community engagement is we're not
020going to be successful in our work related to student outcomes focused governance if we're not okay i see um a couple of other hands up uh director samaritz and then we will go to director rivera smith um i just want to make sure i understand it right now we are voting on whether or not to approve the student assignment transition plan is that correct uh we will get there in just a second yes okay yeah opportunity for questions i think my concern here is that between the last time this item was introduced and today there is a pretty significant program change and you know while it may not influence my decision whether or not to imp approve this this plan um i i have reservations about what kind of communication strategy there will be around
021this big program change um and so i just it does give me a little bit of pause i feel confused how this ended up in here um without discussion until this point okay thank you for that director rivera smith thank you um so i was going to like i guess look at her so i was gonna pull this um because i wanted to give ashley a chance to tell us what the updates were since introduction which it sounds like the updates are aside from what we saw at introduction they are about the the vopp is that correct actually that's the extent of the changes since introduction that is correct and i wanted but i also wanted to circle back because we had a pretty good discussion and introduction about this item um with uh questions
022from director thompson and director rankin and um so between since that meeting i did have a good discussion with uh dr babies and um assistant superintendent podesta regarding these regarding you know our role in the student assignment transition plan and how we can utilize it as we do um you know evaluate and you know make changes to all of the all of our systems in our district in our efforts to be anti-racist and to be more inclusive and available to our citizens from educational justice so i just want to let everyone know we didn't have a discussion um and i um i don't know if the three of us wants to comment on myself but for my part i understand that we are going to be doing deeper dives of the student assignment transition plan
023in the um operations committee because there's lots of sections it's a very dense document you look at it and it's got a piece of everything something in that document touches every part of our district because it's where our students are going based on their programs their schools their needs so really what from our discussion we were thinking would be valuable was taking those sections and going through them in a series of operations committee meetings um i again like we have a section of advanced learning section for a special ed section for international schools um and option schools and so on so again it's it's a document that it's actually very hard to read because it's very dense and it's very deep and it changes almost every year on dusty transition part of every year we're
024transitioning to a new version of muslim but i do i do appreciate again those questions and comments two weeks ago and wanted to definitely touch in with ashley about what we can do and how we can look at this in ways that will make our district more equitable so dr davies did you want to maybe add on to that at all i would just echo the comments that you made especially around being able to break down the student assignment transition plan i think that allowing the board the opportunity to have a better understanding of it because as you mentioned it is a complex document there's a lot in there and there it's essentially a collection of uh district programs services and policy that help that are supposed to be set up to help navigate how
025families move through the district right and so um it includes information that lives outside of enrollment but is a document that holds all that information and so being able to go through it talk about each piece um and and critically go through it also you know we've talked about being able to do that um with the lens um towards racial equity as we um continue to commit to as a district so i think that um doing that and being able to move through it that way will be helpful for the board to get a better understanding of the different elements of it and for staff to be able to um walk through with the board and ways that we can talk about the things that we might want to make changes around or things that
026do need additional consultation and and collaboration with our with our communities okay i see director rankin's hand thank you um yeah i have a just a quick comment related to what came up i um uh reviewed the changes as much as i could before this meeting although got updated again after after i saw them the first time um and i feel like uh in terms of transparency we had a fairly um uh uh what's the word um not insignificant conversation around this is as an introduction item um so uh just want to sort of push back a little bit on things being hidden because we did this was discussed very in a public meeting um but i do want to just quickly address the the program change um and just kind of make an observation
027and i know this is a conversation for another time but in terms of the pilot program for the virtual program if people were not fully paying attention they might be alarmed to hear that it's moving and i just wanted to sort of nip that in the bud and say that what's in the transition plan is an operational housing thing it's the program was always a pilot for this year it's not being cancelled there's no changes before the end of the school year um but it as is stated in here instead of being under administratively under queen anne elementary it's going to be housed under cascade parent partnership so in case before anybody misunderstands something and it spreads like wildfire on facebook or something it will still exist it's just being shifted but the observation that
028i want to make is something i've seen in the past is confusion among board and staff and the public about what's a school and what's a program and when the board should be informed about changes or not and so well in this case i don't think there's a significant impact on family experience and access since it will remain a virtual program that people can often do um i just kind of want us to think about how we might you know how we make sure that board directors are not hearing about a change in a program that they don't have a chance to ask questions about in a operational capacity when it may be just just for everybody's better understanding what what's a program what's a school um like i said i don't want to get
029into that now because that's not what this item is about but uh it's something that comes up so another time i don't know where is appropriate but um especially as we have new board members just to make sure that um people aren't feeling surprised by by changes okay we're gonna go now to um assistant superintendent uh pedroza and then we will loop back to board directors i'm going to go to vice president hampson because we have not heard from her yet and then we will end on director harris so super assistant superintendent patrol zoe the floor is yours yeah i just wanted to address just a couple of talking points around the vap option i want just to share remind thank you director hans and you kind of like set me up in a great
030way you said many of the things i was going to say uh so i'll just share it right as she said it is a program so we can talk about that and we did ensure that it will be actually a one-year program with a review we are looking because one of the things we heard very clearly from community is we needed to have some type of option some type of option to address some of these significant components for some of our students who do require some type of remote learning option and many of them might not be related to covid but some of them might be related to wellness issues anxiety depression other things or even just choice that students and families wanted a choice so in thinking about that uh the the decision has
031been to pursue and continue the model um but to in order because we can't uh we can't sustain um these types of programming in these these really small enrollment situations for the long term so what the district is really trying to do is think about a two to three year strategy for a virtual remote learning option that is sustainable and can be sustained over the next two to three years and even longer so that's what it is it's it's a it's it's a combination of the enrollment pieces the the programmatic uh components and then also a long-term strategy that is uh fiscal fiscally sound and that still provides an option for our families so i just wanted to state that as part of the decision making in making that transition and then expanding the 612
032to a pre-k 12 option in partnership with cascade parent partnership programming so i just wanted to add those components to this conversation thank you for letting me add that thank you director hanson um yeah i just wanted to kind of clarify and and bring the level back to what is direct and director ranking gets credit for that i i didn't say anything um of note as of yet um for those comments that came before uh associate superintendent pedrosa but what i believe we're doing here is we are making we are approving the changes to the student assignment plan and um so i'll take full accountability for having brought up the fact during our last conversation which was very robust at intro that i do not believe that the student assignment plan is consistent with how
033it i don't believe that we have been presented a student assignment plan that is aligned with student outcomes as a whole i don't believe that it is aligned with with student outcomes that we seek um i believe it requires significant changes i also believe our staff are aware of the fact that it needs significant changes and much of that has been delineated by other directors and by staff just now and so as much as as i'm dissatisfied with the student assignment plan i am more than than happy with the changes that are being proposed i don't even really necessarily think that they they come rise to the level of board approval because they're not such a massive change to the overall plan and and i think we should consider whether um if we're really going
034to be focused on what it pertains to student outcomes whether we should be making decisions around student assignment at this point or whether that's the role of of staff and the superintendent so um again not particularly i i'm not with my what will be my year vote on this saying that that i believe that this represents what we need it to be um however there's no way that we could have done the necessary level engagement level of engagement as uh dr sargo talked about which is not what's represented in our in our board action report um format to really look at those deeper uh more problematic issues that we need to solve um hopefully in the coming year because i know we we are now a little bit behind from from where we would like
035to be and i would like to be able to sign off on a student assignment plan next year that is making those um really strong directional moves um consistent with student outcomes thank you and thank you to staff thank you director hamson we will now return to director harris before we move on to the vote no additional questions about sorry lowering my hand and turning on my mic thank you um i don't believe i use the word hidden and i believe that this is important enough that we have this conversation and i appreciate the robust discussion very much i am disappointed though that the answer with respect to community engagement is over several years but is not referenced and and i'm concerned that our community and or family engagement feels a little bit like box
036checking now i will appreciate that the program placement is moving from one school to another i appreciate that it's not sustainable i appreciate that i will be voting for this but the community engagement and family engagement piece um i'm hoping we can do a better job of and i'm hoping that we can uh work with other departments on that um with respect to making sure that these changes get out there thank you very much all right the only comment that i will take the opportunity to share is that i really want to know for us as a system like when we say community engagement like what do we mean by that right because in some ways director harris is very much so correct but in other ways i also see where staff is coming from
037with their approach here especially during the pandemic and so my question for everybody as we think about this and this might be an opportunity for us as a leadership team and directors with their committees to have some robust discussion because when we say community engagement that's a very nebulous word right are we talking about like engaging online are we talking about surveys are we talking about feedback because that bar for what community engagement should be and should look like is going to be different for every single person that we ask and even though we have guidelines and metrics around some of the things that we do in terms of community engagement it's not a one-size-fits-all type deal and what i don't want us to fall into is the trap of the way that some uh
038individuals will utilize community engagement and weaponize it into a means of derailing disrupting x y and z uh so i just want us to be really clear moving forward what are going to be the expectations around community engagement on the front end because directors don't want to be in the position of asking staff questions like what community engagement was done and then getting the answer that we got right but also we have had thorough discussion about this there there have been opportunities in um committee and whatnot and so i just wanna i even feel as you know the chair of this board that we don't have a really clear understanding of what the bar is for community engagement that staff needs to reach because unless we have a really explicit conversation about what that is
039then it's always going to be box checking because it's almost like shooting in the dark right so i i think that that is definitely something that we need to revisit especially in the time of the pandemic given the fact that we have so many more resources at our disposal in terms of community engagement and what's possible and engagement and access has has in many ways for many parents increased right but i also just want to make it very clear that when we ask these types of questions ensuring that staff have the opportunity to be prepared to answer them you know with with the fullest ability that they possibly can is also critical so thank you director harris for bringing this up really appreciate as well the robust conversation i see that director davies has her
040hand up so i will go to her finally and then we will move on to the vote thank you i just had one last thing to add to kind of transition us into the extended conversation that we'll continue to have in the operations committee about the different elements of the student assignment transition plan but i think what was just discussed in this conversation is exactly why being able to take it to committee and break it down into pieces and walk through it together allows us the ability both staff and the board to work in partnership to better understand not only the contents of the document but how we can work together to bring forward our commitments as a district so um i'll just over the past many years while i've been here having to share
041the student assignment transition plan there's a lot in there and it's a document that holds different policies that have big impacts across the system and despite the fact that the plan doesn't dictate the policies it may be determined disgust developed in other departments um it is important to for us to be able to understand and have sufficient time um to be able to talk about it and talk through it and so i will just say again um i think the plan of being able to bring it through committee and have time and break it down it's going to really help us do many of the things that we talked about here in this discussion thank you miss davies i believe that is an excellent capstone for this discussion again gratitude director harris for pulling it
042the conversation was robust okay so let's go ahead and move to the vote miss wilson jones will you call the roll director sergio for the moment i say i wrecked your song moritz hi vice president hampson aye director harris hi director rankin hi rivera smith hi president president hi this motion has passed unanimously thank you miss wilson jones okay we have now come to the board committee reports section of the agenda um we will begin with audit and finance and that report will be coming from director hampson um i do not have anything to report other than we meet monday at 8 a.m and we will be having as i mentioned at our last meeting a discussion about changes to the sexual harassment policy so for those that want to uh listen in and get
043an update on that please listen in at 8 a.m on monday the 18th valentine's day i mean the 18th the 14th sorry at 8 00 a.m that's where the eight comes from um and uh other than that i believe we have uh there'll be our usual budgeting um financial briefing and um there's one other item on the agenda that's eluding me right now but um that's it from me for now thanks fantastic thank you uh we will now move to the executive committee uh we are in a similar position our next meeting will be on february the 16th at 8 a.m uh please feel free to join us we will be getting a very general update on our superintendent search process we will not have a substantive feedback on exactly what information was gathered but
044we will have some information on how many survey responses we got who has who was contacted and it'll be a good opportunity to ask some clarifying questions to um our search firm hya so if folks want to engage with us in that way i would just say please email your director of choice if you have any specific questions and we will do our best to get those things answered um next we will move on to the operations committee and that report will be coming from director rivera smith thank you we have also not had an operations committee meeting since our last board meeting um since my last committee report but our february meeting is scheduled for tomorrow and it's new time we're moving from 8 30 to 4 30 before now 4 30 p.m and
045we'll have um several board action reports for construction contracts and budget transfers most honorably to award the um so the montlick modernization and edition school project for the eckstein middle school science classroom improvement project for the west seattle elementary school renovation and addition project and for the van assault school edition project we'll also have three final acceptances for the adams elementary school fire sprinkler upgrade project for the seismic improvements at beacon hill maple whitworth orca k8 and for the bobby thompson seismic improvement project on the less technical cyber agenda we'll also have three special attention items uh one of them will be the transportation contract update and then an update our uh information on revised superintendent procedures 6810 which is the natural resources conservation policy and and then we'll have a bta and we have
046the update so maybe a little celebration fantastic thank you director rivera smith and finally we will have uh the report from the student services curriculum and instruction committee from director rankton thank you do you want me to give a sorry maybe it's on the agenda legislative update now too or you are correct it is on the agenda and i will you can just do both that's why okay i'm not trying to skip the order i don't have it in front of me so there is no order okay um as far as student services curriculum instruction um we have our next our february meeting next week on tuesday um we have some regular standing items math uh math curriculum adoption update for k5 um some of our our uh reading goals um a couple of uh
047legally required policies um high school rigorous course enrollment is one of those we've talked about a little bit already um it's coming back to your committee uh two policies one around students experiencing homelessness and students in the foster care system came to our committee before and we talked about it and some revisions have been made and they're going to come back next week [Music] and then a couple of pretty routine things that i'm going to try to keep brief in committee and send right to the full board to have a discussion um if needed around some some routine uh routine items um that is pretty much that for curriculum instruction for the legislative update um we are about halfway through the session um and i i have a draft here of an email that i
048was going to send all to all school board directors um as an update for this week and uh so i'll just give it to you now and i'm happy to also put anything in writing if you all want it um but so bills need to pass out of their wherever they originated so if it's a house bill or if it's the senate bill they need to pass out of those chambers by february 15th um and so last week was a bit of a mad dash with committees and meetings with legislators and things and this week is a little bit of a lull in terms of public engagement um while uh they are the chambers are each focused on floor votes moving each bills out of their respective chamber so the other chamber can um can
049take a look at it uh so this week is a little bit of a slight slight lull it feels quieter [Music] so uh any bill that hasn't passed out of their committee or the fiscal committee are now dead for this session um and so there's a waz devil watch list that's been updated it's significantly shorter than before the cut off because a lot of bills are not moving forward um my can you all hear me okay okay good i got a little the thing popped up it says bad connection so um we had some really good testimony last week in committees or the week before um from other wazda members for enrollment stabilization transportation funding and the prototypical school model bills um including our own dr jones dr jones testified in the senate ways and
050means committee along with some other superintendents from around the state and talked about how important the enrollment stabilization bill is for our students um i can't remember if i said an update here or not that out of the 295 districts in washington state 230 including seattle have experienced a pretty significant decline in enrollment over the last two years and what the enrollment stabilization bill would do is maintain our level of funding for for staff and services um at its current or it's 2019 the where they're gonna pick the time is is still kind of being talked about but um basically we we have fewer students now um because of the decline in enrollment than we did going into the pandemic um but as we all know there's no shortage of work to be done and
051support needed and so this bill would support um the majority of districts in our state who would like to and need to keep staffing and services in place as they are in spite of the decline in enrollment because um enrollment is funded or uh school districts are funded by the state on a per-pupil allocation formula and something that i want to take an opportunity to say also about the allocation formula is that the allocation formula is simply the manner by which the state based on the prototypical school model the manner by which the state distributes funds to all school districts it doesn't reflect the cost to educate one child in one year so there's a little bit of a miscommunication happening out there about um that's stable at funding the enrollment stabilization bill funds empty
052seats and um that's just and that that family should be able to take that money and go somewhere else with it we're not funding empty seats because that is not how much it costs to fund a full seat it's an allocation method of the funds it is not a it's not distribution based on cost so for example if you have a classroom of 32 students and one of those students is gone and their seat is empty you can't take a you can't take 132nd of the teacher out of that classroom you still need that full teacher in that classroom and so this talking point about funding empty seats is um really misleading and ultimately very damaging especially for smaller districts in our state and i will also add a huge thank you to the voters
053of seattle and thank you to schools first and a big big thank you to samantha fogg and joel and bergy our very own jolin bergie and samantha fogg from seattle council ptsa for the tireless amount of work they did to inform local school communities and ptas about how the levy works and what's being funded it sounds like yay all this money is coming in but really those local levies maintain regular standard operations that are really critical and enroll same with enrollment stabilization and changes to the prototypical school model it's not actually going to add suddenly add a whole bunch more services and staffing it's really to preserve what we have now so there's a bigger conversation about how we are funded by the state and how other districts are funded by the state and a
054lot of districts in the state also were not did not get the support they needed from their communities to pass their levees and especially for smaller districts that rely on those local levies for all kinds of student supports for building improvements earthquake retrofitting tsunami protection um they're having to go another cycle without the supports for their students and that's really really tough so um one other thing i'll add the uh in the past week through wasda as the legislative representative for the the board i attended meetings with um legislators from all seven of the just of the legislative districts in our uh city and invited fellow directors to join me and i was joined by directors hampson and songwrits and rivera smith for some of those we had a really positive response from a lot
055of our legislators about the work that seattle is doing a lot of appreciation about uh the tremendous amount of work that has been done uh in response to covid and what i most especially want to share is that um in our conversations there was a lot of really positive response and not only willingness but active desire to between now and the next session which is a budget session um get into some really uh more deep conversations about education funding especially special education so i'm very excited and looking forward to spending more time with legislators when uh when the session is over and they have a bit more time and so i'm looking forward to engaging in those conversations and and continuing our talk about you know not just saying full funding but what what do
056we want to fund what do we need what does that mean um and how do we communicate that to the community and to this legislature for um to make sure that our schools have the resources that they need and also in support of districts other districts around the state so that was a long update next week's up next time i promise i'll be shorter last week was a big week in the state and [Music] yeah that's it okay thank you very much for that robust update director rankin we will next go to public testimony we will be taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda for any speakers watching through sps tv please call in now to ensure you are on the phone line when your name is called board procedure 1430
057bp provides the rules for 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 from 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 and only one person should speak at a time speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called the total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins in order to maximize opportunities for others to address the board each speaker is allowed only
058one speaking slot per meeting if a speaker sees their time later to a speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person whom time was seated will not be called to provide testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person those who do not wish to have their time seated to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony list finally the majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about miss wilson jones will read off the testimony speakers thank you president hersey for those providing testimony today we do have quite a few people on the phone providing testimony so please when you hear your name called press star six and that will unmute you on the
059conference call line also make sure that you have unmuted on the device you are calling from um so that we can hear you uh i will be um sounding the two-minute timer um with a you'll hear a chiming sound when your time is exhausted the first speaker on today's testimony list is joshua carpentier joshua carpenter hear me yes we can hear you can can you hear me this is yasha yes we can hear you yasha hey thank you dear school board members my name is yasha and i've been a parent an sps parent for 20 years we appreciate the tough situation you are in well well we parents are frustrated you have a state governor and superintendent making unilateral decisions over your head and we recognize this is not easy for you nevertheless children are
060our first priority the risk of serious harm to kids from covid is statistically very low the downsides of forced masking are high in seattle right now there are kids with no memory of ever having seen a teacher or classmate unmasked kids desperately need the language cues and social feedback that come from seeing human faces without this their test scores and their emotional development are suffering they are suffering why is it to further reduce a coveted risk that to them already approaches zero prior to 2020 kids were never masked over flu regular flu viruses that are riskier to them than covid is it to make grown-ups feel safer this is not a good reason to put kids through this ordeal and it should never be kids responsibility to protect us as adults or as their parents
061two years ago there were many unknowns about covid there was no way to craft perfect policies and we understand you are doing the best you can thank you for leading through this uncertainty but now two years later it's time to lift this burden from children so we ask you please help make wssda membership optional help washington join the majority of states that have come out against the anti-parent national school board association make a firm statement that parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's future thank you the next speaker on today's testimony list is kayla harstad kayla harstad can you hear me i can hear you kayla hi can you hear me yes kayla we can hear you hi my name is kayla harstad i'm turtlemountain chippewa i'm a cinnabon sioux and i'm a senior
062at ingram high school i'm here to advocate for seattle schools to designate march 9th of philly frank junior day releasing junior day resolution which was crafted by una youth and leadership council cost for supporting the designation of march 9 as a day of remembrance celebration and recognition in honor of life legacy and achievements of billy frank jr this day needs to be recognized because as an indigenous student when we do hear about indigenous people in school it is in the context of history trauma and oppression that indigenous people have endured and survived i want to hear more than that and i want to celebrate the triumph that we say to the achievements of billy frank jr the urban native american club at ingram high school which was reestablished this year is a club where we
063are able to be culturally connected and have a place where we can learn about our traditions and history as a club we serve a person in our community who represents us with the designated day of march 9th at really frank junior day the hope is to learn about indigenous heroes and sheroes of both now in the past whose work and wisdom can act as inspiration for indigenous students and all students it is important for us indigenous students to have a person who represents us annually we should be able to celebrate someone who is a representation of our own culture and who shows many attributes to what a great hero is today not only will this day be for us but it's important for other communities to learn about billy frank jr and his achievements as
064well we need to recognize billy frank jr day every march 9th not just once so all seattle public schools students and staff can learn and celebrate with seattle public schools commitment to equity and inclusion by formally adopting march 9th at julia frank junior day will bring a step towards inclusion that we need to have i urge the seattle public school board to support effort in designing designated march 9th as billy frank jr day it is important now than ever for sample the school to celebrate the first people of this land thank you the next speaker on today's testimony list is gisele jenkins gisele jenkins hi we can hear you hi um i'm a junior at ingram high school and a descendant of the unogan tribe i believe sps needs to make a change namely to
065increase representation and celebration of native americans within their schools having billy frank jr day celebrated in my school annually would bring the change needed by recognizing and honoring a co-sales hero we did a great deal for the indigenous community here in washington interns from unea created a petition to advocate for sps to recognize and celebrate billy frank jr officially every march 9th these are some of the reasons community members provided for why they signed the petition to pass billy frank junior day i am signing this because billy frank jr is courage to fight for treaty rights environmental realization and conversation tribal sovereignty and social justice we must protect the sacred and indigenous people must lead representation matters even more so to the indigenous members of our community who are so often ignored or raised and
066derated this action is being asked of us as indigenous youth is not enough but it is a start we need to do better to listen and learn to those whose land we occupy it is important to recognize and pay tribute and learn from indigenous communities that has shaped our country and the pnw in particular bailey frank jr to me represents a pioneer who brought fish to our people community and my family and which we have been traditionally eating for centuries we should all be grateful his fourth efforts we depend on today my hope is that we continue to foster his beliefs to our young so they can provide us the sustenance for their people tomorrow billy frank jr is a modern day hero and we all need to know his dynamic leadership and activism i
067giselle jenkins urged seattle public school to listen to the words of the community to support the renewal of billy frank jr as an annual celebration thank you the next speaker on today's testimony list is mackenzie j teatrick mackenzie j trick can you hear me yes we can all right can you hear me yes we can hear you my name is mackenzie teatrick i'm otol missouria i am 17 and recently graduated early from middle college high school my freshman year was attended at ballard high but the lack of awareness and education for my culture's history while attending seattle public schools has remained prevalent for me since the third grade seattle public schools lacks a great amount of indigenous and cultural education and the history we are taught is subjective and biased this deceives us into acknowledging
068only one perspective a perspective that is often prejudiced in order to gain redemption in history it's sickening that in 2022 indigenous people are so wrongfully depicted our history is broken apart and distorted into a biased narrative this leads young people to sympathize colonizes for their genocide because the ones they killed raped and lied to are depicted as the villains this alone contributes greatly to the encouragement of systemic racism in our public school system seattle public schools failed in providing you with the truthful history we all should have learned indigenous people were our first farmers healers and inventors our school system should bring light to the truth of our people but also expand on our culture and how our ways have greatly supported our earth and its people clear sky academy provides students with a variety
069of cultural education and experiences including hands-on activities unbiased textbooks learning from indigenous artists art artists and storytellers and participating in cultural events blue sky has shown me how to be involved and educate myself and my community's culture all should be provided this experience as part of the general education system thank you the next speaker is gina tran gina tran hi i'm reading a statement by sps parent mourinho red woman enrolled northern cheyenne native american students do not receive equitable support from seattle public schools to ensure their academic success native students in sbs are more likely to face disciplinary actions than their white peers less likely to graduate high school and are largely absent from sps's highly capable program american indian slash alaskan native students are identified in sps's student well-being recovery plan as a group
070needing additional time support and or extracurricular activities for academic growth while this identification serves as a starting point the delivery of resources is not being felt by these students and their families the few programs and offerings through sps intended for indigenous students are underfunded and lack the infrastructure required to affect meaningful positive change we need our sbs teachers trained in indigenous cultural competency to engage with our students and maintain a flexible and self-correcting approach to instruction we need culturally relevant instruction lessons plan and events we need native teachers native education and family resources that offer wraparound services and holistic approach to supporting our students through the unique challenges that being an indigenous person in a white city present we need these programs available in all neighborhoods and funded in perpetuity we need better proactivity and
071support from the seattle promise program for our students unea is also requesting sps post such asada indian education report for 2020 and 2021 for transparency and accountability furthermore we would like a report on the board appointed native liaison who do they represent who appoints them or are they elected to represent sps native students what is their purpose and how do they engage our urban community thank you the next speaker is chris jackins chris jackins my name is chris jackins box 84063 seattle98124 my compliments to other public speakers today nice job on the consent agenda the board is continuing to deliberately vote on the consent agenda prior to allowing public comment not a single board member should be silently going along with such actions which are disrespectful of the public and which reduce board due diligence
072please vote no on roof repair at four schools the board report references local independent labor does this mean that the board is endorsing the use of non-union labor on these projects please vote no on the student assignment transition plan the district should offer transportation to all students who live outside their school's walk zone please vote no as you know you've already gone through these items before my testimony on the alki and john rogers contracts the documents reference soil hazards but not subsurface cultural resources please vote no on the personnel report five points number one the report contains a list of requested approvals for teachers assigned to classes other than in their areas of endorsement number two the report notes that state law requires a formal vote of approval by the board for each such teacher
073number three however many of the requested approvals have dates from five months ago number four are such references simply informational for a continuing reapproval for the second semester number five if not it makes it appear that the board is being asked for approval after the fact is this legal please vote now thank you the next speaker is jessica meads jessica needs hi can you hear me yes we can hear you perfect uh greetings seattle school board members i want to start by saying thank you for your service to our children my name is jessica meads i'm an sps parent and i'm representing the washington parent alliance also known as wapa parents in our organization have become aware of unlawful behavior characterized by operating under the color of law this is a new concept to many
074of us but explains much of the cognitive dissonance washington parents and other citizens have experienced over the past two years the color of law pertains to the attempt by government officials to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges by pretending to have rights superseding the rights of its citizens these acts of pretending are punishable by imprisonment and or lawsuit we have learned that the governor cannot make law even in an emergency the secretary of health ospi or wssda cannot make law nor any other entity outside of our legislation instead of attacking school boards well-meaning parents across the country should be working with the boards to help uncover those entities using the color color of law that force school board members to do their dirty work in this way these entities keep themselves safe from
075harm but endanger school board members with lawsuits and imprisonment imprisonment this has got to stop it is a cold calculated abuse of public servants members of the board you have received inquiries via u.s posts over the past weeks which we believe will help clarify who is doing what to whom as well as a way forward for decision making and fine education for our children again thank you for your service the next speaker is jennifer fernandez jennifer fernandez okay we can hear you jennifer oh okay you can hear me i think yeah yes okay great hi there i'm jennifer fernandez i'm a parent of seattle students for 22 years thank you for this opportunity to speak never before in history of washington has your job been so difficult i extend my gratitude for your service many
076districts across the state including seattle and others in king county have been served public discover disclosure request documents by thousands of parents statewide who have come together as a unified voice we recognize that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between school government and parents school government has a vested interest in the system as a whole while parents have a vested interest in the children we have identified that the source of this conflict may stem from the fact that our local school boards have been forced to give away increasingly more decision-making authority to washington state school directors association wasda and other state agencies we the people founded this country with a structure that was designed to keep the greatest authority at the local level of government yet our governor and state agencies have made unilateral
077decisions for the whole population while ignoring the voices of local school boards and parents the documents mailed to you are our first act of helping you our local school board take back your rightful authority to determine what's best to represent the parents of this district please use these public disclosure requests as an opportunity to educate yourself and us so we can better understand the entanglement we find ourselves in with ospi waza and other state agencies who are overstepping their lawful boundaries i request you do the following one support legislation to make wazda membership optional two strongly urge wasca to withdraw membership from the national school boards association following the majority of states in the u.s three pass a resolution that parents are the primary stakeholders in our children's future thank you the next speaker is
078jeff um beauvoir jeff beaure hello school board members thank you appreciate your time we have uh seattle parents speaking of all empathy for the tough decisions you have to make in the situation you're in um what is the risk of serious harm to a child from covin we know it's very small at their age something like 0.001 percent on average once infected the hypothetical risk reduction of masking from 0.001 to 0.000 [Music] it's tiny on a pie chart you'd have to zoom in and squint really hard to see that difference that's how little protection masks would provide if they even worked but they don't doctors on cnn now tell us that our understanding has improved masks have no impact other than to deprive kids of oxygen make them feel toxic deprived them of seeing their
079friends and teachers faces for two years that's a very high price might be worth it if kids were at serious risk and if masks provided solid protection but neither of those things is true so please join the many other jurisdictions that have recently announced the end of this policy make masks optional help make wasa membership optional help washington join the majority of states that have come out against the anti-parent national school boards association make a firm statement that parents are the primary stakeholders in their children's future and parents will stand with you if you do that thanks for your time the next speaker the next speaker is heather stratz heather can you hear me yes we can hear can you hear me okay thank you good evening seattle school board members and thank you for
080your service to our children my name is heather stratz and i'm a seattle parent and i'm representing the washington parents alliance parents in our organization have become aware of unlawful behavior characterized by operating under the color of law this is a new concept to many of us including myself but explains much of the cognitive dissonance washington state parents and other citizens have experienced over the last two years the color of law pertains to the attempt by our government officials to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges by pretending to have rights superseding the rights of we the people these acts of pretending are punishable by imprisonment or lawsuits we have learned that the governor cannot make law even in an emergency the secretary of health cannot make law ospi or waza cannot make lawn
081or any other entity outside of our legislature this is where well-meaning parents like myself across the nation have been mistaken instead of condemning school boards we should be working together with you the school boards to help uncover those that are using this color of law to force you to do their jury work while these entities force school boards to do their dirty work they are keeping themselves safe from harm but you the school board members are at risk for legal action this has got to stop is it a cold abuse of public servants such as yourselves who very often serve our students with little or no pay you've received inquiries through the us postal service over the past week and we believe with help clarify who is doing what to whom and a way to
082move forward with decision making and improving our education to our children thank you again for your service the next speaker is whitney mack whitney mack thank you i'm a seattle parent and first i just want to say thank you so much for your service to our children i really appreciate it i'm here to reiterate the concerns of my fellow washington parent alliance members in communicating our awareness of unlawful behavior characterized by operating under the color of the law which is defined as any attempt by government officials to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and privileges by pretending to have rights superseding those of said citizens and this is punishable by imprisonment and or lawsuit it is our desire to work with the school boards to help uncover the entities using the color of the law
083to coerce unknowing school board members to do their dirty work it is highly concerning to myself and fellow parents that government officials are able to shield themselves from liability by endangering you the school board members with lawsuits or imprisonment and our hopes as parents is to put a stop to this cold calculated abuse of public servants who are serving our students selflessly we parents and school board members are partners in the desire to create the best and safest learning environment for our children so that they can thrive socially mentally emotionally and in their education yet it's imperative that school board members understand their liability for being complicit in doing the bidding of government officials like the governor the secretary of health ospi or wssda who cannot make law nor any other entity outside our legislature
084you have received letters from the wapa over the u.s post past week which we think will help clarify for you how to best serve the needs of our children which currently are being disregarded in the name of public health not back by law or the most recent science thank you the next speaker is sarah since wilson sarah sense wilson good day my name is sarah since wilson i'm co-founder and chair of the urban native education alliance unea is the largest longest-running grassroots community-based student-centered native-led organization supporting indian ed in seattle our organization successfully launched a model pilot project clear sky academy in partnership with yellowwood academy to provide ospi credit courses in common core required social studies and fine arts all 22 multi-district students earn credit for their coursework however garfield high school was the
085only school to deny an indigenous student yellowwood academy transcript credit the unwarranted denial of credit approval led to an appeal process requiring multiple emails several meetings phone calls complaints filed spanning a six-month period before the appeal was finally approved and credit granted for credit earned the district's inconsistent application of approval for legitimate out-of-district transcript credit is problematic and contradicts the district's effort to diversify academic opportunities by manufacturing barriers for students furthest from educational justice in addition garfield high school does not celebrate native heritage month there's no cultural enrichment opportunities there's no representation visible or tangible culturally responsive resources or support for indigenous students students are entitled to experience identity affirming and culturally responsive schools where they can thrive academically socially emotionally and culturally unea supports the renewal and the district-wide celebration of billy frank jr
086day march 9th we urge the board to make this day an annual celebration thank you so kindly the next speaker is rachel rieber rachel rieber good evening can you hear me we can hear you okay perfect i just said it was unmuted so good evening school board members my name is rachel riber i am currently a working mother of two young children here in the seattle school district my children have personally never known a school environment that they're not math my oldest daughter who is currently in the first grade is just beginning to shut down at this point in school because her teachers are sounding muffled she told me the other night my littlest daughter who's in pre-k she's four she no little longer wants to go to school because the teachers can't hear her
087behind her math she told me i'm personally tired and exhausted by our outdated cobit policies here in seattle and across our state and they're really harming our children and our families i think it's really odd that we can go to a cracking game with no mass and thousands of people but our kids are masked all day i'm speaking here tonight as part of a parent in the washington parents alliance that wants math to be optional and we want to partner with the school board here to make that happen i recently learned as board members your hands have been really tied in more ways on decision making here locally and instead those decisions have been given to the washington state school directors association wozda and other state agencies i know you all are aware we talked
088about it earlier on this call how many children have withdrawn from washington schools the last they checked it was about 55 000 for this year if these outdated policies including mass mandates are upheld and lord forbid coven vaccines get required for our kids we're going to lose more and more children in our public schools mine included i along with many other parents across the city have mailed documents to you outlining ways we can act here locally to change these outdated policies please use these public disclosure requests so we can better understand the entanglement we find ourselves in with ospi waza and other state agencies who are really overstepping their boundaries i really urge you and request that we could do the following make math optional turn down potential coveted vaccine mandates for children here support
089legislation to make wazda membership optional i'd really urge you wisely to withdraw school board association and pass the resolution that parents are the primary stakeholders in our children's future i thank you for your service and i know we can make a change here in seattle the next speaker is a keychain taken alive the keychain had taken live the next speaker is a keychain taken alive if you are on the line please press star 6 to unmute hello i greet you with the warm heart my name is the keepsta taken alive i come from the standing rock tribe and i'm asking for the board to renew billy frank jr day because he is a excellent native role model to native children in school and you know going through the school systems i've been to a lot
090but mainly seattle public there was not a whole lot of native education and i loved that that's starting to change now so i was just asking for that thank you the next speaker is christy devader christie devader chrissy if you're on the line please press star six to unmute i am not seeing the phone number that kristi signed up on moving to the next speaker joseph apologies joseph i didn't get your last name joseph who is speaking about indian education we can hear you joseph um yes we can hear you leadership council is an educational nonprofit organization that uplifts and powers new youths through cultural prediction and academic success members of the crisis iu council would like to propose a joint reference the resolution calls for supporting the imagination of march 9th as a remembrance
091celebration and mechanization in honor of the we can hear you you can go ahead okay come on um [Music] took place in the 1960s and 70s and began when billy from junior was arrested multiple times and put in jail for a series of sessions that led to the bulk decision which confirmed that washington state new tabs were entitled to half of each year's festivals this time junior's currently dedicated to the fight maturity rights is an inspiration to me and it's important for more people to know about bill frank jr and his story as a leader and through life after this whole story still as well that is why we urge camp other schools to take into consideration we play here today as a permanent official day organization we encourage you to recognize resolutions immigration have
092a newly prayed university on march 9th for all to celebrate their achievements in protecting the land water and salmon this day shouldn't be a day of civilization for not only indigenous communities the next speaker is laura marie rivera laura marie rivera please press star six to unmute laura marie rivera okay i'm not seeing that phone number um moving to the next speaker kristen justice kristen justice listen justice please press star six if you're on the line not seeing that number either moving on to star um star i didn't get your last name but i believe you're on the line good evening um my name is star naia thank you for your time this evening seattle public schools has a responsibility to provide equitable education to students who are historically and currently underserved my son is
093more than halfway through his education provided by seattle public schools and has yet to receive appropriate and sufficient resources my son has never had a native american principal my son has never had a native american teacher my son has never had a native american instructional assistant my son has never had never sat in seattle public schools classrooms that acknowledged native americans as anything other than historical figures from long long native youth experience more adverse childhood experiences and have the lowest graduation rates in the nation creating and maintaining connections to native culture buffer children from the trauma of inequity i'm sorry inequality these connections have been limited in almost non-existence due to social distancing and loss of parents grandparents and elders to cope with 19 erasing the identity of native american students ensures a negative outcome
094more than ever before the history of this nation education is not only the key to economic success but also to basic survival my son is vulnerable to poor educational outcome because his needs are not being acknowledged or melt thank you so much for your time tonight the next speaker is kayla love too i inadvertently skipped over kayla luft please press star six to unmute if you are on the line hi everyone are you able to hear me yes we can hear you fantastic thank you yes my name is kayla luft you can refer to me with they she or he pronouns i am the education manager for friends of north creek forest which is a small non-profit in bothell speaking to you all today just to pitch our programs so we host k-12 field trips
095alongside various other programs most of our field trips are science-based but we can also host art literature history and other lessons we often host events that work toward the next generation science standards by facilitating student projects in the forest over several field trips we help students develop questions they have about the environment gather data and supply field equipment for their projects all of our programs are free because we are funded by grants and donations so far we've mostly served schools in the north shore lake washington and edmond school districts as well as local private schools and homeschool groups we can host in north creek forest which is where we are based or we can visit a school a park closer to you or host virtual lessons and we have some transportation stipends available to award
096select schools in need for bus costs we host field trips all throughout the school year lengths ranging from 30 minutes on a campus or virtually and up to five hours in our forest we host education events to educate our community so north creek forest can be preserved for future generations and also teach others about the importance of urban natural spaces if you're interested in talking about our programs you can contact me at kayla l friends north creekforce.org or visit our website at friendsnorthcreekforce.org and find my contact information there thank you for your time i'm going to briefly go back through um each of our speakers who we did not hear from earlier but i don't believe they're on the line um first christy devader christie de vader laura marie rivera and if you do hear
097your name please press star six and kristen justice president hersey that concludes today's testimony list all right thank you very much miss wilson jones we will now move to the action item on today's agenda approval of the amended 2021-22 superintendent evaluation documents may i have a motion for this item i move that the board approved the amended 2021-22 superintendent evaluation documents is attached to the board action report immediate action is in the best interest of the district i second this motion it doesn't matter who's if it's me or for no no it doesn't matter but we typically just as board practice the member at large uh is the someone to do it but any second will do thank you thank you so uh this item has been moved by director hamson and seconded by director
098rivera smith and sargo this item is on the agenda for intro and action today and did not move through committee as a sponsor i'll speak to the item it updates the superintendent evaluation tool which the board approved in november the tool included evaluation in three domains related to the superintendent's school climate survey data was not yet available to use set targets for the evaluation when the board approved the tools so those targets were left blank with the understanding that the board would take action to update once data was made available attached to this bar is an amended tool with performance targets in the three school climate domains based on the survey data collected in november to december of 2021 no other targets or domains have been changed now for directors who have any comments or
099questions on this item or other directors before we move on to the vote any comments questions concerns all right seeing none uh miss wilson jones will you go ahead and call the roll oh wait hold on we absolutely we have a couple we have a couple i see you director rivera smith uh i think i saw your hand first and then we'll go to director song moritz thank you um i wanted to just i'm worried that maybe i'm just not reading this correctly but um i look at this uh the charts on this on the attachment to the bar and i don't sorry i look at it on the screen at the same time take your time goals in it don't match the goals from our golden guardrails the first one does but two and
100three and four do not so what am i missing uh do you have miss warth on the call yes hi uh can you all hear me yes okay great yeah um so uh the uh evaluation for the superintendent because we are in an interim and implementation phase include some of the goals that were previously enumerated in seattle excellence as well as student outcomes focused implementation goals and then the next version of the superintendent evaluation would align specifically with the goals and guard rails so the goal two that you see here is pulled from seattle excellence as we had metrics available for for that particular goal area and then in the future it would align with the interim metrics for the guardrails that are currently under development so what about three and four yes so three
101and four are the um goals around student outcomes focused governance implementation um so the um board uh leadership made the decision um to evaluate the [Music] the effectiveness and fidelity of the implementation of student outcomes focused governance as we are in this transition year uh refresh my memory when we made that decision uh during the discussion on the november uh the original discussion of the superintendent evaluation tool around the november uh seventeenth approval november third was introduction i believe okay you're speaking about radio board meeting or executive committee uh the items were discussed during both and so you said the next version when is the next version um so the next version would be approved by the board once a permanent superintendent has been selected and the evaluation tool is set for the 2022-23 school
102year so this one is coming up for this one we're going to be using this one in the late spring correct yes and the next evaluation would be sometime in 223. uh for the for the next superintendent or for the permanent superintendent and the the next tool that's aligned with student outcomes focused governance yes thank you um i don't think i have enough questions right now thanks thank you director revere smith director song moritz thank you um i just wanted to make an observation that um when i was looking at some of these climate goals i did a quick check of some of the csips and it doesn't seem like there's real alignment and i understand that we're in a transition year but i kind of urge my colleagues that when we do evaluate our
103interim superintendent in may that we keep that in mind and try to focus more on the implementation halls thank you okay we will have to have some discussion um regarding that because we want to make sure that we are we are aligned and that our superintendent has a clear understanding of what he's going to be evaluated on so um thank you for that president hersey yeah sorry this is director rankin um i just i i just missed the end of what director songwriter said could you just repeat the last you said encourage us to focus on and then i miss what you said oh i i encourage us to focus on the implementation parts of it because i just the timing of the csips i think they were submitted before these goals were identified and
104i i'm just wondering that if that would be challenging for our interim superintendent to make progress on the climate goals when they're not reflected in the csips and i understand that we are in a transition year so i'm my that's i just wanted to make that observation um because this is where i personally got a little confused and i just stating that my encouragement that as a board when we're evaluating our in terms of printing its performance that we focus on the implementation instead thank you thanks for repeating that and thanks for asking that clarification because i definitely miss her what you said at the end their director samaritz okay director hamson sorry yeah no i just in in response to that just wanted to note that so just to be really clear um which
105is i think uh always hard for the for new directors that weren't here for the process that we had we approved the superintendent evaluation we've been in a difficult scenario not just because of having an interim superintendent but also because of covet and not even having the metrics right because of there not being any any metrics which we had previously um had as part of our original goals under the strategic plan so um but when we get to the level of cfs and the connection of that to goals and guard rails and the format so we want to make sure that other directors have the specific format that we will be using of which this is a hybrid right because we're not there yet to evaluate the superintendent based on what we set up as
106very focused goals um connected with guard rails and then there's there are interim goals and guardrails which are due to us in march which would further delineate the ways in which we would evaluate the superintendent and so csips might be part of that but that gets down to a much deeper level than um than what we're uh a value as part of this evaluative process i don't disagree with the notion it's just not necessarily something that's been set up in this evaluation so we can't add on things later to be evaluated that we didn't already approve okay fantastic any other questions before we move on to the vote on this item i have a comment which is just that we will be getting another update around the csip process in april or may i think
107since we had this year's csip we pushed from september i think to november and so we were scheduled to have um an update coming through my committee um this month but we're going to push that to give a little bit more space to incorporate these things so i'm sure some of these things are being thought about in connection as well okay fantastic thank you for that all right miss wilson jones will you call the roll please director rivera smith hi director sergio yes with your song moritz hi vice president hampson aye director harris i victor rankin hi percy aye this motion has passed unanimously thank you miss wilson jones all right let's get centered here we have now come to the board comment section of the agenda before we move into individual comments i would
108first note that the annual board director in senior staff ethics disclosure forms are completed and posted for public viewing on the agenda okay so let's begin with director hampson i don't have any comments tonight thank you thank you director hampson director harris i do have comments and as per usual i have been cautioned not to make some of them but i will do so anyway because um i feel strongly that i was elected to speak my truth with respect to the reams of paper that all of us board directors received at home i wonder if that is the most effective tool that advocates for their position can make and use i have spent my entire career defending folks first amendment rights to speak out i appreciate that the reams of paper that we all receive
109from individual folks is absolutely legal under the law i am beyond curious however of who washington parents alliance is is that a lobbying organization is it a 501c3 or a c 4 organization and i'm wondering about the effectiveness of threatening school board members with prison and lawsuits uh we get emails every day by the dozens and and this is not a new subject for me i have often stated in my public comments that copies of letters might not be the most effective if one doesn't tell us who they are where their children are what what their children's ages are and and i'm having difficulty understanding the quote-unquote color of law recitations having spent 40 years in the legal system i'm i'm having trouble understanding these um assertions threatening prison and lawsuits doesn't seem to me
110to be an effective way to collaborate with with the board of directors and of course i only speak as an individual the board president speaks for the board but but i i dare say that we're all tired to use some of the phraseology that we heard about this evening in testimony and and i guess particularly the one that struck me the most was testimony that suggested that parents and school board directors have a quote unquote conflict of interest your school board directors here are here for students and i don't see the conflict of interest and unless i'm hugely mistaken and i often am i don't see where the washington state school directors association has any legal authority to tell us what to do so so i got some problems with some of the factual statements
111that are made and and i would suggest to you that there are better ways to go about this lobbying effort but again that is absolutely your right i would also like to know what the washington parents alliance organization stands for other than covet masking and and i invite you to email me leslie.harris at seattleschools.org for more positive uh thanks and gratitude caleb perkins daniel goldsman and anyone else that helped with the kuow ads in drive time i often tease people at the district that i'm going to crash my car when i hear about information that i didn't know about before but the seattle skills center advertisements earlier this week made my day and i thank you for that and and i think that we need to do more of that sort of advertising and recruiting
112and i might add i drive by 10 signs every morning when i drive off of west seattle island for charter schools i i think we need to up our game i think we need to be loud and proud much like the over 75 percent passage that i read about this morning and i hope it's going up of our school levies we we do a lot of things that we need improvement on but but the citizens of seattle are behind us and thank goodness that they are because otherwise 25 percent of our operating budget and it's already rough times because again mccleary is in fact fake news the mentoring program that i read about this week hits me to my core and congratulations on every seattle public school staff person that is participating in that and
113i could not be more thrilled by that because i believe that mentoring is the way that we address the opportunity gap and it's it's been my thought since before i ran for the school board and was elected to ms sarahsense-wilson tonight is the first time that i heard that we were not crediting courses i invite you to reach out to me about that i'm distressed that it took months and appeals i i do understand our credit accreditation issues i helped vote for those policies but i was completely and utterly unaware of this issue and i'm distressed by that last to the north crees creek forest folks and kayla thank you for your testimony and i wonder if there is not opportunity there to use the cleveland memorial forest and of course the fort lawton land
114that we're in negotiations over so that we can have a really robust uh environmental education situation i i think we have a lot of opportunity both for environmental science education and certainly for outdoor education again i love my colleagues and it's an honor and a privilege to serve thank you so much thank you director harris we will now go on to director rivera smith hi thank you um so first of course thank you to all of our public testimonial speakers um especially to our students uh many of us shared their requests for us to review our daily frank junior day resolution from last year as one of the co-sponsors of that resolution i support the request and i i will connect with dr thompson who is our tribal nations liaison and who also co-sponsored last
115year's resolution to um discuss that so thank you for that um well i i don't remember so much time so um i wanted to just let you know of something that i uh had the pleasure of doing this week and that i think will lead to more things to be said and done but um i met this week um the pleasure of meeting with the nwcp youth council to begin discussions with them on the creation of a student voice policy for sarah public schools i mentioned this off and on but it's something that i'm excited to get to work with um work with them on and it's something i believe will really cement our commitment to including student voice in the discussions and decisions that affect them um you don't have to look far just
116to see research showing that including student voice in decision making has positive impacts on citizen schools and while i also believe that the cinemas policy will actually pair really well with our recently adopted board policy 1250 which creates school board student members because as my fellow school board members know there are many areas that have a system that the board directors don't actually ever touch we are not on nor do we oversee blts we are not involved in hiring committees we're not involved in stuff or building leader evaluations and these are just a few of the areas where i and the students i've spoken with believe students should have roles in so that is something more to come on that i'm sure in other news i saw this afternoon that superintendent of public instruction chris
117rigdel issued a recommendation to the governor and to the health department to make masks a local health department decision for students in k12 schools i have many feelings about that but what i really want to emphasize are two things one that at this time masks are still required in seattle public schools so please do not send your child to school without a mask based on that recommendation you might have heard today two the school masking requirement is ultimately a decision of the governor and if he decides to make it a local health department decision it's been a local health department decision so my point is that we are many steps away from it being or ever being a local school board district decision so we look to this state the government i'm sure more will
118be coming i also want to share um really sad news that um we had a member of our community steve goldblatt passed away on monday uh um steve welbeck was an integral part of example the school's a success in both our decks and our bta capital levies he was a member of our bex bt oversight committee i think since the beginning and um his wisdom guidance humor and laughter will be missed on that committee for sure um another member we have we have had another one with steve taji shared that steve remained a great teacher to the end and lives in a calculable legacy in our industry i was privileged to have seen him in action in a variety of settings and he was the same in all of them insightful curious generous and all
119with a sense of humor we can only hope some of that rubbed off on all of us so thank you um to steve for his um like i said his um how much you get for our district over the years i'm i know it's sad and i i know that we all appreciated him and um hope his family wishes family peace so that is all i have to say for tonight thank you okay thank you director rivera smith we will now move on to director rankin um i don't have a whole lot else to add that i didn't already say in my legislative and committee updates um yeah i look forward to in addition to what i talked about in the updates speaking with legislators and other folks about [Music] civic education and governance structures
120and how we can increase access to that access for advocates and students and families to understanding governance in our state um i think uh following along with what director harris was saying about effective advocacy the the more we can help folks understand the the process of how decisions are made and where they can engage in and um how we are represented by free and fair open elections um [Music] and i'd love to get more pta folks involved in legislative session just in general do less fundraising raise funds by advocating to the state to increase equitable funding throughout the state instead of selling car wash tickets for example but also in terms of advocacy uh just in terms of being the curriculum and instruction committee chair seems like we need a real heavy lift an increase
121in civic education in our communities and okay thank you director sergey thank you um i just i only have a couple comments and i want to say thank you to my american indian alaska native siblings for your testimony and advocacy around billy frank jr day um and i i'm gonna share a quote um i recently participated in a workshop um and it's a common standard procedure to do land acknowledgement um but this one was different um and it really captured for me why i chose to run for school board i'm only going to read the second part of it and this is from a program at the university of washington and it says we explicitly explicitly acknowledge the historical trauma caused by colonialism that led to policies that were harmful to families and communities we
122honor all parents both past and present as they move through this world raising their children and navigating the challenging experiences they face with resilience and strength and so as we think about whose land we're on uh to have the students um speak and testify to honoring one of our local leaders his impact is still with us today and shows up in many different places and i just want to acknowledge that you represent leaders of the future by engaging in positive and constructive political discourse and advocating for things that matter so i appreciate you taking your time out today you could have been doing many other things but you chose to wait until your turn to testify and for that i am grateful thank you director samaritz thank you um thank you to the voters i'm
123very excited to have this mandate to serve our 50 000 students thank you to our students and community members for their public testimony today for making march 9th billy frank jr day and i look forward to supporting this and working together to honor the local and national legacy of billy frank jr i with regard to the student assignment transition plan that we had earlier and i understand in the scenario that the boxes were checked a program change is not a board decision an item that was introduced to the board two weeks ago gets put up for a vote at the next meeting but i do push back in the situation that we had a robust conversation two weeks ago about the program change because this was a shift from a k-5 virtual program at queen
124inn elementary to the k-12 program as cascade parent partnership program that was not in the draft that we saw two weeks ago and i know that i'm not a decision maker here but these are two schools in my district district four and i would really appreciate you in enabling me to support your communications and transition plan with more information and data on how this decision was made and how the change will proceed two weeks ago the u.s supreme court announced that it was going to be making a decision on whether race conscious admissions programs at harvard college and the university of north carolina are lawful and i'm bringing this up because as we have courageous conversations about race and education as a district i see this backdrop of continued harm from perpetuating the model minority
125myth the plain fact is the model minority myth harms everyone and as we're doing the work to write the harms to our students for their educational justice this is my ask that we are intentional and thoughtful when we use terminology to describe demographic groups we should not refer to demographic groups or ethnicities the terms that they would not use to identify i'm not saying i'm going to give an example and i'm not saying that this example came from our district but i have seen it used in community and it's the term northern asian this is not a term that presumably japanese korean and chinese communities would use to describe themselves and instead it serves to perpetuate the model minority myth and thereby perpetuates white supremacy remember when everyone is free until everyone is free no
126one is great and borrowing from dr keisha scarlett in the introductory video for black history month let's make circles not mines thank you thank you director song merits uh i will keep my comments very brief i am in eternally grateful for the voters of seattle uh for helping us to continue to support our children collectively especially during a time when there is an immense lack of resources for not only systems but people and individuals the continued commitment to our students both financially and from a standpoint of community is is greatly appreciated and i believe for us at this point directors it is now how are we going to to utilize this mandate that has been handed to us in order to serve our children to do that in the most effective way possible and i
127believe under the leadership of dr jones up until this point as well as the board that we currently have it is a clear sign that we have a commitment to not only serving every single child in this district but also using and utilizing a specific focus on those who are furthest away from educational justice a specific focus on black boys and teens within our system and and it's clear that our community agrees with us in that fact so with that it is 623 and there being no further business on the agenda going once going twice all right this meeting stands adjourned at 6 23 p.m thank you all very much have a wonderful evening and i will see you next time thanks all take care good night you