Seattle School Board Meeting March 24, 2021

001>> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This is Director Hampson. I am now calling the March 24th 2021 Regular Board Meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. This meeting is being recorded. We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish Coast Salish people. Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director DeWolf [present] Director Harris [present] Director Hersey I can see you see you there [Yeah. Switching over from Zeems from Zeems from Teams to Zoom. Can you hear me now.] Yes. Yes. [Cool] Director Rankin [here] Director Rivera-Smith [present] and Director Hampson [here.]. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Superintendent Juneau is also joining us for today's meeting and additional staff will be briefing the board as we move through the agenda. As we begin this meeting I would also like

002to welcome LeManuel Donaldson and Trevon Mitchell who are joining us today as the student representatives from the Student Leadership Council for the Office of African-American Male Achievement. We will be hearing from them later on in the meeting as well as fellow student leadership council member August P. Diggs who will be leading off our testimony list. This meeting is being held remotely consistent with the Governor's proclamation on open public meetings. The public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube. To facilitate this meeting. I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking. Staff may be muting participants to address feedback and ensure we can hear directors and staff. The first item of business on today's agenda is the appointment of School

003Board Director for the unexpired term for District 4. I want to thank candidates Erin Dury Laura Marie Rivera and Eric Souza for your participation in this appointment process and interest in serving on the board. The Executive Committee discussed the process that will be used for this action item during the committee's February 10th meeting and determined that the process will be as follows. First each Director will have an opportunity to speak to the one candidate they are recommending. We will move alphabetically by last name beginning with Director DeWolf. Once each Director has stated their recommendation staff will conduct a roll call vote. This vote will be taken in reverse alphabetical order beginning by last name beginning with Director Rivera-Smith. If one candidate receives four votes then that candidate will be appointed as the director for District

0044 having secured the required majority. If no candidate receives four votes I will make a new motion to put before the board those candidates that received the most votes in the prior round of voting or in the event of a tie we will revote on the sorry. In the event of a tie we will revote on the full slate of candidates without a new motion. We will continue voting in rounds until one candidate receives the required 4-vote majority. The order in which Directors vote will reverse with each round. We will now begin with a motion and a second to place the three candidates before by by a second a motion and then a second to that motion to place the three candidates before the board for voting. I now move that the board take up

005for consideration and debate the candidacies of the three candidates for the unexpired term for the Director for District 4 Erin Dury Laura Marie Rivera and Eric Souza to be followed by a vote of the Directors. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: We will now start with Director DeWolf speaking to their one remec — recommended candidate. Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you President Hampson. Can you hear me okay. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes. It's not loud but I can hear you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Just wanted to make sure. I know my my wi-fi by my house is wonky sometimes. I also want to just give my gratitude to the candidates who signed up and the candidates who remain. You know as I watched the our youth-led forum a week ago now and and

006then watched the forum put on by the Seattle Council PTSA. The one thing I just felt was at the end of the day the fact that you candidates came forward put your name forward is a huge deal. And I I don't want to let the moment go without sharing my extreme immense gratitude I have for you because signing up to be part of this work knowing that it's all volunteer. Knowing that comes with a lot of work a lot of sacrifice. I really appreciated that you you continue to stay in this and to volunteer your time and your talents and your efforts with Seattle Public Schools. So I just wanna make sure you all know that that is a huge deal at least to me. So in watching the forums I was really compelled by

007a lot of our candidates. But I think the the candidate stuck out to me most both based on their answers and also their grasp of the issues that I care deeply about when it comes to systemic transformation racial equity centering students operational needs and just an overall understanding of the district and our current work and our current values in our and our pursuits particularly as this board the candidate that I would like to put forward or recommend or support tonight is Erin Dury. So to all to all the others. I greatly greatly greatly appreciate you as I said. So I'll turn it back over to President Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. And then we are going in alphabetical order by last name which has me coming up next. And I will just echo Director

008DeWolf in stating my tremendous appreciation for those that put your your your foot forward your your mind and your heart forward to to consider doing this work. None of us actually ran for office or made this commitment in the in the height of a pandemic and yet you've all done that. And I think that that shows at this very very difficult time in education in general an incredible amount of dedication and and heart and bravery. And so thank you to each of you that remains today but also thank you to those that participated prior to this particularly to Mark Perry who just recently withdrew his candidacy his participation in the forums and in the process was greatly appreciated but also to those who considered and then and then pulled out early it’s I don't want

009anybody to have any shame about having considered it and then decided that it wasn't for you at this time. It is a very massive commitment. And so to those of you that are that are still standing I really appreciate having spent time with each of you. And as I said the level of commitment that it takes to put your yourself and your and that of your families forward at this time I think is to be commended. And I've had the opportunity to speak with each one of you to see you in in the forums to watch your videos and look at your backgrounds. And while you each have very strong qualifications and characteristics in terms of the the balance and the direction that we're headed as a board particularly with some strong background in budgeting

010and change management I'm going to say that that I will be putting my support behind Erin Dury at this time. I was particularly impressed with her areas of expertise and believe in particular with her familiarity with the students that are in foster care through her CASA experience that she's got a great deal of understanding about students that exist at the margins of our systems and that's a really critical level of experience that I would like to see us have on the board. And with that I will turn it over to Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I'm sorry I'm coming third because my two colleagues that spoke before me said many of the things that I wished to have said so I will not repeat them. I will say however that the fact that Erin Dury

011comes from an option alternative school is very important to me. I will say that her CASA background and my background in the legal community makes that especially relevant and personal to me. The community outreach and change management is especially important to me as well as is my conversation with Mark Perry who had my vote previous to his withdrawing for personal reasons and he has every right to those personal reasons and I respect him even more now for recognizing what an enormous commitment this happy job is. And he said he's going to continue to help us. And I'm thrilled beyond that. And to everyone that put their hat in the ring whether they withdrew or not. Huge thanks and gratitude. We know where you live. And we will find a spot for you to continue to

012help us if you are not appointed the director. But my vote will enthusiastically go for Erin Dury. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Thank you very much. As many of you know oh that is my teaching camera give me a second to get that figured out I'll figure it out on the next one. But as many of you know I was sitting in this seat a little over a year ago and I it is not lost on me how much time energy commitment and and just frankly passion and all the anxiety as well around putting yourself forward in a way that is very public and in times can be very divided and divisive. And that is no small feat. I I think as we enter a period of transition both in

013our leadership and in into physical buildings having folks that are interested in jumping aboard this steaming bullet train it is just very heartening. I think that as I think about everything that I've learned and everything that I needed to know in this role I'm really excited about candidate Dury for for a number of reasons that have already been stated here tonight. I think that the ability of all candidates who put their name forward to hit the ground running would be there. But with the special attention and focus as Director Hampson has already mentioned to students who live and students who frankly thrive in the margins of our society and what it's going to take for us to take those students and their experiences and put them at the forefront as we continue to figure our

014way out through this pandemic. I'm really excited about her candidacy for so many reasons but the style of leadership and those lived experiences that are shared between so many of our students are going to be critical as we make sure that we reopen in an equitable way. So I'm very excited to put my support behind candidate Dury and I'll pass to the next Director. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Hi. Thank you. Yeah. I also want to express my my gratitude and appreciation to everybody who put their names in the hat. I felt really fortunate during the process that we had a lot of really good options. That was really comforting and honestly a little bit surprising going into this knowing the circumstances that we're all facing right now and the challenging

015situation and the fact that you know the four and the four who ended up being in it till close to the end now three that stuck with it would would all serve our board and serve our students really well. I really appreciated Mark Perry's experience as a principal and a building leader and given that we are a relatively young board that in particular just life experience also and and being within several several systems as a as a leader was was really appealing. So I do hope that he will continue to engage with us and support the work of the board. And let's see what who's next. Erik Souza. The enthusiasm and willingness to dive right in and start digging into issues was also so appreciated. And for Laura Marie your care and and concern and

016and wanting every student to succeed is so evident and that that also that moves me a lot and means a lot to me. And so in the end where we are. I'm also recommending Erin Dury for this seat due to as as other directors have noted. In thinking about where there are where there are overlaps where there are gaps in skill set or or less less-represented skills within the board that could be filled by one of these folks who I saw filling those particularly with budgeting and systems change and nonprofit experience was in Erin. And so. And in addition to her focus on students who have been marginalized and need need our full attention. So I'm also recommending Erin Dury for the seat. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. So

017likewise I first and foremost want to thank all eight candidates who stepped up to be considered for this role. In the beginning there was eight. So including so those who stepped down even I respect their decisions and the foresight they had to make that decision. So then there were three and I had the pleasure of speaking with each candidate to learn more about them and to share a little bit about this job. They each impressed me with their dedication to service and their sort of outsider insights that we unfortunately lose when we take a seat on this board. We've become accustomed to operating from an insider position. Personally I think some of my best moments are when I'm able to recapture what it's like to sit in the audience unburdened by the politics and the

018reticence and solely focus on the issues and with the critical questions and insights that are really needed in this district. So they each have that and they each you know were going to bring back to this job. So which candidate is best for district four or our district as a whole. I don't know that any of us can truly know the answer to that in the short time this was a really quick process and the timeline established by state law. So that's how that's why it was such a quick turnaround here. But I do take solace that the voters will have a say in this coming up soon here this summer and fall so they will get to decide who will fill this position in the long run. But as it's our duty to appoint

019someone to their school starting tonight and for the next eight months and while I think we'd be lucky to have any of the three as Director Rankin mentioned the qualities of each candidate that they would bring to this role I feel confident in selecting candidate Erin Dury for this position. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Miss Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes and it's just to take me a moment to get that all on the screen properly. Direct Director Rivera-Smith [Dury] Director Rankin [Dury excuse me Erin Dury] Director Hersey [Dury] Director Harris [Ms. Erin Dury] Director Hampson [Dury] Director DeWolf [Dury.] The vote is 6 votes for Erin Dury for the appointment. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones. While I scroll the newly appointed Director for District 4

020is Erin Dury. Congratulations and welcome to the School Board. The newly appointed Director will now immediately take the oath of office with Superintendent Juneau. Afterwards after which our new Board Director will then have the opportunity to give a few remarks. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Is Erin on. Ms. Dury Dury [indistinct] okay. Congratulations and we’re gonna take the oath of office [indistinct] so it's on the screen. If you want to raise your hand you can. I your name. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I Erin Dury. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Do hall do hereby solemnly swear. >> DIRECTOR DURY: Do hereby solemnly swear. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: That I will support the Constitution of the United States. >> DIRECTOR DURY: That I will support the Constitution of the United States. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: And the Constitution of the state of Washington. >>

021DIRECTOR DURY: And the Constitution of the state of Washington. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Promote the interests of education. >> DIRECTOR DURY: Promote the interests of education. And will faithfully discharge the duties of Director of Seattle School District Number 1. And will faithfully discharge the duties of Director of Seattle School District Number 1. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: King County State of Washington. >> DIRECTOR DURY: King County State of Washington. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: To the best of my ability. >> DIRECTOR DURY: To the best of my ability. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Welcome Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: Thank you. Should I speak now or is there a transition. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Indistinct. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Or forever hold your peace. Yeah I am not very quick to the trigger. Yes. I now invite Director Dury to offer a few brief

022remarks. >> DIRECTOR DURY: Thank you. And I want to say thank you to all who participated in the forums and the process of this appointment. In particular the NAACP Youth Council and the Seattle Council PTSA for hosting the community forums and to all the directors for your thought process and words this evening. I am honored and grateful to serve District 4 and the Seattle Public Schools. I recognize the privilege and position of power this appointment has and know that true service will be shown through action and centering community voice particularly those who historically and currently do not have the access to have their voice heard. I know there is a lot of work to do and reconstruction to happen. I look forward to working within the community particularly those most affected by the decisions of

023the board and the district. We have an opportunity to reimagine education and center the urgency of that new vision. I am ready to do the work and I am here in service. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Apologies for the delay. Again congratulations Director Dury. We welcome you as a member of the school board and welcome your participation as we move throughout tonight's agenda. This is how we do it. You get voted in and and you you start voting yourself. So I'm now going to turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Okay. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Superintendent Juneau you sound very far away. If there's any way you could get. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: I am super far away. It’s a little better now. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: [indistinct] just across town.

024>> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: I got it I got it. Is it a little better. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: It's a little better yeah. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Okay. So thank you President Hampson. Hello directors. First congratulations Director Dury. You are joining Seattle Public Schools and a very interesting and critical time. But thank you for raising your hand to join leadership as we continue to tackle so many challenges. And we also get to celebrate successes now and again it is a great organization filled with great people. And look forward to working with you. I also want to welcome our young Kings LeManuel Trevon and August. It's always good to hear from you and to learn from you. Thanks for joining the board meeting this evening. Last week Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association came to a tentative

025agreement that supports a safe return to school buildings for all preschool K-12 special education intensive service pathways and all kindergarten to 5th grade students. As a reminder the tentative agreement must be approved by SEA and their members began voting already and their voting will end on Friday. And as you know the BAR on this tentative agreement is on tonight's agenda for your approval as well Board of Directors. If approved I look forward to welcoming back preschool students and students enrolled in elementary special education intensive service pathways on Monday March 29th and middle and high school students enrolled in intensive service pathways and all other K-5 general education students on April 5th. We are continuing to work with SEA to come to an agreement to bring middle and high school students back to classrooms including 6th

026through 8th grade students attending K-8 schools. Last Friday kindergarten through 5th grade families received an enrollment survey and an opportunity to choose between half-day in-person learning or 100 percent remote. Just a reminder to our families we're making a big last push that the deadline for returning the survey is today 11:59 p.m. today Wednesday March 24th. We know this is an important personal decision for families and students and there really are no easy choices. There are no right or wrong choices and we also recognize that this is a quick turnaround. The governor's order to immediately bring back all pre-K-5 by April 5th significantly impacted our timelines. We had been working in partnership with SEA to thoughtfully bring back students who need in-person learning preschool and intensive service pathway students first followed by other students in a

027phased approach. SPS is the largest district in the state. And we are now working to respond as quickly and as nimbly as possible. Much of our final planning is dependent on serve survey results including teacher assignments and your student's individual schedule. We need to know how many students are returning to each classroom as soon as possible in order to match teachers students and our space in our buildings. One thing that may not have been super clear during yesterday's virtual town hall was the question about whether you can switch to remote or hybrid later in the year. So just for clarity once you make a decision regarding the learning model that meets your child's need you will need to remain in that same model through the end of the year. So no changing. Throughout this pandemic

028the health and safety of our students staff and families continues to be our top priority. We have followed local state and federal health guidelines in our planning. We have inspected and repaired all HVAC systems in buildings to make sure we're meeting air quality and ventilation requirements in each classroom. And in fact the Board has a BAR tonight to buy HEPA filters for schools that need it. Before we return to building staff will be placing door signage to show when rooms were last checked and when the next maintenance might be scheduled. Occupancy of classrooms with appropriate distancing and that the room meets public health guidelines. Building walk-throughs have been happening. They continue to happen all acrossed our district to make sure our buildings meet the rigorous health and safety standards necessary. We've also distributed personal protective

029equipment or PPE for staff and students across the district. If you would like to view what preparations are done or in progress for your school building check out the building readiness charts on our website. I also want to thank our partners at the City of Seattle University of Washington Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Seattle Indian Health Board. Around 1,000 thousand of our staff members have been vaccinated at clinics that were prioritized for SPS staff thanks to their partnership. This is a big step forward towards protecting the health of our staff students and community and thousands more staff have been vaccinated through other health providers as well. So thank you to everybody involved with that. Second I want to provide transparency around childcare in our buildings. At this time we cannot guarantee that childcare will be

030available in our elementary school buildings. We know that childcare is a critical support for many families particularly as you decide whether you choose for your child to return to in-person or to stay remote. However with the safe return to in-person learning following public health guidance for small cohorts and physical distancing there may be changes to child care. This will depend again on how many families choose to send their child back to in-person but we continue to work closely with our child care partners to limit those impacts and we'll share more information as soon as we can. Third we've received a lot of questions about where students will eat meals and snacks during the school day. Our pre-K through 5th grade students will be learning on a half-day schedule or they will be learning remotely. Meals

031will still be available Monday through Friday by bus routes and meal sites across our districts as they have been and students attending in-person will also have access to grab-and-go lunches. Students will not eat meals in the classroom except for preschool and Head Start which is a federal and state requirement. Finally I know that many families are concerned about how their students will get to and from school. And while at this time we cannot guarantee transportation options for families to return to in-person we will continue to work with our partner First Student to increase the number of routes available. The Governor’s March 15th order in addition to the half-day in-person instructional model agreed to with the Seattle Education Association did not leave the transportation team enough time to rebuild routes and our bus contractor to hire

032and train the drivers that we all need. To serve students at the same standards as before the pandemic and to follow additional bargained agreements we would need around 400 buses and as of March 18th about half the number of required bus drivers were available. We recognize and we're deeply concerned about the inequities created for our students and families during our pandemic response especially those furthest from educational justice. To initially address this and keep school start and end times consistent buses were prioritized for students that we are legally obligated to provide transportation for and those most vulnerable. We know these efforts did not go far enough for students who need it most. That's why we're increasing transportation for as many students as possible. But this will require a change to elementary and K-8 school start and

033end times. That's also on the agenda today and if approved by the School Board elementary and K-8 schools will start at 8:00 a.m. for students in remote and hybrid in-person learning starting March 29th. This 30-minute adjustment will allow more students to participate in in-person learning and to access transportation. We're asking everyone to adjust just a little so that we can serve more students that need and want in-person learning. It's been over a year since we had to close our buildings and I along with many of our students family and staff are eager to safely reopen our doors. To be reunited with friends classmates teachers and students in person. In addition to our return to buildings this spring staff are working and the board is working really diligently as well on plans for summer school and

034next fall. And look we all look forward to sharing more information on that soon. And then finally as a quick look at public comment tonight shows that there are concerns from educators and community members about potential dual-language staffing cuts and dual-language Spanish course cuts at Mercer International Middle School. I appreciate the advocacy that our community keeps bringing to to our attention and so thank you for being here. Please know that despite the funding challenges that Mercer and Seattle Public Schools face we remain committed to ensuring that students at Mercer have access to a dual-language Spanish program. The Curriculum Assessment and Instruction team including Dr. Thad Williams has been working regularly with Principal Watters and the staff at Mercer to figure out the best way forward for this program. Specifically we understand that a dual-language best

035practice is to offer two courses in the language. For example a Spanish literacy course and social studies in Spanish at each grade level. SPS staff is working with Mercer administration to problem solve different approaches to ensure we are able to follow more closely this dual-language best practice both in the short term and the long term. With respect to the long term we're also excited to start working with the Mercer community to develop criteria that ensure the dual-language program is prioritizing our English learner families. In addition to being consistent with our goals for racial equity and focus on students of color furthest from educational justice we believe this approach can also help us provide more sustainable funding for this program. Regardless of the details there will be a dual-language Spanish program at Mercer in 2021-22 and

036it will include a focus on Spanish literacy and opportunities for students to continue developing Spanish language and literacy. We'll continue to work across all of our schools to improve our system-wide approach to dual-language programing to provide more predictability. So just wanted to clear that up so people hear it directly from me. So thank you President Hampson and Board of Directors. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you so much Superintendent Juneau for that thorough set of comments. And so I know we have student comments and I believe we are hearing Trevon was not able to join us but we are going to hear from LeManuel Donaldson a junior at Rainier Beach High School. Trevon Mitchell was going to join us. He's a sophomore at Cleveland High School and hope he'll be able to join us possibly the next

037time. So these are students from our African-American Male Achievement Student Student Leadership Council. And with that I will turn it over to you LeManuel. >> STUDENT SPEAKER: My name is LeManuel Donaldson. I attend Rainier Beach High School where I'm a proud Viking. I currently serve in the AAMA in the Student Leadership Council and I'm also a leading member in the Plus Program. Today I'll be talking about the Student Leadership Council and all the doors it’s opened for me. I chose to be a part of the Plus Program and the Student Leadership Council because inequities aren't adding up in our education system. There has been a huge disproportionality in our resources and outcomes. In 2017 only 40 percent of Black 3rd graders were proficient in math. In the same year 78 White 3rd graders were proficient

038in math. Why is the gap so big. We know there is no such thing as broken children only broken systems. Why do we continue to blame the children when the obvious problem is the system. Why is the system struggling. More importantly what can we do to fix the system. Lao Tzu once stated that if you do not change the direction you are going you may end up where we are headed. Without groups like AAMA and the Student Leadership Council we were headed toward a dark era of generational oppression. SOC gives a voice and uncovers the truth. Prior to me joining the Plus Program the name was Secondary Learning Secondary Liberatory Pedagogies. Needless to say it doesn't add up to students. We changed it to ‘Plus’ because it all has to add up to students first.

039Our voice matters. My voice matters. When we come together great things can happen. I'm so proud to be a part of a group that changed their systemic racism. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you so very much for those comments. And please feel free to stay and continue to be part of the meeting and make comments at anytime. We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda I would [the meeting.] 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 1430BP provides the rules for testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules. I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

040First 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 name 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 list 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 one speaking slot per meeting. If a speaker cedes time to a later speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to

041whom time was ceded 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 time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list. Finally the majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about. Ms. Wilson-Jones will read off the testimony speakers. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Thank you President Hampson. A quick logistical note. Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony. When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on the device you are calling from and also press ‘star-6’ to unmute on the conference call line. Each speaker will have a two-minute speaking time and a chime

042will sound when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called. The first speaker on today's testimony list is August P. Diggs. >> SPEAKER 1: Good afternoon. My name is August Diggs. I'm an 8th grader at Denny international Middle School and a proud member of the Student Leadership Council of the AAMA. Today I will be discussing growth prospect process and change. First I just want to thank you all for having me and thank you all for being a part of this growth and change. You are affecting my life and the future generation positively. Sadly Black lives have always mattered in Seattle Public Schools. According to Seattle Public Schools outcome data table there were 11.4 percent of African-American males getting suspended compared to the 2.3 percent of white males in 2014. That's five

043times the amount. This table is cool and all but in my eyes I see everyone is equal but the sad truth is there is implicit bias systemic racism and oppression which is why I'm proud to be a part of this student leadership council. We're fighting to change this. We've been a part of the grading policy reform return to school schedule models and disciplinary action panels and so much more. In the end I want to feel important. I want teachers to support us in our dreams to educate us in the classroom and be our friends outside of it. To call us in the classroom instead of kicking us out. To treat us like people instead of const — instead of continuing this racism. I'm honored to be a part of this movement. Remember nothing about us

044without us. Thank you for your time. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you so much Mr. Diggs and again thank you to Mr. Donaldson as well for both of your inspiring words. Ms. Wilson-Jones the next speaker please. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Dalia Gomez. Dalia Gomez. >> SPEAKER 2: Hi. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Go ahead we can hear [indistinct]. >> SPEAKER 2: International Middle school. [Okay go ahead] Hi my name is Dalia Gomez. I'm a 6th grade student at Mercer International Middle School. I want to talk to you today because my school has decided to make cuts to the Spanish immersion program next year. The Spanish immersion program is important to me and my family and to a lot of other kids and their families. Having this program is important to me because it is a way for

045me to be able to practice and learn in my native language to be around people who are part of my culture and to be with people people that also have the same love for the program as I do. If my school decides to go through with the cuts to the program it will deny native speakers the opportunity to keep practicing and learning in their native language. If the school makes cuts to the program it will mean would mean that I would not get as much practice speaking Spanish my dad's preferred language. This would mean that would make it harder for me to communicate with him and other members of my family who only speak Spanish. In the future I hope to be fully bilingual so I can pass on my Mexican heritage and be able

046to one day give back to my community by being able to help others who prefer or or only speak Spanish. Making cuts to the program would hurt me and other students. I wish Mercer Mercer would have taken into consideration how this would affect the students and families in the Spanish immersion program. I hope you take this matter seriously and reconsider making these cuts to the Spanish immersion program. Thank you for your time. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Dalia. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Samuel Ivan Mendoza Gilbert. Samuel Ivan Mendoza Gilbert. >> SPEAKER 3: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes we can hear you. >> SPEAKER 3: Okay. Hello my name is Samuel. I am a 6th grader at Mercer international School and I have a few points to make. It has

047come to my attention that the school will be cutting some of the Spanish immersion classes. This worries me a lot because as a Latinx student Spanish is part of my identity. If I can't speak Spanish or only know 6th grade level of Spanish that's like not having part of my identity with me. I I identify with Spanish I don't just speak it and it is the language of my ancestors. Another thing that worries me is that if we can't take the STAMP test when we were when we are in 6th grade and can only take it in 7th and 8th how are we supposed to learn more Spanish in 7th and 8th to be able to pass the STAMP test. Passing the test to be able to get high school credit in middle school is

048very important. It's very important to me since I want to study engineering and get a degree in mechanical engineering. It is also important to other kids in my grade I am sure so that they can get a good job in the future. I have also been studying Spanish in Seattle Public School since kindergarten and when I was studying Spanish for these six years I expected that I would be able to continue studying it through middle school. In fact that is the reason I came to Mercer. Being in the Spanish immersion class is felt like that the school is supporting my identity as a Latino as a Latinx student. Thank you for listening and I hope you will consider the points I've made. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Samuel. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is

049Chris Jackins. Chris Jackins. >> SPEAKER 4: My name is Chris Jackins. Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the 6 Action Items 2 points. Number 1: I wish to thank Superintendent Denise Juneau for her work for Seattle Public Schools. Also welcome to the new Board Director. Number 2: when the report on the agreement with the SEA was posted last Friday the report did not discuss the effects on in-person learning. On the resolution for funding Kimball Northgate and Viewlands. The district wants to demolish these schools and shrink their play areas. Please vote ‘no.’ On Board Policy 6220 and 3 school projects 4 points. Number 1: at West Woodland $1 million dollars to get extra new furniture. Number 2: at Rainier Beach $500,000 dollars to add a sub consultant. Number 3: at Rising Star a $500,000 dollar change order

050for work that has already been done performed. Number 4: big contractors seem to know that the current board is handing out free money. Number 5: but it gets worse. Board review is currently required for amounts above $250,000 dollars but the Board is proposing to up the amount to $500,000 dollars and further reduce Board oversight. Please vote ‘no.’ On the Herff Jones yearbook contract I encouraged a local small minority and women-owned business to apply and they were ignored. Please vote ‘no.’ On Jane Addams field lighting. A retired city surface water expert testified that the project would endanger water quality in Thornton Creek. Please vote ‘no.’ On the GC/CM contract for Rainier Beach. The project would demolish the school. Please vote ‘no.’ Also I understand that voters have filed charges to recall the School Board from office.

051Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next on the testimony list is Todd Sawicki. Todd Sawicki if you're on the line you may need to press ‘star-6’ to unmute. Moving to the next speaker. Manuela Slye. Manuela Slye [indistinct] Oh sorry did I hear. >> SPEAKER 6: Hello can you hear. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Todd. >> SPEAKER 6: Me. >> SPEAKER 5: This is Todd Sawicki. Sorry. I’m back. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Okay. >> SPEAKER 5: I was having difficult unmuting. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Thank you. So let's go to Todd. And then Manuela thank you for your patience. We’ll come to you next. >> SPEAKER 5: My name is Todd Sawicki. I'm a resident of Director Rivera-Smith’s district and a parent of a Robert Eagle Staff Middle School student. I'm responding to recent comments from

052Director Rankin talking about in-person study hall model for reopening grades 6-12. Is that a joke. Is this Board actively trying to work with the administration to create an in-person learning environment that is so flawed that students and families just quit the district. It's fine to propose different ideas but where's the discussion and consideration in this body to share and determine recommendations from the administration. Where is the act of questioning this board in a public and televised forum so all families can witness the models with their pros and cons. How has the Remote Learning Task Force not meeting regularly to discuss this and what will happen on April 19th through the end of the year and of course next year. If this administration is actually working discussing this topic where's the evidence of this and why

053is the board not requiring presentations and discussion. And now of course what is the model for grades 6-12 in the fall. How is this not repeated topic. I have read through the February Remote Learning Report which is buried in a link at the March 6 retreat agenda. And there seems to be no specifics on how students are performing. Instead the report notes the committee's frustration and concern and lack of responsiveness and support from administration. Why is the Board unable to call this out and demand a response from the administration. Families have to make a choice next year now given private school enrollment windows. Otherwise we will be left scrambling in August again this year wondering if Seattle Public Schools is the right choice for their family. I can say this: if Seattle Public Schools does

054not offer 5-day-a-week in-person synchronous schools learning instruction model for next fall grade 6-12 then this family will be forced to remove our student from SPS. We want to stay in SPS but the inability of this Board to provide the adequate model for those students who cannot or won't learn while remotely is a reality. And it seems like close to half the families in the SPS agree. The board has failed to ensure the school administration provide the adequate educational models for all students. Since in-person schooling has been in states by federal and state public authorities for months safety is not the issue unless this board the administration don't believe in science and data. To date this board has not required the administration provide in-person models for those students who cannot or will not be served or

055will fail to learn from remote education [chime] whether they have disabilities whether they require parental supervision. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Please conclude your remarks. >> SPEAKER 5: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Manuela Slye. Manuela Slye. >> SPEAKER 6: Good afternoon. Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 6: My name is Manuela Slye. I'm President of Seattle Council PTSA and a parent of a student at Seattle West Seattle High School. First of all congratulations Director Erin Dury. It has been my honor and privilege to work with you in Seattle Council and I look forward to future collaboration. Regarding incoming Superintendent Brent Jones. I'm pleased to see the starting date has been updated to May 1st to ensure a smooth transition. Seattle Council PTSA stands ready to support

056Dr. Jones. We face forward. Regarding community concerns about the dual-immersion pathway in the south end I cede the rest of my time to former Mercer student [indistinct]. >> SPEAKER 7: Hello. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: We can hear you. >> SPEAKER 6: Go ahead. >> SPEAKER 7: Okay. Hi my name is [indistinct] and I went to Mercer Middle School. I was given the chance to be part of the Spanish immersion program for over seven years. This program helped me better my understanding of the Spanish language and helped me be able to speak with my family members in Mexico and El Salvador and solidified my identity and heritage. I was able to be in class with very diverse students. I learned about the Spanish culture around Latino students as well as Black White and Asian people. It helped

057me learn and inspired and motivated me to perfect my Spanish. This program opened many opportunities for me and would likely do the same to other students. I am in high school now and I believe that being bilingual will open up doors for my future. Please continue the Spanish immersion program for the South Seattle students. Canceling would be a big mistake. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Robyn Reed. Robyn Reed. >> SPEAKER 8: Hello. My name is Robyn Reed. I am the parent of a 6th grader. I am asking that the Board and the district begin preparations now to offer the option of full time in-person instruction for all students in September. This is doable. How do we know. Well for one thing school districts large and small

058all over the country are doing it. A new survey reports that half the country's public schools are already open full-time. All public schools in Massachusetts including Boston are resuming full-time in-person classes next month. Locally Lake Washington School District says they'll offer full time in-person instruction this fall. And we can do it safely. Studies show that when students and teachers wear masks COVID transmission in schools is very low. Considerably lower than in the community at large. For another thing with universal masking and with the CDC’s new evidence-based science-backed guidelines we can plan a distance of 3 feet between students rather than 6 feet. This is true for elementary-aged students under all conditions and for middle and high school students except when community transmission is very high. For reference right now in King County it is not.

059We have the guidelines. The time the plan is now. Director Hampson last week you wrote on Twitter ‘there is no Reopening Task Force.’ I was speechless. How is it that we've been out of schools for a year and we're not making plans to go back. How is it that stakeholders in every school haven't been having focused conversations all year about classroom setups and lunch and bathrooms and all the things we have to figure out. This should be the district's priority right now. This is where the work is. The CDC states quote “K-12 school should be the last settings to close after all other prevention measures in the community have been employed and the first to reopen when they can do so safely.” Resuming in-person instruction is critical for supporting students like my son who are

060struggling with remote learning. But it's going to take planning to get there and SPS needs to engage now in that planning. They need to engage families and teachers and principals now to be ready for the fall. We've seen the scramble that followed Governor Inslee’s order. Let's not repeat that in the run up to full time in-person learning. Thank you [chime]. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Sebrena Burr. Sebrena Burr. Sebrena Burr. Sebrena if you're on the line you may need to press ‘star-6.’ Moving to the next speaker. Brian Terry. Brian Terry. Brian Terry. Moving to the next speaker. Noah Zeichner. >> SPEAKER 9: Hi can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. Is this Noah. >> SPEAKER 9: It is. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Go ahead please. >> SPEAKER 9: Good after

061good afternoon. My name is Noah Zeichner I teach Spanish and Social Studies at Ingraham High School and I co-lead the International School's leadership team which is comprised of teachers representing the 10 international schools in the district. Before Ingraham I taught at Chief Sealth International High School for 13 years. At Chief Sealth I played a leadership role in establishing the Spanish immersion program. I served on the International School Dual-Language Immersion Task Force which completed its work in June 2018. And I was also part of the SEA/SPS Dual-Language Immersion Committee that was established as part of the last collective bargaining agreement. I'm speaking to you today because I'm very concerned that Mercer’s Spanish immersion program is in grave danger. Next fall 40 Spanish dual-language students from Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park will arrive to Mercer. They will

062arrive to discover that the current 6th grade dual-language teacher was displaced. They will learn that the 6th grade Spanish immersion Social Studies class has been cut. They will learn that their new principal might eliminate the Spanish immersion program altogether before they graduate from middle school. Furthermore there is only one section of Spanish Language Arts that will be offered next year for these 40 students. Seattle Public Schools made a commitment to Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park dual-language students parents and teachers that these students will move on to a robust middle school immersion program with Literacy and Social Studies classes. Additionally there are many Spanish-speaking ELL students at Mercer not currently in the program who should and could have access to dual-language courses. But this is not just about broken commitments. Research especially the extensive studies by

063Thomas and Collier consistently shows that dual-language students begin making big academic gains in both languages after five or six years of a well-implemented DLI program. In other words the greatest benefit of dual-language show up in middle school. Please do not allow a principal to unilaterally cut this middle school program without staff or community input. District leadership must find a way to invest in dual-language immersion long term. Our bilingual students and families deserve it. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones I think Sebrena Burr is on the line but was having trouble getting unmuted. I know she's on phone or on. >> SPEAKER 10: Hello. I’m here. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: There we go. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Thank you. Please go ahead Sebrena. Sorry. >> SPEAKER 10: Okay. My name is Sebrena Burr. I am

064a Cleveland High School parent. I've also served with Seattle Council PTSA for over a decade. First of all I would really like to take this time to thank every last one of our School Board members for their service especially through this very trying time giving of your time and from your family and from the many important things for your life. And I know that everyone has opinions. Yesterday after I saw one of the Black males that public Seattle Public Schools fails I watch the court fail. Then I found out on the recall from Emily Cherkin Jennifer Crow and Beverly Goodman and I know that this cost the district money and I know that just puts more hardship on you. Six months into Denise Juneau’s Superintendency I said she did not have the skills for the

065ask. Many people think that the School Board has power that they don't have. And I think that people need to understand what the power is that the School Board has. What state laws that they must abide by. And so I want to thank Superintendent Juneau but she's made this period far harder than it needs to be. And I welcome welcome Dr. Jones to the leadership and I ask everyone to give this man a chance. He was a strategic person for Seattle Public Schools and he knows the district well. Stop thinking about what you need and think about what our children need. All of them. The governor's call to back to school because of mental health was racist as heck because Black students have been feeling that far beyond. Now there's not enough mental health beds

066for White students. And so we need to pull together because the truth is Seattle Public Schools a family for all students not just the ones most privileged and those whose parents who are loud voices. The one thing I do want to ask for Seattle Public Schools. We’re returning to school for some students after we've been off. Give them the best [chime] practices on what they need to do to restore bedtimes and all of those things to set our students up for success. Again to the School Board I thank you from the bottom my heart for everything you do. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. Next for testimony is Liz Anne Olsen. Liz Anne Olsen. >> SPEAKER 11: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 11: Hello. Can you hear me. >>

067ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We can hear you Anne. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes we can hear you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Or Liz. >> SPEAKER 11: Hello I'm Liz Olsen. I teach dual-language U.S. History and Literacy in Spanish at Denny. I'm also here to talk as many others about the dual-language cuts at Mercer. I have worked in the middle school dual-language Spanish immersion programs in Seattle since 2006. I began at Hamilton when the program was in its second year and taught there for five years. I then moved to Denny and worked with them as their program was developing as it has focused on following the national research supporting dual-language immersion as the top ELL strategy. As has been typical more than 95 percent of my students identify as Latinx. 42 percent of my current students are identified as ELL

068and the vast majority are currently ELL level 4. The demographic is very similar in the Mercer Spanish DL program. Dual-language is not a boutique enrichment program but rather a critical strategy to support our ELL students maximize the strengths they already have and treat them as the assets they are to our society. From what I understand from Superintendent Juneau’s statement earlier it sounds like do Mercer dual-language students might only have one Literacy period of Spanish instead of the research-based minimum of two periods in Spanish at the secondary level. This is an unacceptable cut to a program that is designed to close the opportunity gap for our ELL and Latinx students. The program at Denny has two periods for our students. The cuts proposed by the current Mercer principal reduce the program to just one period. This

069is the same way that she dismantled the dual-language program at Hamilton. Almost all of the Mercer students impacted by this action are heritage Spanish speakers whose Spanish is reinforced at home and are more likely to become bilingual teachers doctors and more. Instead of cutting FTE and offering only one section to the incoming 40 6th graders Mercer administration could align with Denny as we have done and recruit from the 72 Spanish speaking ELL students currently at Mercer to fill the program. This current situation also demonstrates why students should have access to DL programs based on their language and not on school boundaries. This decision was made without including students [chime] staff and families. The cuts widen the opportunity gap in the community we have promised to serve. Thank you for your time. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank

070you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Cassandra Garcia-Stokes. Cassandra Garcia-Stokes. >> SPEAKER 12: Can you hear me now. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 12: Hello. All right. I want to start out by shouting out to my former student [indistinct] [non-English language.] And then I want to say that I am the 7th and 8th grade Spanish dual-language teacher at Mercer and I want to take a moment to acknowledge all the committed educators students and families that are supporting the Mercer dual-language program. I thank you for your support. But I also want to notice the voices that are not here. 80 percent of my students come from Spanish-speaking families. Their voices were not given a chance to be heard when cuts were made to our program. And I hope that when you hear my voice to consider

071the voices that I represent. Seattle Public Schools made a commitment to offer Spanish at Mercer. And the Mercer program must have the two periods as mentioned before to be an effective program. Also many of my students are heritage speakers ELL ELL exited and our program honors their language ability their culture and provides opportunity to work on biliteracy skills. In my opinion this cut should not happen. And I also support a Literacy period and a Social Studies period especially Social Studies. I mean they're both important but Social Studies is such an excellent avenue to strengthen the biliteracy skills of our students. I also want to share some successes of our program because I I feel like there's a lot of talk about what's not working but things are working. Since I have been at Mercer 95

072percent of students reach the language proficiency of intermediate-low or mid which is the district benchmark for 8th grade and some students even exceed it. Our students are currently writing poetry with the Jack Straw cultural center in Spanish and have touched on themes of racial injustice sexism stereotypes and dreams for their future. I see kids doing amazing things in my classroom and I ask the school board and the district leadership to support Mercer's dual-language immersion program and prevent the program from being at risk in the future. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Tami Becker Gomez. Tami Becker Gomez. >> SPEAKER 13: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes we can hear you. >> SPEAKER 13: Hi. My name is Tami Becker Gomez and I am the parent of a

0736th and 8th grade Latinx students at Mercer Middle School in the Spanish dual-immersion program. I'm here to speak out against the proposed reductions to Spanish immersion program at Mercer. Mercer Middle School’s Continuous Improvement Plan claims that Mercer will focus on ensuring racial equity access address the needs of students of color allocate resources strategically through a racial equity framework create culturally responsive environment and work in partnership with families and communities to represent students of color who are furthest from educational justice. But as we all know actions speak louder than words and inaction speaks even louder. Seattle Public Schools and Mercer must demonstrate through action that they are committed to these goals. Cuts to the dual immersion program are counter to these stated goals. There has been no partnership. The school told parents nothing. No email. No

074robo call. And certainly not information translated in Spanish the preferred language of the majority of families in the program. No one asked for input or sought to understand the perspective of families and students. They just took a red pen to the budget where it suited them and in so doing their action said they do not value Latinx families students or their education. If the goal is allocating resources strategically through a racial equity framework they would fund and support programs like dual-immersion that are proven to close the achievement and opportunity gap for students of color. In short SPS must put their money where their mouth is. There are no changes in the works for the Mandarin immersion program yet. This is a priority issue. Priorities are reflected by where resources are allocated. If the goal is

075to create culturally responsive environments SPS has to support one of its most culturally responsive programs. Dual-immersion allows heritage speakers not only to feel welcome and included at school but it places value on their cultural identity. Principal Watters referred to the dual-immersion program as a boutique program. There is nothing boutique about providing a culturally and linguistically responsive program to students of color. If the goal [chime] is to ensure racial equity in our educational system and address the needs of students of color who are furthest from educational justice appropriate funding will be given to the Spanish dual-immersion program. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Erin Gilbert. Erin Gilbert. Erin Gilbert. >> SPEAKER 14: Hello. Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We can hear you. Thanks. >> SPEAKER 14:

076Okay. Hi I'm the parent of a 6th grader in the Spanish dual-language program at Mercer who will be directly impacted if the proposed cuts are implemented. I've also taught English and Intercultural Communication at local community colleges as well as Spanish and English courses at the University of Washington. So I speak to you as a parent community member and educator and I'm here today to highlight the crucial role that the Spanish dual-language program plays in the lives of students particularly Latinx students like my son here in our communities in South Seattle and in the long term educational outcomes for students who are farthest from educational justice. The SPS strategic plan documents a commitment to eliminating opportunity gaps to ensure access and provide excellence in education for every student. Actions that support this goal include creating healthy

077supportive culturally responsive environments and that is what dual-language classrooms do particularly for the Latinx and Spanish-speaking English Language Learners in our school community. The most recent assessment data available from SPS available online on the Assessment Summary Demographic Dashboard reveals the profound opportunity gap faced by Hispanic and Latinx students at Mercer Middle School. When research has shown us time and time again that dual-language programs provide exactly the kind of culturally responsive educational environment that affirms multilingual students and families and is essential to the educational achievement of students who are farthest from educational justice it doesn't make sense to close those programs. In fact next year in addition to another sizable cohort of students who will arrive from Beacon Hill and Dearborn Park. There will already be a large community of Spanish speaking ELL students at Mercer

078who would benefit from dual-language Spanish Language Arts and Social Science classes. Right now there is such a pressing need for these classes that if anything more classes should be added. If that need is not apparent it is due to the lack of communication between the school and families of students who are already in the program or are eligible to join. In fact at the beginning of this year many families were stunned to discover that their students kids who had been in the Spanish dual-language program since kindergarten were suddenly [chime] excluded from dual-language classes. Oh. Thank thank thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Gretchen Sloan. Gretchen Sloan. Gretchen if you're on the line you may need to press ‘star-6’ to unmute. Gretchen Sloan. Are you there Gretchen.

079Gretchen if your phone number ends in ‘25’ you may need oh you may need to press ‘star-6’ again. Are you there Gretchen. Please make sure you're also unmuted on your phone. [indistinct] Oh we can hear you. >> SPEAKER 15: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes we can hear you. >> SPEAKER 15: All right. Thank you. All right thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Gretchen Sloan. Thank you to all who have put in the arduous work to build the DLI program from the ground up. I'm speaking both as a Mercer parent of a 6th and 8th grader in the dual-immersion program at Mercer and also as a high school Spanish and ELL educator at Garfield High School. Thank you to the board for allowing us the space to have our voices heard regarding

080regarding the sizable significance the dual-language program brings to our schools and to our community. Unfortunate over many years in SPS I've seen our Latinx students time and time again shy away from taking Spanish classes in high school due to their lack of confidence in reading and writing in their native language. Because so many have not have been given the opportunity to acquire those skills. However we had just begun to see the outcomes of the first group of students who had progressed the dual language immersion in Seattle Public elementary and middle schools. What we had previously witnessed was starting to take a turn for the better. More native as well as non-native speakers enrolling in higher level Spanish courses and succeeding. Since heritage speakers make up a considerable considerable percentage of the Mercer international school program

081school and community dual-language immersion is a pragmatic way to honor those students’ heritage cultures and bilingual skills. The program is an excellent way to inclusively close the already disproportionate academic gap and to provide the opportunity to become fully literate in both languages. In addition it helps to pave the way for all future advantages that bilingual proficiency has to offer especially in today's increasingly global community and economy. Thank you again for having us today. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Kelly Rolon. Kelly Rolon. >> SPEAKER 16: Can you hear me. Yes. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes we can hear you. >> SPEAKER 16: Okay. My name is Kelly Rolon. I teach Spanish at Rainer Beach High School. Rainer Beach was chosen by a previous board to be the DLI pathway for high school

082in the south end. This decision was made after a community survey where families and involved parties unanimously voted to have the pathway at Cleveland or Franklin. But this is not what I'm here to speak about today. So today I wear my parent hat. I currently have an 8th grader at Mercer in the DLI program and a 5th grader at Hawthorne Elementary. We are a bilingual family and my children are heritage speakers. Because DLI elementary schools are neighborhood schools in the south end we were unable to secure a spot for our children at Beacon International or Dearborn. However upon entering 6th grade at Mercer my older child was given the STAMP test and invited into the program. This year exiting the program my child has said she has increased confidence in her ability to communicate with

083her family in South America and increased pride in her multicultural identity. We were excited for our younger child to have the same experience. However current boundary changes will send her to Aki. I have petitioned to Cindy Watters and to enrollment but have had little success and frankly little confidence in their desire to support the program. I filled out the school choice form. There is no box for us to indicate that our child is a heritage speaker. You can only indicate that your child is in the heritage speaker if you wish to go to McDonald or Hamilton. Why are north end option schools and south end neighborhood schools for the DLI program. This is marginalizing heritage speakers in the south end. I'm frustrated. SPS needs to step up and leadership needs to step on this. Support

084the program in the south end. Make it equitable for heritage speaking families to participate in this program. Maintaining an address-only policy is unequitable and ultimately detrimental to the longevity of this program. We cannot have different sets of rules for the same programs in this district. Make it equitable. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: The next speaker is Mary Lanza. Mary Lanza. If you are on the line you need to press ‘star-6’ to unmute your phone. Mary Lanza please press ‘star-6’ if you're on the line. Okay. Moving to the next speaker. Carrie Taylor. Carrie Taylor. Carrie Taylor please press ‘star-6’ if you are on the line. Moving to the next speaker. Kristy Shapcott. >> SPEAKER 17: Hi. Can you hear me. This is Kristy Shapcott. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes we

085can hear you. >> SPEAKER 17: Okay great. Yesterday I was dismayed to see an email from the Spanish immersion teacher at our middle school. She informed us that Mercer Middle School is phasing out one of the two periods currently offered in Spanish beginning next year. There were no discussions and no community outreach about this. In a year that has felt much like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ so too does having to rise to the occasion of contacting school officials and urging them not to make yet another drastic change to the immersion program in the south end. How can you call it an immersion program when the students would have only one of seven periods devoted to engaging in Spanish. How is this fair to students who have invested so much time and energy in learning Spanish

086throughout their elementary and now middle school years. Don't south end students deserve the same quality immersion program as students in other parts of the city. I implore you to keep the immersion program as is. Please continue to offer students two classes in Spanish so that they can continue to have a full and well-rounded immersion experience. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: I want to take one more pass through in case anyone was having trouble unmuting. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: That’d be great. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Brian. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Brian Terry are you are you on the line. Brian Terry. I'm not seeing the phone number that you gave us. How about Mary Lanza. Mary Lanza. Okay moving to the final speaker then. Carrie Taylor. Carrie Taylor.

087It looks like I think I see Carrie Taylor's phone number. Oh sorry. Is somebody unmuted who I called previously. >> SPEAKER 18: Hi Yeah. This is Mary Lanza. Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes we can hear you Mary. Go ahead. >> SPEAKER 18: Oh. Great thank you. Sorry for the tech problem. So my name is Mary Lanza. I am the world language department head at Mercer International Middle School. I'm a National Board Certified Teacher. I currently teach 6th grade Intro to World Language at Mercer and 8th grade Spanish 1B. I'm talking on behalf of the elimination of the dual-language courses at Mercer because this has a direct impact on the World Language department. The elimination of the 6th grade there will be an elimination of the sixth grade Spanish and Chinese world language

088intro classes at Mercer next year. Over the years we have seen the number of 7th and 8th graders in both Spanish and Chinese courses increase. We attribute this to their early exposure in the world language elective program at Mercer. Without these sixth grade classes there is a chance that fewer students will enroll in 7th grade classes. World Language credit is a high school requirement and we have had great success at Mercer in getting students enrolled in these high school credit courses. The other courses that will be eliminated are the dual-language Spanish immersion classes in grade 6 and 7. This will have a direct impact on the World Language teachers at Mercer. There will be a reduction of the Spanish teachers at Mercer from 3 down to 2. The expectation will be that these 2 Spanish

089teachers will be teaching all the immersion and all the World Language classes. The projected numbers for these Spanish courses will be 1 Spanish teacher will be teaching 192 students in a day. This is the result of the elimination of the dual-language Social Studies classes which will permit one teacher to teach both the dual-language Literacy 6th and 7th grade classes plus 4 8th grade World Language Spanish classes. This totals over 192 students in one [chime] day. Please consider how Mercer can receive funds to specifically fund the immersion program at Mercer so that we can provide enough courses for both our immersion and World Language students. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: I want to try Carrie Taylor one more time. Carrie Taylor. Please press ‘star-6’ to unmute your phone. Are

090you there Carrie. You may need to unmute on your the device you're calling from as well. Please try ‘star-6’ one more time Carrie. Okay it looks like you're unmuted if you want to speak. President Hampson I think we might be having some tech issues. I can see a phone number that for our final speaker but I am not able to hear them. It looks like they are unmuted on the conference call line. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. And that's Christine. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: That's Carrie Taylor. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Oh I'm sorry Carrie. So just one more time. >> SPEAKER 19: Can you hear me now. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We can hear you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes. >> SPEAKER 19: Can you hear me now. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Go

091ahead. >> SPEAKER 19: Can you hear me now. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes please go ahead and speak. >> SPEAKER 19: Okay. Perfect. Sorry about that. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yep. That's okay. Go ahead please. >> SPEAKER 19: Sorry about that. Yes. Okay. So very quickly. This is not my first time going through a Spanish immersion program. We were also at a Spanish immersion program in California. And my experience with that program as I said to one of the to keep it short as I said to one of the principals when we left is that we were never never able to talk to the district about making the program better because we spent all of our time fighting to make sure that the program just didn't get worse. When we moved here to Seattle 18 months ago

092we were able to find a spot at Dearborn because we were in the boundary which was wonderful and we've loved the school and we've loved the community. My my oldest graduated last year in what would have been the first Spanish cohort from Dearborn last year. So we're super happy about that. But in the 18 months since we arrived there has been a boundary change at Dearborn a boundary change at Mercer and now it looks as though we're dismantling the Spanish program at Mercer. And I'm not going to elaborate why that's a bad idea because many people before me have done so. But I do have a few questions. Once again we're asking you after 18 months not to make it worse or not to make it worse even if we're not going to make it

093better. My question was answered actually whether it was all middles or just us. But if it's us why are we losing Spanish at a school that has actual native Spanish speakers and many students that that are furthest from educational justice as opposed to any of the other programs that we would cut. My understanding from the community is that they have been kind of constantly having to defend the program since it's been opened. And what I found out this evening that I didn't know before was the boutique comment from our principal. And if this is a principal that has a history of undermining dual-language programs at Hamilton and has this attitude towards dual-language why was this particular principal put in charge of a school that has not one but two dual-language programs. That doesn't seem like

094[chime] a supportive move from SPS. Anyways thank you very much for finally allowing me to speak and I hope you all have a good evening. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you for continuing to try. Glad we got you on. Thank you. Okay. We have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda. May I have a motion for the consent agenda. I move approval of the consent agenda. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith. Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda. Seeing none. All of those. I'm sorry. Did somebody speak up. No. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: No. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Hearing none all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by

095saying ‘aye.’ [All say ‘aye.’] Opposed. Any abstentions. The consent agenda has passed unanimously. Okay. We've now come to the Board Committee Report section of the agenda. We’ll hear briefly now from the chairs of each of the Board's four committees. The chairs will also lead off the discussion for each of our action and introduction items later in the agenda. So comments for those items can be made at that time. We'll also return to general Board comments at the end of the agenda. Let's start with Audit and Finance Director Hersey. Are you ready to provide a committee. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Yeah absolutely. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Not too much to report from our last committee meeting. The highlight of the meeting though was that we were officially joined by our new public advisor Mr.

096Ben Thompson. He comes to us from the county bringing a wealth of experience in many facets and I am really excited to have him on board. He joined us for our first meeting this past Monday March the 15th and already dove in feet first with answering and asking many pertinent questions to the dealings of the district. So we were just really thankful and excited to have him in our ranks in this capacity and super excited for what expertise he will continue to bring to the table. The next meeting that we will be having for Audit and Finance is on April the 5th. And following that will be May the 10th and I will save any other additional comments on specific items for the rest of the reports when we move to the Action Items. Thank

097you so much. And for those of you who are interested in joining us or our committee meetings they start bright and early sharp at 7:00 a.m. and we hope to see you at the next one if you are so inclined. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. And then Operations Committee Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you President Hampson. I wanted to mine will be a quick update because we have a lot of my item excuse me the Operations Committee items on our agenda tonight. In fact we have 16 items. And just our our next committee meeting is actually next Thursday so that’d be April 1st at 8:00 a.m. and folks can obviously join those meetings. They’re public meetings. We have a bunch of BAR’s coming through mostly on BEX III and one I wanted

098to call out it was a replacement of some fleet vehicles. That's probably the only thing that's kind of sticks out. And then we'll also be hearing an update on the Student and Community Workforce Agreement. So that will be happening at our April 1st meeting. And as I said I have 16 items tonight for introduction so I will just wait to make comments on those. Thank you so much. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay and Director Rankin for the student Support Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. Yeah. We had our committee meeting last week. Our March committee meeting and was a packed agenda. We had an update. It's great to connect with folks from TAF. TAF at Washington. And looking forward to continuing that. That'll be a quarterly update that comes to to our

099committee. We are. We talked about dyslexia screeners. That process is going forward. And if you haven't seen emails out there and you're wondering where things are at with dyslexia screeners some CAI folks are doing a really nice job of explaining some of that to community. They've got a Power Point and are are are virtually going around the district meeting with different groups to go through what that will look like for students who as it rolls out who will be benefiting from that. So just explaining a little bit about the process. The probably the most the most positive thing the last two weeks is I think at our last board meeting I shared that we had been able to select the committee or select the task force membership for the Outdoor Community Learning and we had

100our kickoff meeting last week where we were all able to see each other virtually and and introduce get introduced and acquainted and begin this work. And I'm very very very just looking forward to that carrying us through this spring and into the fall. We have an amazing group of educators and community members parents community organizations and with a really really dedicated focus on students. Centering students student need and thinking about how to support how to support them and possibilities that are coming out of COVID but also that can carry us through how students engage with education into the future. So I'm looking forward to continuing that work. And they just have a lot of great wisdom to share with us and I'm really grateful. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Thank you Director Rankin and I will

101report on the Executive Committee which just occurred on March 17th. The next committee meeting will be on April 8th. Those start at 8:00 a.m. and the committee is made up of myself and Director Hersey and Director Rivera-Smith. For those that aren't familiar the executive committee is where we set the agendas for our legislative sessions such as the one today. We have that initial review is the minutes is usually our first item of approval. So if folks are interested in knowing what's coming up you want to pay attention to the executive committee meetings. And the special attention items that we had this past week included content management system update. We do hear a lot about the extent to which certain systems that we have or not are not working. And this is one of those examples

102where we are aware of of some of the the extent to which our web system web content management system doesn't work well for us as a system and so on top of everything else that that staff are lifting up that work does continue and continues to a great degree. And so we got a great update on that including the prospects assuming that we have fiscal capacity to have multilingual parts of the site. And that was that was some pretty exciting presentations by Chief Carrie Campbell. And we always look forward to hearing that because I know we're all going to feel really good about that ultimate implementation. And then we talked about our next steps from our board retreat with respect to planning for 2021-22 school year we do have that report due to or that

103plan due to the Superintendent of Public Instruction on June 1st and have quite a few follow-up meetings on that coming forward and talked about our superintendent hiring process. We are about to bring on an interim superintendent and move that date up and at the same time we bill we'll we'll be starting to do a long-term approach towards our permanent superintendent hiring process as that also still needs to happen. And expect that to be a very long and involved community-driven process. And then we also followed up on our status with our Director 4 School Board Appointment process which has now been completed. Welcome again Director Dury. And then our usual updates for government relations which there has been a lot to update us on with respect to what's happening in the state legislature with the at

104the federal level checking in on our board goals around leadership. We have some really important trainings coming up for the entire board and thank you to directors for giving lots of your time to participate in those leadership and best practices trainings and work coming up. And I think especially as we go through these transition. And thank you to staff also who are or are in many cases stepping up to participate in those with us. And with that we will move on. As I said April 8th is the next meeting at 8:00. And we will move on to Action Items. The first Action Item on the agenda is Amendment Number 2 to the 2020-21 City of Seattle FFVP Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program Agreement. This came through Operations on March 11th for approval. May I have

105a motion for this item. Director Hersey or Director Rivera-Smith can you move that item. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I yeah. I move that the School Board authorize the Superintendent to accept the January 2020 to August 2021 City of Seattle grant to expand the Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Program grant funding amendment to include an additional $715,402.06 for a total of up to $1,288,927.06. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Is there are second. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This item has been moved by Director Rivera-Smith and seconded by Director DeWolf This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today. Chief Operations Officer Podesta I believe you will be giving the staff briefing. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Thank you President Hampson. Seattle Public Schools partners with the City

106of Seattle on the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program grant to provide [indistinct] and fruit and snacks too as part of student meals in 20 targeted schools during our regular operations. During the past year this school year where we've been mostly in a remote learning model as directors are aware we've introduced many new products and ways of distributing meals and and food to families and students through a variety of mechanisms which has really increased the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables we've been able to make available to our students. So really appreciate the support from the city to increase the size of the grant to continue to provide this level of service through the rest of the school year. And as part of the summer program as that begins to take shape. And the city has

107been a great partner and this will increase the distribution again because of the nature of the way we're distributing meals. This is really available district-wide and there are new products. So there is an opportunity to distribute more fresh produce and to get financial support from the city to do so. So I'd be happy to take any questions Directors might have. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. And I'll start with the chief Chair of the Operations Committee. Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you President Hampson. We had a good discussion in our committee meeting about this and we sent this up to the board for approval. So I don't have any questions for you at this time Chief Podesta but would be happy to also take questions from directors if they have for either you or myself. But

108looking forward to supporting this. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay and let's start from the bottom of the order alphabetically by first name which is with Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No questions for me at this time. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi. Thank you. This seems pretty cut and dried. I don’t think anybody can disapprove of having fresh fruits and vegetables in our school. I guess my only question would be Chief Podesta are there any are there any unintended consequences from this that that should be noted anything at all that we should be aware of. >> FRED PODESTA: No not not really. I mean there we’ll be able to provide produce in different manners in different packaging now that it's not just always kind of a snack. It allows students to have

109access to these foods in their home which is where a lot of learning has been going on this year. I guess I will add since it is introduction and action that we've asked for that because of course the sooner we get the funding the sooner the benefits of this can be made available for the remainder of this school year and through the summer. It's a fairly significantly increase to the overall size. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you for that. No further questions. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Hey. Just checking in. Can y’all hear me now. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes. Now we can hear you. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Oh great. Sorry I don't know it's my microphone but I am here. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay thank you. And now we will go to Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: It's

110my pleasure to support this and it’s my [indistinct] also. Why school nutrition teams and Fred Podesta’s team making this happen. When folks are economically disadvantaged and they certainly have been in this pandemic year and I think that our meal services and meal service delivery are the stunningly most important great thing that we have done in this last year and to make sure the fruits and vegetables are both expanded and encouraged is is awesome and I thank the city for those funds. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you and now we go actually to Director Drury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I have no questions at this time. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me at this time. Thank you. Excited about this. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. I don't have any

111questions. So with that I think we can call for the vote Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Dury [aye] Director DeWolf Director DeWolf [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Director Hampson [aye.] This motion has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: We will now move to Action Item Number 2: Renewal of Master State Elevator Maintenance and Repair Contract. This came through Operations on March 11th and was recommended for approval. Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Do you need a motion. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I'm sorry. Thank you. Yes may I have a motion for this item. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: It's all good. I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute the elevator conveyance maintenance and repair contract with Eltec in the amount of $290,000 with any minor additions deletions

112and modifications deemed necessary by the Superintendent to implement the contract. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This item has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith. This item is on the agenda for introduction action today. Chief Podesta I believe you'll be briefing us. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Yes. Thank you. We need to have an elevator maintenance contract obviously for practical purposes. We have many elevators throughout the more than a hundred buildings operated by Seattle Public Schools. This is also fairly proscribed process in state regulat — in state regulations. We’re required by the Department of Labor and Industries to have a certain structure of contract and then also required to select from a roster developed by the Washington State Department of

113Enterprise Services. These contracts are the rosters split up geographically across the state. We've chosen for our area a vendor that we've had that holds our cert — current contracts so is familiar with our particular equipment in our buildings and then also offered the most advantageous pricing. So this is really a renewal of an existing contract that will cover us for the next period. Happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: President Hampson this as Chief Podesta was mentioning this one is pretty straightforward. This is a contract for basically our routine maintenance of elevators lifts and conveyances in the district. So this is mostly just straight board requirement and I'm happy to support this and thanks for the work and bringing this forward Chief Podesta so turn it back over to

114you President Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Questions from you Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No questions for me at this time. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: No question. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Couple of questions for Chief Podesta if I might. Why is this intro and action at the same time. And did we send out another RFP. And my comment is that our first duty is not to educate our children it’s to keep them safe and I appreciate elevator maintenance. Thank you. >> FRED PODESTA: I'll be honest. Thank you for the questions Director Harris. I'll be honest. We are just bumping up against a deadline as we are reopening buildings. Our facility operations folks who manage these relationships are just pulled every which way

115from Sunday. And we're just a little slow getting this into the process which is why we're trying to get this approved before any current contracting expires. The competitive process for this is actually managed by the state the Washington Department of Enterprise Services and that gives us a roster to choose from. We made an internal selection again based on pricing and qualification mostly being that there in our geographic area of the roster offered the best pricing and has a good track record providing service to the district and is familiar with our particular equipment. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I guess and then I would follow up with a request to senior staff that if it’s intro and action you can tell us why it is intro and action so we don't have to push back and question. Thank

116you. >> FRED PODESTA: Certainly. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director. I can't remember Director Rankin. No sorry Director Rivera-Smith with. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: That's okay. I actually don't have any questions or comments right now. Thank you Fred. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. I got caught up on the S-Z in the names. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I know Lisa Liza Rankin Rivera. Easy to easy to mix up. I I don't have any questions. Being trapped in an elevator is one of my irrational fears along with being lost in space and being trapped in an elevator is more likely to happen so maintenance is a good thing. Yeah well we can add to the things that we now know about Director Rankin and I will add to that my belief that the elevator and escalator companies

117have a that there's a conspiracy to keep all of those not working particularly well so that their maintenance contracts are are well supported. But that said I have no particularly articulate or specific questions on this needed action at this time. So thank you. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Dury [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Rankin [aye] Director Hampson [aye.] This motion has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: We will now move to Action Item Number 3: Establishing May 1st 2021 as the start date for Interim Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones and authorizing the execution of a mutual early separation agreement with Superintendent Denise Juneau may have a motion for this item. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Absolutely. I move that the School Board A: establish May 1st 2021 as the start

118date for Dr. Brent Jones as Interim Superintendent for the district on the terms and conditions contained in the Interim Superintendent’s employee agreement dated March 1st 2021. B: authorize Dr. Jones to employ Superintendent Juneau as an hourly employee between May 1st 2021 and June 30th 2021 at per diem rate set in her April 25th 2018 employment agreement. And C: authorize the Board President and Chief Legal Counsel to execute the mutual early separation agreement as attached to this board action report with Superintendent Juneau. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: The item has been moved by by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith. This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today. This item did not go to committee and I will be

119introducing the item and I will also ask Chief Narver to provide some additional context after I've finished my comments. I more than comments I want to express my gratitude to Superintendent Juneau and to incoming Interim Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones for their flexibility and openness and collegiality in working through this process to ensure a smooth transition. The timing of this transition. It's a really difficult time to be going through this transition and I really couldn't be more more grateful for their their willingness to come to a mutual agreement about what worked for all parties involved and is in the best interest of the school district. So my gratitude to them and that this is happening with with really very little cost to the district and we certainly have Superintendent Juneau to thank for that. So I

120want to then pass it off to Chief Narver. If you have anything to add to that before I go to questions. >> GREG NARVER: I'd be happy to. Ga — Good afternoon. Greg Narver Chief Legal Counsel. Welcome to Director Dury. I look forward to working with a fellow Salmon Bay parent. Also on the line is Deputy Chief Legal Counsel John Cerqui who worked on this matter as well. On February 24th the board approved the hiring of Dr. Brent Jones as interim superintendent and approved the terms of his employment agreement. At that time the anticipated start date for Dr. Jones was July 1st. But as it happens he is available to start work on May 1st and Superintendent Juneau has agreed to this early transition. The terms of that are set forth in the BAR and

121in the attached agreement. This is up for intro and action and I'll answer the question why. Dr. Jones just he needs to know if he's starting on May 1st so that he can plan for that transition and be ready to take the reins of the Superintendent's job on that date. That's that about sums it up. But Mr. Cerqui and I would be happy to answer any questions if there are any about the the terms of the agreement or the change to Dr. Jones’s started date. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay we'll start with Director Rankin for questions comments. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: My question is is not about the start date but about the hourly. Is that just like on an as-needed basis kind of for consultation as the beyond the transition period. >> GREG NARVER: Correct. That's

122that's exactly for that. Consultation on helping on the helping on the transition. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: And does the board need to I mean approval of this would allow that to happen at at the behest of Dr. Jones and Superintendent Juneau as. >> GREG NARVER: Exactly. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: However that becomes necessary. >> GREG NARVER: It's a pre-authorization for this limited period of time for Dr. Jones to engage Dr. Superintendent Juneau as a as a consultant on an as-needed basis. Correct. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Okay. I don't have any other questions. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. No questions per se. I I do want to join in thanking Superintendent Juneau for her three years of service on our in our district and all the energy and passion she put into there.

123And I I also welcome Dr. Jones. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. No questions but comment if I could please. I think it's important to mention that we retained third-party counsel. Former State Supreme Court Justice Bill Talmadge to assist us in that to avoid any appearance of any conflicts of interest. I think it's important to mention that the article that came out in the Seattle Times suggested that Superintendent Juneau is going to get $300,000 dollars which if she wanted to push back she might have gotten that if we had entered into a very adversarial relationship and we did not. That is not what this BAR says. And I appreciate Superintendent Juneau’s elegance frankly and not pushing litigation or any other issues. And my hope is is that the

12415 days that's included in this BAR for collaboration between Superintendent Juneau and Dr. Brent Jones is is rich and powerful and an elegant handoff. And as I said before I promise Dr. Brent Jones my very best effort. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Ms. Dury I'm sorry Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I have no questions at this at this time. Just this quick comment. I'd also want to thank Superintendent Juneau and Dr. Jones for engaging in this process and allowing a longer runway to get Dr. Jones in place for a successful summer and school upcoming school year. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No comments from or excuse me no questions for me. Just again thanking Superintendent Juneau for her work and service to the district up until this point I think

125this move is going to be critical for us to give as much runway and as much opportunity for Dr. Jones to orient himself to the role in order to make sure that we are not only setting ourselves up for success during our last few weeks of school this year but also more importantly planning for you know the services that we plan on offering during the summer as well as a strong start in the fall of next year. So I'm just super excited that this is moving forward. I'm incredibly thankful for all of the parties involved. This is no easy feat. A transition takes a ton of time and the fact that things have been going so well so far between Superintendent Juneau and Dr. Jones is a clear sign that we are headed in the

126right direction. So again thanks all around. Excited to move this forward. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you President Hampson. Just want to reiterate gratitude to Superintendent Juneau. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness around making sure this transition is really thoughtful. I guess I'm over using that word. But I really do appreciate that we rolled this back to May 1st. I think it'll really set Dr. Brent Jones up really well for the upcoming school year. So grateful to see this. Thank you for your work on this President Hampson and Chief Counsel Narver. I know a lot of work we don't see on the dais and so we appreciate all the work you put in behind the scenes. Thank you for that. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And John Cerqui as well. And and Phil Talmadge

127and the folks that supported Superintendent Juneau and her side and definitely gratitude to her attorney as well. So with that Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Dury [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Hampson [aye] This motion has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: We will now move to Action Item Number 4: Approval of Addendum to the August 2020 Memorandum Of Understanding Between (Otherwise Known As An MOU) Between the Seattle School District Number 1 and Seattle Education Association. May have a motion for this item. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Absolutely. I move that the School Board approve the addendum to the August 2020 MOU you attached to this Board Action Report which will become effective upon ratification by SEA on March 26th

1282021. I further move that the School Board waive the provision of Policy Number 1420 that Board Action Reports and relevant supplementary information will be posted to the district's website at least three days in advance of board meetings. This action authorizes the Superintendent to take all necessary steps to implement the district's responsibilities detailed in the addendum. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This item has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith. This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today. This item did not go to committee. Chief Human Resources Officer Dr. Clover Codd I believe you will be giving the staff briefing. >> CLOVER CODD: Yes. Thank you. Good evening. So what you have before you is an addendum

129to the memorandum of understanding that was agreed to with the Seattle Education Association and approved by you in August of 2020. This addendum outlines a phased-in approach to restoring in-person services for preschool through 5th grade students and for pre-K through 12th grade students receiving services through special education intensive service pathways. The addendum contains provisions in the following main areas: inform decision making and supported communication. Health and safety. Instructional model for the PK through 5 and PK through 12 special education intensive service pathways. Leaves and accommodations. Workload. And educator expectations and evaluation. The fiscal impact to this Board Action Report is approximately $5.8 million dollars. We did do two different racial equity analysis throughout bargaining with SEA this past winter. One on our proposals and one on the budget. Staff have already actually started working under

130the terms of this agreement this past Monday March 22nd with the three days of training that are needed in order to prepare staff to support students who will be returning on March 29th. And with that I think I will open it up for questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Let it let’s go. Starting with Director Hersey from the top of the order. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Thank you very much. The only question I have is that just for the public's sake could we give a little bit of what could potentially happen if SEA does not ratify the agreement. I've gotten that question several times over the past couple of weeks and just from the district's perspective it would be good to provide some road mapping in the event that that were to occur just so that

131our constituents have as much information as possible. >> CLOVER CODD: Sure. So if SEA were not able to get the votes in order to ratify this agreement which we understand we will have that information by Friday evening the bargaining teams would go back to the negotiations table. We would continue to bargain in good faith of course so that we can get to a new tentative agreement that would then be brought back to the membership for a vote. If that were to happen we would not be able to start school on Monday the 29th for the students outlined in this Board Action Report. And that would be pushed off to April 5th which would then be under the Governor's executive order. So we are hopeful that this will pass. The vote I believe started yesterday and

132runs through Friday. And we will let you and the public know as soon as we have any more information about that. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Thank you so much. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Harris I'm sorry Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: Given how new I am and how much depth and process this this decision has I do have lots of questions but I feel that this might not be the time to take them up and will be abstaining from this vote. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Director Dury. Did you have any questions you wanted to ask. >> DIRECTOR DURY: Not at this time. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Thanks. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: First let me start by thanking all of our teachers who are beyond heroes in my book. And thanking both sets of bargaining

133committees both from SPS and from SEA. I do have a concern about the fact that we're taking apparently four nurses away from school duties to work on administrative issues but I also understand that there was in fact an SEA nurse representative at the bargaining table. And social media being what it is I don't know the veracity of what is being printed out there but I would suggest that we don't have enough nurses. Our prototypical model is not funded and that comes to the fore right now right here. And I hope we all communicate better in the future and certainly hope we all communicate better in the future for MOU’s for 6-12 MOU’s that are being bargained as we speak but huge gratitude to the folks that gave up their weekends that gave up their nights.

134That have been working round the clock to make this happen. And there is no way that everyone will be satisfied. But it's my hope that we can move past this and do an even better job on 6-12 and we can get started the day that that one is signed hopefully on next fall’s contract. Thank you. >> CLOVER CODD: Thank you Director Harris. And I believe Chief Berge would like to speak to the four additional nurses that we actually have provided. There's some misinformation on social media. Chief Berge. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Hi good evening everyone. So I'll just give you a little bit of background. You know a lot of the staffing has been confusing this year because we did come into the year over staffed so let me just say this. We hired a new

135manager position which was a new position specifically for COVID That was Carrie Nicholson’s position. Many of you are familiar with her work. So we did add a position there for overall COVID work and nurse in particular health and science nursing. We were overstaffed by two FTE this year. Those positions weren’t eliminated. We're carrying those this year and we've committed to carrying them next year as well. Even with the lower enrollment projection. And then Dr. Pedroza’s team had done some additional substitute nursing commitments so additional staffing of about three FTE were garnered through those some dollars that she had available to hire some additional substitute nurses. Nurses aren't easy to find right. They're not easy for us to find. But we did provide some additional supports. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything else. Director Harris in response to

136that. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: No thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi thank you. I I this has been a lot I know okay first I’ll just say thank you. I know it's been that it's been a long process here both for our SPS negotiators and the SEA negotiators and it had to be expedited to an extent because of [indistinct] Governor’s orders so thank you for all the work done there. I know that no plan is perfect. So there's going to be a lot of questioning and criticism of this MOU so we're going have to stand strong on that. I know that the educators are still voting on it and so we'll all await their decision to on this. But I and I will just I think I’ll just ask it's

137more of an expectation and question but in the summary Chief Codd has here that under steps to address disproportionate school closure impacts that when the district COVID central team concludes a school has or will be more heavily impacted by school closures additional and appropriate plan of support will be provided and applied. I'm wondering if like again I hope that that would happen before that school actually opens so that those things can be in place. And I guess just my question is is that that is the plan. >> CLOVER CODD: That's my understanding Director Rivera-Smith. I mean a lot of this outlines that what we will have to do and those are our intentions and so exactly how we will be responding when we do the racial equity analysis has not been determined just that we

138will. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. Is there a a a specific tool being developed for these for these schools or we using the one that we have already. We we actually have a racial equity analysis to tool during COVID that the SPS team had been working on somebody else on this call either Chief Scarlett or Chief Pedroza might be able to speak more to that tool but that is the tool that we'll be using and have used throughout this this bargaining process. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah I don't have any other questions or comments right now. Thank you so much. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. I I don't have questions. I have comments the just to reiterate for folks listening the timing seems seems funny that we're approving

139this before it's been been ratified. And just to I guess re-emphasize that it's it's if ratified it's approved and that the voting is still open until Friday and that just has to do with the way that the timing worked out with the order and how quickly things can move through the full Board and the full membership and all of that. Something that I want to or some something that I have noticed in relationship to this item that I want us to think about in relationship to the future is that there's a lot of misunderstanding about what a bargaining agreement means and how how this works and where the different decision-making points are. And so so I will just say that I really hope that between this process and the process for fall we'll have more

140opportunity to discuss as a full can as a full district community where our different levers of influence are and how you know that this is this is protection for for teachers. This is work job job protection work site protection and benefits but because of the timing of all these various decisions there's a lot of instructional model kind of tied up in that. And as one of our public comment speakers noted you know deciding the instructional model and thinking about what we want school looks like school to look like in the fall really does need to be that full community discussion and we don't have you know the luxury of a huge amount of time but there will be time between between the kind of closing out on these agreements for the remainder of this school

141year and going into discussions about fall that I'm just really looking forward to us kind of all coming back to that as educators as families as students as staff and board and getting out of this sort of adversarial viewpoint and coming back together around the needs of students as a as a community that is separate from the very necessary agreement between the the district and the union in to provide labor protections. So yeah I guess that that is all for me. >> CLOVER CODD: Director Rankin I might just add if I may Director President Hampson. So one of the reasons why this the timing of this is just less than ideal. I guess I'll say is that staff who are going to be educating the students who show up on Monday the 29th they actually

142started working under these agreements on this Monday March 22nd. So two days ago. So they’ve kind of in good faith been working under what's already been outlined in the tentative agreement. So timing is definitely not ideal. We do understand that if it does not pass this Friday we will need to go back to the bargaining table and figure out what we need to do to get to a yes. And the other thing I'll just say you know to you all and the public is that for 100 years we've had one instructional model in public education and then all of a sudden we were forced because of a worldwide pandemic to change that model. And our educators did heroic work to try to figure out and I mean our principals our support staff our nutrition services

143staff our teachers our everybody really under very unusual and extreme circumstances had to figure out a different kind of a model a different way of educating. And this MOU and the addendum to the MOU is still part of that. We bargained in a pandemic. We're still trying to figure out what does a hybrid model of instruction look like in a pandemic. There was no roadmap for this. Nobody had it figured out. I do believe that what we ever we come up with in the fall will be much better. But I'm very proud of the work that our educators and our school leaders and our central office team have done over the past year to to bring us to this point and I also want to thank the bargaining teams because they put in hundreds of

144hours to try to get to this point. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Absolutely. Thank you. I meant to add my gratitude to both bargaining teams or multiple bargaining teams for all the time and effort in super high-pressure situations. So thanks to everybody for putting in that work. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. So just a couple of comments from me. I do want to state I don't see we have a shockingly small audience. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: President Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Actually it appears so maybe folks are will be watching later that this is the culmination of a lot of work and it is the culmination of work that was headed in one direction and then had to head to. I do see your hand Director DeWolf because I may have skipped you. Is that what you're saying I

145skipped you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: You did. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I'm sorry. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes you did. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah I keep messing up on your order because of the whole Ops thing. So I will come back to you after I make my comments. That this the Board is is has closed-session discussions about bargaining with with staff as we go through the process. And and so we we have this is one of the few areas where we do have discussions because of the nature of bargaining that is in closed session with staff on an ongoing basis and staff has done a great job keeping us apprised throughout this. And the closeness to which we were with our originally proposed in-person return which did not had all students through 5th grade returning did not have

146all 6-12 students returning for this year. That shift was a massive one. And so it's amazing that we were able to get to an agreement. And and I know that this members of this Board were very grateful when we were able to get to that moment. So there's not a lot that is new under the sun with what we're seeing here today. The timing as folks have said is difficult. There are many things in this agreement that any one of us as a staff board educator parent student can take issue with. And and yet it is it is the ability to get to this agreement that allows us to move forward which is obviously critical at this time for K-5. So there is no there's nothing for us to sort of you know dive in

147deeply to because that's all been determined and we need to honor the place that the bargaining teams got to honor their contributions honor their work. It was incredibly difficult for them to get to this place. We are known as a district that has processes on top of processes and processes to discuss those processes and and so we do that that creates a longer process. And I would like that we could move to a place where where we don't have that and that that lengthy sets of processes and that will take breaking down of silos and creating better communication and I believe that we're all committed to to moving in that direction. But we are who we are in this moment in time and so coming to this place is really a huge accomplishment. And with

148that I will be supporting this wholeheartedly and I hope folks in the community are able to make peace with it. And and and and flex in the ways that we all need to to make sure that this happens for our kids and we're all super excited about kids coming back on on Monday the 29th. And now I will turn to Director DeWolf to let him add final comme — oh one last thing. Chief Codd could you please state that the fiscal cost and this is something that I want to see in a press release when we approve this that how much is this costing us. >> CLOVER CODD: $5.8 million. So $5,875,465 as an approximation put out by our budget Chief Berge. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And that goes toward if you could just give me

149a short list of the top items. >> CLOVER CODD: So I believe it's seven days of COVID leaves. We've got extra time for professional development for substitutes. Chief Berge you did the analysis. You might have the Excel spreadsheet in front of you. >> JOLYNN BERGE: I do. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I know the seven days. >> JOLYNN BERGE: I do. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Was a big part of it. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Yep. So we had substitutes. Training for substitutes. We had the building safety team stipend. We have them the well we have MERV filters but we didn't include that. We did have to order another bunch of HEPA air filters for this. There's more translations and comm support. And then there's also the benefits that we put in. So Chief Codd talked about the seven days

150of emergency circumstance paid leave and then we also have quarantine leave. And so we did estimates on a certain percentage of SEA needing to access those benefits. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. And I and I just want to note that these agreements were made and these costs [indistinct] and the that dollar amount arrived in spite of having absolutely no assurance that that we would have support from the state or that the the Governor would ultimately be allowing moneys from the feds to come through. We we have seen the state already supplant both enrollment stabilization dollars and transportation dollars. And so that they manage to get to this point in spite of not knowing that we were gonna have support from the state to actually pay for the things for which we were bargaining is a

151is a huge task. And it's not a dynamic that I would hope I would ever see this state repeat again where they withhold funds as a stick approach to to getting us to an agreement which makes it I believe much more difficult for you all to bargain when you don't even know if you can pay for the things that you're trying to provide to our educators. Okay. Director. Thank you for that summary Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you President Hampson. Appreciate having a moment here. I want to just quickly ask Dr. Codd if you could just share I know one of the big sticking points was around kind of our our school facilities and I know if you could just briefly remind folks the process that you went through to bring in a kind

152of a cohort of folks to do walk-throughs just to clarify kind of what issues I think was out in the news for a bit about one of the sticking points but the process [indistinct.]. >> CLOVER CODD: Sure. And actually Chief Podesta and Chief Berge would probably have more details around that but we did ask Labor and Industries to come in and walk through our buildings jointly with leaders from Seattle Education Association and leaders from the central office in Seattle Public Schools to look at this the health and safety protocols and guidelines that we have in place look at some of our HVAC to make sure that people felt more confident when we said we had things in place and we're meeting the the health and safety guidelines we wanted to be able to bring more

153confidence to our labor partners and our public in being able to say that by having an external organization come in and sort of verify if you will that what we were saying is is actually what we were doing. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. I I appreciate that. I think that was one of the biggest sticking points. And so I appreciate the work to bring it pull that together to bring some assurance and some comfort to our educators. I know it's a scary thing to think about coming back after a long year of COVID. We've been in our homes. We were locked down. We were in quarantine. So you know a lot of these activities that we want to think are normal you know we have to adjust our thinking around that. So I really just

154want to give you gratitude big ups to you at SPS and SEA on the bargaining teams on this. And [indistinct] I think to our community you know where we’ve been getting notes about what are the conversations that we had about start times and transportation [indistinct] MOU and the current instruction model and we’re still in the thick of this pandemic. Cases up 30 percent here in Seattle 18 percent. King County variants are still out there not everybody is getting vaccinated. And I don't know how many people really want to get vaccinated. I myself do support it. So I think the idea [indistinct] go back to normal I just want to help people understand I hope people understand that normal is not something we're necessarily working towards. Right now I think we're just working towards finding some

155some ways to to bring back experiences that we had where whether it's in-person or online. But at the end of the day this looks and feels different and we have to be comfortable. We have to be resilient. We have to be flexible and agile to difference. Things are going to feel weird. And I mean [indistinct] going to call on all of us adults to stop projecting our stress and our anxiety onto our young people. And for young people I just want to say this. You are already enough. You are already valued. You are already love. You are more than a grade. More than a test score. More than grades or GPA’s or S — you are not behind. You have not fallen down. You don't have learning loss. You aren't less than. Your perfect as

156you are. This is not a horse race. So I appreciate the work that's gone into this. I'm excited to [indistinct] you know take this opportunity to do something different with our education system by this hybrid model and bringing back students in person. I I hope I trust that we'll be able to do it safely. I appreciate all the work that's gone into this. This is not an easy conversation. This is not easy bargaining. This is not an easy issue. And I just really ask our community to hold close to yourself. This conversation and a topic that we're all going through together at the same time as you. And so just to come together and understand this with grace and we hear you and we feel you and we understand where you're coming from. And I'll

157just end with that but thank you to all the work that's gone into this. >> CLOVER CODD: Thank you Director DeWolf. We really appreciate that. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Some inspiring words. Ms. Wilson-Jones will you call for the vote. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director DeWolf [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Dury [abstain] Director Hampson [aye.] This motion has passed by a vote of 6 ‘yes’ to 1 ‘abstention’. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. The excitement continues. We will now move to Action Item Number 5: approval of a revised of revised bell times for Elementary and K-8 schools for the remainder of the two 2020-21 School Year. May have a motion for this item. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Absolutely. I move that the School Board approve the revised ball times

158for Elementary and K-8 schools listed in the background section of this Board Action Report. These changes will take effect on March 29 2021 and will remain in effect for the remainder of the 2020-21 School Year. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Second. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: This item has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith. This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today. This item did not go to committee. Chief Podesta I believe you'll be briefing us. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Thank you President Hampson. So school bell times. And for anyone listening or not familiar exactly with that term really just means the start and end of the school day at a particular school building are adopted established annually by the Board

159when the Board adopts our transportation service standards which describes which students are eligible for district-provided transportation. And in recent years the district has operated with a two-tiered system of bell times wherein many schools have the start of their day at 7:55 have had the start of the day at 7:55 and many others at 8:55 and then a few at 8:45 actually. And this split between these tiers is not perfectly uniform but it's largely the elementary schools start at the 7 have started the 7:55 hour and secondary schools at the 8:55 hour. And the point of this the and why it's they’re established with the transportation service standards are this allows us to make efficient use of our transportation resources. In particular our yellow bus fleet. This allows a set of buses to provide transportation to

160school in the morning and have students arrive in time for a 7:55 start time. And it's the same set of buses be turned around to provide transportation to another set of students at other schools at 8:55. As we went into the and this system was originally adopted by the board in March of last year for this coming school system somewhat along our normal standards was then revised once it was we moved to a remote model still with a two-tier system but with the times closer together. An 8:00 start time for elementary schools and a 9:00 start time for secondary schools thinking that this would be easier for schools to manage and for families to manage if they had students in in both types of schools that the school was closer together and the overall school

161day would overlap into more succinct timeframe. Now that we're trying to welcome more students back into our buildings we really need to return to our usual practice of having an hour between the bell times as we try to transport more students to our schools so we can make the same use of that fleet. Because if we bring back more students as per the Governor's order we are going to need to use the complete fleet of yellow school buses we have and that only worked in any year because of the multiple-tiered bell time. So we've had discussions also that right now we're ramping up transportation and we have driver shortages and and we have some capacity issues. But even if we were full force we would need to do this because this is the underlying basis

162for the system. So this action again moves the elementary bell times. Starts them earlier at the start of the day and the end of the school day both are half an hour earlier than we had in the remote models so elementary schools and K-8 schools start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 2:30 and makes no changes to the secondary bell times at this time that they would still have a 9:00 start. And that gives us the separation that we need that so we can make more efficient use of the yellow school buses that are available to us. Implementing this and by March 29th as we think through welcoming students with in intensive special education pathways preschool students Head Start students and and others we'll need this in place now. And this efficiency. We are still

163in the middle of routing all these students so it's hard to give exact numbers but we expect this to yield at least 40 buses into the pool to allow us just to meet the the transportation needs that we'll have on March 29th and on April 5th for again special education pathways preschool McKinney-Vento students with the 504 accommodation and our first priority of students that we're transporting and we're legally obligated to transport. And we're hoping as we continue to run the system efficiently as we bring more yellow school buses online perhaps we can offer more transportation. But even to meet the obligations that you know we've already got in place we need to have more time to again between start times and end times for bringing students to school and transporting students from school back to

164to home. So that's you know we're really just returning to our normal practice and modeling again. It's around it's the top of the hour as opposed to 7:55 and 8:55 but basically this returns roughly to the model that we've had for in-person instruction for the past several years. A few years ago the district actually went from a 3-tier system to a 2-tier system and this returns us to that. And you know will make make us able to meet the transportation obligations that we have right now over the next couple of weeks. So I'd be happy to entertain any questions directors have. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: We'll start with you Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Chief Podesta. I think my question is just around the student benefit. Can you describe more about the student benefit.

165>> FRED PODESTA: Again I think this you know it allows us to provide transportation in this case as with the resources we have per our transportation service standards and to those that we’re legally obligated to. There are frankly only so many yellow school buses available to us. And if each bus can only make one serve one school one route a day we would need to practically double the bus fleet to serve all students. Last year when while students were still in buildings we fielded 205 buses per day to serve special services students. And that's about where we are now. We have a few more available to us than that. But we again just to meet the transportation needs of students we need to frankly recycle a bus each day that it can make it can

166transport two sets of students. But we just with the equipment and the staffing we have we can't get students to 105 schools all at the same time is what it comes down to. So you need to split those destinations in half. So we and you need some time in between that to serve the other set of routes. It's really just managing kind of the peak load of our resources. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you so much Chief Podesta. That's very helpful. My only other question not a question more just a comment. Last month we passed our 100 percent clean energy resolution. So just always want to put up a flag or promote electric school buses whenever we talked about school buses. So just doing my [indistinct] due diligence to remind us of that. So thank

167you. >> FRED PODESTA: I I appreciate that. I think even you know depending on capacity and utilization even a diesel school bus can be have a lower carbon footprint than the equivalent number of students each being transported in a single-occupancy vehicle. So there is some efficiency to be gained by we essentially operate a little transit system and we all know that transit systems can create energy efficiencies. But we certainly agree. We would like our buses themselves to be cleaner than they are. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything else Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: That’s it. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. So let's go now with Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I feel like no matter what order you go in I'm always surprised when it's my turn. So yeah. This really. We've had some people ask

168you know why couldn't we move the afternoon block later. And I hope it's understood that it's not the time between the morning block and the afternoon block but that it's actually the time between the two bell times in the morning. And this is the same issue that we have with transportation have had before. You may notice that my committee is the only is the one that still meets at 4:30 in the afternoon and other committees meet at 7:00 8:00 in the morning. That I'm not a morning person. And you know people have different kind of sleep sleep patterns. Mine and one of my kids happens to not sync with the most of the rest of the world. That being said you know even though my my initial response was like oh no another change it

169really is critical that in the context of what we're being directed to provide by the governor that the accessibility for more students is is the critical thing. And I know there are a lot of people asking questions about working families and the half-day schedule and the bell times and all of that. And as Director Hampson said earlier in relation to the tentative agreement there was a lot of planning that had been done in terms of the broad you know safety protocols and procedures transportation protocols and procedures on the on the on the big scale. But to actually operationalize different pieces of that plan the Board directive was a roll-up by groups. And what is very different about having to shift to respond to the Governor's order to bring everybody back at the same time is

170that First Student laid off drivers in October when it was clear that remote was going to be the primary excuse me the primary educational model for the fall. So we have to and those drivers all couldn't sit around until you know there's another job available for them. So the amount of time that it takes to train to find hire and train drivers and to build these routes based upon responses from families is is why there’s not clear answers right now for families if you are going to have transportation or not. I just I hope that that's that's understood. And also in terms of working families again that we don't have a lot of great options that we have to make choices every step of the way along this road and we're trying to make the

171best that we can. So given that that is leading to the change in the bell times. I want to add too that we are having a broader discussion about transportation that was scheduled to happen anyway to relook at how we can serve more students and fit within the budget because as with other things the state does not actually cover the cost of transportation fully. But can I so just to ask a question in terms of moving the times later can somebody I guess just quickly respond to why or it's I mean it's really that the 8:00 time is basically a return to what we had what we had before as opposed to creating a new timing structure. Is that accurate. >> FRED PODESTA: I would say there were three factors and I would invite any

172my colleagues to chime in if there are other things that should be considered that it seemed logical to return to our practice of roughly 8:00 and 9 you know 9:00 to to be kind of where the bell times have traditionally been. Moving the secondary bell times would have added another variable into bargaining that's going on right now about the secondary model that you know is it wasn't crystal clear how that was going to end up. And then the district is and I think many families are very appreciative trying to bring back athletics as much as possible and shifting the ending bell times for secondary schools later in the day would create yet another hurdle for that. And so those were three things. But I think. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yeah. >> FRED PODESTA: Primarily it was

173we're trying to come back to school the way we operated and that's what this looks like is there is a tier at 8 roughly 8:00 and there's a tier at roughly at 9:00. That's that's the way we traditionally operated. So returning to that made some sense. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi Thank you. My I had a question that was just covered and answered. We had heard from a lot of community asking why we did not or if we did consider moving secondary up an hour to make that hour time between the two. So thank you for covering that. I will just explain for everybody listening that you know this this item’s coming to a us as you can see on the BAR so it didn't

174go through committee and and intro/action items are kind of difficult because they the the disadvantage to them is that we don't have time for more conversations or engagement on them. Typically items go into a committee where they discussed possibly for more than a month. Then they move into to the full board for introduction and then a few weeks later for action. So this is definitely a condensed time frame because it is that we the needing to do that. So I’m just explaining to people how unfortunately because of the intro/action nature of this one we didn't get a chance to speak with more communities about any kind of implications that this will have. But I I know that it was still you know there was a lot of thought gone into it. Thank you Chief Podesta

175again for explaining the the implications that would have been had moved secondary. It is an adjustment that families are going to be asked to make and that's hard. That's always hard. So we definitely sympathize with that. I likewise am not a morning person Director Rankin so I I appreciate that you have not moved your meetings to 7:00 a.m. and I but my kids actually are morning people so hopefully the adjustment won't be too hard for them if they do return in-person and we haven’t even made that decision yet. So thank you for the work on this and for I don't have any other questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Several questions and a few comments. Chief Podesta you mentioned a hund — hello. Chief Podesta you mentioned

176105 schools at the same time. That’s we're not talking about high schools. They have ORCA passes. Correct. >> FRED PODESTA: There are a lot of high school students that do have ORCA passes. We do provide special education transportation to nearly to many many schools so there is some transportation typically to practically every school. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. I understand that but it feels misleading and inflated to me to say 105 schools at the same time. Next questions would be after we have met our legal obligations to students needing special ed services McKinney-Vento etcetera we’re hoping to expand bus services to other schools. Do we have a work plan and a tiering system for which schools would be allowed [indistinct] transportation by moving these bell times. That was not addressed in the BAR that I can

177find. >> FRED PODESTA: At this point the this bell time will allow us to reach the efficiencies needed with the fleet that we have to serve that first priority of students of special education McKinney-Vento 504 accommodations. So we would need again I need to be clear that we have two issues. We have a shortage of drivers. But the reason when we have a full complement of drivers we have a two-tier bell time is that we need this again for transportation for all schools maybe not a lot of buses but but right now special ed is primarily what we're transporting and so we need this tier just to serve that that set of students. Once we get this taken care of we have some students at some schools that West Woodland Elementary for school for instance

178has been relocated to John Marshall creating you know exacerbating a transportation issue just for that school. So we're working to find a solution for those students in particular. We've just made a move as the borders where Licton Springs and created you know special transportation issues for those students so those are high on our list and we're looking at tier using equity tiers to see as we add this adding tier 1 schools be an appropriate way of prioritizing. We're so focused now. Again the governor's order was established on March 15th. Our educational model for the first set of students was finalized just last week. So we are fully focused on allocating the resources we do have to meet that first set of students and and then recruiting and bringing on more drivers so we can add

179between the tiers which create some efficiencies in moving the bell times and then more drivers are coming on line which had been the plan be — because again the district plan prior to this was to serve the students we were talking about in March 29th and we have that basically covered. That plan did was built around a full day not a.m. and p.m. cohorts. So right now we're rebuilding routes to cover that. We’ll understand then you know what the excess capacity is and then how how many additional drivers we've been able to bring in onboard and train into the system and then we'll again start prioritizing what further general education transportation we can provide. I you know it is probably still likely going to be fairly limited and we need the survey data that is

180coming back from families both information that was finalized last night for intensive service pathways and then the others to have real numbers to know what our capacity is to add. But again more specific to your question you know the particular transportation is we the issues we've created at a particular school by moving students and then tier 1 schools was our first thought of way to start looking at priorities. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. My next question. I have a couple more. And I apologize for this but this is very vague to me. Do we not make money on transportation for highly capable supports [indistinct] West Seattle students Thurgood Marshall. >> FRED PODESTA: I'm sorry. Director Harris can you repeat the question. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: It’s been my understanding. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Your sounds really [Ingraham.]. >>

181DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Hold on sorry. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: [indistinct] doing the best I can. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Go ahead. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: It's my understanding that transporting HCC students under the state budget STARS or whatever the heck it is we call it now. We actually are reimbursed in full and I'm using West Seattle students that are transported to first Thurgood Marshall as an example. Is that not correct. >> FRED PODESTA: As well we are tran — reimbursed by the state for yellow bus transportation based on how many destinations and how many students we serve. So it is a bit complicated of a complicated model. So adding destinations. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Isn’t HCC a special category sir. >> FRED PODESTA: Not to my knowledge. Maybe if there is something I'm missing. If Chief Berge is on

182the call and wants to speak to I am not aware of of special funding related HCC but I don't know. Again if Chief Berge could speak to that. >> JOLYNN BERGE: No special funding for HCC. Not not for transportation. Nope. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. [indistinct] misinformed. Next question is in terms of our communication to the surveys. Did we advise parents that they would not have necessarily transportation which I'm hearing from a great number of working families that would elect to stay remote if in fact they didn't have transportation guaranteed to go back to the hybrid model. Did we ask that specific question. Because I think that’s a deal breaker for a great many families. >> FRED PODESTA: My understanding is our survey instrument made it clear that trans for the survey for general education students

183that transportation was could not be guaranteed and was very limited. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay because social media suggests otherwise. My last question is what is our relationship with First Student right now and how much are they assisting us with rehiring former drivers and putting the word out for new drivers. >> FRED PODESTA: I. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: [indistinct]. >> FRED PODESTA: I think our relationship is good. You know we talked to the Board about you know the date that we would start paying drivers again when there was still some uncertainty about when transportation services would start. They their income is based on a services delivered per bus so they're 100 percent motivated to bring more drivers back as quickly as they can per their drivers’ collective bargaining [indistinct.] You know it it takes time every year

184to do this. And in this you know drivers have made choices and as we get later into the year we're recruiting drivers for a fairly short window that gets shorter as time progresses. It's you know recruiting in the fall for 10 months’ work is different than recruiting in the spring for two and a half months of work. So I think they are moving heaven and earth and they did they they brought 220 drivers back this spring and that meets our needs for our first set of students we need to transport and they're doing what they can. We are looking at other providers and other sources but I believe our relationship is good and they are working in good faith to to bring drivers back. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Very glad to hear. Thank you. I'm probably

185going to abstain on this motion because it's so vague as far as tiering and as far as the communication to families and it and it hurts me because I've been watching transportation for 10 years very very closely and who knew we were going to have a worldwide pandemic and a Governor and a State Superintendent that really didn't care what the operationalized count cost would be both in terms of dollars and in terms of human capital. Thank you very much. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So if I can just clarify Director Harris. This BAR as I understand it is only about bell times and those other items are by approving bell times we're not necessarily approving or not approving anything associated with tiering. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I understand that President Hampson. But to me they are absolutely intrinsically

186linked and I don't think that I have enough information in terms of next steps to be able to vote in the affirmative. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I have no questions at this time. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Hi. Thank you. I just want to say for all the parents out there that are super concerned about this. I see you and I hear you. As a second grade teacher it's a struggle getting my 8-year-olds to fully wake up and be present at 9:00 a.m. and so this is gonna be a significant change. And unfortunately it's gonna be one of those things that just comes along as we try to reopen our buildings and as we push forward to that goal with our educators there there's

187going to be some change that is necessary to make this effective for everybody. My only question is in your professional opinion Chief Podesta is this a change that you see us continuing to implement into the fall potentially as well. >> FRED PODESTA: I would expect so. Again this is really a return to the structure that we've had I think for at least the last three or four years roughly since we moved to a two bell times system unless we want to you know open up the. But there you know between transportation managing school buildings and athletics and other after-school activities there's only so much overall flexibility that we have. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No I totally understand that. And I think that my only request and my next question would be have we and I probably

188know the answer to this given the speed at which everything is moving but are we in the process or are we planning to do a robust equity analysis of this so that we can have adequate data when we need to make this decision again on how well or not well this worked out for our families but especially our Black families during this you know spring as we head into the fall. >> FRED PODESTA: I think we you know we had the work session a few weeks ago about transportation in general and and the constraints and having to look again and it's kind of the same question how we can use our resources our financial resources and our transportation resources more judiciously and equity analysis would be built into that. And as you can see bell

189times and scheduling have big impacts on on the resource and service levels that transportation can provide. And so since we're expecting all that analysis to be focused on an equity lens to make sure that any changes we make. So I think it's it will be front and center that this this slice of it how bell times and transportation costs work and then transportation services in general. The transportation department you know the the pandemic interrupted this but was had already started to kick off a procedure to look at the whole transportation service standards from the perspective of equity. And again bell times are really just in some respects an appendage to the transportation service standard. So I think yes we're we're definitely on a path to do an equity equity analysis and understand how transportation its

190relationship to school schedules affect Black students and students furthest from educational justice. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: That's really appreciated. Can we get whenever the intersection is appropriate whether it be Friday Memo or at our next transportation work session which I'm sure will be coming up in a matter of weeks. Could we get an update or just an alert when that work has begun. >> FRED PODESTA: Sure. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: So that we can track it. Thank you. Appreciate it. That's all for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Thank you. I think I don't have any. Well I guess the only question I have is what our anticipated assessment date is and maybe that's what Director Hersey is already asking for. When do we know what availability we're going to have based on the survey information

191we receive which is due tonight in case anybody has not filled out their their survey. >> FRED PODESTA: I I would expect us to have an understanding of this early next week. The two we need the overall you know what is the level of students returning to in-person instruction and then what is the potential split of a.m. and p.m. cohorts because that essentially creates another school. From the perspective of transportation now that's two school days in one. So that is you know a big consumer of resources. And then as we talked about earlier in this meeting secondary bargaining around the secondary model is still going on and so how those transportation needs are met at middle school middle schools and in other high schools that do use transportation now. But I think we'll start to

192get some picture of this early next week. And then also know how many additional resources we're able to bring online. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Do we have any. Well before I forget I want to note something that I don't believe has been said or if it if it was I apologize and I missed it. But that this is based on one student per bench unless they're from the same family. And that is part of the T.A. So that also goes to capacity. So where we could in the future have direct guidance that said otherwise we might be able to move to a different model. But for now the T.A. dictates one student per bench. >> FRED PODESTA: That's correct. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Do you know the the percent by which that would increase that additional students

193per bench would increase our capacity. Is it just like a doubling or a third or 25 percent. >> FRED PODESTA: It is not the theoretical capacity on a full bus is either 30 is either a triple or or double capacity for the bus. Given that are again based on our routing patterns and even with two tiers a uniformity of bell times our buses typically are are across the system operating at half capacity so there will be some points where the physical distancing on buses actually makes a big difference. If not it's not enormous. But again we actually need the real numbers of which students to which schools in which cohort to know so what are how many overloaded buses. If we could relax those parameters if we determine that safe that will certainly save us

194save resources at the margin. It is not a wholesale game changer we don't think. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. And then the I think I just want to note that we have we implemented based on need for sleep for secondary children had shifted to the bell time schedule that we have now. We did have it three years ago two years ago. I can't keep track now but when we were at some schools started at 9:30 some schools started at 8:00. We had three bell three schedules which provided a lot more flexibility. And I know that we have data coming in that is that is potentially we missed a year of data this last year right. We might be able to gain a little bit this year but I think it's probably going to be not not

195particularly good data with respect to attendance but I believe that there is some critical things we're going to need to be looking at in terms of what bell times actually work in in different communities as well as the different age groups and that we do have this earlier bell time on the K-5 side to allow for a later bell time on the secondary side which we know to be really really necessary for those secondary students. So. So I just want to make that make kind of remind folks of that as well. And I had another question but I’ve I or I've lost it. So I think we've spent enough time on this and I’m I’m want to just state for the record that the the timing and the rush and the way in which that

196that we've been forced to bring all kids back at once has in fact created inequities. And this is one of the few ways few tools that we have accessible to to try to insert some more equity back into the equation. And that reminds me of my last question. Any luck with King County Metro if they can help us out at all and if you don't have to answer that now we can I can get it on a Friday Memo. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes we have had some discussions and they're making connections for us with some of their resources. And both on the elementary side at least for discussion purposes and then also helping us think about the secondary model which is much more reliant on transportation and what their operating parameters are going to be

197in helping us think about the challenges we might have if midday transportation is required. So it's it's they’ve been constructive conversations so far we don't you know they haven't yielded huge benefits yet but we're we're just starting that discussion. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay great. Thank you so much. All right. Ms. Wilson-Jones will you please call for the vote. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. Just a moment my computer has momentarily frozen but I expect it to load in the second here. Director Harris [Director Harris abstains] Director Hersey [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Dury [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] Director Hampson [aye.] Motion has passed to the vote of 6 ‘yes’ and 1 ‘abstention’. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. We will now move to Action Item Number 6: Approval to pick Procure HEPA Filters for In-person Instruction.

198May I have a motion for this item. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Absolutely. I move that the school board approve the procurement of HEPA filters with any modifications deemed necessary by the Superintendent to complete the procurement. I further move that the school board waive provision in Policy Number 1420 that Board Action Reports will be posted to the district's website at least three days in advance of board meetings. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Second. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This motion item has been moved by Vice President Hersey and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith. This item is on the agenda for introduction action today. This item did not go to committee. Chief Podesta I believe you will be briefing us. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Thank you President Hampson. As been discussed many times

199with the board our there's a our safety plans related to COVID for buildings really rely on increasing ventilation and we are trying to achieve a standard across our whole system of 25 cubic feet per minute per occupant in a building to bring fresh air into buildings. And we've been working hard to make sure our all HVAC systems are working as designed and balanced in classroom in our 4000 classrooms and other spaces to achieve this standard. There are vagaries of any particular building where in a particular space not so much classroom but other spaces as well where it's difficult for us to achieve that 25 cubic feet per minute of fresh air per person in the room. And our solution to that are these standalone HEPA filters very fine filters which clean the air in the

200room rather relying solely on fresh air from the ventilation system. We procured of 350 of these filters and place placed them at spot locations in buildings as we were getting ready for our previous return to in-person learning around the March timeframe. We immediately made another order with the Governor's order because again we're just increasing the occupancy of our buildings so we're bringing more grade bands. We wanted to make sure that we might have more spaces and more people in spaces and so that led to the second order of 500 units. And we've been deliberating over the past few days as the CDC has announced guidance that perhaps physical distancing guidelines would be relaxed instead of 6 feet of physical distancing between occupants of a room to three feet for perhaps elementary grade bands or others.

201Again that would increase the occupancy in buildings and in rooms. And our goal is still to provide a certain amount of fresh air per occupant and so that might create more spaces where it's difficult to achieve that with the ventilation system that's built into the building. So we want to augment it potentially augmented with these standalone HEPA filters which are you know are a small plug-in device not that small actually perhaps the size of a 2-drawer file cabinet where needed and wanted to have those available. We still you know we are still conforming with the 6-foot guideline and are still thinking through if occupancy were to or we were allowed to raise the occupancy of buildings you know how many of these devices do we need they obviously consume you know the more we deploy

202the more energy we're consuming. It's another kind of maintenance and management obligation so we're looking for as many solutions as we can to the point of the late introduction of this BAR. We were really have been are still planning for what is the best solution if occan — if we can raise the occupancy of our buildings and so that's why we're asking to have this authority to buy to procure these devices as quickly as needed. They're also fairly highly in demand in the market right now. So we want to kind of have the capacity in hand but these are very late-breaking decisions with the governor's order and the potential for perhaps being occupied buildings more densely is why we've added this to the agenda. So late in the game. But that's that's basically the thinking

203behind this. And I'd be happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay Director DeWolf start with you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I don't know any questions Chief Podesta. Thank you for putting this together so quickly. I read the BAR and I appreciate your background. I think this obviously it just seems like a really important necessary step particularly as we're bringing students back so I'm looking forward to supporting it. Thank you for the background. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No questions for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: No questions from me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: No questions and happy to support this. Anything to keep our folks healthy is okay by me. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Sorry for

204that delay. Yes. Thank you. Very happy to see this come before us. I have a question though Chief Podesta I’m wondering. So this is for this this is for the purchase [indistinct] of the portable HEPA filters and then for some additional ones in case we need to in case our our we change from the 6 to 3 feet distance. Are these because I have HEPA filters in my home actually and I know they need to be replaced. So is this also includes the replacement of the actual filters. And then first of all how long will the ones that are in there last and then is there going to be a separate order then for replacement filters. Not the unit but as a filter itself. >> FRED PODESTA: We are procuring filters as a stock of

205filters as we procure the units and we'll need to monitor the in the kind of the lifespan the operating time of each you know once we understand how buildings are occupied and how many hours a day the filters are are being used those replacement filters you know compared to the initial purchase are relatively modest. I'd be surprised unless we have some omnibus procurement of lots of things related to COVID or HVAC that you would see the purchase of the of the filter that gets installed. This is the basic device is what will be above the procurement threshold. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Gotcha. Okay. I see. I don’t have any other questions for that. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. I guess I wanted to confirm that this will be on

206an as-needed basis you're talking about it mostly to mitigate an increase of airflow capacity as there are more people in the buildings. >> FRED PODESTA: That's correct. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: So where and who and at what point would it be determined I guess whose responsibility is it to determine hey we actually need to bring in one of these units in this space based on air movement and then do like how are people clear on you know how to get that unit in place. Because these are a default these aren't going to be in every classroom it's an as-needed thing to to further increase airflow. Where where the where necessary. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. So facility operations staff our HVAC staff and who have also enlisted consultants to help because just the workload of the 4,000

207classrooms are are balancing systems and monitoring both ventilation throughput and carbon dioxide parts per million in the rooms and will continue to do that on a regular basis. And then as rooms are chosen and staffing is laid out and we know which students will continue to monitor once the once the buildings are occupied. Given that we've added a lot of grade bands with the governor's orders there's just a lot more people more quickly. So. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Mm hmm. >> FRED PODESTA: [indistinct] where we had equipment on staff but that that’ll be what operating buildings is about as we return and welcome our students back to school. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Okay. Yeah I just I want people to understand that you know if they don't see one of these in their classroom that doesn't mean

208that they're missing something. That it's it's provide it layered there is you know all of the HVAC systems have been updated and have MERV [indistinct] filters where where they can and then there's lots of if if that doesn't improve airflow then we then we also have this strategy and if that doesn't then we also have this strategy. So I I I'm hoping that people understand and feel comfortable with the fact that these systems are being checked periodically and that it's not a matter of throwing everything at everyone but but responding to the actual situation and same the same as with PPE responding to the actual situation and meeting the need. >> FRED PODESTA: We're we're working with school leaders and you know so they understand how to place work orders or if they have questions

209you know that the initial audit and review of HVAC systems has been provided to school leaders so they understand the analysis that's done so far. And then we'll have a lot of learning when students are in buildings. Not everything is gonna get laid out or people won’t occupy the building exactly like we expected so we'll need to adjust. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yeah. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rivera-Smith do you have a follow-up question. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I do. Thank you. Yes. So I know the intro/action nature of this item doesn't allow us to ask for additional documentation necessarily but it being as a large portion of this item is for items that were already purchased. I just notice that there's no there's no invoice or paperwork for that purchase that's already happened on this

210BAR. So I’m I’m wondering just for transparency if Chief Podesta if you could supply us with that I guess in Friday Memo or via email just for again for transparency that we see that you know it’s already been purchased there. >> FRED PODESTA: Certainly we could we can provide that. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay let's see Director DeWolf he already went. So and this is just to clarify this is you're asking for an approval authority level because one part of this authority has not actually been utilized yet. But you foresee utilizing it in the in the coming weeks. Correct. >> FRED PODESTA: Potential we we made an initial order in January that was below the threshold the procurement threshold and then immediately reacted to the governor's order and placed an order

211for another five hundred units that we're why with this BAR kind of acting asking for retroactive authority for the order that was placed and then would like to have the contingent authority going forward if we have considerably more occupancy in buildings. We were we've been thinking about the potential of a 3-foot physical distancing guideline is what has led us to that. And so if we move to that in a big way or make other changes particularly as we see the secondary educational model we think it'd be good to have that flexibility. But to date we've ordered 850 units and would like to have the capacity to have order perhaps another 800. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Great. Okay. That's it for me. So if there are no other questions I would like to ask Director I'm sorry.

212>> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Sorry. I'm sorry. President Hampson I actually do have one. One more question and I promise it’s short. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Go ahead. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. I am wondering about programs and schools that are in buildings that are not SPS buildings like The Center School and inside of Seattle [indistinct.] How how does that. I mean I I I assume and hope that principals are all still looped into the same you know that that principals the COVID site manager the same way but are we running into any issues of like overlap of responsibility or. Or holes the responsibility falls through when it's not our building. >> FRED PODESTA: We've included those buildings in our walk-through process that we're doing now and then you know there are different arrangements with different landlords if

213you will. And so we're working with them you know on whatever basis makes sense in that building to try to achieve the same standards that we have in our own building. The occupancy typically of those buildings whether it's Interagency or The Center School are a bit different. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Mm hmm. >> FRED PODESTA: But so far so good. We're still working through some of those issues. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Okay. And I imagine we're following in those spaces the same sort of we were talking about stickers on you know knowing the different things for different rooms with all of those even in structures that are not our whole building. >> FRED PODESTA: To the extent it makes sense. Again some of those programs are a lot different than some of our other schools. But I

214yes trying to uphold as many of those standards as we can. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Ms. Wilson-Jones. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Hersey [indistinct] [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Dury [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hampson [aye.] This motion has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. So let me just we're now about to move to introduction items. I know that this has been a pretty long board meeting and I don't want to hold things up but if directors need a five-minute recess. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yes please. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: 5 is perfect. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. If we can recess at 6:58 Ms. Wilson-Jones I mean what did I just say if we can recess and then reconvene at 6:58 please promptly. >> KEISHA SCARLETT: Expanding

215the successful partnership between Seattle Public Schools and the City of Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning to continue funding and to expand preschool classrooms in SPS. I'm reminded right now maybe even this time March 2014 as a principal of South Shore PreK-8 school I had the opportunity with former Early Learning Director and now Executive Director of Curriculum Assessment and Instruction Cashel Toner to attend a 3-city tour of Boston Washington D.C. and Jersey City to attend a preschool study mission trip and visit some of the finest preschool models in the country. Six years ago we began this innovative program by funding three preschool classrooms. This year we're poised to continue supporting our current 29 classrooms and expand to 5 new sites for a total of 34 classrooms. This means $9,178,000 dollars in investment. 89 teaching

216positions funded by this partnership. Under the leadership of the Early Learning Department this program has expanded the opportunities for research-based and inclusive all day preschool programs throughout the city and district. Currently we are serving 544 students overall and will serve 644 students next year. 90 of these students have IEP’s and participate in our SPP Seattle Preschool Plus and Head Start Plus programs. Seattle Public Schools and DEEL share a commitment to high-quality early learning and to expanding access to inclusive programming. Each year our preschool programs ensure our youngest learners are more ready for kindergarten by consistently meeting and exceeding on our whole child assessments and providing foundational opportunities that support their education and future. You will notice the BAR indicates $7.6 million dollars. Indeed our overall expansion budget will be $9.1 million dollars due to an

217increase in per-pupil funding. For the April 7th board meeting the changes will be posted. Now let's talk specifically about this $9.1 million dollar investment and what It will fund the continuation of 29 currently funded classrooms and add 5 new classrooms. 4 Head Start Seattle Preschool Plus and 1 Seattle Preschool Plus. 4 Head Start expansion sites serving predominantly students furthest from educational justice from Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Wing Luke Cascadia and Northgate Elementary. These programs will become full-day programs from the previous day model. In response to overall lack of SPS preschool opportunities in the central region we plan to open one new SPP program in the Magnolia elementary school’s newly renovated building wing. With the with it it holds the potential to expand in the future to additional developmental preschool preschool classrooms. In alignment

218with our Seattle Excellence strategic plan Early Learning's expansion priorities include increasing opportunities in our 13 focus schools our Title 1 schools Head Start full-day programming and inclusive special education opportunities throughout the district to ensure access to safe warm and engaging high-quality early learning environments that develop the talent identity voice and agency of our students furthest from educational justice with a focus on African-American boys. This year our SPP and Head Start SPP classrooms enrolled 249 students of color furthest from educational justice which made up 50 percent of overall enrollment with 12 students served in our McKinney-Vento services. We have Mr. Dwane Chappell who is the very fine director of the Department of Education and Early Learning here. And so Dwane Mr. Chappell I'd love to invite you to have any comments. >> DWANE CHAPPELL: Yes. Thank

219you Dr. Scarlett. Good evening to you. Good evening School Board and Superintendent. So you I’m aware I am grateful for this partnership. We are grateful for this partnership with Seattle Public Schools on pre-school. Super excited to expand to a total of as Dr. Scarlett mentioned 34 Seattle Public School SPP classrooms for the 2021-22 school year. Seattle Public Schools is our largest partner with Seattle Preschool Program in our Seattle Preschool Program network and they represent you guys represent about a quarter of all of our Seattle Preschool Program classrooms. So super thankful for this. We're also appreciative of the district's work to make remote learning as meaningful and engaging as possible for for families this year. The Seattle Preschool Program Plus continues to be something that we're extremely or very proud of. And again this partnership is

220really is really a bright spot for our FEPP as Board President Hampson mentioned earlier our FEPP levy investments. We also know that the focus on students furthest from educational justice has been your priority. I know that there are several points throughout this educational pipeline where our students furthest from educational justice and our African-American students are lost. And these points really present an opportunity to continue with our investments in African-American children and youth and those furthest from educational justice and as as Dr. Scarlett just mentioned these first years or the first opportunity is in the early years I just cannot say more than or should I say there's so much I could say but we all know that the access to high-quality preschool is key to ensuring that our scholars are equipped to spread their big

221of their brilliance as they blossom throughout their educational journey. And all I would have to say I'll stop there is that I'm just extremely excited excited for our partnership on behalf of our scholars. So I'll pause and just to let you know that I do we do have Monica Liang-Aguirre she's our Early Learning Division Director. I'm on as well. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you so much. And I'm going to turn this over to Director Rankin who's the head of our Student Services Curriculum and Instruction to start off our board questions and comments. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. So are we going to go through are we going to talk about the Promise part today or are we focusing on the pre-school part today. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This is preschool. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Oh funding for

222preschool services sorry. Yep. Thank you. I no this is a you know I remember when this was first being voted on and enacted for the first time in Seattle and access to high-quality preschool is such an important is such an important thing to provide for for future academic success for for support for working families support for just you know I don't want to say kindergarten readiness but helping just helping kids socialize and the early development stuff. So I don't have any questions at this time. I do have well it could be a question but I don't think there's an answer to it right now so I'll make it as a comment which is that I really look forward to the day that I hope comes soon where we don't have SPP and SPP Plus. Where

223all children are welcome and served at any and all preschool sites regardless of ability or disability. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And my apologies Director Rankin. This actually came through A&F. So I should have started with Director Hersey so I'll go to him next. I was I was wondering I'm like how does she not know that. So I my apologies. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: That's okay. I mean I I know what this is obviously but I was surprised to be called to go first because I was like this didn't come through me. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Because you had just taken a bite. Okay. Director Hersey Vice President Hersey excuse me. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Thank you I appreciate it. I actually don't have any questions on this item. So we can move on to the next director. I'm just

224super excited to continue the partnership with DEEL and thankful for your time here with us tonight brother Chappelle and just excited to continue to work together and get these things done in the interest of our kids. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. So let's go now to Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I have no questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. And then to Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. Greetings Dwane it's good to hear your happy voice and and collaboration. SPP Plus. What's the ratio of the new program between SPP and SPP Plus. >> DWANE CHAPPELL: Thank you board Harris good to hear your voice as well. Monica let me let’s see if Monica has that. If we don't have it on hand right now what I can do is like what I what I've

225done before is get that information for you and send it back over for everyone to view. But Monica are you on. Do you know that. Answer. >> MONICA LIANG-AGUIRRE: Yes. Hi good evening. Director Harris good to hear your voice. We have 19 Plus classrooms coming on at SPS next year out of 34. So just a little over 50 percent 55 percent. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Happy to hear. Next question. Do we still have the 25 percent hold back SPS being the bank for the city of Seattle. >> MONICA LIANG-AGUIRRE: We have not had the 25 percent hold back in a while. It's been reduced to 15 percent for a number of years. And yes we still do have that performance pay though. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: And do you have that performance data banking 15 percent for

226[indistinct]. >> MONICA LIANG-AGUIRRE: Ever. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Seattle for all of your partners. >> MONICA LIANG-AGUIRRE: Yes we do. And and and Seattle Public Schools has achieved 100 percent of their performance pay over the years. So. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: But then the obvious question is why can't we remove that piece of the contract. >> MONICA LIANG-AGUIRRE: That is the that is the ongoing debate Director Harris. I will let my boss take that one on. >> DWANE CHAPPELL: And so thank you Director Harris for the question. As you know I want to make sure that there that the opportunities for growth and improvement at all and everyone that we partner with is there. And as of right now it's something that I've been committed to to making sure that we're using it as an opportunity to

227to expand on what the lessons that are learned from the CBO’s and the providers that we partner with. And so right now it is it’s it’s it’s part of our performance but I continue to discuss it internally. But it's something that I'm committed to and just making sure that folks get a a opportunity to leverage this performance pay that they are subject to receiving. And there's so many positives that I can go on and on forever. But I don't want to waste this time but I'm happy to dive deeper with you on a one-on-one or small session to talk more about it Director. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Happy to do that. And I would suggest that it wasn't part of the funding mechanism that the voters approved as it has not been since the beginning. And

228perhaps the next mayor will choose to trust the Seattle Public Schools as the trusted partner that we are. Thank you. >> DWANE CHAPPELL: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director sorry Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I would likewise love to be part of that conversation. I would like to know more about this performance pay and how that works. So if you could loop me in that would be great. But I won't hold up this BAR detail for that I know that's kind of a separate thing that can be talked about. As far as this action item goes. I am really excited about the increase in the inclusive preschool classrooms will have. I had the honor of touring the new Wing Luke facilities and they're beautiful and can't wait to get students in there and

229have the community get the advantage of that facility. So I don't have any more questions. We talked a lot about this in committee so thank you. I’ll pass to the next director. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rankin I'm sorry we really went did Director Rankin. Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I don't any questions at this time. Thank you. And I just will underscore this issue comes up every year. I know Dwane I appreciate all the work you do for both the district and the city and I know that this question from Director Harris comes up every time we have this conversation and it is not because we are trying to to be annoying but it's because we actually have a concern about it. And so I just underscore that this is not us nagging you because

230we'd like it to nag you we we are doing this because we don't believe that it's within the bounds of the partnership that we the trusting partnership that we have. And it just feels a little paternalistic. So I appreciate all the work you do and I'm excited to support this. >> DWANE CHAPPELL: Thank thank you. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So that goes to me. And love the [indistinct] I love the preschool program. We're not talking about Promise this time but love that program as well. I think this is some of the best work that the city and district have done together. I don't have a problem with it being in our in our buildings. I think it's a fantastic partnership. Happy to see the increasing equity focus yet we’re

231we’re and I will just say we're going to have to have some deeper conversations about this. And I hope some smarter conversations about the performance pay. We're looking at about $7 million dollars in underspend in our buildings and a lot of that actually isn't performance pay including at Mercer Middle School. So it it puts our our staff in in an awkward decision making place and I think it's we need to figure out ourselves how we need as a district how do we want to optimize decision making at building so that they're making the best decisions for student outcomes. And then how do we communicate with our partners such as at DEEL to make sure that that our relationship also supports that. And and I think we're kind of in a in a tough spot with

232that right now. So all that being said I appreciate it. It's always good to have you come and present to us and I really appreciate you. I mean we're not in person but. Good to see you with us. And and the again the growth in this program is is tremendous and so appreciated by our communities. And we actually have had some other. There's other pieces of it that have to do with groceries that are brought every week. There's really some tremendous benefits throughout the the city for this program. So thank you for that continued good work. And with that we can move on to the next introduction item. Thank you so much for coming and thank you Dr. Scarlett. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Hello everybody. Good evening. I'm Concie Pedroza Chief of Student Support Services. I'm

233here to introduce this Board Action Report. It is for approval due to amendments needed to the original contract submitted previously. These contracts are over the amount previously approved by the board due to a number of additional students added to each of the individual contract rosters. These contracts are for required services for many of our students within special education during this 2020-2021 school year. This motion is to request approval for the unanticipated increases to each of these contracts. I also would like to just have noted that we did correct the amounts for clarification and transparency so you will see in the BAR and with what the original contract amount the additional amounts required and then the current contract amount needed. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Thank you for just jumping right in there Dr. Pedroza.

234This came through A&F on March 15th and was put forth for approval. So Vice President Hersey would you like to start off our comments. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Sure. We had a robust conversation about this in committee. It is pretty straightforward. I appreciate the work that's gone into it and will pass to the next director. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: No questions at this time. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yeah. We’ve heard now for 5 separate years and Dr. Pedroza I appreciate that you just took over this division last year but for 5 separate years we've heard that Seattle Public Schools wanted to figure out a way to deliver these services in-house. And I well appreciate that this last year isn't an [indistinct] anomaly because of

235the pandemic but are we making any progress on that. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Yes we have made some progress. One of the areas that we you know there's a lot of services and there's various disabilities within our system. One of the progress areas where we actually now serve more students is in the area of behavioral supports. We've hired more behavioral support staff. We still need to do some improvement in that work to make sure that we are still removing those bias in those decisions. But that's some one of the areas that we have done that. It's it's a it's a long process. It's not going to be one thing because as you know we all of our students have unique services and there's and all of our schools have complex needs as well. But we are

236working on it. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Do we have any sense of ETA of where we could open up a pilot program. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: That's something I actually would love to talk about. It be interesting. Maybe we could talk about that in committee. To discuss more some maybe because we're gonna be having a special education update. I'm going to note this because I think it's a broader conversation that we could have to discuss what we could do to start those processes. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Are are you saying that those processes have not been started. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: We have. We've. We actually are. We do we have some still contracts. But as you know many of the increase of the contracts currently are are many of them are pandemic-related. And we actually have started serving

237most of our own students. So we've done both. But I would like to we can talk about how we what you're proposing in a conversation in committee so that our team can work on some of the things that your suggesting. I know we've talked with a Director Hampson as well about this this notion about contracts and maybe how to do them a little differently moving them forward through A&F. We've talked about that as well. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you so much. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. I'm going to move to Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. Yeah I would like to talk about this in committee or in other environments. And I would also say as sort of sort of a not necessarily in contrast to what Director Harris was saying. But until we can

238show that we're not restraining kids for behavior or discipline I do not believe that we should attempt to bring students back who have higher behavioral needs quite honestly. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: We talked about this a lot in committee. Thank you for the update edits to the BAR. That did add clarification to the item and how much money we’re actually talking about. So thank you for that. Otherwise I have no questions or comments. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: No questions at this time. Thanks Dr. Pedroza. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I don't have any questions. Thank you so much. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And let's move to Introduction Item Number 4. Nope it's Number

2393: Amending Board Policy Number 6220 Procurement. This came through an A&F on March 15th for approval and Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge I believe you will be briefing us. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Good evening again Directors. This BAR if approved would increase the threshold of board approval for purchases and non-construction contracts for construction contracts and for contract amendments and these changes are outlined on page 1 of the BAR. By way of background this policy change was [indistinct] initiated by President Hampson during her tenure as Chair for the Audit and Finance Committee and continued forward under Vice President Hersey's leadership as the new A&F Chair. Because this BAR impacts the work of both the Operations and A&F committees this was taken to both committees. Both committees expressed strong support for this policy change. I would say that

240Director Rivera-Smith had some questions that we have addressed. We've added the background language requested to the BAR outlining the policy changes more clearly. You also had questions about Superintendent Procedure 6220SP.F and we have left the revenue thresholds for approval unchanged in that procedure as they do relate to another policy 6114. And then we also reviewed per your request Procedure H and updated references and titles etcetera. President Hampson in committee you had asked the dollar value of the work hours saved by this change which we estimate to be about $263,000 dollars a year. And finally when this policy was first drafted in 2012 there were very limited administrative procedures for internal routing and approval of contracts. What was implemented significantly changed how contracts and procurements are processed and approved. Under these changes only 3 people can

241sign contracts and there is and has been a strict process for administrative review and approval. These proposed changes do include you know some counter balance. Increasing the threshold but also continuing quarterly reporting of all procurements and contracts that would exceed the $250,000 dollar mark. So anything between the $250,000 and the new limit would still be reported on a quarterly basis during the to the Audit and Finance Committee in a written report. And with that I'm happy to take questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Let's go to director Hersey who is the chair of the Audit and Finance Committee. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Thank you very much. Again this was discussed robustly in committee. My main question is we're just going to be making sure that the comments that Director Rivera-Smith had made in committee have been addressed.

242But thank you so much. CFO Berge for teeing that up for us. So we should be able to move a little bit more quickly. Really appreciate it. We can pass on the next director. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. I'm going to go to Director DeWolf do you want to comment on this next. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah. Thank you so much President Hampson. I just want to echo Director Hersey. We did have a discussion on this in our Operations Committee and I really appreciated the process that the district and by ‘the district’ I mean Chief Berge and her team went through to keep the committees informed about this policy update. I really appreciated that both of our committees were engaged on this topic. And I know Chief Podesta we had a little bit analysis about it at

243our meetings and to give a little bit of an understanding of what the the policy change that we're just we're talking about now would actually mean for our meetings and efficiency and for staff time and actual staff dollars that it takes to do the work to bring contracts that are $251,000 dollars and above you know $250,000 dollars and above to each our meetings. And I really appreciate and understand that the staff time focused on putting these smaller contracts through actually does take up a lot of time. So I'm really personally very excited to see this come through for efficiency. I think our district and our and our work would be really helped by kind of improving the workflow. And I'm really excited to see this policy update. And I look forward to supporting it. Thank

244you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. And then we'll go to. Let's go to Director Rivera-Smith next. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi. Thank you so much for all that the updates and changes to the BAR. I know I had a lot of questions there but but I think it really did just kind of clarify the areas that needed to be there. There was a concern with the policy change had not been made that was referenced in item ‘F’ on page. No that letter than ‘F.’ So thank you for that. I think that I think you spoke a little bit to it already but if you could just explain more. I think one of the biggest concerns people might have about this item is the lack of oversight the board will have going forward on a certain dollar amount

245items. So and I know in committee you explain how there are a lot of more safeguards and checks and balances that did not exist when this policy was last updated. So maybe you could explain a little bit more about how we can still be sure that there is adequate oversight of our items. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Sure. President Hampson I know Director DeWolf has his hand up I don't know if you want to go to him first or should I respond. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Are you okay if I just let her Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay go ahead. >> JOLYNN BERGE: So the the process right now there's 3 people who can sign contracts depending on level. Amy Fleming the accounting director can sign up to $75,000. Then myself I can

246sign up to $100,000 or I can sign for Amy. And then the Superintendent and the Superintendent can have a designee. Those are the only 3 people who can do contract approval right now. And there is a whole threshold of approvals where you have to go through your department. It has to come through Amy's office and accounting department. We make sure that there's budget. That they've got the paper proper paperwork filed. That they've done appropriate procurement and then it comes to myself and/or to the Superintendent depending on the threshold for additional sign-offs and review. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: That is I mean that is reassuring. Definitely for those for the process there. I'm wondering if that is written anywhere where we where we could find that process laid out. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Yeah it’s in one of

247the procedures. So the procedure lays that out. There's a whole matrix. So let me find out. That is I think it’s B or C. It's B. 6220SPB. And it outlines the execution process and who has approval authority and what approvals it has to go through. There's a matrix that's attached in your packet. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Wonderful. Do we have any built-in audits at any point where we kind of just oversight of this cha — if we make this change at what interval will we look at it to just make sure that it is not leading to any unintention or you know any items that were missed and lacked the oversight they needed. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Well I suspect what will happen is accounting will have the reporting responsibility to report out to Audit and Finance.

248But I would suspect that this would be something that internal audit would also take a look at as a new policy change and to confirm that we have done that quarterly reporting. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Okay well I know we get one more look at this for or action so thank you. No more questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director DeWolf you had a follow-up. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah. Thank you. I just wanna be really clear. Director Rivera-Smith said something that is not true. That board we are elected to have oversight over this district. We will continue to have oversight over this district. This is merely about efficiency. And in fact the improvements to the process are laid out in procedure. And the district has taken the necessary steps to improve their process to hopefully prevent the types

249of missteps that took place in the past. But this does not relinquish our oversight role. In fact I think we are probably more we have more oversight than we ever have. So I want to be very clear that that assertion is not true. We still maintain our elected duty oversight of this district. This is about efficiency. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. I'm going to go ahead and go next since I did I want to point out a couple of things that brought this to the fore. One is the extent to which board directors as a result of this policy end up pretty deep in what we like to call the weeds with respect to approvals without necessarily any requisite experience to bring to bear. And we have in part remedied that by bringing in

250some additional using the authority that we have within our committee structure to actually bring in a public advisor and we'll bring in an additional public advisor and that that helps and that position goes on past the tenure of a board member in the Audit and Finance Committee. But we also have strengthened the the breadth of our Audit and Finance. I'm sorry our audit team and structure and that was one thing I wanted to make sure that we did prior to implementing this. The range of approval levels for school district boards throughout the country of similar sizes is between $50,000 and a million dollars. We're kind of smack dab in the middle and there isn't a lot of really clear data. I think this is something that we should continue to look at. It's not as

251if once we put this in place that it can never be considered again. But that we don't have any evidence to demonstrate that whereas we as a board are adding value and in fact the amount of time that it takes for staff to put together board action reports for dollar amounts that I think even at $500,000 it's like something like .03 percent of our total budget. I don't know if I did that math right. That's my calculation for at $500,000 whereas the $1.5 billion dollar budget. That's not our operating budget. That's our total budget for the year. But so $500,000 dollars is a pretty pretty low bar relative to the scope of the of the overall budget. And that is part of why I feel very comfortable. In addition to the fact that we do

252have very strong procedures in place staff-level procedures and we through our risk management and and audit system can choose to look at those and prioritize those for analysis at any point and that that allows us to provide continue providing that oversight. So I'm excited to bring this forth. I think that the weight it was actually something that director that did the former director Director Mack and I had talked about wanting to particularly for Operations because of the sheer volume of of items that come before the the board that are Operations that really just take up too much of our staff and our time and discussion and yet for which we're not necessarily providing any expertise or value or particular oversight. If you don't really know what you're looking at it's difficult to provide that oversight.

253And we have quite a few excellent structures thanks to Director Mack and others staff in place that do in fact provide this oversight. So so we have a lot of different ways of keeping track of and providing checks and balances to those structures and as long as we continue to utilize those and monitor those and hold ourselves accountable to those and hold staff accountable to those that I feel really confident about this. So I'm really relieved to see this coming forward and and I think it'll it'll create some some space in our relationship with staff to show them the extent to which we do trust them to do their jobs. And so then I'm going to go to Director Dury any questions. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I don't have any questions. I do I have one

254comment that I appreciate creating efficiencies in in systems and within budgets and so I look forward to learning more about this as we go forward as well. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I I wish that I could agree but I can't. I think that we signed up for $250,000 dollars not $500,000 dollars and yes it takes time but yes that's what we're elected to do. Couple other comments and reflection and thank goodness for Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge. She in the past has discovered less than ethical behavior on the part of non-current staff where they change smaller contract so that it wouldn't go over $250,000 dollars so they abused their authority. That's been rectified. But there's been an awful lot of contracts in the last 10 years that were for $248,000

255dollars or for $245,000 dollars or for $249,000 dollars to escape the oversight of the board. And we were all elected because folks expected us to keep our eyes on the prize here. And it's time consuming for us certainly and it's time consuming for staff certainly. But as Tip O'Neill I think said you know a comma and a zero here it all adds up. And I think in terms of rebuilding trust with our voters and our communities we need to keep it where it is. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Again like I said always surprised when it's my turn no matter when it is. Thank you. Yeah I. I do support this and understand you know when we're talking about projects as large you know the projects that come to us

256for approval are things like you know lock sets for doors for all the buildings in the in the school or in the district and you know literally hardware and you know because just because of the volume at which things have to be procured. I I feel oh by the way sorry the BTA and BEX Oversight Committee is in support of this and they see a lot of the items and have a lot of knowledge around the different expenditures and things that would be considered under this new threshold. I want to echo I guess I think President Hampson’s comments that [indistinct] since this this limit was enacted of $250,000 dollars and and the incidents that were referred to by Director Harris policy has changed a lot and procedure has changed a lot. And so I really

257believe that there is more oversight in more appropriate places now than than there was at the time when issues did arise. Partly because those issues arose there were steps taken to address that and prevent it from happening again. I you know my it's interesting to me to see how the different items. But I also fully appreciate that it does take a lot of staff time to bring those things before us. And there was a comment made about the board wanting to just hand out money freely. Well it's still it's not the checkbox’s not open. It still goes through a procurement process and has many trusted staff staff folks go over it. And as Chief Berge said there's there's not a lot of leniency in who can sign. So it's not it's not throwing out our

258capability to oversee. It actually is in a lot of ways strengthening the systems that we already have as I see it and a good use of time and funds by tightening up some of the steps that are mostly sort of not ceremonial but yeah anyway [indistinct.] >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. I went and very much out of order on this. Did I miss anybody. I see Director Harris did you have another comment. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: No ma'am. I'm good thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. All right. So we're gonna move on. >> KEISHA SCARLETT: Right. Yearbook RFP BAR. So Dr. Keisha Scarlett Chief Academic Officer. It said the yearbooks are a visual time capsule of memories. And so this BAR is asking the School Board to authorize the Superintendent to execute a 1-year contract extension with

259Herff Jones in the amount not to exceed $400,000 dollars and may execute 2 optional annual extensions each in the amount not to exceed $400,000 dollars each for a total amount not to exceed 1.2 $1.2 million dollars over 3 years for the management and classroom support of middle school and high school yearbooks. We originally brought this version of this BAR last year. This is a request to get authority for 3 years for this contract. That said we continue to take very seriously the annual review and approval process we conduct internally. As we shared at SSC&I Committee we are responding to feedback on Herff Jones to ensure that their performance meets school staff expectations. The extension of the contract beyond this coming year would still be dependent on the district being satisfied with Herff Jones's performance. The

260biggest issue with respect to equity in this contract that has been raised is about affordability. There was an important conversation last year and Director Harris noted during SSC&I or during our last meeting that it is important to revisit this conversation with regard to this contract. The district has taken the following steps to address affordability. The district-wide contract takes advantage of volume pricing. A uniform cost per school is guaranteed that will keep the prices of yearbooks down. Smaller high schools can take advantage of middle school pricing lowering the baseline cost per book. In addition some SPS middle and high schools have made yearbooks available to all students by subsidizing the costs. We are learning from this approach as well as other school approaches and working to determine whether a district-wide approach would be helpful. At the

261March SSC&I meeting the committee moved this forward for consideration given I believe the desire to have a conversation about affordability related to yearbooks and the connection to our shared efforts to promoting equity particularly racial equity. In addition I want to respond briefly to the comment made during public comment today about this contract. In brief we have had to follow the formal procurement process last year and this included advertising the RFP in the Daily Journal of Commerce posting in the Builders Exchange and on the Seattle Public Schools website. In addition in an effort to diversify the vendor pool we contract we contacted Tabor 100 an association of entrepreneurs business advocates who are committed to economic power educational excellence and social equity for African-Americans and the community at large. And also the office of Minority and Women's

262Business Enterprises. We thank you for your consideration of this BAR. I would like to note that we have Dr. Caleb Perkins Executive Director of College and Career Readiness with us this evening who can help with questions. With that I will take any questions you have. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: President Hampson you were muted. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry Director Rankin. You're up. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Okay okay I was I was I thought that was what you said but I wasn’t sure. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This time you are up. Yes I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was muted. Yeah Thank you. Go ahead. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: That’s okay. Yeah. I don't have any questions as this we had the opportunity to discuss this in Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee. But I do want to re-emphasize for folks

263that this is not a new contract and it's an extension of a current one. So there wasn't a whole new RFP process this time but the process that Dr. Scarlett described was used last time. Just for clarification. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Director Rivera — I'm sorry Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: No questions here. Thank you for that update Dr. Scarlett. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yes. Thank you so much Dr. Scarlett and also Dr. Perkins for the robust conversation we did have in CCS&I. Dr. Scarlett you mentioned that some schools subsidize the cost. How did they do that. Are they PTSA funds or what or is it different for each school and which schools and how many schools. >>

264KEISHA SCARLETT: It's a great question. Dr. Perkins. Are you with us to address that question. >> CALEB PERKINS: Yeah I have a partial I don't have every single middle and high school but we have been studying some examples with Eagle Staff and with Roosevelt and others. And yes it is generally PTSA funds that help subsidize as well as some schools give the option for students who can pay to also pay into a fund when they are paying for their yearbook to help their classmates. We could get a more systematic approach but that's that's what we're learning and as it said as Dr. Scarlett shared we're exploring the option of having a district-wide approach to make it more accessible for all. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Well I sure would appreciate more information and I I appreciate the

265additional information since CCS&I. Thank you for that. And if we could figure out a matrix in your spare time in the middle of a pandemic right. Now several years ago we heard from an entrepreneur an African-American male who had a interest in providing yearbooks and he felt that by just rolling over this contract on a regular basis even though we've done RFP’s and I appreciate that we followed the letter of the law last year. What became of our conversations with Tabor 1000 and MBWE as far as. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: It’s 100. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Opening this up to opening this up to other contractors and and frankly soliciting them under our race and equity goal. >> CALEB PERKINS: Yeah. The the points that Dr. Scarlett made are probably the fullest understanding I have. So which

266is that we we went through the process as guided by the procurement and contracting office to reach out to those those groups. We do have to be careful obviously as I know you know Director Harris in terms of just making sure we're reaching out in a way that that all people can access. So there may be additional steps we can take but we followed the guidance that the contract office gave us in terms of trying to diversify the vendors through the Tabor 1000 piece and the Office of Women and Minority Businesses. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: And when did we do that. >> CALEB PERKINS: We did that as part of the RFP process for when this contract as Director Rankin just reminded us approximately in January of 2020. I'd have to go look back at exactly

267the dates of when we we did this last year. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Well I bet. And I don't know that you were here then Dr. Perkins and I don't believe that Dr. Scarlett was in the position she holds now but I have to tell you the archivist can bring up the information from this gentleman. And it was frankly very disturbing and I just hope that we are in touch with Tabor 1000 and. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Just just to be clear it's Tabor 100 just just to be clear. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you for that. I appreciate the correction. And the but with rolling over contract when we have race and equity goals and we haven't reached back in over a year when these issues are brought up to us. It's concerning to me. Thank you.

268>> CALEB PERKINS: I do recall that there was an exchange in 2019 with the gentleman around the contract for that year and I believe Dr. Kenoshita at the time reached out to him to on how to connect with these other networks. That's for what that's worth. I don't know if that addresses all the concerns. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: And it’s appreciated. It’s not just one person. It's a systemic. >> CALEB PERKINS: Understood. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Issue for me. I appreciate it immensely. Thank you sir. >> CALEB PERKINS: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Let's see where are we in the list. Director Rivera-Smith please. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I believe I already did already passed. I have no questions or comments. Thank you. Oh I'm sorry am I going in the wrong direction. Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR

269DURY: No questions at this time. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director DeWolf did I already capture you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes at the top of the talk order. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thanks. Okay. Thank you so much Director Perkins and Dr. Scarlett. And and the just FYI the delay here is I'm just bringing back up the form to find out the next item. Direction Item Number 5: approval to rename the Southwest Athletic Complex (SWAC) to the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Over to you Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you President Hampson. This proposal to rename the Southwest athletic complex to the Nino Cantu Athletic Southwest Athletic Complex has been jointly proposed by Chief

270Sealth International High School Principal Aida Fraser-Hammer and Denny Middle Denny international Middle School Principal Jeff Clark who have and it's meant to honor a groundskeeper at the athletic complex who served with distinction for nearly two decades. I believe Principal Clark is with us tonight and I will let him speak to what Mr. Cantu meant to the community the school community and the athletes and others at this complex. >> JEFF CLARK: Thank you so much. Good evening everybody. My name is Jeff Clark proud Principal of Denny international Middle School. Principal Aida Fraser-Hammer was previously on the call. When we hit the 7:00 timeframe she needed to shift over to her PTSA meeting. I do have a colleague with me as a part of our proposal that we're very excited about tonight and it's a real honor

271to introduce to you the best kitchen manager in the whole city of Seattle Miss Doree Fazio-Young. Miss Doree are you still logged on with us. >> DOREE FAZIO-YOUNG: There we go I forgot to unmute. Sorry. >> JEFF CLARK: Great. >> DOREE FAZIO-YOUNG: Thank you Mr. Clark. Thank you Directors Superintendent Juneau and everybody else. My name is Doree Fazio-Young I'm the lunch lady and the dock foreman at Denny International Middle School. Nino Cantu was my best friend. But he wasn't just my best friend. He was everybody's best friend. He served skillfully at as our community as groundkeeper at the Southwest Athletic Complex at SWAC and the campuses of Denny and Sealth for 18 years from 2000 to 2018. Mr. Cantu made many amazing things possible at SWAC as heads groundskeeper and lead staff member for the

272and he was also the lead staff member for the events at the stadium. Community events supported by Nino were a wide array of popular activities including countless Seattle Public Schools Parks and Athletic events. The Special Olympics for years. High school graduation ceremonies for Chief Sealth and West Seattle High School. The All City Band Summer Jams. Our East African Community runs Somali soccer games and the firefighter games and the National Guard used to come there and do their drills. In addition to being head groundskeeper Nino joyfully described himself as an artist. With the grounds of SWAC Danny and Sealth as his canvas. It seems as if he knew everyone by name and story. It was his positive attitude that made him a mentor to many students and gardeners from all around the city. A friend to

273all people and a leader within the community. Tragically Nino Cantu passed away on October 12th 2018. Nino invited everyone into that complex as if it were his home. He you came to the complex. It was like Come on in and have a cup of coffee. Let's have fun. That's the way Nino was. Nino took in the kids every kid from all the sports sporting events. They had nicknames. He'd get on the loudspeaker. Make them feel like they were the most important thing. So please I think this would be just a wonderful thing for the children in our community and our community to have this have his name on the stadium. That way his legacy would never die. Thank you. >> JEFF CLARK: Thank you so much Miss Doree. Community engagement. This proposal has received incredibly

274strong and enthusiastic support every time discussed throughout our community. Specifically the support from Denny International Middle School community proposal was shared at our PTSA board meeting on October 21st 2020. All PTSA officers were incredibly supportive. The proposal was also shared and discussed in English Spanish and Somali at the Denny School PTSA meeting on October 27th 2020. More than 50 families and staff attended the meeting many enthusiastically supportive comments were shared. Everyone in attendance supported the idea. The proposal was also shared at the Denny all-staff meeting on November 18th 2020. Once again receiving very strong support. To further seek staff input and support an anonymous survey was given asking staff if they supported the proposal. 87 staff members have indicated their support. Support from the Chief Sealth International School community. Proposal to rename the complex the

275Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex was raised during the 2019-2020 school year and was later discussed at a staff meeting on September 28th 2020. On both occasions the idea received full support. The formal proposal was shared with staff via e-mail on November 14th 2020 and comments were invited. Some of the comments received include I think this is such a nice gesture. Nino deserves this and would and should be memorialized. My support as a staff member of the Denny-Sealth pathway since 1992 is behind renaming SWAC after Nino. I can't imagine anyone who knew him not supporting it. Nino was also the dad of one of our amazing special ed students who worked with me many years here at Sealth. This is a great idea. That would be so amazing and I support this 100 percent. The written

276proposal was shared with Chief Sealth families via school messenger on November 15th 2020. Parents were also invited to comment at the school's virtual café on November 19th 2020. The following is a comment from a parent and community volunteer heartily supporting honoring Nino by naming the SWAC after him. I was lucky to have worked with Nino for many years while working I was helping run the snack stand. Nino was great to work with cheerful enthusiastic and always willing to help. He remains greatly missed. Equity analysis. This proposal is aligned with Board Policy 0030 ensuring educational and racial equity parts E and H. E welcoming school environments. The district shall ensure that each school creates a welcoming school culture and inclusive environment that reflects and supports the diversity of the school district's student population their families and

277communities. H. Recognizing diversity consistent with the state's regulations and district policy and within budgetary considerations the district shall provide materials and assessments that reflect the diversity of students and staff which are geared towards the understanding and appreciation of culture class language ethnicity and other differences that contribute to the uniqueness of each student and staff member. School board policy 0030 was reviewed in the context of this proposal and it and it is believed that renaming the Southwest Athletic Complex the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex is consistent with the racial equity goals of Seattle Public Schools. By honoring Mr. Cantu in this way a local African-American Latinx person who advocated for students families and communities of color the district will promote educational and racial equity in our schools and community. Student benefits. The scholars of Denny Chief

278Sealth and all schools in the southwest region will see how the district celebrates and honors the great contributions of individuals within our community who constantly strive to make the lives of others more equitable and society more just. Please join our whole community in supporting the name of the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex. Thank you very much. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Wow. Thank you. That's amazing. I'm so sorry that we didn't make it in time to have your other presenter be here. If for some reason she comes on and is able to speak we're happy to make space for that. And with that I will turn it over to Director DeWolf who's the chair of the Operations Committee. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you President Hampson. And thank you to our guests tonight. Just as context. We had

279we were able to have our guests from tonight actually join us at our Operations Committee meeting in February and we heard this presentation. And just as a quick guess where we landed you know we voted unanimously to approve this to send this up to it for approval to the full board and I just it feels at this point like it makes complete sense. This is exactly the kind of people the kind of person really that we want to honor and memorialize as part of this district. And certainly it's a great reminder that there are many folks who who are memorialized in this district with names on our schools who likely don't deserve that because the folks because I think the folks like Nino are at the caliber of the types of people that we always

280want to memorialize as Seattle Public Schools. So I'm really excited about this this renaming and I don’t have any questions. You had a thorough presentation and everything in the BAR is is on the up and up and I'm happy to support this. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay let's go to Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I was totally ready that time. No I was fortunate to be able to hear from tonight's presenters and a couple more people at the Operations Committee meeting and I I don't have any questions. I just you know there's been buzz around other districts and other you know other issues that have come up that you know with with renaming things of of people saying you know oh why are they doing that right now isn’t there more important things to do. And

281I actually don't think that there could be things that would take a lot of importance over honoring someone from our community and someone that we want to remember. And remembering you know joy even even in times when everything seems very urgent in an emergency there's good stuff happening too and there's stuff that we want to hold on to and remember. And at the Operations meeting having having you all there was just this kind of moment of relief and connection and I hope that moving this forward and having the building take the name of this person will will continue to serve as that for your community. So thank you so much for being here and I'm I can't wait to vote on this next time. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Sorry

282my slow computer. Thank you. No definitely we talked about this in committee and so happy [indistinct] to have other representatives there to share their stories. Thank you Doree for all the work you've done building support for this. Principal Clark I love your background. Thank you for being here tonight and sharing this with us. Nino sounds like an amazing person. I was so excited to honor and I also do feel this is time well spent. Despite what might be also on our plate. We were honored to be able to do this for him and look forward to supporting this when it comes up for a vote. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thanks so much. Thank you Principal Smith and Ms. Doree I believe that you mis-identified yourself. I don't believe you're

283just the lunch lady and the dock boss but I believe you are now promoted to the kitchen manager and I'm thrilled by this. I can see the lights of SWAC. Hopefully soon Nino Cantu SWAC from my home. I've attended well over 100 events there and hope to live long enough to attend another 100. And everything that has been said about Nino Cantu is true. I knew him. But but I think part of that the heartfelt here is we in the SPS family and in so many other bureaucracies celebrate the folks on the top of the food chain. And Nino Cantu was boots-on-the-ground day-in-and-day-out again for 20 years shared smiled embraced. And I’m beyond thrilled that we are celebrating someone that doesn't have a lot of initials after their name and and that shows up every

284day to hug and support and love our students. And I'm sure Superintendent Juneau will be thrilled that I'm no longer harassing her on a monthly basis about the status of this. And my hope is that Principal Aida Fraser-Hammer can join us when this is up for action. And we can also [indistinct] congratulate her on her long and storied career as the Principal of Chief Sealth International High School as she is retiring this year. From my heart to everybody I beg of you. This is the right thing to do and this is the right time to do it. And I really appreciate Principal and Doree showing up to make this happen and your communities that you reached back into and got such extraordinary support for this. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY:

285I just want to say thank you to the presenters who came and had this great presentation to remember Mr. Cantu and I look forward to seeing this in action. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: There's nothing that I can say that hasn't already been said so just expressing great gratitude. Nino sounds like an amazing person and I just wish I could've met them. But I am happy to support this when it comes before us for approval. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Thank you so much for coming. And I will look forward to seeing you all. I think you'll have good support. It sounds like from the sounds of things and we'll look forward to seeing you when this comes forward at our next meeting for action. With that we'll move on to

286item Action Item Number 6. Directors from here on out we have to get through to 15. All Operations. And so I'm going to after Chief Podesta does the presentation I'm going to ask for any Directors that have comments or questions rather than doing a roll call. So please be prepared to raise your hand or for Director Hersey to Director Harris who's on the phone to holler and let me know that you need to make a comment or ask a question. Okay. So Introduction Item Number 6: BEX V: Award Contract P18939 for Accessibility Consulting Services to Studio Pacifica for the BEX V program. This came through Ops on March 11th and was recommended for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you President Hampson. This again is for consulting services for an accessibility expert for 16

287construction projects that are part of the BEX V capital levy. And the goals of this are of course to have maximum [indistinct] accessibility to our buildings and also to be compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Which does not actually have a permitting process unlike the building code or the electrical code. So it's good to bring in an expert with kind of that eye to review our designs review our buildings give us advice on how to make them more accessible and also to make sure that we are in compliance with ADA. Happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Does anyone have any comments or questions. If you're able to please raise your hand. Otherwise if you're on the phone please speak up. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I'm really excited about this. So

288it's for upcoming projects not any back back going back backwards-looking projects. In the past has this been something that's been done not been done done in a different way. >> FRED PODESTA: My understanding is we've done it in selected projects or we we relied on our designers to bring to bring this expertise. I'm not aware of us having done it kind of at this programmatic level across multiple projects. And and so we'll see how you know the effects of this. I think is a deeper level of expertise than we've had in the past. And as we talked to this question was raised I believe in Operations as well that depending on our experience with this we might add this type of service into our facility condition assessments and do you know a broader analysis of

289other buildings not just buildings that are under construction. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I I think that's great. And I am really excited about having this being done proactively as part of projects as opposed to a sort of afterthought and tacked on. So this is this is great. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Any other comments or questions. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yes. Director Harris here. I was particularly excited about Chief Podesta mentioning that this might be included in our building condition surveys. And I I sincerely hope it is. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything else. Going once. Going twice. All right let's move on to Introduction Item Number 7: >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. This is the. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry. Let me just read it really quick. This is BEX V: Resolution 2020/21-21 Racial Imbalance Analysis for

290Van Asselt School Addition project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Go ahead. Sorry Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you President Hampson. As you know projects with state funding as part of the state funding process require us to do analysis whether the project changes enrollment or will have either create or aggravate racial imbalance with respect to enrollment. This particular project is a 20-classroom addition to the Van Asselt school which we're using as an interim site to house students while other buildings are being either modernized or constructed and so by definition it doesn't really have a long-term effect on enrollment because students will only be temporarily in this addition and then will move back to their home school their assigned school wherever it is so we can assert that this does not have

291a racial will not create a racial imbalance in the district. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Okay. Any comments questions or concerns from directors. Going once. Going twice. Going three times. All right let's move to Introduction Item Number 8 which is quite a lengthy item. This is Building Excellence (BEX V) School Construction Assistance Program and Distressed School Grant. Resolution Number 2020/21-20 certifying the intent to construct for Kimball Elementary School Replacement Northgate Elementary School Replacement Viewlands Elementary School Replacement Lincoln High School Phase 2 Gymnasium Building Rainier Beach High School Replacement and Van Asselt Classroom and Gymnasium Addition projects. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. Again this is a requirement of state funding that requires that the board certify that these school construction assistance program funds and distressed

292school grants that we will utilize the funds for the intent that they were proposed with their original intent and just requires the board to certify that these funds will be used as originally planned. And we've just put all the projects into a single BAR and resolution. This is a purely administrative step. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Any comments questions or concerns from directors. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hampson mine just a thank you to the state and thank you to our legislative delegation for for always advocating and supporting us. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. If there's nothing from other directors we’ll now move to Introduction Item Number 9: this is BEX V Distressed School Grant and K-3 Class Size Reduction Grant Approval of Budget Transfer for the West Woodland Elementary is it Woodland or woods have I've been saying

293it wrong. Is it West Woodlands or West Woodland. >> FRED PODESTA: I think. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No ’S.’. >> FRED PODESTA: I think we all say Woodlands but I think it's Woodland. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: My apologies for every mistake that I have made in mispronouncing that name this for ten some ten years. Okay. West Woodland Elementary Addition and Modernization Projects. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: This the West Woodland project is a classroom addition of 12 new classrooms and an expanded gym area and commons area and some other support spaces. The original budget put together for this project just created had new furniture and finishes and equipment in the new part of in the addition and the modernized parts of the building and expanded parts of the

294building. But the original furniture and fittings in the building were put in place in 1991 when the building opened and are not in very good condition and we feel would be a big equity issue for students that's part of the building has worn out furniture and the new addition has all new fittings so we are transferring budget from other parts of the program where we have discretion from savings and other projects so the school can be uniformly outfitted with new furniture. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Any comments questions concerns from any directors. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Director Harris here. I think it’s very important that we update our schools between the have-not schools. And I’m excited to see us taking a look at our schools that have not been rebuilt or additions made to. It matters where our

295children's learned children learn our students learn and to look at the school up the street that’s brand new and shiny and and to be working with furniture from 1991 is an embarrassment frankly. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything else. Okay. Thank you Director Harris. We will now move to Introduction Item Number 10. BEX V: Approval of Construction Change Order Number 5 for the Van Asselt Elementary School at African-American Academy (the school was renamed Rising Star Elementary at African-American Academy after the contract had been executed with the Wayne’s Roofing Inc.) Roof Replacement project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you President Hampson. We originally planned for the roof work at Rising Star which started two years ago and was meant to be completed over the summers of

2962019 and 2020 as some minor repairs to some of the metal deck in the roof. And the metal deck is the metal portion of the building that the roof sits on. And once those repairs were started in 2019 it became clear that that metal deck which was no longer under warranty had degraded much more much more seriously and much in a much bigger area than had been originally expected. So we've had a couple of change orders to basically replace about three fourths of the metal decking that makes up that roof. This is the last change order to finish this work and to complete you know replacing the whole system really at this school. And the work is nearing completion now. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything from directors. Hearing nothing. Thank you Chief Podesta. We will move

297now to Introduction Item Number 11. BEX V: Approval of Parametrix Contract Modification Number 2 for the Rainier Beach High School Replacement project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. This change order is Parametrix is our interim contract manager for the Rainier Beach High School Replacement project and this adds a sub-consultant. McLennan McLennan Design McLennan Design excuse me who has helped us think a lot about our sustainability goals and our methods and materials that we use in construction to build more sustainable schools. And given the scope the size and scope of the Rainier Beach High School Replacement project we think it's prudent to get extra expertise to make sure that this that the new Rainier Beach High School the new parts of the building that we're constructing

298with this replacement are really the model going forward for how we do sustainability construction and build sustainable buildings. And are really excited and feel that this work will be a great first step to meeting the goals of being aligned with the goals of the clean energy resolution that the board recently adopted. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Chief Podesta. Directors any comments questions. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Director Harris here. I want to take issue with comments made in the public comment portion of [indistinct] where Mr. Jackins about Rainier Beach High School. Rainier Beach High School is a high school that has waited far far too long for rebuild additions and rehabilitation. And I don't believe that the community supports his mentality that we should not move forward and modernize that school. And and in fact it's exactly

299the opposite. The community supports this. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Director Harris. Let's see I see questions also from Director DeWolf and then Director. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah I just want to. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Rankin. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah thanks President Hampson. I just want to underscore that I appreciate you bring that up Director Harris because what's really important here is that people might have their own personal opinions but the community organizing the student organizing that took place to get the Rainier Beach High School updated upgraded remodeled re-reconstructed took a lot of work and a lot of energy and I think it's it it's frustrating when people try to discount people that are paying attention. And the other thing that I think is really important particularly now that I’m on the chair of

300the Operations Committee is these people want us to keep these schools as they were in amber. Systems that are breaking down. Windows that can't keep in heat. Materials that are breaking down. That's what they want us to keep for our kids. And I will reiterate what I reiterated that our BTA V Levy conversation. Our buildings and our facilities are our monuments to our students young people and public education. Rainier Beach High School needs an upgrade to illustrate how much we respect care for and want to build a monument to our young people and their futures. And so it is misguided. It is misinformed. And it is certainly not taking into account what the actual overall community really wants which is the reconstruction. So thank you Director Harris for bringing that up. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank

301you Director DeWolf. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yeah. Along the same vein there there were quite a few years in a row that as a community member an audience member of school board meetings I saw a lot of student organization and students from Rainier Beach coming to the board. Students even that knew they would graduate before there was any chance of any kind of rebuild advocating for this for their for their community. And I know we're here for the students. And in addition in terms of funding there is a sort of mis — misunderstanding among some people that retrofitting or remodeling an existing building is a cost savings. And once a building is is landmarked the outside envelope as it's called cannot be touched. And it's not a cost savings to put modern updated infrastructure

302into a building that has outlived its efficiency and appropriateness as a learning environment. It's not cost effective to do that and it is in fact more cost effective to build again. And it is in this case what the community wants and what these students really deserve. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Anything else from directors. Okay. Thank you for those comments. Hearing nothing. We will go to Introduction Item Number 12. BEX V: Resolution 2020/21-19 Approval of General Contractor/Construction Manager Delivery Method and Award General Contractor/ Construction Manager Contract P5160 to Lydig Construction Inc. for the Rainier Beach High School Replacement project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. Again this BAR does do two things. The state public works law allows school districts to utilize alternative public works project

303delivery methods and the general/construction manager method allows us to hire a single overall contractor who will then bid out other parts of the project but be with us from the very beginning as opposed to us doing a design contract with a design firm and then separate bids and con — low price bids with other construction contractors. And that method doesn't the regular design-bid-build process has not served the district always well for large projects. We believe the GC/CM model works much better. We've used it on a variety of complex projects. Recently the modernization of Lincoln High School was done as a GC/CM and this same contractor Lydig Construction handled that work and that really helps us partner with our contractors earlier and have a have an advocate as we move on with other contractors and sub

304con — subcontractors that will do the work. So this action report again creates a resolution where we the board certifies to the state that we're ready and able to manage this alternative public works method and then awards the contract to Lydig Construction and agrees to a guaranteed maximum price of $153 million dollars to manage the whole project construction side of the project for replacement of Rainier Beach High School. And I'm happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Directors do you have any questions comments or concerns. Okay with that we're going to move on to Introduction Item Number 13. BEX V: Award Construction Project P5143 to KCDA/Musco Sport Lightning for LLC for the Athletic Field Lighting Improvements at Jane Addams Middle School project. This came through Ops for approval on March 11th. Chief Podesta. >>

305FRED PODESTA: Thank you. The district has had a program over the past two years to install field lighting at secondary schools so to support student athletes and community use of fields. Again as we've shifted bell times to have secondary schools later in the day we want to increase access to fields to be later in the day. This is a project for James Adam Jane Addams Middle School and we'll construct field lighting. We've chosen through the purchasing cooperative King County Directors Association Musco Sports Lighting which is the only the City of Seattle has very progressive standards for outdoor lighting to make lighting not be intrusive with neighbors and the we have very modern design where that really focuses lighting on the field and does not cause extraneous lighting to have negative impacts on neighborhoods. This vendor

306is the only provider that can provide lighting that meets the city standards and we're ready to proceed with this project and this contract would award the construction. And I'm happy to take any questions directors might have. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Directors any questions but the lighting at Jane Addams Middle School. All right. I guess that's been appropriately illuminated. Thank you Chief Podesta. We will. We will now move to Introduction Item Number 14. BEX IV BEX V Distressed School Grant: Award Construction Contract P5157 Bid number B102027 to FORMA Construction for the North Beach Elementary School Heating Ventilation Exterior Door And Seismic Improvement project. This came through ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: This again is a combination project where we make seismic improvements and structural improvements to the building and demolish

307and remove materials as needed. Install the bracing and seismic upgrades as needed. And make improvements to HVAC and other mechanical systems in the building coinciding. It’s an efficiency to do this work together. And this action will award the contract to FORMA who won it as part of a competitive process. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Directors any questions about this particular item. Okay I think we can close the door on this one and we'll move now to. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Actually sorry. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Oh. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: And also I noticed your I noticed your puns Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: [indistinct] the 8:30 hour. I'm just curious about what the longevity is expected on these because I know that North Beach is a school that was in the so-called bubble of almost

308being almost making the cut for a rebuild but not quite. >> FRED PODESTA: That you know. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Several times. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: What was that. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: My my comment was several times almost made the cut. >> FRED PODESTA: You know that it will obviously depend on what the remaining use of the building is. Then you know these are safety and life safety issues with seismic improvements and also ventilation. And if the North Beach project is undertaken or a major project is undertaken as part of BEX V planning let's say you know once we get through the levy process the planning process and the work process you know that if there is a new building ultimately in North Beach that's approaching the better part of a decade and so I do think

309the right thing to do is in the intervening years the students in that building deserve the benefit the safety life safety benefits of [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Absolutely yes I am by no means advocating that we shouldn't do a seismic improvement or ventilation improvement but I just kind of just wanted to acknowledge that this is a building that needs more attention. >> FRED PODESTA: It it. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: At some point. >> FRED PODESTA: You know and it was unfortunate it didn't fit into the BEX VI Levy. And we'll always have these kind of shoulder projects that are between levies and we'll have to make. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yeah. Interim investments but that's the right thing to do for the students in the interim years. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Great. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything

310else from directors. Okay. And last but not least we will move to Introduction Item Number 15. BEX IV: Award Construction Project P5131 Bid Number B102026 to Lincoln Construction Inc. for the Washington Middle School Seismic Improvements project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. >> FRED PODESTA: Likewise this is not so much about HVAC but strictly a seismic improvement project. There will be relocation of some architectural elements and improvements to electrical and plumbing and mechanical systems. But again this is part of our ongoing program to retrofit buildings to for life safety purposes and to protect our assets to be more prepared in the event of a seismic event. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: By the way just kidding. This is not the last item we have two more. I somehow got 15 stuck in my head

311but it’s 17. Okay any any shakeup on this one from directors. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Oh my gosh Chandra. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Shakeup. Well done. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry. I’m just trying to keep you entertained. Okay. Director Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi thanks. No I we talked about this in committee and mentioned how Washington Middle School was on the bubble for I believe BEX V so I I had the question about you know we’re putting this money into these improvements. When this could end up being on our next levy and getting rebuilt but Chief Podesta did speak to how it’s something that is still investment to be made. So [indistinct] importance of [indistinct] now. >> FRED PODESTA: When you when you think of the overall value of all our physical plant

312these investments you know they're not trivial with respect to how many years how many students are going to be enjoy their benefits even if it isn't the full life of building I think it's still represents a wise investment. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. [Indistinct]. >> FRED PODESTA: Particularly for safety issues. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Anything else. Okay let's move on to Introduction Item Number 16. BEX IV: Final Acceptance of Contract P5123 with CDK Construction Services Inc. for the Catharine Blaine Seismic Improvements project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Again and at Catharine this was a completed seismic improvement project that went to the board and the board had oversight of the awarding the contract. The final acceptance allows us to release the project retainage with the accept the

313work as complete and which it was completed and release any contract retainage to the vendor. This and the Intro Item 17 or are both final acceptances. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Any questions comments concerns. Okay. This school now being on a solid ground we will move to number 17. [whoa] BTA IV BEX V Final Acceptance of Contract K5120 with Coast to Coast Turf for the Athletic Field Improvements at Nathan Hale High School and Jane Addams Middle School project. This came through Ops on March 11th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. We have a rotating program to replace athletic fields and tracks and other similar built environments as they reach their end of life. We completed last summer projects for Hale and Jane Addams and accepted the installation of the fields is working as designed

314and we accepted the work from the contractor and this again is our final acceptance and a reason to celebrate. Projects are done. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Comments questions concerns about this. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Just waiting for the pun. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Oh well if if if hearing none then I believe we've finally run aground. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Okay. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Weak. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I thought that was pretty good. All right. Thank you Fred. It's just I have to tell you how impressed I am at the level of engage engagement that you're able to maintain in and which indicates just how invested you are in these critical critical projects. I don't mean to make light of them. I'm just trying to to keep us to insert some levity so we can stay awake but

315but your clear descriptions are always appreciated on all of these items so thank you so much. And with that we're now going to move to a oh wait are we not doing I guess we're not doing board comments tonight. Oh no we are doing board comments. Oh. Okay. Well here we go. We're going to start with Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: For the sake of time. I'm going to waive my comments and just say excuse me I’m trying to eat dinner at the same time. And just say to all the folks that are concerned about the dual-language immersion pathway at Mercer that item is being rectified and worked on right now and expect updates soon. So thank you for your advocacy around that. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I will try and

316condense my comments but I've got a bunch of them. First of all thank you President Hampson for the levity that you've been inserting it's much appreciated. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Oh you're welcome. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Welcome to Director Dury. It's a bizarre job but it's a meaningful one and you will never work with better and more committed or commendable people in your life. I I want to call out the good Governor and the State Superintendent yet again and and I'm angry about being kneecapped without warning and without an understanding of all the operational issues and the funding issues. And I want to say again for the record and I guess this is gonna be one of those things like I used to do about the fines that we us to talk about McCleary one

317and I want a McCleary two lawsuit and I want a lawsuit against the state on the STARS transportation funding formula. It it's inconsistent. It's inappropriate. It’s equitable. And we are the largest school district in the state by well over a third. And it's not fair. It's not nice. And it certainly isn't equitable. And with respect to that when we're talking about equity and money I will continue to advocate for a more transparent weighted staffing standard formula. I understand that one of the schools in my district the staff voted everybody but one to not accepting the weighted staffing standard and the budgeting issues. So stand by. I've asked that they send it directly to the school board address so everybody's on the same page. From the bottom of my heart I thank my colleagues for the

318generous conversation about the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex and with any luck at all we will be in-person for the next band jam and I’ll hold the barbecue in my backyard afterwards. But it's one of the best funnest joyous events in this city and it usually happens in early August. Already talked about my anger at Mr. Jackin’s comments about Rainier Beach High School couldn't be more disappointed. Also I'm going to cut off the rest of my comments other than if we're going to ask staff and students to go back to school I think we as a board need to go back to the building and do what we need to do to be socially distant and hold our meetings in-person at a later time. So that community and families can attend and maybe have a

319I know hybrid air quotes of in-person testimony and phone-in testimony like we've been doing for the last year. And I think we will get more out of it because we are missing the personal connection and and I think that we need to model that behavior if we're asking for other for folks to come back in. The last piece is is a very sad piece and that's that my predecessor Marty McLaren District 6 Director and a friend and certainly we had our issues during the election that we spent time together and I well remember having tea in her home at Puget Ridge co-op. And two days before she died she sent me one of the most beautiful emails and she asked me to get busy if I could to go to the legislature and get school

320board directors paid and to get more funding for school board and and and also to work on the funding issues because the legislature and the state has not implemented the prototypical model. We're talking about supplementation now with the federal funds. We're being bullied and blackmailed quite frankly by the State Superintendent and I'm happy to happy to say that out loud because Lord knows I have said it to his face and I consider him a friend as well. But but our system is not working for our students and I I will make good on that promise to her. And I'm devastated that she has left us. But I am proud of our friendship and extraordinary respect to her. How can we have a social-emotional emergency when this state only pays for nine school nurses and isn't

321paying for counselors and student support workers and and all of that and more. And yes there are federal funds coming but they are one time funds. Sustainability is our watchword and and I'm more than proud to be part of a board that is talking about sustainability and systems change. Long overdue but but a whole lot of this is a whole lot of lie quite frankly and I don't mean to be disrespectful but we got to figure out a way to get our message out there and truly follow the money. Last I'm very pleased that we passed the BAR’s tonight for the transition between our Superintendents. I've said it before I'll say it again. I have extraordinary respect for Dr. Brent Jones and I will give him my very best effort. And I'm sorry from the

322bottom my heart that it didn't work out with Superintendent Juneau but folks let's give her props for not exercising some pretty significant contract rights and and made a graceful compromise. And it needs to be said. And I thank you all. And it's an honor and a privilege. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Hi thank you. Long night. So thank you everyone for sticking with us. Of course congratulations to our newly appointed director Erin Dury. All I can say is buckle up. We have a lot a lot of work ahead of us so thank you for joining us. I also want to speak a little bit in light of the students parents and educators who joined us tonight to speak about proposed cuts to the dual-language the Spanish immersion courses at

323Mercer. I can't speak directly to that situation without knowing more about it but I do appreciate the mitigation that Superintendent Juneau spoke of in her superintendent comments and that Director Hersey shared that are in the works so that's great to hear. I guess I more wanna to speak to sort of an overarching concern there that that is perhaps at the root of why many of our speakers tonight feel especially troubled by the cuts. And that is a feeling of dismissal and disregard for our Spanish language heritage students. And they go by many identifications. We have Latino Latina Latinx Hispanic and more. I believe our district uses that Hispanic category categorization. But anyway actions like what's potentially happening at Mercer can't help but feel like an attack on our people and our culture. So this and

324this is a sentiment that was shared with me by Estela Ortega the founder and executive director at El Centro de la Raza who spoke of a feeling of disengagement when SPS disengagement from SPS when it comes to the needs of the Latino students. She said and I quote “so sometimes it feels like we don't exist.” And our our brown students coming through our education system often with language barriers economic disadvantages and many other systemic inequities. And I just look forward to working with community and bringing forward more conversations to increase our attention to the needs of our Hispanic students. And I want to shift down shift gears here. Because I also want to recognize the loss of a light in our Lincoln High School community this past week. I'm sorry. Ezra Mancini was an amazing

325young man. And my family had the honor of being in community with him and his family in elementary school and that community is coming together to pour out or love and support for the Mancini family. We are sharing our memories and coming together to do what we can to support the family. And just remember Ezra for all the wonderful things that he brought to everyone's life. I want to thank Patricia Sanders and the coordinated school health team for your attention and supportive Lincoln community. Thank you for acting so quickly there. And parents I want to say please hold your children close always and to the Mancini family we hold you our hearts. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. I know it's late. So I’ll try

326to keep it concise which for me is maybe not that concise but I'll try. I also want to welcome and congratulate Director Dury and I am really looking forward to working with you and getting to know you and having a having another another partner on this wild adventure that we're all having right now. I want to echo something that's Director Harris mentioned which is is you know the kind of what we're all dealing with right now which is a directive from from the Governor. And I there's been I also I want to give a just giant huge shout out and thank you to staff and educators for you know as much as families I know families are feeling like there's a new thing every day and there's there's a bell time change and then it's

327in-person and then what's happening with secondary and all this stuff and that is super real and we know how real it is because that is what we're experiencing too as as leaders and as staff people and that every time some new piece of information has come it means that whole teams of folks who work for SPS as educators as maintenance as facilities you know all as curriculum every single one of those things means that a whole bunch of people who have been you know going at full steam also have to switch direction to whatever is coming at us next. So I just wanted to acknowledge that because I think it's it's forgotten how many how many people all of these things are affecting and impacting and that you know central office is we're not just

328sitting around waiting for something to happen that it’s just been constant constant constant for everybody. And that as soon as we think we can kind of count on one thing the rug gets pulled out from under us and and we're going in a different direction. And so while I know that there are a lot of people that are really excited and happy and cannot wait to have their kids returned to buildings a lot of teachers that cannot out to see you my kids included are are so done with remote learning. However the there's there's still a lot of unknowns and we're still we're still being directed to do this in a way that wasn't how we anticipated. And so I want to acknowledge on the one hand that you know I understand the frustrations of

329people who are waiting for a plan waiting for a date waiting for something to come. And that honestly includes us to a lot of extent because we gave we the resolutions that we passed three different times set gave the same direction for the same groups of students for a gradual return. And that would have had student more students in buildings right now if if we were able to to make that happen. And so I you know I understand the well the sense of urgency that was being felt and the directive that came down I understand to some extent. But I also think it was clearly a a move of impatience and not one of community care and especially when the district and our teachers’ union were really close to coming to agreement around the board's

330directive literally almost the same day that the Governor made his announcement. Everybody had to immediately drop and shift gears and so there are a lot of things that are not ready to go on a dime because we've been underfunded for a lot of a lot of years and we don't have extra resources that we're sitting on. Everything everybody's going at maximum. Everybody is you know working long long long long hours and not to say there haven’t been mistakes made but just if it feels like new things are coming at you all the time it's because new things are coming at us all the time and there's a shift to try to serve as many students as equitably as we can in the face of you know people telling us that everybody's going back for mental

331health but then saying that we have to provide predominantly content delivery and not focus too much on social-emotional learning which I actually find pretty offensive and upsetting. To be frank. So. Yeah I I just hold on all you can. And and we're doing our best to serve as many students as we can and the most in the most equitable way possible in a very tight timeframe. We will get through this. And I'm I'm now really looking forward to conversations about fall as an entire community that are not driven by deadlines from the Governor and not driven by restrictions around bargaining. For us all to come back together as a whole district educators families staff board parents students and and pivot again. But to have a little bit more space to talk about what we want

332and how we all want to get there together and that's that's more than enough for me. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I’ve said all I need to say tonight. Thanks for all your hard work everyone. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thanks. Director Dury. >> DIRECTOR DURY: I just want to say thanks to everybody again and thanks for your vote and your vote of confidence and the words that you spoke. I look forward to working with you all and digging in and learning more and getting the work done. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. So welcome Director Dury and I will call you tomorrow. And pįnagigi thank you to everyone. I have my Thursdays in the park with Chandra tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. We'll be meeting at the community center at Magnuson Park

333for anyone that wants to come join and talk about what's going on in Seattle Public Schools or just walk and enjoy the outdoors. At 11:00 it's listed on Facebook. We at at we're meeting at the community center at Magnuson Park. And you can look up the address on that Facebook invite or text me at 206-618-1456. I'm always happy to take constituent calls and questions. That goes for for students as well. So thank you all. And there being no further business on the agenda this meeting is adjourned at 8:57 p.m.. Be well. Goodnight everyone.