001>> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Just a moment. So if we could just please hold any final comments while SPS-TV takes us live. After a brief pause I will call us to order. Tansi! Ookimaw Piii-Sim. Ni-Ti-Si-Nihkason. Hello. This is Director DeWolf. Thank you for being here. I am now calling the September 23rd 2020 Regular Board Meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday September 23rd 2020. To begin we live and go to school in a city that is the ancestral homeland to the Muckleshoot Nation the Suquamish Nation and the Duwamish People. We acknowledge them as custodians of this land since time immemorial. As guests and in many of our cases as settlers on this land we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to their ancestors and elders past present and future. Miss Wilson-Jones please roll call. >> ELLIE
002WILSON-JONES: Director Hampson [here] Director Harris Director Harris looks like not yet. Director Hersey [here] Director Mack [here] Director Rankin [here] Director Rivera-Smith [present] Director DeWolf [here]. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay thank — >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: All [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: [indistinct] 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 today's meeting I would also like to welcome Gisele Masmela who is joining us as the student representative from Franklin High School today. Director Hersey you'll be interested to hear that. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Go Franklin. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah. We are excited to resume our schedule of student representatives and we'll be hearing from Gisele later in the meeting. We have also returned to leading off public testimony with high school
003students students and we’ll hear from Savannah Blackwell from Franklin High School during our testimony period today as well. Just some final housekeeping this meeting is being held remotely per the governor's proclamation prohibiting meetings such as this one from being held in person. 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. I will now turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments before we move to the student’s comments. Superintendent Juneau. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Yes. Thank you. President DeWolf and well thanks everybody for being here again. I just want to be
004brief and share some of the amazing work our teams are doing during this dual pandemic to better serve our African-American boys and teens and other students furthest from educational justice. The past week we got great news from the Academy for Rising Educators. As you know that is one of our career pathways in Seattle Public Schools and also one of our recruitment strategies for our strategic plan priority of increasing our educators of color in our system through the hard work happening in human resources with the Academy for Rising Educators we have 82 POC candidates in the Academy for Rising Educators. Of those 82 82 percent of that are Seattle born. 43 are African-American. And of those 43 32 are African-American males 24 Asians 12 Latinx 3 Native. And so we are building a teaching force that
005truly reflects our students and so I want you know it's a slow process but it is one that will pay off in the end. So just super proud of that work. Also want to congratulate all those who fought and won to ensure that we can build a brand new Rainier Beach High School as announced last week. The current building will not be landmarked which means the Rainier Beach community gets a building that will be modern and representative of that community. A large team from Seattle Public Schools attended the Kingmakers Collaborative meeting. You know that we have been part of that for a few years now and I believe that Director Hersey attended that as well and so I'm excited to watch this effort grow in Seattle Public Schools. And then remember TAF and all of
006that conversation that happened what seems like a lifetime ago. Well I'm happy to report that TAF has launched successfully at Washington Middle School and they are now wanting to discuss additional partnerships at the feeder schools so that students are ready for the STEM by TAF model when they get to Washington Middle School. And we all know that there are so many challenges in our remote setting but we also know good things can still happen as a result of the of us being remote. And the fact that we are not in brick-and-mortar and don't have those barriers. One good thing and that this is super exciting that we were able to pull off was opening our Šǝqačib classes at Chief Sealth International High School and Nathan Hale High School to Native students from our high schools
007across the city. So our registrars and our counselors and Gail Morris and her team are engaged in making sure that our Native students have access to the Šǝqačib classes and programs at those schools. So that's super exciting. You also know that our nutrition services staff have been rock stars throughout these past few months. Last Friday we served 24,000 meals to families. That is a record for one day service. And so 24,000 that's very significant. Just want to really again thank Director Smith and his team for making sure that the basic needs of our students and families are getting met across the city. We continue to gain partners that want to see Seattle Public Schools succeed. One of our very kind partners is providing teachers a monitor a computer monitor to help them work from home.
008These will be provided to teachers will not be SPS devices but of course our DOTS team has helped to manage this opportunity for educators. So again just a big shout out to our DOTS team. Dr. Scarlett Dr. Williams Principal Fauntleroy have worked their magic yet again. They worked with the Harvard Graduate School of Education School Leadership Collaborative to provide an opportunity for 16 Seattle Public Schools Black school leaders to participate in that program this year. It's a great leadership opportunity. A great retention strategy. And so I can't wait to watch this cadre of amazing leaders learn and grow. I know that our access numbers or those who are logging in have been in the news and just a reminder that when I announced those numbers at the at the last meeting in order to be
009transparent it was the first week of school and now that we've been in remote learning for a while and our bugs continue to be worked out our numbers are a little better overall. 91.8 percent of currently enrolled SPS students have to at least one online portal. So they have accessed Teams Schoology or Seesaw between September 4th and September 18th. Our preliminary data for elementary students show that 86.3 percent have logged in at least once to one of those platforms. 98.1 percent of middle schools with 94.7 percent of American African-American males logging on. 96.1 percent of our high school students with 92.8 percent of our African-American males logging on at least once. This is all preliminary data that we will continue to scrub and analyze. We have seen increases in the percentage of students logging into
010each of those portals every day since school started. Teams usage in particular has roughly doubled increasing from 42.4 percent to 85.1 percent from the start to the end of this time period. So things continue to roll. Our educators continue to reach out to those students who may not have accessed those portals yet to find out what kind of supports might be necessary. And Chief Berge will give an update on enrollment at the budget session next week. I just want to end my remarks by just saying that there's still a lot of good work going on that it's recognized and that they're you know our system is benefiting from all the hours that people are putting in. And I just want to thank all of the educators across our system for the enormous efforts they're giving
011to serve our students. To our families for supporting our work and for providing a learning space for our scholars to access learning in your homes. To the DOTS team for making the impossible possible. They have answered thousands of calls tech tickets and handled customers at the tech centers across the city. I want to thank our school leaders for doing whatever it takes to support your educators so they can support students and families. And of course I want to thank our partners for stepping in and filling each gap that is presented during this dual pandemic. I am really forever grateful to each of you and it is truly my honor to serve in partnership with all of you. So thank you President DeWolf and directors. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Superintendent Juneau. Okay. Again I would
012like to welcome Gisele Masmela. Gisele is a Senior at Franklin High School. She is a member of the Franklin High School ASB and is the captain of the Franklin volleyball team. She is currently serving as the Franklin High School she's currently serving the Franklin High School student body tirelessly and capably. And we thank you so much for being here Gisele. I'll turn it over to you for your comments. >> STUDENT SPEAKER: Thank you. I'm excited to be here and represent Franklin High School. I know during this time of remote learning it has been a struggle amongst everyone in the district. For example students find it hard to get back into a routine. Hard to sit at their laptop screen for 5 hours. Hard to contact their teachers and even hard to pick up materials. Not
013to mention the limitations that Microsoft Teams has created a different disadvantage in online classroom environments. The problems are stacking up. But I hope that in the near future we can find the solutions to these problems. And I believe it starts by just being available and supportive for each and every student. Outside of school there are problems for students that have been ongoing. One example is fighting racism. When the Black Lives Matter movement rose to its ultimate high back in May and June it was a wakeup call for everyone to act now. Franklin held the United for Black Lives demonstration on June 6 to support to show our support. During the process of planning this event it was a struggle due to some choice of words that were not approved by our admin at first and
014then the district due to its controversy. The [indistinct] and Superintendent Juneau I saw you show up and come through so I thank you for that because in the end we saw the unity and we saw and felt the movement. This was one of the moments where I felt extremely proud to be a Quaker because since I was a freshman I've noticed that there has always been a priority and uplifting every single student and their many self-identifying differences. Our faculty has always pushed us to use our voices spread love and fight for change together. I value these lessons that have been taught to me at Franklin and I will take them with me wherever I go. Today I hope I can bring some attention towards equity within the school district and to ensure it if and
015when we open schools back up. Sanitation and other COVID-related materials need to be equitably distributed. Social distancing and masks need to be strictly enforced at all schools. Other resources need to be available online for courses that require shared materials. And just compassion in the transition because everyone is facing this pandemic in different ways. And I believe that we can get through it all together. And that’s all I have to say. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Gisele. Thank you so so so much for being here. Thank you so much for your words and thank you for your perspective. I'm really really grateful to have you here. Do any directors have just any burning questions or any anything for Gisele here before I move to the consent agenda. Okay. Gisele and like I mentioned please stick with us. We
016have 32 items on our agenda. We'd love your student perspective as we move through those. And I'll be I'll be kind of looking for you if you raise your hand in Teams. And so thank you for being here and we'll move forward. Okay. We have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda. May I have a motion for this item please. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This is Director Hampson I move approval of the consent agenda. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Director Harris — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you director. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: —second. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris. Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: This is Director Rivera-Smith I do
017have some items I would like to remove the September 3rd work session minutes and the September 10th work session minutes. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: May I have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended please. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes you may I move approval of the consent agenda as amended. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I second as amended. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris. All those in favor of the motion as amended signify by saying [all say aye] all those opposed. Okay this item has passed unanimously. Given that we are just right at the time we'll come back the consent items after public testimony. We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda and it is and we will be
018taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda. So for any speakers watching through SPS-TV please call in now to ensure you're on the phone line when your name is called. Board procedure 1430BP provides the rule for rules for testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules. I will summarize some important parts of this procedure. First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website and 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 listed speaker's name is called. The total amount of time
019allowed will not exceed 2 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 whom was ceded to excuse met the person to whom time was ceded will not be and called [indistinct] again later in the meeting. There is only one speaking slot per person. Those do know 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 a topic they've indicated they wish to speak about
020and Miss Wilson-Jones will read off the testimony speakers. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Thank you Director DeWolf 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 yourself on the conference call line. Each speaker will have a 2-minute speaking time and a chime will sound when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called. First on the public testimony list today is Savannah Blackwell. >> SPEAKER 1: Hi my name. Good afternoon. My name is Savannah Blackwell and I am a proud Senior at Franklin High School. I come representing Principal’s Cabinet the theater department BSU and much more. I am very excited and honored to
021be with you all tonight. I'll be speaking. I'll begin speaking on the incredible community we fostered at Franklin. As of late specifically the Black and Brown students. I can say that the absent Franklin have been extremely intentional with the messages they're sending out. They continue to drive home a culture of love equity and respect and have been candid in acknowledging the attack that is on Black and Brown people all over this country. I have already seen the ways the students have implemented those traits even in the virtual world. I've been very appreciative of my community for all the grace that has been extended to others around them and the creative ways we found to support each other. With this I have also noticed the places equity and resources in our community fall short. Because of
022the way the world is right now and the adaptations necessary for our school many students in our community need more to continue the learning. I would like to see more direct communication and support to our school including the student representatives. As a school in the South end and with the high number as a school in the South end with a high number of low income families and families of color we don't always find the necessary resources accessible. We'd also appreciate some form of recognition for the work we've done. For example our staff is currently participating in an ethnic studies training course and being proactive with the anti-racist work we stand by. Having some acknowledgement and appreciation for this work on a district level would mean a lot and encourage schools surrounding. And finally as a
023Senior this year is especially challenging in regards to posts especially in regards to post-high school preparation. Franklin works hard to connect students with community-based organizations [chime] to help us with college and/or career planning. However these services are supplemented through Franklin. We would like to see district-wide partnerships in support of our Seniors. I believe these programs that every Senior in our space takes advantage of should not only be a benefit for us but students across the district. This could happen with your support and action. Thank you for having me. I look forward to the future. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Savannah. >> SPEAKER 1: Yeah. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next for next for public testimony is Danny Edwards. >> SPEAKER 2: Hi my name is Danny. I am a Senior at Ballard High School. I use they/them
024pronouns. And I'm here to talk about Microsoft Teams specifically display names. So the district has blocked our abilities to change our display names on Teams. Danny is not my legal name. It is a much more gender-neutral name that I have been using since seventh grade and now this year everyone can see my legal name and everyone who didn’t know me already is accidentally calling me it and it makes me very uncomfortable. Trans and non-binary students deserve privacy in regards to their dead name and in fact the gender nondiscrimination and affirmative action transgender and gender-expansive student rights and supports document signed by our superintendent March 5th 2020 clearly states students have the right to be addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity consistently asserted at school. Not being able to change
025our display names in Microsoft Teams in or in general is a direct contradiction to this policy. I have emailed and called the student gender names designations office several times over the course of a week with no response. I sent in a Let's Talk form to the superintendent’s office describing the issue and I got a response from someone in customer service. It's been a week and a half and they told me several several times that they're still having issues connecting with their tech team. I ask that you make changes accordingly so that students can change their names as needed in Microsoft Teams accounts. Not only just the trans and non-binary students but people have nicknames in general that they prefer to be called and it's really annoying to have to correct people every class period because
026that's what I've been having to do. It is clear that there is some kind of system in place to amend these issues but the system is broken. It shouldn't take weeks to get a response. Just saying that's nothing then nothing has been done. I don't think anyone in the district is doing anything intentionally to negatively affect trans and non-binary students but even with no malintent students like me are suffering the consequences. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Chris Jackins. >> SPEAKER 3: My name is Chris Jackins box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the Highly Capable Program Plan 3 points. Number 1: the board report states that this is a rector retroactive approval. What does this mean. Has the district process technically violated the law. Number 2: at the September 9th
027board meeting the board approved funds for computers. That vote was termed a transparency vote. The funds had been spent on contracts that the board had not approved. Did the district technically violate the law in that case. Number 3: please publicly discuss how things are going with the Technology Access Foundation at Washington Middle School with some details. On the disposal and recycling contract students are not physically attending school. There should be some large savings instead of an extension of the current contract. Please vote no. On the superintendent task force for the reopening plan and remote learning 2 points. Number 1: please include a requirement that task force meetings will be open to the public. When the strategic plan was developed the superintendent did not allow the public to attend the meetings. Number 2: I did not
028see any discussion about their learning in the board report. On the amendments to policy 2015 selection and adoption of instructional materials 2 points. The policy states that the school board must approve the membership of the instructional materials committee. It would be clearer to state must vote to approve. Number 2: in the recent adoption of science materials the district refused to provide physical textbooks. Would physical textbooks help in the current learning situation. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next for public testimony is Manuela Slye. Manuela Slye. >> SPEAKER 4: Hello everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Manuela Slye Seattle Council PTSA president. First of all my gratitude to all our educators across the district. Teachers have gone above and beyond supporting students learning how to navigate remote learning. They have also worked
029really hard to connect to students at the human level. Despite the limitations of this virtual world and despite the difficulties many students face with device and internet connectivity issues. Today I want to request SPS to truly honor the time and talent of parents and students willing to volunteer in the task force for their reopening plan and remote learning model. The BAR indicates that there will be 20 members appointed by the superintendent's office. A minimum of one third of the members will be parents of students furthest from educational justice. My request is clear. Please make sure parents and student voice is valued and heard. Our communities are in dire need to be heard and supported to make remote learning work for our children. We're not checkboxes. We're here to truly collaborate. Regarding family engagement as a
030follow-up on yesterday's work session I want to reiterate our counsel's excitement to be in collaboration with anyone truly invested in advising advancing this important work from teachers to union leaders to principals to chiefs. We really need everyone to make this a priority. But family engagement must be based on trust. So we really need to make to take a step back and start there. We have sat in enough meetings and presentations of family engagement yet our families and the students continue to be missing from the table continue to struggle to connect to learning and continue to feel unheard. It is hard to come to the party when trust has not been cultivated. Lastly as president of the council I have the following requests for information that we can use to work with our units our PTA’s
031in buildings so they can at the same time work the administrators and advocate for students that are not currently accounted for. We want 100 percent of participation from students so we want numbers broken down by school. Students who have not received a device from SPS. Students that have not [chime] confirmed that we have had that. Students that have not logged all and students that have not logged in every single day. Thank you very much for your time. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Charles Ellis. Charles Ellis. >> SPEAKER 5: Hello. Thank you for your time. My name is Charles Ellis. And I'm a parent of a kindergartner and a 3rd Grader at Lowell Elementary School as well as having been a PTA member board member and volunteer there for the past
0323 years and I'm here today to speak in support for the proposal to fund the remainder of the costs of creating a school based health center at Lowell. As a volunteer and member of the PTA and the Lowell community I've seen firsthand both the strength and resilience of the Lowell community and the challenges faced by students at Lowell so I support the creation of a school based health center to support students and families in the Lowell community. For those who may not know Lowell elementary school is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle but has a large catchment area that includes Downtown Seattle Belltown South Lake Union and parts of the International District and is the assigned elementary school for all Downtown homeless shelters. Because our community includes many students who are transitional homeless
033or from families that are experiencing trauma as well as serving students that have medically fragile conditions it's really important that our students and their families have health care and services supports especially when consistent access to those are can be challenging due to them not having housing security. A school based health center would help the Lowell community be better served in the needs not only of the school students and staff staff but also student’s families. Now we have support from the Capitol Hill Eco District working in partnership with Odessa Brown Children's Clinic and County Doctor or Country Doctor Community Health Center to make this clinic a reality at Lowell And so I would ask you today to add your support to that. We know that students do better when they and their caregivers have robust support
034systems helping the students isn't always enough especially when their families are in need or trauma. If we can support all the students at Lowell we can help create better opportunity and outcomes for them. Thank you very much. And I yield the rest of my time. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next for public testimony as Akeyla Jimerson Akeyla Jimerson. >> SPEAKER 6: Hi my name is Akeyla Jimerson I work with Capitol Hill Housing the Eco District with cap through Capitol Hill. I am the project manager for a Lowell school based health center and I am testimony today is for supporting the rest of the funding for the school based health center capital build out. Seeing the challenges in knowing the challenges that Lowell face with having a high population of homeless families medical fragically students. I feel like
035the school based health center be a great benefit for the Lowell community. It would not only support the students but also the staff having the school based health center there. And it would be a game changer to create healthy sustainable living for families that are experiencing trauma and the lack of resources in their lives. So by having a school based health center can only it could not just only decrease attendance you know attendance for students you know help families that have no transportation to be able to receive medical care as with no charge. I think this would be a great thing for the families at Lowell so please support the funding for the capital build out for Lowell. Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next for testimony is Emily Cherkin Emily Cherkin. >> SPEAKER 7: Good
036afternoon. My name is Emily Cherkin. Looking at the speaker list today and from social media posts the last few days it's clear I'm not the only parent concerned about the remote learning experience so far. The district's all online approach to remote learning is not sustainable. Remote learning does not have to mean all screen based. Research continually shows the learning benefits of reading on paper versus a screen and handwriting on paper versus a keyboard. The district's all screen strategy has led to rampant frustration for families and is negatively impacting the educational experience for our kids who are screen saturated and burned out. And it's not even October. This is not a teacher issue. It is a district leadership problem. Here are three examples. My son's school says they're only able to provide 1 textbook for his
0376 classes. If we were in buildings right now would he still have only 1 textbook for 6 different subjects. Many students in the district now have laptops at home but no physical books for independent reading. Yet school libraries around the city are full of books and empty of children. If lunches and laptops can be distributed why not books and printed learning materials. One 9th grader shared with me a list of 18 different apps and sites he's required to use to do remote learning including using his own personal smartphone. Please describe how you're protecting children's privacy rights and explain why it is acceptable for some teachers to require students to utilize personal smartphones as learning tools. How is this equitable. Finally please address these issues. The BAR for reopening schools makes no mention of the October
038or the excuse me the outdoor learning option that was previously discussed. What is the current status of that proposal and why is there no mention of it here. Second at the board meeting two weeks ago a director asked for a demographics report on who was logging in successfully to remote learning and how these numbers varied between schools. Where is that report and what were the findings. I understand these are difficult and unprecedented times. I know our teachers are working hard. Please center children in your decision making. Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next for testimony is Trina Saldana. Trina Saldana. >> SPEAKER 8: Hi this is Trina Saldana. My comments are brief. I just wanted to mention that I really appreciate all the hard work everyone is doing and the leadership I do and I'm here
039to advocate for those furthest from justice. I'm a parent of a Garfield 10th grader and fortunately for him he has a mom who who who has the means and the time to give him attention so I'm here to speak on behalf of those who might not be able to join this meeting and advocate for their children. My message is to please keep pushing and widening that circle to include people in the opening task force and and also widening the circles so that when we do get the tutors which I am very much behind we get to those students that are furthest from justice and I want to know what what goals what measurable ways in terms of contacting those families and those children who are furthest from justice so they get access to these tutors
040because it's great that we'll have tutors but then we need to connect that that effort to the students that need that kind of support. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Mariza Cabral. Mariza Cabral. >> SPEAKER 9: Hello to the school board. So I've read the Durkan report that just came out on the state of internet [indistinct] Seattle. It represents a survey that as it says in the document is skewed because it over represents white and not very poor families. And yet despite of this skew we read in the report that there are still 16 percent of students without adequate internet service. That's more than 1 in 6 students and 11 percent have no internet at all. I think this means that the outreach from schools to families has been
041incredibly insufficient or ineffective because schools do have the tech available I believe hot spots to give out and also can guide families on how to get Comcast service discounted or free rates for those who qualify. Yes the Seattle Public Schools does have policies for family engagement namely policies number 4110 and 4129. But for some reason schools are either not trying hard enough or trying but not succeeding. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Mariza I believe that we just lost you on the line. Moving on to Robin Schwartz Robin Schwartz is next up for testimony. >> SPEAKER 9: Hello. Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Oh is that Mariza. >> SPEAKER 9: Yes. I I I got disconnected. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Mariza you still have about 30 seconds in your testimony. >> SPEAKER 9: Okay. And can they
042hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 9: Okay. So. So we've heard from parents in schools across Seattle that their school principal does not know which families are still in need of tech services and internet access in particular so. So I think it is clear to everyone I hope that this is a public education emergency. Therefore I would like to suggest that the school board declares a public education emergency. And consistent with that that the school board instructs Superintendent Juneau to A: make available the resources necessary and B: establish [chime] accountability measures for school principals so that principals are made accountable for conducting outreach to all families. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Please conclude your. Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Robin Schwartz. Robin Schwartz you may need to press ‘star-6’
043to unmute. Is Robin Schwartz on the line. Moving to the next on the list is Brian Terry. Brian Terry. Brian you may need to press — >> SPEAKER 10: Hello. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: —star-6 if you’re there. >> SPEAKER 10: Hi. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Go ahead. >> SPEAKER 10: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 10: Great. Hi this is Brian Terry. The highly capable plan on the agenda today is inequitable by its own admission. Please do not approve it. Equitable identification has been our goal for many years and yet we continue to fall short. District staff told me that they know which black and brown students are highly capable. However they do not believe that these students can keep up in the classroom with their privileged peers. Identifying them as highly capable
044would risk disrupting the mostly white students in the program today. Putting white students first is the barrier to equitable identification. Please do not approve an inequitable highly capable plan. On the topic of equity I would like to ask that you prioritize getting all of our students online. 15 percent of students are unable to participate in online learning. That is more than 7,000 students who are still waiting for our help. As a tech liaison for Seattle Council PTSA I continue to hear from these families and their teachers. They are desperate for our help but do not know where to turn. Please find and engage with the families and teachers of these students. Listen to their needs and make it a priority to get all of our students online as soon as possible. Thank you. >> ELLIE
045WILSON-JONES: Next for testimony is Robin Amadon. Robin Amadon. >> SPEAKER 11: —in Amadon. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes go ahead Robin. >> SPEAKER 11: Hello. This is Robin Amadon. Thank you for receiving my comments this evening. I represent the Low Income Housing Institute and I’d just like to make everyone aware of a proposed affordable mixed use development that we hope to build at 7544 Martin Luther King Way South with a groundbreaking scheduled for November of 2021. It will deliver 152 affordable units and quite a few of the [indistinct] as many as 58 units will be sized to 2 and 3 bedrooms to respond to the need for family sized housing. The project will also include a wonderful 6 classroom pre-school run by the Refugee Women's Alliance. It'll be a Seattle Preschool Program program such that for
046lower income households the preschool tuition will be free. So I look forward to receiving any questions you might have in the future about the project. We just wanted to let the wonderful school board know about the proposed development. We imagine that there will be roughly about 70 students generated from families living there in the future. So thanks so much. I can be reached at LEHI at any time Low Income Housing Institute. Thank you for your attention. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Robin. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Alexandra Olins Alexandra Olins. >> SPEAKER 12: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 12: Hi. Thank you very much. My name is Alexandra Olins and I'm the mother of a 6th grader Madison at Madison Middle School. His name is [indistinct.] I very much appreciate
047the school board passing the unanimous resolution encouraging outdoor learning at the August 12th special meeting. The opportunity to get outdoor learning pilots up and running at the K-12 the K-2 6th and 9th grade levels is fantastic. However without guidance from the district on what can safely be done at the schools no school can get a pilot up and running. The evidence is clear that there are psychological physical emotional and academic benefits to kids being together and outside I would say now more than ever. So my normally boisterous 6th grader [indistinct] now spends the vast majority of his school days silent slumped on a pillow staring into a screen. This is not healthy nor sustainable. Learning is based on relationships. Kids learn best when they can form relationships with their teachers when they know each other
048and their peers. If a middle school wanted to start an outdoor learning pilot perhaps during the Wednesday morning advisory period administration has no way to start without guidance from the district. If parents want to work to get a pilot started they are told nothing can happen without clear guidance from the district. Maybe the district thinks there is no interest. But I'm here to say that there is interest in outdoor learning. We can't get so comfortable with remote learning that we forget about the harm that it is causing our kids. I'll echo what Emily said earlier kids are harmed by staring into screens all day long. They are harmed by not being together. We have a chicken and egg problem right now. The schools won't start the pilot because the district hasn't given them health and
049safety guidance. The district seems to think the health and safety guidance isn't necessary. I'm here. Or that they don't want to do it right now. We're not ready. I know everyone's working hard. I know everyone's maxed out. The teachers are doing a good job. But we have got to get kids together and outside. It can be done safely. Even in this time we [chime] need it now more than ever so I'm urgently asking the district to issue health and safety guidelines so that the school administration knows what they need to do to get the pilots going. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Maria Teresa Zurbano. Maria Teresa Zurbano. Maria if you're on the line you may need to press ‘star-6’ to unmute. >> SPEAKER 13: Hello. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES:
050Is that Maria. >> SPEAKER 13: No this is Arianna. I'm on the wait list. But I notice one person didn't show up so I wanted to know whether I may get to speak or not. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We are still we are still moving through the list than it is likely that we will reach you. Is Maria on the line. Moving on then to the next on the testimony list. Sebrena Burr. >> SPEAKER 14: Can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We can. Go ahead Sebrena. >> SPEAKER 14: Okay. Just a second. My name is Sebrena Burr a Cleveland High School parent and the Seattle Council PTSA Strategic Advisor. I'm here today to say a few words about family engagement and the superintendent evaluation that was posted on the September 9th school board agenda. We
051must reimagine family engagement and [indistinct] from the needs of our students family networks educators and the communities we serve. We must stop doing this work from the top down. All our efforts must be to adjust master where we are now effective remote learning. We are getting too top heavy in John Stanford adding costly chief positions in the middle of a pandemic. While we are preparing to lay off and not repurpose critical staff. Could it be that what is obvious to everyone even our youth and what I've publicly said 6 months into this insanity Superintendent Juneau does not have the skills for the ask of what it takes to run the largest school district in Seattle effectively collaboratively. Why are we top heavy. We are in a technology crisis because superintendent took away our chief of
052information technology and downgraded the position. More than we need a chief of staff or a chief of African-American achievement we need a chief of information technology. Our Native education manager is doing amazing work hitting all the marks engagement curriculum family support community engagement. This work is not being recognized or elevated. Why. Where is her promotion. She's still a manager. Under superintendent evaluation I disagree. Communication and marketing proficient. No. Partially proficient. Community partnership and alignment proficient. No. Partially efficient. Continuous school improvement. Partially proficient was correct. And for family engagement. [chime] Unsatisfactory. You got that right. So again with parent community hat on I say put the families first. Put the children's and families first. Stop them insanity and remove Denise Juneau. With cameras in our home. We must do better. We must protect the lives of
053our kids. This is not personal. This is about putting the kids first. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Sebrena. >> SPEAKER 15: Hello this is Maria Teresa. I had tech problems. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director DeWolf this is the name that I called earlier. Would you like to step back to Maria Teresa. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah let’s go back. Yes. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Go ahead Maria. >> SPEAKER 15: Oh hi. So I’m the Race and Equity Chair for the Seattle Council PTSA and I found that there was a program for all students that are eligible for free and reduced lunch to receive $399 dollars for a you know EBT card. And I think that that is essential for all students to have that benefit for their families. That’s $399 dollars per student which as you
054can imagine a lot of money for a lot of these families that need it. And so this food insecurity should be one of the top priorities of the school district and they I would recommend they should use their resources to remind students and families of this immediately. The next time this rolls around. And that's all I wanted to say thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Jessica Gasparini. Jessica Gasparini. Jessica if you're on the line you need to press ‘star-6’ so that we can hear you. Moving down to the next speaker Jeannie Shu. Jeannie Shu. >> SPEAKER 16: Hi my name is Jeannie Shu and I live on Capitol Hill in Seattle. I worked in the Seattle Schools as a school psychologist and teacher from 1977 to 2014. I am
055representing the Washington chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America today. We have e-mailed 2 letters to you on August 10th and September 21st this year. With a sense of urgency we are asking the superintendent and Seattle school board to help educate the district community about the lifesaving importance of secure firearm storage. Ideally as defined as unloaded and locked separately from ammunition. Particularly as students are learning remotely at home with COVID-19’s increased gun purchases by first time owners the dangers of unsecured guns are heightened. Suicide with easy access to a lethal weapon becomes an even greater possibility. And statistics from Harborview and Every Town indicate teenagers of color Native American Black and Asian are at high risk. In addition unintentional shootings by children who find unsecured loaded firearms in homes are an additional
056worry and preventable tragedy. Alerting parents to these potential dangers through district communication channels would definitely provide a public service to our students and their families. A number of public school districts across the country including Los Angeles Denver and Phoenix have sent out communication to parents about safe gun storage. We are asking the district to post links to Be Smart For Kids dot org or the King County Public Health website on gun violence for parents and community members and to send home related materials to district families. Moms Demand Action and Every Town for Gun Safety are available to help as needed. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Joelle Joelle Hammerstad. Joelle Hammerstad. Joelle you need press ‘star-6’ if you are on the line. Moving to
057our next speaker. Kate Schueler. Kate Schueler. >> SPEAKER 17: Hi. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Go ahead is this Kate. >> SPEAKER 17: Yes this is Kate. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Go ahead. >> SPEAKER 17: Hi I’m Kate Shuler and I'm a reading interventionist and levy coordinator at John Muir Elementary in Southeast Seattle. And I'm also the proud parent of a new kindergartener at that school. As you know our school is one of the 13 Schools Of Promise as selected by the district. And our focus as well as the focus of the entire district is of course ensuring equitable access and closing the opportunity gap and providing excellence in education for every student. As we all know there are unacceptable gaps between our white students and our students of color which the district claims to have as their
058main and paramount focus. However the mandate that all schools use Teams as their platform for delivering remote instruction goes directly against this mission mission. This is something that no one would know unless they were in the classroom teaching. And so I'm sure it doesn't seem like a big deal. But the features of Teams are preventing our students from learning. You cannot do small groups in Teams because they have not worked out the kinks in their breakout rooms. So we are unable to efficiently pull our kids for small groups. I teach reading groups. I cannot pull kindergartners for reading groups in a breakout room. Instead they have to manage many links. This doesn't work for young children who are at home learning by themselves. There's also Teams does not have a spotlighting feature which makes the
059teacher the main big focus of the screen. That's something that Zoom has and Teams does not have. They say they're working on it but this means that kids have to find their teacher among the many tiles instead of seeing a big picture of their teacher. It also interferes with the teacher and the student's ability to create a safe learning environment as we cannot turn off the chat function in Teams and the chat continues once the meeting has ended. So once our classroom meetings have ended students can still chat even though there are no teachers monitoring that space. Finally it impedes our ability to assess students [chime] since we cannot pull kids one-on-one. This is the program through which all of our instruction is delivered. If we know that assessment — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you.
060>> SPEAKER 17: —differentiation and — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Please conclude your. >> SPEAKER 17: —welcoming environments are what make a difference in closing these gaps we have to choose a different platform. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Next is Catherine Seaver. Catherine Seaver. Catherine please press ‘star-6’ if you are on the line. >> SPEAKER 18: I hope you can hear me now. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We can. Yes go ahead Catherine. >> SPEAKER 18: Great. Hi I’m Catherine Seaver. The mother of a 3rd grader and a kindergartener at John Muir Elementary where Kate Schueler was also from. I am also on the PTA there. I want to preface my comments by just expressing my deep gratitude to all of the educators and staff who are working so tremendously hard to make this work. You
061are going above and beyond to teach and connect with families and kids as humans in this really hard time. So I'm calling because I'm very concerned about this requirement to use Microsoft Teams. My background is as an educational technology coordinator and as I'm watching this sitting next to my kindergartner and I've just lost my job as a result of the pandemic so I have the time right now to be there sitting with him but I am aware of the limits so many families do not have the ability to do this and to walk through this experience of using Teams. As Kate said there is no ability for kids to really see their teachers. It's just nine tiles you can't see the whole class. You only see nine and then for kids to even be able
062to see their teacher in a large way I have to pin pin that image and it's only possible because I can use my computer or the laptop or our iPad. And it so it just it just means it's very difficult to engage. And for kids who are trying to deal with this on their own I just wish we had a piece of software that would work smoothly. And I know zoom could provide that option. I also am seeing just in the same way no ability to deal with Teams with small groups and that the parent the teachers cannot sort of accommodate and differentiate their teaching which are such key important ways of meeting the needs of all the students in our school. So just I wanted to echo Kate's comments and just try to ask
063the district to make changes to this decision to support the needs of all our kids especially those furthest from educational justice. So they get the kind of customized and focused attention of their teachers. We're trying to so hard and need every piece of technology to put to work as [chime] best we can and we can do better. Thank you. I yield my time. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: The final speaker on today's testimony list is Ariana Ghez Farrell. Arianna are you on the on the line. >> SPEAKER 19: Hi can you hear me. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yes. >> SPEAKER 19: Great. Hi. I am a mom of a new kindergartner at Coe Elementary. I also want to first express my gratitude to all the amazing dedicated teachers and our amazing principal at Coe for their exceptional work
064and devotion at this time. I was calling in specifically to comment on the fact that Seattle Public Schools has not yet issued a plan for when and what conditions will trigger a shift to in-person learning for our youngest learners. And this is not acceptable. Private schools including preschools have clear plans in place and have clear indicators of what triggers what triggers a move into in-person hybrid learning plan. Namely something like for one example a rate of less than 75 cases per 100,000 per 2-week period of for COVID case count. While clearly this is a complicated task for the public school system it can't come as a surprise to anyone. And there needs to be an ability for the public school system. It seems to me to be able to toggle between in-person learning and remote
065learning for the foreseeable future. Our kids will fall behind and we need creative thinking and all hands on deck to solve this. Private schools are bringing kids back and already have kindergarteners back in-person for learning and other elementary school kids are being brought back in-person now due to these lower COVID levels. If it takes the public school system 2 more months to come up with a plan we'll lose 2 months of an opportunity for in-person learning well those levels are low and this can this could make an enormous difference particularly for our youngest learners. My son who just entered kindergarten or kindergarten he doesn't know what it means to be in school. He has never met any of his classmates in person and like all other new kindergartners it's impossible for him to connect with
066them over the computer or to really understand what school is. There's so much verbal emphasis on social justice. But it seems to me that the true social justice is to bring kids [chime] physically into school in so far as this is possible to implement safely. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> SPEAKER 19: Further there are many parents. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Please conclude your remarks. >> SPEAKER 19: Okay just there are many parents who I'm concerned will defect from the public school system as a result and these are people like families who may have resources to go to private school who we want to maintain in our community and who invest heavily in the public school system. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> SPEAKER 19: So I just wanted to urge us to make this a
067big priority. Thanks very much. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: That was the final speaker on today's list. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones and thank you to our speakers who participated in today's public testimony for the meeting. Greatly appreciate you. At this time we'll now move to items that were removed from the consent agenda. So for the items that were removed from the consent agenda. May I have a motion for Item. Item. The September 3rd and the September 9th. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I move this is Director Hampson I move approval for the meeting minutes from the September 3rd 2020 work session and September 9th 2020 regular board meeting. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Second the motion. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: And this was moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris. Director Rivera-Smith
068I know that you pulled these items so wanted to let you go first since this was your items that you pulled. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you very much. My my problem is I am concerned with the incredible brevity of them that I don't feel reflects the whole conversations we had both meetings. One meeting was just a minute over 2 hours one was almost 2 hours and yet these are both just 1-page minutes. And I know that recently the executive committee could take up meeting minute format as a special attention item and a way to try to get more standardization amongst our minute taking. But I do fear that it has resulted possibly in not really reflecting a lot of substance that I think is important to have. I know that specifically at the September 10th
069meeting there were several for lack of a better word action items or commitments made by staff that were not at all reflected in those minutes and I only know these because I took pretty copious notes and I even sent out an e-mail to the full board following that work session to highlight some of those commitments for staff and board members. So again there were just several things and that alone. Going back to the September 3rd one even though I haven't really dissected that yet I do know already that it does not mention at all the discussion on community alignment initiatives in which Chief Counsel Narver did mention some updates to policy that would need to be made and some commitments to providing language for the board. Again there were just so many things in both
070of these that I fear aren’t reflected and and it a my it’s an issue of transparency to me. Somebody who was not at that meeting could never look at these minutes and know what was said and discussed and therefore is at a lack of just you know power in our district as far as affecting those things. So I don't know really what the solution is as far as I'm pulling them and maybe I can speak with. I don't know who took these minutes. I'm not completely. I think at the bottom it says provided by office staff. I don't know specifically who that is who I could speak to on this to see what we can I don’t know add to these specific minutes. And that just tackles these two because this is gonna you know
071the following work sessions will have maybe the same issues. So again this is possibly just something maybe to bring back to Executive Committee and speak about again a vote at that meeting on September or sorry on June 10th is when it was at the Executive Committee. There was no motion or movement made it was a special attention item to provide guidance. I don't know if that process is still going on or if that was sort of supposed to be that the end of that. Any kind of any [indistinct] President DeWolf if you have any information on that that appreciated. Again my my concern was the incredible brevity of the minutes and the lack of lack of transparency. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. We actually do need a new motion I apologize.
072Apparently we it was 9 September 3rd and September 10th not September 9th. Greg do we need to do anything today — >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So moved. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: —the motion. >> GREG NARVER: Yes you can have that amended motion just to bring the two sets of minutes back before the committee or sorry before the board and then we can talk further about the board's options with respect to addressing the concerns raised by Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. So do I have a motion to amend this item with a September 10th work session. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry it was — >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So moved. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay it was moved by Director Harris. Do I have a second. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I’ll second. I’ll second. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. First first
073Director Rivera-Smith I appreciate you pulling this. I would also just encourage you prior to these meetings to just let me know if this is the issue and we can obviously talk about this offline. The point of these meeting minutes is that they're there they're fairly supposed to be strict fairly straightforward as I understand. That was a discussion. We we did have that discussion last in June trying to kind of formalize and bring our notes into consistency across the committees was the big was the big push. I I don't see the same anyway. I'll leave it to directors for questions or comments and we’ll move through directors starting with Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah I think this is what is the something that we discussed moving to so as to remove the judgment of the
074note taker in terms of describing discussions. We do have other our board meetings are filmed and there were constantly situations where things were being interpreted or stated in ways that were not that were really subject to interpretation. And so rather than put the staff in the position of having to defend those those interpretations we went to the things that are that are pretty consistently used which is in many other board minutes which is the action items and then the recorded version serves as the more detailed information that's provided. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I will say I agree that the recording is immensely helpful. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Yes. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. I think these two minutes have overcompensated from our conversation in June. I've also
075been watching minutes with action items next steps being produced at a staff and much appreciate that. It's important for transparency to have more information. And I agree that putting staff in the pinch point to make judgments with is not okay but there's got to be a happy medium here and and this doesn't do it. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: I don't have any comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah I share the concerns around kind of the overcompensation of not having more information in the minutes. I understand the challenge that is trying to be addressed here. But I share the concern that is being raised here. And I I would appreciate moving more towards additional information for transparency for the public.
076>> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I what. When we were talking back in June and I guess about this it was I thought kind of agreed upon that if there was something that individuals wanted particularly to be in the minutes that we should note that so this might be just a good reminder to ourselves if you know there is something that we feel is an action point as opposed to opinion or judgment that maybe we can also take some of the responsibility of saying you know I'd like that reflected in the minutes or you know did we note that commitment whatever kind of thing. Yeah. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Just a hard mindset to do in the moment. But yeah. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Absolutely. And my only
077comment will just be that we are a living breathing organization. Everything we do is iterative. So if this isn't feeling like it's landing and I've heard the word overcompensating we can revisit that. So we'll continue to revisit that. We can bring that back to the executive committee. So with that Miss Wilson-Jones please. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: President DeWolf may I make a final just a clarification. I think is is good to make here. Regular board meetings are in fact video audio recorded. The problem is our work sessions are not. There's no recording anywhere to go back and and and and document that commitments were made by staff and I'm not saying staff isn't reliable and going to make make sure they follow through but there is no nowhere in record to show those commitments or asks
078by board. So that is my biggest concern with these specific minutes here. But again I I look forward to [indistinct] Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay so all those in favor of the motion as amended for the 9/3 and 9/10 work sessions. Just for clarification those 2 sessions were recorded. All those in favor — >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director DeWolf. >> GREG NARVER: Director DeWolf. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: We do need to do a roll call on this motion because it was pulled from consent. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Oh yes. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: I’m happy to call that. >> GREG NARVER: Yes correct. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Slight talking point. Thank you. Miss Wilson-Jones. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Can I ask for clarification too does a ‘yes’ vote mean we’re approving them as stands and a ‘no’ would
079mean we would like corrections on them or additions. >> GREG NARVER: The the a ‘yes’ vote means you're approving them as written. A ‘no’ vote means you're not approving them as written. Another option would be a the president could recognize a motion to pull these from the agenda and refer it back to committee for further work. If these aren't approved the work session happened so we'd have to figure out how the the minutes are going to be worked on at that point. But the motion before the board at this point is to approve the minutes as written. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: All right. I could ask President DeWolf if you would if you would be as if I could I request that you do I guess pull them so we can talk about them later. I
080know we don't want to take much too time here and if that is. Would that if that would be okay with you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Let's move forward on the vote. I think we have an open [indistinct] I think that's my only concern right Greg. >> GREG NARVER: There is no a motion pending right now to approve them as written. Correct. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Miss Wilson-Jones roll call please. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Hersey [abstain] Director Mack [no] Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I'm a little bit confused about what the options are. I mean it's yes as written — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: [Indistinct] minutes as they are. And ‘no’ to to not approve them and. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: What happens if they're not approved. Miss Wilson-Jones or Greg. >> GREG NARVER: Yeah. The president could recognize
081a motion to refer the minutes back to committee for further work at that point. You know the something has to be done with them. Like I said the work session occurred and we are required to have minutes of every meeting that has occurred so minutes do need at some point to be generated and that are approved. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Greg do I have the power now to just pull them. We're going through an exercise here and it's just it's just taking up a lot of time can — >> GREG NARVER: Yeah we. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: —we pull these bring them back. >> GREG NARVER: You can ask for a motion to pull them from the agenda and refer them back to committee that the board could then. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So moved. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON:
082Second. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera — Okay. This has been moved by Director Harris and seconded by Director Hampson. All those in favor of pulling these and bringing them back to committee. >> GREG NARVER: You need a roll call. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Miss Wilson-Jones roll call. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Mack [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Hampson [aye] Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] This motion — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: —has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you very much. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: And just just encourage Director Rivera-Smith for future just let me know of these ahead of time because we did spend about 13 on this and I I would have been happy to talk and pull it off. Okay so now we'll move to the
083action items on today's agenda after these four items will then move into a recess so I can give directors a bio break. So our first action item is today is Motion to Introduce and Approve A Memorandum of Understanding Between the Seattle School District Number 1 (District) And Seattle Education Association (SEA.) This came through the Executive Committee on September 16th for approval. May I have a motion for this item please. Director Hampson. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So moved. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry I — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: —wasn’t unmuted. second. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Talking to myself. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: This has been moved by Director Harris and seconded by Director Hampson. This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today. Chief Human
084Resources Officer Dr. Clover Codd I believe you will be briefing us before director's comments and questions. So to you. >> CLOVER CODD: Yes. Good afternoon everybody. Clover Codd Chief Human Resource Officer. I'm honored to be here today presenting to you this Memorandum Of Understanding between Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association. We are joined here today with Jennifer Matter the president of the Seattle Education Association. And before I began the overview of the MOU I'd like to turn it over to Jennifer for her comments. >> JENNIFER MATTER: Hello. Thank you. Can you hear me. >> CLOVER CODD: Yes. >> JENNIFER MATTER: All right. So thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Jennifer Matter and I do proudly serve as president of Seattle Education Association. Before speaking
085about the details of the MOU I would like to talk about the enormous lift and hard work that went into the MOU from SEA SPS the board and really the entire community. I counted up the days our SEA team spent bargaining this summer and it was around 40 days which includes both days at the bargaining table and days when we were meeting on our own. In other words it was 8 full work weeks of bargaining for our team and that does not include all of the work done before the end of last school year before I took office. Thankfully bargaining was over the summer when most of our team was not otherwise occupied with serving our students. Our team consisted of approximately 20 core members and approximately 50 additional subcommittee members. It was an enormous
086amount of time and effort to accomplish that MOU and that was just the SEA side. I'm sure the SPS side was equally busy. I would also like to point out that the reason it took all summer was because it was an extremely difficult task. Yes there were disagreements which took time to resolve. But what took the longest was just the complexity of the task before us. And to be clear the difficulty was and continues to be how to safely and equitably serve our students and families in the middle of this pandemic while also facing the ongoing and much greater pandemic of systemic racism and while dealing with chronic underfunding of our schools and chronic underfunding of housing and the other basic needs of our community. I am very proud of all the hard work that
087went into the MOU but I also don't want to sugar-coat the situation by acting like everything is rosy. We know the heavy burden that is being carried right now by our educators and by our students and families. The MOU and the committee agreements are 48 pages long and cover lots of important details. What really matters is how the MOU is implemented downtown and in our schools. We have spent the past few weeks working with our members as well as with administrators and community partners so that everyone can understand the details and intent of the MOU. On one hand there are some bright spots and many schools have done an amazing job so far. Getting students and families connected and engaged and there are things we are learning about remote education and family engagement that we
088will be carrying forward after the COVID pandemic to serve our students better. On the other hand we also know that there are way too many students and families who are not connected or engaged either because of internet and technology issues scheduling issues or simply because remote education just doesn't work for them. We also have educators who are simply struggling to have reliable high speed internet and who need hotspots or other ways to connect. I say all of this because it is critical that we not lose sight of the big picture. We are all struggling and I would say that morale amongst our educators is probably the lowest I've ever seen it because so many are just exhausted and frustrated. I'm going to pivot a bit. I would like to say that I'm thankful and relieved
089that are COVID transmission rates are finally going down. However I would also like to caution that as we look at public health data we need to disaggregate the data to see how different communities are being affected. We cannot overlook that our Black and Brown families are being the most impacted by the COVID pandemic and systemic racism and I believe their safety and their voices and needs have to be at the center of any future plans. Furthermore I also want to state how critical it is that we continue to really focus on improving our remote education model and getting it as established as possible. We know that many families will choose to continue remote education no matter what we offer in terms of in-person. We also know that remote education will continue to be important to
090fall back on in any hybrid model if cases increase again. All that to say I would like to just provide some caution about any rush to to return to in-person instruction. We know that any return to in-person will be extremely complex to figure out. It will again require an enormous lift from our SEA bargaining team members who will need to take time away from their classrooms and duties when they are already overwhelmed. I know it will weigh heavily on all of our members and really our entire community all of whom will be rightfully concerned about whether in-person services can be done safely and equitably and not cause more disruption and harm than good. With that I return it over to Clover Codd. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Jennifer. Really great to meet you and Dr.
091Codd I hate to jump in here. I need to actually roll back a couple of moments here and do a formal motion so I’m gonna ask Director Hampson and Director Harris to redo our motion just so we're doing it formally for the minutes and then I'll return it back to you. Sorry for the interruption. Thank you for your grace. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This is Director Hampson. I move that the school board approve the MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) as attached to this board action report and authorize the superintendent to take the steps necessary to implement each district responsibility detailed in the agreement. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Second the motion. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you all. Dr. Codd I’ll turn it back over to you. >> CLOVER CODD:
092Okay thank you. So I I do want to start by thanking both of the bargaining teams from both the district and the association. We did begin bargaining in June and facing unprecedented circumstances and way more unknowns than there are knowns. I want to thank my colleagues on a cabinet level and the superintendent and the board for your support and partnership throughout this bargaining process. It has been intense. The enormity and responsibility of being an educator at this moment in time weighs heavy on all of us. Despite that our teams continue to work tirelessly implementing this MOU that we expect you to approve this afternoon. Our goal when we bargained was to figure out how to put in place the proper health and safety standards as well as re-envision how our school district would implement a
093completely new remote model of education. All the while trying to balance the needs of the students and families that we serve and the needs of the adults in our system who provide the public education to over 54,000 students. We did this on a compressed timeline with multiple moving parts and constantly changing information. Not only were we facing the biggest health crisis of our time we witnessed civil unrest from the pain of the deep-seated racism within our society that many of our students families and staff face every day. Amidst all of that we came together and drafted 48 pages of commitments to one another and in support of our students and families. This MOU provides for provisions covering the following areas: health and safety protocols provisions for professional development for educators technology equipment and support for
094educators support for social emotional learning educator expectations provisions for in-person services when with for students with special needs accommodations and leads a revised school year calendar and re-open our language should the school board choose a different model of education in the 20-21 school year. Each of our proposals were written with racial equity as a cornerstone of our decision-making and both the district and the union wanted this MOU to advance supports for students of color furthest from educational justice because we knew that likely these are the very students who might be affected most by these pandemics. The fiscal impact of this MOU is 2.7 million dollars and is outlined on page 2 of the Board Action Report I am extremely proud of the work our teams did and I'm proud of what's included in this MOU
095and ask for your vote today. And with that I'll open it up for questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Dr. Codd. Okay. We will start with director comments or questions beginning with Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. I think it's important for listeners to understand exactly why it was that we needed to do this MOU. I think it's it's hard for folks to keep up with the various types of quote-unquote “bargaining” and if you could please provide a brief explanation as to why it was so important that the district and SEA come to the table to create this MOU. What the precipitating factor was. >> CLOVER CODD: Sure I'll try. So typically in the State of Washington we must bargain with our labor partners wages hours and working conditions. Those are mandatory subjects of
096bargaining. When we moved from our brick-and-mortar kind of model of education to a remote model of education it changed the working conditions for our educators. There are over 5,000 members represented by Seattle Education Associated Association each with different roles responsibilities. And those expectations are outlined in our current collective bargaining agreement. But when we change the model of education it changes those working conditions. We also have to take into account the health and safety of the members who are needing to provide any onsite services for students or our families. And so this was a unique moment in time where we had to not re-bargain a collective bargaining agreement but put in place a memorandum of understanding so that we were really clear on the working conditions and expectations around health and safety during this remote model.
097>> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And can you as a follow-on to that point to when there might need to be a coming back together around the MOU when if when and if working conditions change yet again. >> CLOVER CODD: Yes. So we did put some re-opener language into this Memorandum Of Understanding. Should the school board make a determination or vote to approve a different model of education different from what we where we are right now is in a remote model. So should the school board vote to approve a phased in-person or some some form of hybrid approach we will need to come back together with SEA to negotiate any changed impacts of that decision to their working conditions. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. And then I would just state for clarity and get your confirmation that the
098re — quote-unquote “reopening template and resolution” that was passed by the board on August 12th includes provisions for outdoor education in a manner that is consistent with the MOU. >> CLOVER CODD: So what you put in the resolution does not mandate that educators provide outdoor education per se. It provides for a pilot for for people who choose to do that to be able to go through a process to offer that. So we are not mandating that SEA members per se provide outdoor education. If we were to mandate that we would need to bargain the impacts. But my understanding is that we are not mandating that. It is a pilot for people who opt into that model and therefore it would be done through a site-based process if you will. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. And
099then also I just wanted to add for clarification that I think one thing that I would like to see going for we don't often have the opportunity for board to be heavily involved in a bargaining process multiple times in a very short period short fiscal or academic window and that I think going forward we want to make sure that there's a clear process for how prior to SEA and district staff going into a bargaining environment that there's a clear set of expectations so that then once that you come out the other end as we did late in August that there is it's consistent with what the board has recommended going into that bargaining with. And I think I hope that we can work together SEA the district and the board to take a look at
100what that might process that process might look like in the future as there are other MOU instances in our future I believe. So thank you all for all of your hard work on this. I know it was a difficult process and I will be supporting today. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I will echo the gratitude expressed by my colleague Director Hampson. I will second the extraordinarily hard work that was put in by all parties to this MOU. I will highlight the fact that we increased professional development and most importantly we paid for professional development. And I'd like to see us triple or double that at a minimum. I am confused about the answer on outdoor education. Pilot projects sound lovely. But again the devil's in the details. Are
101we suggesting that if represented staff SEA-represented staff want to do a pilot project that we don't come back to the table to negotiate the working conditions. I'm truly confused because I've always found the safety issues to be paramount with SEA. And I also see I agree that building-based et cetera et cetera is fine and good. But are we going to then start treating all 104 schools differently as an entity of their own. I'm truly confused here. >> CLOVER CODD: So I I don't know if I'll be able to answer your question to your liking Director Harris but here's what I can say. I have been assured by the board that the board resolution that discusses outdoor education is not a mandate for our educators to have to be providing outdoor education instruction. That it is
102an opt-in model for educators who choose. And I believe and I'm not as involved in the outdoor school the models and what that process looks like. I've not been involved in that. What I did commit to is that there would be nothing in this MOU that would prevent educators from opting into that model. But I've been it's been very clear from the beginning that this MOU and any others. I mean if we were to mandate that model of education yes I would be back at the table bargaining a separate MOU around outdoor education if we are mandating it. So we we often have processes in our schools that allow for pilots that allow for individual educators to work with principals and school communities to implement new and innovative ways of doing education. And my understanding
103is that is what is in the board resolution is it is that type of a model as an opt-in model not a mandated model. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: The first thing I would just like to say is again thanking the huge lift that getting this MOU off the ground over the summer was. Speaking directly with staff alongside Director Rankin I know where we began and where we ended up. And the critical amount of work that was [indistinct] so having been very close to this project our or rather this MOU I don't have any additional questions but I would just like to again say thank you to all of the educators that gave up as President Matter said 40 days of their summer. I mean this was a huge lift
104and I I could not imagine having you know been in these situations before. The amount of time that you know not only for staff from the district side but also from SEA that has gone into this. There's really just no words for how big of a lift this is. So again from the bottom of my heart I thank you for all the work that has gone into this. And I will pass. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yes. Thank you. I echo the gratitude because this is a massive massive lift in an unprecedented environment. And I appreciate President Matter’s words of recognition to the incredibly incredibly incredibly difficult job that our educators are doing in this remote environment and that the hours and transitioning to this environment is is really really
105challenging. And you know the amount of screen time the uptake of technology the glitchy-ness between the different programs that don't work with each other or the challenges with students dropping off the you know all of this is it's it's just a really really tough environment for everyone. And I really appreciate the educators that are every single one that I've come across and interacted with are are trying working so very hard to do their very best to make it simple and accessible and and reaching students. I think in particular the family engagement aspect that was built into the schedule I'm not sure that's actually technically in the MOU but I do believe that that is a helpful function. The one thing I wanted clarification on was whether or not the MOU supports educators utilizing their classroom
106spaces as teaching stations if they want to go into the building and teach from there is that allowed at this point. >> CLOVER CODD: Yes. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah and then that do we have a sense of how many educators are are accessing that and feeling like that's a benefit to them. >> CLOVER CODD: So sorry if you did not hear me the answer is yes they people do have the opportunity and ability to go into their school buildings and and work from their classroom spaces. I do not know how many number of people are accessing that at this time it's probably something we could figure out given the fact that all staff need to do the electronic attestation before they go into a building. So it probably wouldn't be hard to get that data.
107But the answer to your original question is yes. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Thank you that's all for me for now thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. No just again echoing what other directors have said about the time and energy that went into this and thoughtfulness. And I also wanted to point out for anyone who may be listening that you know the idea behind the different agreements and different learning environments is there's a lot of when it's safe and what's safe and really we need to shift our thinking to how do we mitigate risk and how do we weigh there's risks involved in everything. And there's nothing that's 100 percent safe. So when thinking about 100 or when thinking about in-person learning of any kind the the driving force
108is really what is how do we mitigate risk and when weigh risk between keeping kids at home versus the the health risk of being in person. So. And that's for for educators and for families. That as soon as we have more people interacting with each other in more spaces that increases the risk for all of us. So yeah just saying that there's not nothing that's 100 percent safe. However being outdoors is about 20 times less risky than being indoors. And just to follow up with what Director Harris was asking about. I wanted to just confirm that as Director Hersey said he and I were the board liaisons during the bargaining process and we made it very clear and I know that it was a priority to everyone to make sure that the opt-in outdoor possibilities
109would not need to be re-bargained. And because it's opt-in not mandated. That doesn't mean that there aren't any health and safety regulations and that's actually to what some of our public testimony speakers were talking about. What kind of the holdup is on moving forward in there is because we need from the district clear and this is indicated in the resolution a clear set of guidelines and procedures that anybody who wants to do a pilot would need to follow. So it's not a do a pilot go outside whatever but it is you know that they're there we know based on public health guidelines what kind of the recommendations are for for people in groups of people in outdoor spaces. There's been camps happening all summer. There's childcare now so that information exists. It's not hard and
110fast. So we do need the district to come up with this set of guidelines of what's required and what will be provided by the district in terms of PPE and any kind of other guidelines just like there's an attestation right now. We would expect that anyone participating in a pilot would need to do that same thing. So. So it's it's it's already as Dr. Codd said there's nothing in the MOU that would be that would need to be renegotiated to have those things happen. Likewise special education services. It was a priority and has been a priority since engagement teams in June that when needed. And it's again a mitigation of risk. Students. There are some students that no matter how many different resources or how many different things we try remotely they’ve got to have
111some in-person instruction and support in accordance with their IEP but that is all. And so that doesn't have to be renegotiated but it is a mitigation of risk that has to be weighed and I just. Yeah appreciate that that is all is in there and know that there's still more a thought for all of us to do around it and make sure that that everyone is protected and comfortable and I just really appreciate everyone coming together around all of those things. And that is more than enough for me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I want to just draw attention because we did have some some public speakers today talk about Teams. We've definitely received many e-mails from people in regards to their concerns [indistinct] in this MOU it does specifically
112outline that that staff will use district-provided or supported platforms. And I think a lot of this goes back to this MOU because we've had some people teachers have been referred to it when they have a question saying look at the MOU. And it isn't specific about Teams or Zoom. So but it does specifically say that [indistinct] the platforms we provide need to be accessible this MOU specifically says that. And some have not been in certain ways. I just I think my only point here is to draw attention that that we because it's not specific [indistinct] anyways we should make it clear to the teachers who are having these large scale difficulties with Teams that they can still utilize Zoom it is still in our system. And our so it is I don't know that constitutes
113supported or approved but it is definitely an option that I just I wish would be clearer with staff because again this MOU does not forbid it. The use of Zoom itself. I want to just be clear with with families and staff on that issue. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. I have no questions at this time. I thank you President Matter and Dr. Clover Codd and our board representatives for the work on this over the Summer. Truly truly appreciate your work. With that we can move Miss Wilson-Jones to the roll call vote. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Mack Director Mack [aye sorry aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Hampson [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] This motion has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones.
114Thank you Dr. Codd and President Matter. >> CLOVER CODD: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: We will now move to Action Item Number 2: this is Approval of a Student and Community Workforce Agreement. This came through the Executive Committee on September 16th for approval. May I have a motion for this item please. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: This is Director Hampson. I move that the school board authorize the board president and superintendent to execute the Student Community Workforce Agreement that is attached to this Board Action Report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the student community workforce agreement. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Second the motion. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. This item has been moved by
115Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris. This item is on the agenda today for introduction and action and we are bringing this forward today for approval and so I'll just give a little bit of background on this and also as we run through questions and comments from directors I’ll I know that chief legal Counsel Greg Narver and Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta are also available for questions. If if if I could just give a brief bit of history here. I know that Director Harris can remember this very well. In about 2018 we were discussing this for a very long time and began discussions late 2018 sort of working with Director Mack on a task force and utilizing that process. And over the course of the last end of last year and a little bit of
116beginning of this year we the task force was spun up and honestly it was such an incredible task force I was so grateful to be a part of witnessing just these people working hard for the district and we really toiled over every single question concern idea and point that was raised around bringing a student and Community Workforce Agreement to Seattle Public Schools. And before I move to director’s comments or questions I will just say that for me this is such an exciting opportunity for the district to really operationalize our values particularly in alignment with our strategic plan. But I think overall in the direction we're moving which is to be an anti-racist organization I'm really really excited about the ways in which this addresses equity by taking our public capital investments and prioritizing a workforce
117that represents students their families students families Black Indigenous POC and women in our construction careers for these incredible family wage jobs. I'm just so excited for the ways that this is continuing to invest in our communities. It is a strong signal of economic justice and racial justice. And I'm so proud to be a part of this moment. With that I want to move to directors for any comments or questions before I move to the vote. And we will start we'll go backwards this time will begin with Director Rivera-Smith. You may be muted Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm having problems. Can you hear me now. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes we can. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. Yes. No I we've definitely discussed this at length and I very look forward to
118this. No no questions or comments. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Nope just thank you to everyone who worked to bring this forward and President DeWolf especially congratulations. And I'm excited to see this move into reality. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rankin. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah. I'm also very excited about this. I did want. I was wondering if staff could speak a little bit to the investment and support around students that we're going to be making in the district around supporting the education of the students to engage in these opportunities. Can staff give a little bit of overview of how that's expected to be supported by the district. And is there an additional budget allocated for that support. >> FRED PODESTA: This is Fred Podesta Chief Operations Officer.
119I will start and perhaps ask one of my colleagues if they want to say add anything on the curriculum front. We have just begun discussions with the new organization to see how a pre-apprenticeship program could be integrated with the curriculum that the district already offers. So at this point I don't believe there have been large financial additions needed to support because we do offer a CTE program that supports the construction trades. We want to turn this and develop the program into something that could lead to pre apprenticeship. So Seattle Public Schools graduates could get directly into the apprentice pipeline on our construction projects. And so at this time I don't think a budget has been identified. And of course this is a challenge in the remote learning environment to implement this year. So this is
120still in the development mode and I don't know if Diana DeBacker or one of my other colleagues might want to add a little bit more detail. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Thank you Fred. This is Diane DeBacker Chief Academic Officer and we are we in our Career and Tech Ed pathways we are exploring this option and we've been in conversation about the pre-apprenticeship program. Director Mack there's no fiscal amount that we put on that at this time but as soon as we're ready to go with this. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Thank you I appreciate just adding that information in and I also want to recognize our former board director Rick Burke who — >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes. >> DIRECTOR MACK: —supported the very beginning of this process to ensure that the title of this agreement included students and
121that that's you know first and foremost focus of the effort. And so I just want to recognize him and appreciate all of the work that has gone into this. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack. Yes great great call out and I hope his ears are burning and he is mentioned in the BAR as well. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No questions or comments. Just a proud day to be union. Thank you for all your work and especially your leadership on this Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hersey. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Well Director Mack stole my comments about former Director Burke so I'll echo those. But I'd like to add a number of other folks to the gratitude list if I might. Facilitator Nancy Locke for the task force.
122The Port the County the City of Seattle. They worked really hard on this task force and it was a long time coming. But I'm pleased that we're doing it right. I would suggest that there is no free lunch. And as the BEX V Advisory Committee said in a letter to us that was taken entirely out of context and you will be receiving another letter as a board member they were unaware of all of the work sessions that we had done to address these issues and to hear from folks that we're not thrilled with this resolution like the AJC the Association of General Contractors. You know it may increase our costs on our levy bill but if it provides a pathway to family wage jobs and if in fact we are willing to walk our talk
123then it's a resounding yes for me. And additionally huge thanks to Monty Anderson Dale Bright and the Building Trades Council and as Director excuse me President DeWolf said this was 2 years in the making. Painful. Too slow for some of our tastes but we're here now and I will vote a resounding yes. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions just congratulations to you and everyone that has helped to shepherd this into our hands on this day. And I can't wait to support. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And I'll just end with really just thank you all for your comments. Really great things that you've elevated today and also just to make sure that we're really giving thanks and gratitude to the task force members. They toiled
124with a ton of these questions and concerns and and ideas that came from community and our board and what was coming from other contractors and unions and they really toiled over this work and I really really appreciate the work that they put in so thank you to the folks from our student workforce agreement Task Force for meeting on your days off spending a lot of time on this topic. And also thank you too to Chief Podesta as well as Richard Best and Nancy Locke for the support from Superintendent Juneau. I'm so excited to be a part of this this moment. And I know if directors on this call maybe don't sense it because we're not in the same room I want you to just feel proud this is at this feels like a transformational moment
125for Seattle Public Schools and I hope you're proud to be part of it today. So with that Miss Wilson-Jones roll call please. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [a huge big aye] Director Hampson [aye] Director Harris [the biggest aye] Director Hersey [arguably the bigger aye] Director Mack [aye] Director DeWolf [very soft aye but yes] this motion has passed. Unanimously. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay well let's move to our next item. We certainly have a lot today. We'll move to item Action Item Number 3: this is Approval of Annual Highly Capable Program Plan for the 2019-2020 school year. This came through the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee on September 15th for approval. May I have a motion for this item please. [Hi] May I have a motion for this item please. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Sorry
126reading again without. Here we go. This is Director Hampson. I move that the board approve the highly capable program Plan as attached to the Board Action Report for submission to OSPI for school year 2019-2020 to support Highly Capable Services and the district's Gifted Eligibility Identification Process at the school board authorize the superintendent to apply for the allocation of funds from OSPI. Immediate action is in the best interests of the District. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I second the motion. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. This item has been Moved by director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris This item is on the agenda for introduction of action today. So Chief of Student Support Services Dr. Concie Pedroza I believe will be briefing us today. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Yes. Hi. Thank you so much. Good evening. I'm also here
127along with Program Manager for Advanced Learning Deenie Berry to present this Board Action to approve the Seattle Public Schools Highly Capable Program Plan which must be approved every year per the WAC 392170025. Plan approval is necessary for accessing funds allocated by the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction for Highly Capable Services. This plan honors the work of the Advanced Learning Department which is aligned to the state guidelines as well as many of the volunteers who gave up their time for the Advanced Learning Task Force and then current the current Highly Capable Racial Equity Advisory Committee which started anti-racist training at the beginning of their convening and will continue that work throughout this year. Advanced Learning updates are submitted to the C&I committee by bi-monthly and the submission of this plan is a necessary requirement
128for the state funds to continue our district goals and it is a format prescribed by OSPI. And just to share we have been in communication with OSPI about this late plan submittal. They are aware of that and have granted us the time to get the plan to them pending board approval. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you Dr. Pedroza. Anything else. Okay I'll take that as a no and we will start with our C&I policy Committee Chair Director Rankin and we’ll move through alphabetically. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. Yeah. Just to reiterate what Dr. Pedroza just said this is a more of a look back and confirmation of what was provided in accordance with state law and and not any alterations or changes or anything for the future. I did want to note though in the
129eagle-eyed constituent emailed me this afternoon that he noticed a mistake in the BAR in the Student Benefits section point eight. That somehow the Asian demographic has been dropped. So it says ‘demographically within the 4,682 students referred and assessed approximately 6.2 identified as African-American 6.3 identify percent identified as Hispanic and less than 1 percent identified as Asian/Pacific Islander/Native American.’ And I think somehow we missed Asian-American category on its own and it got lumped in with Pacific Islander and Native American and it and thus the total number of students of the percentage breakdown does not does not give us 100 percent. >> DEENIE BERRY: It sounds like we need to update that section. So sorry about that. I'm pulling it. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: And Greg can you clarify what we would need to do with this type
130of issue that was elevated. >> GREG NARVER: First if if the correct percentage is available now there could just be a motion to amend to substitute that at this point if it needs to be fixed later. Let's start with that see if Ms. Berry has the numbers available. >> DEENIE BERRY: I'm taking a look right now. What's our backup if we can't assure that they're accurate. >> GREG NARVER: I think the board can still approve the plan with a note to for those so that the record is clear that we'll go back and make a correct make this sounds like just a typographical error or something got omitted during editing as opposed to a substantive change to the underlying facts supporting the the report. I think this is something that can be cleaned up later
131but it's important to get the assuming that the board is on is supportive of approving the plan. It's important to get that done because of course there's funding related to that. We just want to clear up any typo that was made in the BAR so that we have a clear record. >> DEENIE BERRY: Can [indistinct] >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yeah and I apologize for not giving you a warning. I only got the notification myself right as the meeting was starting. So sorry. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: That's fine. >> DEENIE BERRY: I would rather make sure I've got accurate numbers. I'm sorry. If we can add that. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Understood. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Yep. So it would be my recommendation that we move ahead and then we would amend it provide the make the. Notations. >> GREG
132NARVER: Yeah we can we note that in the minutes afterwards yes. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. And I think part of it too given that it's just in the BAR. Correct. Liza or is it in the — >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I think so. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: —actual document. Well given that it's [indistinct] I think we can take and heed Greg's advice around clarifying that we need to fix that in the BAR but still moving forward. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yes that's fine with me. I just wanna make sure we have that correct in the in the finals. In the record of the document. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Absolutely. Thank you. Next up is Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Just to confirm for the record that this is yes I think it's been stated but that this is for
133last year this is retroactive. That we are providing this. So these are monies that were already spent. Correct. >> DEENIE BERRY: That's correct. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Yeah. No further questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yes. I'm wondering are the minutes of these task force that were referred to published on the website. >> DEENIE BERRY: Yes they are. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Outstanding. Glad to hear it. Thank you. No further questions. This is compliance particularly. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Correct. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Oops sorry. >> DEENIE BERRY: Absolutely yes. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Apologies Director Harris. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No questions for me. Thank you for the work. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah hi. I don't have
134any substantive questions. I do also I found another typo that on the last paragraph and this might be where some of the public comment came from related to the retroactive in the last paragraph on the first page of the BAR it says this is a retroactive approval and is the allocation for the 2019-2021 school year and I think it should say 2019-2020 school year. It does in all the other places but that 1 should be a zero. So if we can just have a Scrivener’s error to correct that I think that might clarify some of the confusion. Other than that no questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Well my question is only about the BAR which I don't know if that's substantive because we're not we're it’s more
135about the actual document. But in the BAR under the I think it’s the section about well sorry I lost it already. It's I believe it's in the equity analysis it mentions that the the Advanced Learning Task Force is doing monthly meetings but the Advanced Learning Task Force isn't meeting anymore at all. I thought it had been disbanded and not. >> DEENIE BERRY: Correct. They were replaced by the Highly Capable Racial Equity Services Advisory Committee. Both of those teams met monthly. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Okay. Well it says that they do meet monthly so I don't know if that matters at all. I mean that's I think this is an error because this was written while back right. This is written. >> DEENIE BERRY: Yes that's correct. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: That's the only thing I see otherwise.
136Otherwise yeah. No I understand this is retroactive. So no further questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And no no questions for me. So with that can we just get clarification that we can move forward and we can get these corrections made to the BAR appropriately. >> GREG NARVER: Yes. These types of Scrivener’s errors we can correct afterwards. But the board can go ahead and vote on approval of the plan. I'm sorry of the — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> GREG NARVER: —report. Yep. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Miss Wilson-Jones roll call please. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director Hampson [abstain] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [abstain] Director Mack [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] This motion has passed with a vote of 5 yes to zero no to 2 abstentions. >> DIRECTOR
137DEWOLF: Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones. Okay next we'll move to Action Item Number 4: Approval to Renew Refuse Dispu-sal excuse me Refuse Disposal& Mixed Waste Recycling Collection Services Bid Number B01753 with Recology CleanScapes Inc. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. May I have a motion for this item please. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Coming. I move it the school board authorize the superintendent to execute the renewal of a contract with Recology CleanScapes Inc. covering the period of October 1st 2020 to July 20 sorry July 31st 2021 the amount of $841,003.18 plus Washington State sales tax for the refuse disposal and mixed waste recycling collection with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to implement the contract. Immediate action is in the best interest of the district. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS:
138Second the motion. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hampson for moving this and second this item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris. Thank you directors. This item is on the agenda for introduction and action today. So chief operations officer Fred Podesta I believe you’ll be briefing us. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Thank you. This action authorizes a 10-month extension to our solid waste and recycling contract. This contract Recology CleanScapes provides waste disposal and recycling services to all district buildings. This contract has been in place since 2018 and has served us well. It’s also since this question the contract amount is built around a our normal operations but the contract is actively managed by facility operations staff and was the services were reconfigured in the Spring when school buildings were closed and
139there were fewer occupants in the buildings we are as you know feeding students and conducting many operations across the district so we still have a need for waste disposal services but at a reduced level since we don't have nearly as many students in the building and the level of service has been refined yet again to be scheduled for most school buildings every other week and we will continue to actively manage this but we do need these services. We do have enough plenty of things going on in school buildings and are producing recyclables and solid waste. And I'll be happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you Chief Podesta. We will now move to comments and questions from directors beginning with our Operations Committee Chair Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yes. Thank you
140Mr. Podesta for the intro. Can you share a bit more information because we talked about this in operations about the actual cost savings that is being realized now because our resource conservation team is actively managing these these bins and the service levels to be appropriate so that you know the waste that's being produced is being is being managed but we're not overpaying for service that we don't need. I think she said something that something around I don't remember the numbers that were provided. >> FRED PODESTA: So. >> DIRECTOR MACK: There is a. >> FRED PODESTA: So. >> DIRECTOR MACK: 40 percent savings or something. >> FRED PODESTA: The monthly. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I mean I don’t know if you have. Yeah. >> FRED PODESTA: The monthly charges are approximately 55 percent reduced over what they
141were in February of 2020 and when we in when school buildings were closed in March we went to as needed service with you know kind of on call type service which is a bit more expensive on a per unit basis but we were still things were pretty fluid then. We've had a bit more experience and are keeping an eye on on getting scheduled service at a at appropriate intervals. So now the billings are roughly 42-43 percent of what they were. We are increasing the amount of activity in buildings slowly so we'll we'll have to keep doing this. There are certainly of course for our contractors fixed costs. So it's not perfectly proportional to the amount of solid waste they take but it's a significantly lower cost than what the full contract amount would be. But
142we do want to be prepared to have whatever level of service we need. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah. So for clarification for the public and the questions and in testimony were about whether or not we are approving a contract which is in paying this amount we are aware we are authorizing this amount but it's not. And at this time we are we are not expecting to be having to pay the full amount of the contract because we have actually reduced service. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Okay great. Thank you so appreciate that conversation and the clarity and also the the the work that the resource conservation team does both for sustainability but also for good fiscal management. And I look forward to any other questions from directors. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack.
143Okay we'll move first to Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions. Thank you very much. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So Chief Podesta and Ops Chair Mack. Is this a renewal of a contract taking into account COVID and the diminished services or did this go out for an RFP. >> FRED PODESTA: This is a renewal of our existing contract. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: And how long does this contract last and does it have a renewal period attached to it. >> FRED PODESTA: This this renewal is through July 31st of next year. I think we're still evaluating our sourcing strategy following it. I do think we have the ability to amend it further this but we'll kind of monitor and evaluate conditions and also are mindful of the cost in this world
144and the effectiveness of this organization to handle particularly recycled project products. But so we we don't have a firm decision on what we're gonna do after July 31st we will keep monitoring and make a sourcing decision later this year. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Terrific I would only ask that this come to us in enough time so it's not intro and action. All of the action items tonight are intro and action. I understand why they are. But certainly we appreciate early and often. Thank you. >> FRED PODESTA: Yeah. Duly noted. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me. We accessed excuse me we discussed this extensively in Ops. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Same comment as Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >>
145DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Likewise this was covered. Thank you. No questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And no questions for me. Thank you for your work on this. And also so exciting to see Rina part of this work. Huge fan of her and the work she’s doing on the Resource Conservation Team. Miss Wilson-Jones with that roll call please. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Director Hampson [aye] Director Harris [aye] Director Hersey [aye] Director Mack [aye] Director Rankin [aye] Director Rivera-Smith [aye] Director DeWolf [aye] This motion has passed unanimously. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay directors. I told I offered to give a bio break here. If folks are still interested we we're just about to jump into introduction items. It is we have about 28 items ahead of us. Would you all concur with taking a 10 minute recess [yes please] okay
146so Miss Wilson-Jones we will recess for 10 minutes and return at 5:22 p.m. Thank you everybody for your great work so far. And as we're returning from break we will start on the next section of today's meeting the introduction items. And so we will now move to Introduction Item Number 1: this is the Superintendent Task Force for Reopening for the Reopening Plan and Remote Learning. This came to the Executive Committee on September 16th for consideration. Chief of Staff Sherri Kokx I believe you’ll be briefing us. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you President DeWolf and good afternoon directors. Sherri Kokx Chief of Staff and I'm here to introduce the BAR for the Superintendents Task Force for Reopening Plan and Remote Learning. Substitute Resolution 2020/21-4 directed Superintendent Juneau to launch this task force as stated in the resolution.
147The purpose of this task force is to monitor the progress implementation and efficacy of the reopening plan and remote learning model. Some quick background information here. The vision for remote learning as defined in our Remote Learning Playbook states that we are focused on racially equitable and culturally relevant remote learning systems and strategies that support educators to meet the individual learning needs interests and goals and are responsive to family and community priorities interests concerns knowledge and resources. This plan has 5 design principles and they're located on page 2 of this Board Action Report. This task force is planned to operate from October 2020 through June of 2021 and will be comprised of students family members educators SPS staff and community members who will develop and identify key performance indicators to evaluate student learning and student and
148family engagement and overall satisfaction with the remote learning. There are some examples of the KPI’s listed on page 4 and 5 of the task force charter that is attached to today's bar the work of this group is a form of action-based research and will provide real time data and feedback so that we can make mid-course mid-year course corrections to enhance our model and learning for students. The task force will engage in a process that is aligned with Seattle Excellence and adhere to the theory of action and center on outcomes for Black boys and teens as well as their families. We will partner with external researchers at the University of Washington College of Education to enact a robust multi-pronged process monitoring plan. To date we have launched the website that includes the application and the application
149itself will close on Wednesday October 7. Messages have been posted in School Beat and to the SPS social media. The message has been translated to send to families via email and text message. The team has already recorded and translated robo-called messages in the top 6 languages that will go out tomorrow. We are also doing very targeted outreach as called for in Seattle Excellence. The team has already talked with the Office of African-American Male Achievement our family engagement and in particular they've spoken with Saleem who is a community organizer for our Amharic and Tigrinya speaking community. We have spoken with the SPS family support workers and are sending applications to the family support workers throughout the district to share with families. We've talked with the McKinney-Vento staff and district liaisons will reach out directly to McKinney-Vento
150families. Tyra Williams one of our housing partners teams will be reaching out to all of the housing partners that is located on a list that I'm happy to share with directors. Along with that work we are meeting with ITAC on Monday to learn more about that committee's work and what advice they may have for this task force. We have met with the special education department and are emailing communications to our special our families with special education students particularly those that attended the affinity group meetings and included in the next special education communication to families. The communication department is also supporting us with the help of Braxton Kellogg and Emily Mintz Ritter. We are committed to ensuring that this work is aligned to all the work streams that are operating in this remote learning stance. And
151as of today we already have over 50 applicants. I want to take a quick second to address whether or not these meetings are open to the public and per 4110 Superintendent Procedure task force meetings are in fact open to the public unless there is sensitive materials which could close the meeting down. They are not required to be open. But the intent is that these meetings will be open to the public to come and sit and listen. However the only people that can participate are those that will be selected by the task force or as an official task force member. And with that Director DeWolf I am ready for questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Ms. Kokx. Okay well I will begin with my two questions as the Executive Committee Chair and then will move through
152alphabetically my first one is I'm noticing the document around membership I see. Where is it at now. Does [indistinct] 20 members appointed by the superintendent or superintendent’s designee. A third will be parents. One one curiosity as I have is I don't see any board even as ex officio folks to to participate. I would be interested in that for one. The other thing is I notice that the dollar amount was $150,000 dollars when it came through committee. I think that's probably why we put it through consideration because of the indistinct [amount] and it's been reduced to a $100,000 so if you could just share what costs or expenses changed. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you Director DeWolf for the questions. As far as of what expenses have changed. Truthfully no expenses have changed the $150,000 dollar mark
153on the first BAR was rounded up for additional expenses. The cost is simply for our facilitator at this point and his expenses are not to exceed $100,000 dollars. And truthfully I believe he will come in more at around $80,000 dollars. And then as far as the question around the board. Typically board members do not sit on task force tech task forces. However they are welcome to attend any or all of the meetings. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay I appreciate your answers. I still have my concerns. I will move to Director Hampson. I appreciate that this is moving forward. One of the concerns. I wonder if you discussed putting this together was that the very families or parent and student representatives we need to hear from the most are the least likely to be able to have
154capacity because of what their experience is with remote learning right now. And how you're mitigating that. >> SHERRI KOKX: Your sorry Director Hampson your question is how are we mitigating to try to ensure that we get families that we most want to hear from on the task force when they're particularly stressed at this time. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Right. It's already. They're already committed to trying to support their students or as students to support themselves or others in their household. How how are they going to have time to do this. >> SHERRI KOKX: I cannot answer the question of how they will have time to do this. I can tell you that we are intentionally reaching out and inviting them to the table through the groups that I have mentioned like the office of African-American Male
155Achievement and you know through our family support workers and McKinney-Vento staff. So I don't I cannot answer if they will have time. I also know that we will be soliciting feedback from families multiple times throughout the school year with the help of our research and evaluation team and with an intentional focus on those families as well so even if they are not able to participate in the task force itself they will be providing information back to the task force based on their experiences. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: My second question is the there were two task force pieces of the reopening resolution. One was for one was the superintendent task force as presented here and the other was the board task force. I don't think there's been any discussion between staff and board about how that comes
156together. I think there's a lot of questions about how facilitators are used for these kinds of of events and how is the decision made to go with an outside facilitator. Whereas are we actually didn't even have board office support to do to create the BAR and the because of not having staff capacity to create the BAR and the charter for the for the board task force because its concerns we're setting quite a standard here of external not not that we don't have a qualified individual coming forward to do this work but that any task force is going to require significant expense of an outside facilitator. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you Dr. Hampson. So it is been very standard practice that our task forces are often run by outside facilitators and that is simply due to
157staff's capacity to lift and support the work of a task force. And then so this task force is being set up to be pretty aggressive in the timelines and in the amount of time that the facilitators will need to gather information and turn it around in a very quick manner. And so based on that information the superintendent authorized the hiring of the [indistinct] to support this work. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: And so that's being paid for out of the superintendent's office. >> SHERRI KOKX: That is correct. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. And so given the limitations of our budget as a board what would the how would the board go about doing something similar for our task force. >> SHERRI KOKX: The board would need to review the board budget with Miss Wilson-Jones and then Zachary President
158DeWolf would make a decision if that is how the board wanted to spend its money. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So do you know the relative difference between those two budgets. >> SHERRI KOKX: I do not know the relative difference in the two budgets. Off the top of my head. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: But your the doesn't the board office report to you. >> SHERRI KOKX: That is correct. But Miss Wilson-Jones manages the board office budget. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. I'm just saying that this is we're setting up quite a dichotomy here between board ability to create its own task force versus the superintendent task force and I think we really need to be clear about that particularly when we're expending taxpayer and critical dollars and I know for example that the CM task force is paid for
159by Ops and so I don't you know there's there's some inequity here in terms of how this work is getting done. Thanks that's all my questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yeah. And and let me take the segue from Director Hampson. When we say ‘assume’ and ‘typically’ I get really really nervous. And I guess part of my concern and question is what in and not to be sarcastic here but advise and consent are are the terms that I'm thinking about now like the Senate with the Supreme Court. Has there been any advise and consent or collaboration with the board in setting up this structure or is it just being presented to us as a fait accompli. Because I recall a time when there was no board member on the Strategic
160Plan Committee and I'm very proud of the fact that I fought to get Jill Geary a board member on the Strategic plan Committee. I also recall a time when I spent two years of my life as the co-chair of the Community Engagement Task Force and decidedly a great many of those things have never come to pass. And it's very sad to me. So the board budget is woeful and lacking and I'm concerned about the lack of collaboration here. Can you address that please Ms. Kokx. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you Director Harris. Yes I can certainly address that question. The question around so I believe that Miss Delinda Wiley has sent out invites to board directors for 2-by-2’s and if she hasn't she is in the process of it. Where the task force leads will sit
161down with directors to have a conversation to ensure that the charter as it is drafted is hitting the mark and then they will also be seeking your input on what types of data points you think are pertinent and will help that group move ahead in determining the key performance indicators that we will use throughout the school year. And as we know everything during this crisis. One thing we know for certain is that everything is subject to change. And so the intent of the task force leads will be to communicate with board directors in that type of a setting. And then we will also Director Harris be bringing back reports per the resolutions directions to the superintendent and the school board on a frequent basis. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. And earlier when you addressed this issue
162said you would be happy to share the list. Could you please do so to all the board directors. To share the list of the housing partners. That's the list I was referring to and yes I'm happy to send the list of housing partners that Tyra Williams is reaching out to to invite to the task force. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Much appreciated. Thank you. >> SHERRI KOKX: You're very welcome. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Hey. Yeah. So I don't really have any questions. Just a quick comment. I think that it really needs to be elevated considering the amount of community lift that went into organizing our resolution to reopen schools especially concerning outdoor learning and affinity schools and the work that goes into that. And then when you cross apply that and
163look at the differences that exist in terms of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a consultant from the superintendent's office vs. the abysmal budget that really is the board office budget in comparison to a resolution that really came and grew it was elevated and widely supported by community. You can see how our concern as elected officials in the utilization of tax dollars is really at should be at the at the center of everybody's thinking as we consider this as we consider this item. I find it very egregious to think that we are not putting resources by any stretch of the imagination into a really community feat in terms of lifting up very clearly what our families are expecting of us in terms of returning to school. Yet we really do stand to re-traumatize a
164lot of families as we've been told time and time again asking repeatedly for our families that experience the most trauma at the hands of our school district to return to the table to tell us more and more about what they think when they've already clearly done that through the resolution that we passed earlier this earlier this season. So my comment here is that this to me seems like a huge misstep in terms of where we should be allocating our resources and how do we ask and represent community in this fashion. And I am having some really grave concerns at this intersection concerning this item. Thank you. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you Director Hersey. I didn't hear a question there. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: As stated. It was a statement at the beginning. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR
165DEWOLF: Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: The acknowledgement that there seems to be a different standard at which the support is being provided for the board's task force creation at this point understanding that we have limited resources time etc. I do I do also I share that concern that's being stated. And also I see that there is an attempt to be really inclusive here in terms of building this task force with a lot of our standard strategies for doing so. And I think the comment from Director Hersey is is important to heed in terms of I guess kind of where the task force starts with what question or what information and recognizing the starting point of the question and what recommendations they're looking to provide. And that may not be very eloquently stated but I those
166are my only thoughts and comments at this time I don't have any specific recommendations. I guess one other thing is about having a board representative a connection to the board in this process. I would recommend that there be some sort of function may not be a seated member on the task force but I would recommend that there be some sort of clause in the charter of a liaison position so that that that work can be done effectively with the board the liaison with this task force. And I don't know exactly what that looks like but I trust that staff can come up with a way to integrate that into the charter. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you Director. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Is my recommendation. >> SHERRI KOKX: Great. Based on the recommendation from both you and
167Director DeWolf we will add. I will go back to the language that may have been in the strategic plan work that Director Harris referenced and see if there is some good language that we can pull to have to make sure that there is a board consultant or a liaison. Thank you for that. And then Director Mack I think you may have asked the question about what question is the task force set to answer. And as spelled out in the resolution the the primary function of them is to monitor progress implementation and efficacy of the reopening plan and remote learning model. And that's the direct language from the resolution. Itself. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thanks. Yeah. Similar questions and concerns about you know how how and how this task
168force is actionable and not another admiring problem kind of discussion thing. So I'm curious about how or if how we've thought about or if we haven't and how we could tie the work of this task force to some sort of goals or deliverables to the board or certain reporting reporting out aspect at different times various times. And also how this task force you know which is directed to focus on the efficacy of the remote learning model and the reopening plan which is more academic and learning focused I think how this task force will work with the task force designated in the MOU that is SEA and SPS members that are more focused on the health and safety data and kind of analyzing that. So how do we how are we ensuring that those two groups
169connect and support each other in making various recommendations or assessments that encompass both the academic side and the health and safety side. >> SHERRI KOKX: Director Rankin thank you for bringing that up. I don't know. I do not have anything that references the working group in the SEA SPS MOU but I can certainly add it to the list before this item goes to action just as we have called out specifically what ITAC is doing. So I will work with Dr. Codd to take a look at the MOU and see how that can play how that communication can happen as well. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. >> SHERRI KOKX: You're welcome. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I think all my questions have been covered pretty well there [indistinct] definitely
170wanted to emphasize the collaboration between the task force and the other task force or notably the one in the MOU so that we don't [indistinct] going back and forth with that early collaboration is going to help us move quicker move faster which I know everybody wants to see happen. I think my one question is about this task force being set to go through June 2021 and I'm just I'm wondering and maybe you belay our fears but is that implying that we'll be in remote learning until then because we don't we haven't said that we don't know that we are trying to hopefully get back to in-person. But I fear that that sets sets up for you know the expectation we'll be in through June. >> SHERRI KOKX: Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. I cannot predict how
171long we will remain in a remote learning stance although I do not predict that we will return to a fully 30-person classroom in-person instruction by the end of the school year. I could I hope I'm wrong on that and so we do know that even if we were to return to a hybrid part of that hybrid does rely on a remote learning stance and so this task force is set to run through the course of this school year. I also think there can be some important learnings from this task force about how to utilize our technology resources for example we may be able to recognize that we can accelerate learning when we use what's called the flipped classroom based on the fact that all of our students will now have a device at hand. >>
172DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you for that information. No other questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And I just want highlight too before we move on Sherri. Liza mentioned reporting. I don't remember seeing it in the task force document but if it could go to C&I I don't know how you feel about that Director Rankin as a as an update at your community meetings. I don't know if. That’s. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: That I think that would be appropriate. Yeah. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: President DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Oh yes Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. Ms. Kokx just mentioned a term that I think bears a great deal of illustrative shout out and that’s the concept of flipped classrooms. While we've been talking about online learning we have not been talking about flipped
173classrooms. If we could figure out a way Friday Memos cheat sheets one-pagers website whatever. If we could talk about what that means according to us because it's different all over the country. I’d be very grateful I think our families and community would be as well. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director — >> SHERRI KOKX: Director Harris I'd be happy to provide a brief explanation of at least how I perceive and I’ll work with Dr. DeBacker and Chief Pedroza and Chief Jessee as well to make sure we're all in alignment on what that means to us as SPS. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. >> SHERRI KOKX: You're welcome. Next we’ll move to Introduction Item Number 2: this is Amending Policy Numbers 1010 Board Oversight of Management and 1240 Committees. This came through Executive Committee
174on September 16th for approval. This Board Action Report comes forward from the Executive Committee so I'll provide a little bit of background on proposed policy changes and I want to also just offer and elevate our board office staff who does true yeoman's work. And I don't know how Ellie does it but thank her for all of the work she put into synthesizing this collaborating and bringing this together. So thank you Miss Wilson-Jones. The board identified Board Policy 1240 as needing revisions excuse me in our board goals for this year in order to provide clarity for directors and staff about which topics are overseen by which committees. Board Policy 1010 also has language regarding committees so the two policies are being brought forward together to consolidate that information in 1240. The executive committee began discussion on
175these policies in June and at that time or reviewed proposed revisions to 1010 including a change to the language about the Operations Data Dashboard to coincide with the new dashboard we approved in the Spring. The committee also began discussing discussion in June about which topics should be assigned to which committees and identified areas where we wanted to have more discussion. Staff collected feedback feedback from committee chairs. Thank you Directors Rankin and Mack for all of your work and other directors about where they felt topics should be assigned and then we reviewed this information in August and made remaining determinations before finalizing this BAR in September. So in addition to more clearly stating which topics would fall under which committee the proposed revisions to Board Policy 1240 would remain rename the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee.
176With it becoming the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction Committee to better align with the committee's scope. 1240 would also be revised to clarify the process for assignment of topics to committees and for the executive committee's review of committee work plans to ensure alignment with the strategic plan and coordination across committees. Again I just want to elevate really really grateful for Directors Mack and Directors Rankin for just really rich discussion. And again Miss Wilson-Jones for your help on bringing this forward. We had a really great discussion at our Executive Committee last week on the 16th and so open to questions and comments. Again if if I can't specifically answer Miss Wilson-Jones did a lot of synthesizing and gathering information too and she will help provide some insights. So I'll begin first with Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR
177HAMPSON: Thank you. And I just want to echo that this was a lot of work to try to provide some clarity in a pretty ambiguous situation. I think it's a we have not the best structure and this was a really earnest and probably tiresome bit of work to put some some more clear structure around it. So I'm very much support where we landed I know that it took into consideration a lot of different perspectives and I think it's I think it's about as good as we're gonna get on this. We at one point I had proposed in addition to one of these relative to one to 1010 relative to the organizational chart and we're gonna look at that in a different policy so that that hasn't died but it's just moved on to another another
178policy revision. But I think from the standpoint of the work that was put into this to provide that clarity both for staff and for board I think that this is where we need to be and I really appreciate all the work. So no questions and and look forward to hearing other board member's questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I’d like to pass and be picked up at the end of the discussion please. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I can do that Director Harris. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: I don't have any questions at this time. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I have to admit that I haven't had a chance to get all the way through of the revisions and I was not
179in attendance at the last discussion of this. And so at this point I mean I expressed some concerns in the previous Executive Committee discussion about ensuring that the alignment of our committees makes sense in alignment with the district structure and I'm not sure exactly where some of the topic areas landed or how how that all played out until I actually review through the entire document. So I apologize that I'm not actually fully up to speed. I may have additional questions or concerns that I'll I'll I'll raise it a different time but I appreciate the introduction at this point and again I'll circle back. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack. And Miss Wilson-Jones if you want to provide a kind of high-level background about some of the changes if that makes sense here
180or again Director Mack we can also talk talk off-line between now and the action. But Miss Wilson-Jones if you wanted to provide anything. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: I would be happy to talk offline with you Director Mack about sort of where a specifically different topics landed. There was — >> DIRECTOR MACK: I think that it actually might be helpful I'm sorry to interrupt but I think it might be helpful for the public and the rest of our board members to understand like the overview of that if it's simple enough to provide that overview. If there's a lot of shifting going on that's a pretty big change it's. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: A lot of [indistinct] put her on the spot if she's prepared. I didn't ask her to speak so I just want to be thoughtful. >>
181ELLIE WILSON-JONES: Yeah. Let me let me take a try at it and I think it's just greater differentiation about where various topics would go whereas under the prior version of the policy was left really ambiguous and we had a lot of inconsistency in where topics would land and maybe the same topic might be divided and considered by two different committees even at the same time. So moving into 1240 the the language about which committees provide which sort of areas of oversight from 1010 has been sort of backed out of that policy and then moved and condensed into 1240 hearing direction from directors that you wanted it all in one place and enhanced sort of clarity and more concise language. And so in 1240 then the Executive Committee would be more clearly charged with making recommendations
182with respect to equity partnerships and engagement public affairs African-American male achievement coordination on legal issues collective bargaining agreements and the academic calendar. [indistinct] it was really a substantive change it's more just a clarification and speaking to some topics that were not previously called out specifically. Then under the Audit and Finance Committee that committee would be charged with making recommendations with respect to business and finance budget development contracting accounting cash handling at schools risk management procurement internal audit and human resources including a number of specific topics. So again not really intending to have shifted practice. For the Operations Committee it would be operations nutrition services transportation capital projects and planning facilities sustainability enrollment planning admissions boundaries athletics safety and safety and security that relates primarily to property as well as general infrastructure for technology. And those
183two topics safety and security and technology would also sort of have a relationship with the Student Services Curriculum and Instruction committee which would make recommendations in respect to curriculum assessment instruction research and evaluation schools and continuous improvement coordinated school health special education safety security and relations with law enforcement except those that are the purview of the operations committee highly capable services English learners student focused technology and general technology plans policies and technology strategies except with respect to the infrastructure and levy planning overseen by the Ops Committee and then the FEPP levy and waiver requests for school days. So just kind of focusing on the topics that are assigned to each that's sort of the quickest summary. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones. Director Mack. Are you okay if I move to Director Rankin or.
184>> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah. That's fine. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No I don't have any questions. I guess I'll just share. You know the that the appreciation for the time and thoughtfulness that went into this and in particular Director Mack and I discussed where different policies are sit in in ways that sit in both of our committees at different times and and what we sort of came to was to further synthesize what Ellie just said was that kind of direct student experience and engagement and interaction with students would be CNI and district wide operational property and building based physical things and processes would be would be an operations. And then the other thing I don't know if people call that Ellie mentioned was considering a change to the
185curriculum and instruction policy committee name to include students. So because I personally curriculum and instruction particularly the instruction part is about how how do we deliver a curriculum and how are students prepared to receive curriculum and how are we how are individuals within our system building relationships that are conducive to learning and all these kind of things so that the student student services curriculum instruction committee sort of emerged as something that doesn't cover everything that makes sense and based on you know working with direct direct services like English language learner supports special education all of those things make sense in sort of the in the student based and teaching and learning sort of world. So hopefully that makes sense for people and it felt it felt right to us in terms of also a shift
186as a district in terms of our safety and security conversations that you know that's about more than property it's about how we interact with students and how students feel and are seen and accepted as individuals and how we respond to behavior and all these kinds of things that really need to move into the student space. So I'm looking forward to continuing and I hope that helped clarify things for anybody listening and not just made it more confusing. But yeah. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rankin. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions or comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. I don't object to these changes but what I still get stuck on and I have been for a very very long time is you've got 7
187board directors. We can't keep up with everything. And our minutes come out a month later. So how is it that we can and we got a program a couple of years ago it didn't work. We we nuked the contract appropriately so how is it that we can keep each other updated and all of these issues that we're all responsible for. I well appreciate the divide and conquer of our committees and I also appreciate the idea that Sharepoint is is a silver bullet or nirvana for us. But but we're not able to keep up with all the committees if the minutes come in 30 minutes later and it's not so much an issue to me of where things are parked or placed for action but it's about communicating the rich and thoughtful conversations that have happened
188in those committee meetings. We've got a disconnect there that we really have to fix so we're all on the same page. And also so that we can address things like miscommunication that causes so much trouble. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. Okay. We will move to Action excuse me Introduction Item Number 3: this is Seattle Public Schools Personal Services Contracts (PSC) for The City Of Seattle's Parks and Recreation Department. This came to the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th for consideration. Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge I believe you'll be briefing us and then we'll begin with director’s comments and questions. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Hi. Yes. Thank you President DeWolf. So just for clarification this BAR along with the next 3 would approve contracts to provide Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy
189funded activities. These content contractors would be delivering student support tutoring and enrichment services for school year 20-21. Schools do select which approved contracts to work with and that is outlined in that FEPP grant agreement. All contractors do you have to go through an RFP process for selection. So I'll go over all they are separate. They were before they were all together and board asked us to separate those. So the first one is the contract with the City of Seattle for just over $900,009 dollars. Parks and Rec provides after school break camps and extended year academic and enrichment programs at various schools. Each amount listed in the contract reflects the cost of the program lead at each school and the staffing cost to serve the number of students throughout the school. So for example Aki will
190have 1 manager who will oversee park staff needed to serve the 800 students in their program. Their $300,000 dollar contract amount will cover hourly costs for the staff members and the supplies for the students. Let me see what else here. We had two questions come from A&F. And we have clarified and expanded the BAR’s to talk about COVID activities from the city. And to clarify the staffing levels. The other item that goes over all 4 is we were asked to provide the data sharing agreements. We have learned that those are still in process and are not yet completed. So we're unable to provide them at this time. That would conclude my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Chief Berge. So now I will turn it over to Director Hampson who is our Audit and Finance
191Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yes. Thank you. This is I think a helpful way to have these presented. These are related to the Families and Education Preschool Promise Levy. They are are determined at the site level but rather than having each of these approved individually we're looking at them as an aggregate which I think is really helpful for a better understanding of the relationship that we have with the particular contractors that are providing services to buildings as a result of the levy funding. So that's kind of what I would say about that they each are distinct entities that provide a certain set of services very different from from each other in support of our school buildings. And we're grateful that we have these opportunities. And I think that's all I would say. I think it's
192a good way for us to be able to look at it from a from an economic commitment standpoint. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Can I just add that the set of contracts I think has been coming since about 2015. Just wanted to put that up. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thanks Jolynn. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you JoLynn. Okay thanks Director Hampson. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So I'm confused. Are we dealing with just number 3 or are we dealing with all 3 or 4 of these at one time. >> JOLYNN BERGE: So just number 3. I gave some background that would cover all 4 but the specific questions about Park and Rec I talked specifically about their. Activities. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay I appreciate that very much. And I will renew my concerns about the way that the City
193treats the Seattle Public School District generally with the 25 percent hold back. We are there bank and we don't get that 25 percent despite the fact that we've met the metrics every year. And I think it's $1.8 million dollars that will be re-committed elsewhere even though the voters passed this in the levy. I know this is just about Parks and Rec but it is also very much about the way the City of Seattle DEEL Parks and Rec treats the Seattle Public School. And if we had the kind of administrative staff ratio we'd be in a heck of a lot better position. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No burning questions for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I appreciate the questions that
194were asked in committee and that the answers were provided here. The data sharing agreements actually cause me some concern because I know they like to the City likes to have a lot of data and there's privacy concerns around that. Will those data sharing agreements be finalized before we're expected to adopt this. >> JOLYNN BERGE: That's not my understanding Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: We won't have the data sharing agreements finalized. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Correct. Correct. That's not. Yes. My understanding is that they would not be completed before action. >> DIRECTOR MACK: That's concerning to me. Do we know what the debate is around those. Is it a is it a staff capacity issue with completing them or is it that there are some fundamental disagreements about how to share or what not to share. >>
195JOLYNN BERGE: I'm not sure. I’ll have to check in with James Bush's Department and just check in on that. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I would like to advocate that they should be completed before we're asked to approve these contracts. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Sorry. Director Mack are you are you done. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah. I'm sorry yes that was it. I just I would like to advocate that those be completed before we're asked to approve this. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes. Understood. Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I don’t have any questions right now. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: You. Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. Just following up on from when this was in the Audit and Finance Committee. I did ask at the time about the data sharing agreements for
196each of these schools to which I believe Michael Stone said he would provide for the for the BAR. I could be mistaken I have to go back my my notes actually don’t clarify very much what the response from him was but he did respond to it to my concern about data sharing so I was under the impression we would have that in time for action. I don’t if Michael Stone is here. >> JOLYNN BERGE: He's not. He you know we have status. Some have not put their application in. Some are working through the approval process. So I I what I recalled was that he would check in on where they were at and if they were available we would attach them. They're not completed though yet. So we can ask about that. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH:
197Thank you because I am I'm equally concerned about those as is Director Mack Another clarification where we asked for this BAR was to clarify that when people look at this and see that it’s you know $300,000 dollars at a school it's not for that one you know it says in here one C CLC site coordinator is $300,000 it's not [indistinct] that's actually for the whole the whole program at that school which probably helps people feel better about it. That was one clarification we asked for in the BAR. I don't see if that was added or not but I just want to reassure people that we aren’t in fact paying one person 300k for something. Not that person. Thank you. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Thanks. Yep. And I think I think that the City has part of
198this process for the data share agreement as well. So I'm not I'm not sure we can control the whole thing but I will definitely ask. I just want to be super clear about I'm not sure that we're running the whole thing. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. Thank you Chief Berge. And I don't have any questions for you at this time. Thank you. Okay so next we'll move to Introduction Item Number 4: Seattle Public Schools (SPS) Personal Services Contract (PSC) for City of Year of Seattle. This came through the A and Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th for approval. Chief Berge I believe you'll be briefing us. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Yes. Thank you. So City of Year of Seattle will support academic and enrichment activities before
199after and through an extended year school support of the school's extended year support at the schools that are listed in the BAR. They there were a couple of things that we were asked for in Audit and Finance. We were asked to expand in the background for specific COVID related activities which we've done. We've talked about the data sharing that was kind of overarching for all 4 agreements. We have added information on staff diversity in the racial equity section and we fixed a wrong check box to it appeared wrong when it was coming through in different versions. So we have appropriately checked the box to indicate why this is coming to the board. That would conclude my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Chief Berge. Okay. Director Hampson as our Audit and Finance Committee Chair I’ll
200have to go first. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah. I don't have as I said in my introductory remarks on the prior contract. These are aggregated amounts for locally made decisions at the building level and the same applies for this and appreciate all the clarifications and requests for additional information and the provision of those and don't have anything to add besides that. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Very much appreciative of the amendments made and the responsiveness to the questions that were asked at A&F especially with respect to the staff distribute disaggregation of of who are providing these services. Much appreciated. Thank you. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Similar appreciation. No additional questions or comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF:
201Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: No questions thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thanks Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Nothing for me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And I have no questions for you at this time. Thank you for your work on this. The next item is Introduction Item Number 5: Seattle Public Schools (SPS) Personal Service Services Contract (PSC) with University Tutors for Seattle Schools (UTSS.) This came to the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th for consideration. Chief Berge you'll be briefing us again. >> JOLYNN BERGE: I am. So this contract is to provide tutoring services at the schools that are listed in the BAR. We were asked for information at A&F we were asked to add information on staff
202diversity for this contract which we have added to the equity section of this BAR. And that would conclude my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you very much Chief Berge. Okay. Director Hampson Audit Finance Committee Chair. I’ll have you go first. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah thanks. No questions just a repeat from the prior comments on the other contracts. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Appreciate the staff diversity add-in. It does not say ‘amended’ however on the agenda I'm looking at and wonder if that would be appropriate. Thank you. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Director Harris I believe some we got in before it was posted and we were waiting for others and and at when we got the later stuff in it had to be redlined. Is that what you're asking. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS:
203I'm just asking how it's listed on the agenda that it's been amended since it came from A&F to include the staff diversity question that y’all have answered. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Okay. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Well I I I imagine it doesn't Greg do you think it requires some action. >> GREG NARVER: Director DeWolf I apologize. I attended to a family matter for a second. I’m I'm not aware of what the question is I apologize. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Just trying to understand if if there was a change made from the Committee to now does that mean that this is coming to us as amended or is this coming to us just redlined and revised. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: And this is Ellie I can also speak to the practices for how we reflect updates on the agenda if
204that's helpful. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Sure. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: The notations on the agenda reflect updates that are made from the initial posting of this school board agenda. So between Friday's posting and today's board meeting. The update that happened between committee and the board meeting are not reflected on the posted board. Agenda. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay any further clarification needed [indistinct] Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Nope I'm good. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No question for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: No question thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I’m good thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions or comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And and Chief
205Berge I have none and thank you for the update. Appreciate it. Next one is item Number 6: this is Seattle Public Schools (SPS) Personal Services Contract (PSC) with Seneca Family of Agencies. This came to the Audit Finance Committee on September 14th for approval. Chief Berge. Once again this is your item. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Thank you. Seneca would be providing behavioral clinician services and staff professional development around social emotional behavior at the schools listed in the BAR. There were no changes requested at the Audit and Finance Committee and that would conclude my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. We will start with the Audit and Finance Committee Chairperson Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah. Nothing substantive to add. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I'm good. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR
206DEWOLF: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: No question. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Chief Berge the only question I have is is this a new. Is this a new contract. >> JOLYNN BERGE: No. This one's been coming as well for a while. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay okay. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Yeah. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> JOLYNN BERGE: You’re welcome. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Next we'll move to Introduction Item Number 7: Special Education Contract Amendments. This came to the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14 for approval. Chief Pedroza I believe you'll be
207briefing us. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Yes. Thank you. I'm here to present this Board Action Report with Executive Director of special education Trish Campbell who can answer further questions if needed. This BAR details a contract amendments with the listed community agency is non-public agency schools and contractors serving students with disabilities. The BAR before you is for the approval date to met to met to amendments needed to the original contracts. These contracts are over the amount previously approved by the board due to the number of additional students added to each of the individual contact roster and these contracts are for required services for students during the 2019-20 school year. This motion is to [indistinct] request retroactive approval for the unanticipated increases to each of these contracts. This concludes my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay we'll
208begin Audit and Finance Committee Chairperson Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. And thank you to staff for bringing this back. There is a rolling change to the level of approval necessary because of unpredictable enrollments into these programs. I hope to be able to work with staff on some approval levels that that might or maybe it's a policy change that might make it a little bit more more fluid in terms of when they have to come back for approval or something like a contingency amount. That would be pretty significant. I don't know Chief Berge wants to speak to that at all. But so this is really to just get approval for additional services provided during this last fiscal year and that exceeds that the board service amount as compared to what was originally projected. >>
209DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hampson. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I would disagree with my esteemed colleague Director Hampson. I think it's a good thing that folks come back for additional amounts. I think it's appropriate that the board be advised when the the estimations have been exceeded. And I'd also remind renew my request as per the last four and a half years and perhaps it's inappropriate in the middle of a worldwide pandemic but some of these services I sincerely hope we can bring in-house to address our most needy and effected students. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No additional comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: And I I just for clarification. In reading the BAR I am a little confused and I apologize for
210my confusion. The the this is for last school year that we're approving these amounts that are already spent or is this for the upcoming or the current school year. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Last school year. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Okay. And then the one on Boyer Children's Clinic. My recollection was that that that contract was part of the pass-through dollars through the King County Birth-to-3 that I think at one point was gonna be ending and then we didn't end it. And I don't I I'm I'm I'm wondering is is that is the Boyer Children's Clinic Birth-to-3 that program which is funded through dollars that flow through the county. Is that still a flow-through situation for those dollars. >> TRISH CAMPBELL: This is Executive Director Trish Campbell. Very good question. And this is you are absolutely right you’re
211spot-on and this is the last time those the the B-to-3 flow-through dollars will go. You won't see that in the upcoming school year. So this is this is for 19-20 and now the Birth-to-3 services will no longer flow through Seattle the public school system. >> DIRECTOR MACK: So for clarity the Birth-to-3 is going to be serviced and provided directly by those agencies and we won't be having that flow-through us anymore. >> TRISH CAMPBELL: That's correct. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Okay. So this is the last time the Boyer Children's Clinic services will be on our books. >> TRISH CAMPBELL: That is correct unless there's a change that is not our change but that is done at the at the OSPI. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Okay. So then last question for clarification about the special education contract that are
212for the current school years or is that on our agenda upcoming do we have some of those that are going to be approved shortly. >> TRISH CAMPBELL: I believe that they might have come through in the already for the following school year and then there may be a few more that are going to come through. So that's what we're working on with Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR MACK: But there's still some current year contracts that are kind of outstanding. >> TRISH CAMPBELL: No not for 19-20. Are you talking about 20-21. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah I'm talking about 20-21. >> TRISH CAMPBELL: The 20-21 contracts that over that are the amounts that need to be before the board I believe they have all gone through for the following year. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Okay thank you. >> DIRECTOR
213DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Not not specifically at this time. I have more general questions that are probably appropriate in a different meeting. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions or comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And I have no questions for you. Thank you Chief Pedroza. >> CONCIE PEDROZA: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: We'll now move to Introduction Item Number 8: this is approval of contract amendment with EPI-Use for SAP staff support for school year 2020-21. This came to the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th for consideration. I hope I said all that right. Chief Berge you'll be briefing us and I'll and I'll start with Director Hampson Audit and Finance Chair after you. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Yes it's EPI-Use
214just to let you know. Thank you. By way of background this BAR is to continue a contract for staff augmentation for SAP contractors. SAP is our accounting HR payroll and purchasing system. We continue to have difficulty recruiting candidates for our SAP positions and in 19-20 we began using EPI-Use to contract for experts in SAP for K-12 education. So this has been extremely successful for us. We recently underwent work to realign position descriptions to industry standards. We believe this change will enable us to advertise and recruit for the positions that we are currently contracting with EPI-Use for but that will take time. This BAR would provide authority to continue to contract with EPI-Use through 20-21. The amount requested does include a 30 percent contingency in the event that we are unable to fill open positions. And
215at the Audit and Finance Committee meeting staff were asked to add the staffing plan which is now attached and in the back and and to add language regarding the 30 percent contingency that's built into the dollar amount as well as language about state mandates that have required additional contractor time in 1920 and possibly will in 20-21 as well. That would conclude my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thanks Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah we spoke about the contingency amount as Chief Berge stated and these are some some distinct and specialized activities for which it is difficult to to find staff and I think they've created a reasonable solution and built in a good amount so that they can keep functioning but also continue trying to to bring this in-house. And I fully support it. Thank you.
216>> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Appreciate the amendments and the staffing plan and hitting hitting your request from A&F. Much appreciated. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Direct. Thank you Director Harris. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None from me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I always have to remind myself that this is not student assignment plan. But from what I understand I know that this is hugely helpful and makes a difference so yeah no questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. So first first thing is thank you for adding the second time that I asked I asked for that to be included but I'm kind
217of confused this that this isn't much of a like I don't see that it's a budgeting plan. I guess it's just staffing spend plan which I that's not what I understood it meant when at the meeting when we were told there was a staffing plan I thought it was more of like how we intend to see in the future staff these positions not necessarily just the dollars [indistinct] per month. So was there as is there a different staffing plan or is really it just seems like this isn't really the information I expected. >> JOLYNN BERGE: This is it. It's a staffing spend plan so it's when we're how we're what the spend or the burn rate is per month with contractors then as we make that conversion to hiring and what we estimate those costs
218to be that was that was when Judy talked about it at A&F this is what she was referring to. It’s the only document that that we had. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Okay gotcha. I did not expect just numbers but okay well maybe we can talk separately about how that gets built. I appreciate this. So thank you. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thanks Director Rivera-Smith. I have no questions. Thank you Chief Berge. >> JOLYNN BERGE: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. We will now move to Introduction Item Number 9: Annual Approval Of Schools per WAC 180-16-220. This came to the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee on September 15th for approval. Wyeth Jessee I think our Chief of Schools and Continuous Improvement. You'll be briefing us today. >> WYETH JESSEE: Thank you Board President DeWolf. Yes this evening
219I am introducing a motion to approve each school's Improvement Plan commonly referred to as a CSIP. This is a part of as you mentioned the requirement underneath the Washington Administrative Code. We're asking the board to approve these plans as part of our review that data driven process. We also review particular systemic barriers or ineffective practices especially for students that are represented within the strategic plan. And then as well as input from staff and community in these plans as well. What we see is reflected in the plans this for the 20-21 school year is actually part of a complete overhaul of the CSIP process. It's been a long time coming. We've made some changes to CSIP’s. But with the new strategic plan we need we need to do it do way better in our alignment as
220well as providing for a consistent format in language so that it is accessible to more of our families and is clear in our understanding. So again this is really an alignment to Seattle Excellence. We have the CSIP’s already posted. We have also created an ongoing fluid plan. And as I've mentioned in our board work session around CSIP’s in the Spring this is our binding document. This is something that's not just a particular school CSIP let's say Lafayette Elementary CSIP but this is actually a district CSIP so that central office staff as as well as obviously school-based staff are focused on the goals underneath our strategic plan. They're reflected in the CSIP’s that we're holding folks accountable on those and those measures. Of course we need to make adjustments that are contextual to each school through
221that data analysis and just also their own development in the practice they do for the specific populations and the families they serve. So a 100 percent of the staff principals were trained in this unbelievable when this process came through in the Spring. So we we worked on that this Spring with principals. A lot of review. 100 percent of them that reviewed with by peers community. And then also central office including the directors of the schools. So again they're up. And then we'll be continuously using those as a fluid piece. And again something that binds our work collectively as it worked towards the goals in the strategic plan. Now with that that concludes my remarks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Chief Jessee. Okay we'll start with Director Rankin who is our Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee
222Chair. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: She may have stepped away for a moment I don’t know if she's back. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Hi. I just came back I’m so sorry. There was a crash and bunch of screaming upstairs in my house. Everybody's okay but I. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Cool. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Just came back. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: We'll start with Director Hampson how about that and we'll get you settled. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I just wanted to start with the clarification. The policy listed in the documentation has the old numbers attached to it is that. >> WYETH JESSEE: [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: What’s that. >> WYETH JESSEE: I'm sorry are you referencing A02. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah. >> WYETH JESSEE: That that is still a standing policy. That is one that could use some attention and
223updating but it's been delayed and previous with previous boards has been kind of sitting around for the last couple of years. With that on as a possible update to that policy. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So it doesn't have it doesn't even have a current number. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: That's how old it is. Yeah. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: But I guess I'm confused because I thought all policies had been transferred to the new structure regardless. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Ellie could maybe provide some context. >> ELLIE WILSON-JONES: There are several policies that are still part of retain the letters that were part of the old policy book structure. They've been sort of grouped into and show up in our policy book under the the numbered series. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. Well I yeah it kind of threw me throws
224me for a loop or threw me for a loop with respect to the nature of the work as as just because the reference points aren't there. But okay I'll just pass to another director for now while I collect my thoughts about that. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Sorry. Can you come back to me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Well this particular BAR is a subject close to my heart. Because for many years and historically previous boards were told it doesn't have to be correct. We just passed to rubber stamp it. Because it's a compliance issue and and maybe I'm missing the memo here but I don't see a link to all the CSIP’s for all 104 schools in one place. Are you asking this board
225and indeed I did when I was just a citizen activist went out and found all hundred and four policies put a spreadsheet together highlighted it for Michael Stone had to come back from home when I distributed that to the board members then some 10 years ago. Are you asking us to rubber stamp this without being able to look at all of these in one place. Truly. We had this conversation for years and I'm I'm aghast and gob-smacked quite frankly. >> WYETH JESSEE: Thanks Director Harris. So those plans are before they used to be really difficult to locate. They are all in a common location on each school's website but I'm happy to send that out — >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: [indistinct] and an attachment to the Board Action Report where this board can do it’s fiduciary
226duty. >> WYETH JESSEE: I can get that done for you and have that out this week. Not a problem. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: This is the same conversation we've had for 4 years. I'm sorry but I'm I'm very distressed by this fact. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: I don't have anything additional at this moment. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Hi. It didn't take me as long to get to the unmute button. The concern that Director Harris raised around not having a link to the actual CSIP’s and not them not being included or referenced actually. That was one of my questions so I appreciate that she already raised that because what we're approving here is the CSIP’s. And we're also it’s the Annual Approval of
227Schools and so this BAR doesn't it also doesn't include the list of schools as it has in the past because I remember a couple of years ago we had a nice long conversation around the difference between a school and a school building and the confusion that we have around the renaming of schools etc. and that schools actually have an OSPI number and there's like you know there's schools are a very specific thing and that in the the number 104 is based on the number of schools that are. They have a number assigned via by OSPI and that is what we're approving. So we're approving that those are the schools that we are running and we are approving their annual plans when we approve this BAR and this BAR doesn't include the list of schools and
228it doesn't include the links to the actual CSIP’s So we can even look at that. So I would appreciate it including the list of schools and I liked having that clarification of the address as we asked for in years past to to reduce some of the confusion we have around renaming of schools and school buildings etc. or the OSPI number of the school. In any case some sort of clear delineation that assists us in identifying that we're improving these schools with the list and the links to the CSIP’s so I'd appreciate that information be included in this BAR as well. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thanks Director Mack. I imagine some stuff or institutional knowledge left with maybe our former deputy superintendents. Because I do remember that as well. Director Rankin. Are you ready. >>
229DIRECTOR RANKIN: Yes. Thank you. Sorry I my 8-year-old. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: No worries. Caught his foot on the edge of the couch that he was trying to vault over and landed face-first on the hardwood floor. But he is okay. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. We're happy to hear that. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Sorry. It's a little bit you know a little bit distracting. We discussed in committee I believe that the the approval of the CSIP’s is not of the CSIP’s themselves but that each school has a CSIP. So I definitely appreciate directors wanting to see the actual CSIP’s and support that. But just to make that distinction as to why it's coming to introduction without that is that we talked about we talked about this somewhat. Another thing that we talked about in committee was the
230expansion of our internal CSIP schedule from annual and I apologize if this came up while I was upstairs. Annual the approval for SPS of CSIP’s being on a 3-year plan instead of a 1-year plan. And how how that was gonna be monitored and what kind of reporting structures were in place. I think having a something that the public and the board can see of requirements that we have of every CSIP would be really helpful. And then as well as you know rather than you know every CSIP being on school different school websites perhaps that there should be a CSIP page that explains a little bit about what it is. What we have as a requirement and then includes a link to every school. So I'm just adding that I guess. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you.
231And please do not apologize Director Rankin you’re a parent doing your public service. We understand. [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. It was a rather loud crash. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions or comments at this time. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: President DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah I. Yeah. Go ahead Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I I'm I'm having trouble with moving to a 3-year plan. When the most important thing in the success of our schools are the school leaders and and to put that on a 3-year plan. I don't understand how we address the accountability that this board is so very very concerned about. >> WYETH JESSEE: Can I can I answer. Can I give some clarity. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes. >> WYETH
232JESSEE: For you. Yes. The difference is they’ll still come in front of the board every year. The process for the 3-year plan was that there wasn't going to be these huge uplifting revisions to this to the CSIP’s because of the alignment underneath the strategic plan. And then knowing that our goals are multi-year so that was just the notion that you know what right now we're going to focus on the strat plan as it moves us for the next 3 more years and so that was the part of that process. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Couldn't disagree with it more. Thank you so much. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: My question relates to Director Rankin’s. She just asked about actually seeing the I think that's what I heard Director Rankin saying. Was just asking about seeing the actual CSIP document
233what school leaders are kind of participating through and working through. And I just was curious is that whatever document or template that they use is that something that is legally prescribed or can it be revised or modified by SPS. >> WYETH JESSEE: It can be revised by SPS. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yep. >> WYETH JESSEE: Districts have like. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah. >> WYETH JESSEE: All sorts of have different forms and templates for this for these school improvement plans. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Sure. Okay. So I guess I was just looking. I was just curious on flexibility because I you know I had an LGBTQ LGBTQ community call a couple weeks ago and we were talking about just you know what are the other ways that we can operationalize inclusion for LGBTQ students just in that specific
234community call. And so I would just wasn’t sure if there's an ability to add in certain whether it be LGBTQ-specific questions or anti-racist goals or you know really deep plans around family engagement I know we heard a little bit about that yesterday or any other targets that this board might be interested in and I'm just curious if it sounds like we can modify it. What's the process by which we could maybe ask for more information on those. >> WYETH JESSEE: Yeah. The clarity and direction underneath the strat plan I think as we you know have those conversations and we get direction from this from you to the school board around the focus areas for that strat plan and any updates to it. Those things we want to carry through through all 104 schools and so
235those are things that we can do and pivot on. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay and I'll be in touch with you and Director Rankin about the specific step-by-step process by which if we even have the ability to support or or modify that if we wanted to hit certain targets. But I can do that offline so thank you. >> WYETH JESSEE: You’re welcome. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Next we'll move to Introduction Item Number 10: this is renew a 3-year contract with Hobson’s Naviance for College and Career Readiness software services and support. This came through the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee on September 15th for approval. Chief Academic Officer Dr. Diane DeBacker you'll be briefing us. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Thank you President DeWolf. Today we are bringing you the request to renew the contract of Naviance
236for the next 3 years. As a reminder the board approved Naviance in 2018 as a tool to improve our supports for College and Career Ready and the High School and Beyond Plan. As you know the High School and Beyond Plan is required by OSPI and districts across the state had to figure out a system on how they were going to keep track of how students were doing in terms of their college and career ready planning. In a district the size of Seattle Public Schools we looked for an electronic system to do so and so in 2018 you approved Naviance. That was done through an RFP process. We've used it since 2018. We are happy with the results and thus we are asking asking to renew that contract. Another reminder is that when we first first
237asked for Naviance back in 2018 we had 3 goals. We wanted to make sure that we had a solution for all of our SPS students and families so that they could look at their high — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Chief DeBacker you cut out there. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Hello. Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: We can hear you now. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Oh okay. When was the last [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yep. We can hear you now. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Okay. I apologize. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: You were you were just going. No it's okay. You were just finishing up. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Okay great. The so we have been pleased with Naviance so far. I will try try to make this a little bit quicker so that my internet doesn't go out again. We've been very pleased
238with what we've seen so far. As you saw on the BAR we did see that the use of Naviance decreased during school closure. It did then increase back up again towards the end of the school year especially for our senior students as they were looking at their High School and Beyond Plan. With that I will stop and entertain any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Chief DeBacker. We will start with Director Hampson excuse me Director Rankin as our C&I Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. I don't have any questions. We've had a few discussions about this in C&I. And I just wanted to I guess remind folks that this is a tool that has been available at private schools and other school districts for more years. And something that families wanted and one of
239my personal concerns has been you know not tracking or locking down student’s choices. And and what people like about this is that it offers possibilities to students that they might not have thought of or helps them align interests with potential careers. So. And as another reminder we SPS does allow families to opt out and I believe that window is open right now. >> DIANE DEBACKER: That is correct. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: And I don’t have any other questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Thank you. Yeah I think my only question has to do with when there is an opt-out and then what what evidence do we have that those families are still going to be supported. I think that's probably my only experience with it
240is when a family hasn't either doesn't understand it or because a parent isn't used to that that format. Or has opted out and then need kind of the paper version the in-person version of that support. Are we still equipped and willing to provide that I guess I’m kind is there any kind of disengagement. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Director Hampson this is Chief DeBacker you cut out on. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Oh yeah. Just in terms of you know any any downsides with those that that opt out and then need more in-person support. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Director Hampson can you hear me. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I can hear you. Can others hear me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes we can. Yes we can. >> SPS-TV: We can hear you both. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. So I think maybe you're
241cutting out Diane and that's why you can't hear me. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Hello. President DeWolf can you hear me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes I can Dr. DeBacker. >> CALEB PERKINS: Director DeWolf this is Caleb Perkins. If I can help with any questions I'm happy to chime in. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Oh thank you. >> SUPERINTENDENT JUNEAU: Yeah Caleb I think you should take it. >> CALEB PERKINS: Okay so just do it. It's a good question. Just in terms of numbers for Director Hampson we've had about 113 students opt out overall and we provide paper packets and we even used the distribution sites during the Spring to distribute packets so that students would still have access to those lessons. But it is an additional challenge is true to to ensure that they have all the access to
242the High School and Beyond planning tools. But for now we continue to provide paper based supports. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Because doesn't it also provide the the ability for them to the connectivity to sending letters and whatnot to colleges and that not that kind of thing. >> CALEB PERKINS: It it does it absolutely does. [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah. >> CALEB PERKINS: They don't have access to and yeah and counselors have to gonna go the the old route if you will. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Right. Right. Yeah I think that was my only concern is just that the thought is still I don't know how much training we've done so that parents are aware of what this is for for people for example like myself that where everything was typed. But yeah to just those kids that
243might fall through the cracks because they're not they're not utilizing this system as all it's I'm just using this opportunity ask the question I think it's I support the program. I think it's a great tool given that particularly given the caseload that our counselors have. >> CALEB PERKINS: Thank you. >> DIANE DEBACKER: This is Chief DeBacker and I am back with another device. I apologize. Thank you Caleb for jumping in. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Dr. Diane DeBacker I think you're gonna want to mute your phone. It's it's it's still acting fishy. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Keep going President DeWolf I'll figure it out. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay. Next up is Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I remember when we adopted Naviance in 2018. It was quite controversial and and my vote and my support of
244this program cost me a lot of pushback and grief from folks that had concerns about big data collection. When I look at some of the background information frankly I'm not thrilled with what anecdotal information is given here. We talk about Cleveland High School. We don't talk about the high schools generally. I echo Director Hampson’s concerns about whether or not we have parent training. I echo Director Hampson's concern about our very large ratio of counselors to students. Have we asked the question of counselors is this helping them meet the needs of our high school students. We talk about increases of use but we don't talk about what our baseline was when we started. So this feels like a little bit of data cooking to me. Cooking the books. And I guess I would like to see
245a clearer attachment that talks about that. The other issue is when we say we're allowing people to opt out how are we providing them the information to opt out. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Maybe I would just encourage maybe not throwing out some. But that's a concerning phrase. I don't believe the district is cooking the books. But Caleb if you [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I appreciate that that is your personal opinion and I have the right as a duly elected public official to speak my mind. Thank you President DeWolf. >> DIANE DEBACKER: President DeWolf this is Chief DeBacker. Can you hear me now. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes. In response to Director Harris's question. For the counselors we do know that they have been able to schedule college visits a lot in a more simplified manner
246by using Naviance We've had over 400 college visits that were scheduled. We also know that every time a student asks for transcripts to be sent to a post-secondary institution they're able to send it much quicker because of this system. So those are two benefits right off the top of my head. In terms of how parents can opt out. In the back-to-school packets we send information about Naviance and in those packets they it does include a way that you can opt out. And I know that Caleb did jump in and help answer the question about how many students have opted out. It's relatively few at this point but we do give that option it's open every Fall. And as of this year we had only had 11 students opt out. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. That
247sounds like Carri Campbell would also like to share something. >> CARRI CAMPBELL: Good evening Carri Campbell Chief of Public Affairs. We also do opt-out out of School Beat and then there's [indistinct] opt out and then it's on the web and we push out on social just to add to what Chief DeBacker has shared. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Sorry I had a notification that keeps getting in the way of my microphone. But anyway we've [indistinct] we’ve we have discussed this extensively in committee. I don't have any further questions or comments. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I appreciate the conversation around the opt-out and that provision that families can opt out if they choose to. Because it you know the sharing of all this information
248in one place is a thing that is we are doing all over the place with all of our information and we're kind of getting backed into doing that on social media in all these different ways. But it's understandable if families want to opt out of engaging in a system like that. And your clarification that the High School and Beyond planning is still available hardcopy-wise as it should be. What I didn't see and maybe it's in that in the information but what I didn't get clarity on trying to scan through the BAR was how many of our students actually have their High School and Beyond Plans created in 11th grade. Are they supposed they’re supposed to be starting in 8th grade. So do we have the numbers on the students that actually have them completed. Whether
249or not they're actually engaging in the system is a different question. But how many students at each grade level have their High School and Beyond Plans made. Is that in this BAR or is that information that we should get from somewhere else. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Director Mack this is a Chief DeBacker. We do not have that information in the BAR but we do have at each grade level there is a different different task that's done. So at 6th grade it's more about exploring careers and then 7th grade and 8th grade goes on. So the High School and Beyond Plan is completed over time. So we by the end of 12th grade and as I mentioned in the beginning that we saw a spike in June of our Seniors that who completed that because that’s the
250end of it. We do and can give you a breakout of the different tasks that are completed per grade level. We do have that information I think that might be helpful like every for for some to see the progression that happens from 6th grade through 12th grade. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I appreciate that but what I'm actually wanting to ensure is the accountability that students are actually doing that that whether or not they're supposed to do them is one thing but you know do we actually have them completing it. Do we have the accountability to ensure that they are actually doing that the the tasks in every grade level. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Dr. Perkins did you want to respond. >> CALEB PERKINS: Yes in brief that the percentages that Dr. DeBacker is alluding to are about
251the percentage of students who completed each the lesson or lessons for four that grade level connected to the High School and Beyond Plan. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Is it possible to provide the data on a grade level basis for last year. >> CALEB PERKINS: It is and I will note per Dr. DeBacker’s point there was some drop-off in some of the grade levels so I we would propose to share last year as well as the year before just to give a fuller context. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I appreciate that. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I gosh. Yeah. I don't I don't think I have any questions I know we've talked a lot about this. I'm trying to remember what was left to cover but I think we're good.
252I have no questions or comments. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. I have any questions at this time. Thank you. >> DIANE DEBACKER: Thank you. Next we'll move to the Introduction Item Number 11: This is Amending Board Policy Number 2015 Selection and Adoption of Instructional Materials. This came through the Curriculum And Instruction Policy Committee on September 15th excuse me for consideration. Senior General Counsel Ronald Boy you'll be briefing us. And nice to hear from you. >> RONALD BOY: Yes. Thank you. So before you today are is an amended version of policy 2015. These amendments were made at the beginning as a result of resolution 2019 2028 and that was our LGBTQIA+ resolution which was passed in June. And in that resolution it indicated that all new instructional materials should include positive representations and
253significant events societal contributions of LGBTQIA individuals. So to effectuate that directive and the resolution I went to the policy and I added a new selection criteria. And the selection criteria in policy 2015 are a list of standards that every adoption committee has to ensure are met by the instruction materials that they are reviewing and that when they pass forward their final selection to the instructional materials committee that they're saying that the instruction materials contain all of the standards of the district and that that is the criteria by which they're able to determine what are the best materials which should be adopted by the board. So a new selection criteria has been added to 2015 which is expanded from the original resolution and it now indicates include in United States history social studies and language arts
254in instructional materials and reasonably include other instructional materials significant events societal contributions and or positive representations of American Indian African-American Latino Asian-American and LGBTQIA+ individuals and persons with disabilities. And I am very excited about this addition to the criteria. I believe that it's an extremely valuable way to allow students to feel represented in their education. And we know from research and in writings from experts in the field that this is a really valuable way to see academic increases in students that are furthest from educational justice. I believe this to be very valuable. And that is the biggest sort of wow factor of the amendment today. However when I got into the policy I realized that there was a need for additional changes and a lot of those changes were brought to my attention as a
255result of our Chem B adoption in which there was some confusion among staff which slowed down the process of adoption. And I I determined that the a lot of the confusion was based on the formatting and the sequencing and the policy which has been changed and the big thing that I realized was the use of the term of a final [indistinct] the adoption recommendation the use of the term recommendation repeating from adoption committee to instruction materials committee confused who was really responsible for making the recommendation adoption and by law it's the Instruction Materials Committee that makes the recommendation for adoption and the school board is responsible for accepting or denying to the recommendation. So what I did is I made sure that the this new version of the policy indicates that the adoption committee which
256is the review committee of instruction materials for a specific adoption that they make a final selection. That they pass their final selection forward to the IMC. The IMC reviews the process that was undertaken by the adoption committee. They confirm that the process was followed that the policy was followed and they then take their final selection and then the the Instruction Materials Committee then forms their own adoption recommendation and passes that forward to the board for approval. So I believe believe that this change will help staff who are working within a instruction materials adoption to more easily understand the the role of each organizer of each group and that hopefully it will make further in source materials adoptions go more smoothly. In addition I found that in the selection criteria the standards that have to be
257looked for in instruction materials by adoption committees that in the previous amendment to 2015 and October 2019 that there were two standards that were added that were specificity specificity of the mediums required consumables technological requirements and digital resources and a second one called cost analysis. And neither one of those things are standards that can be reviewed for when you're reviewing instruction materials. Those are really duties of the adoption committee for what they need to know about the instruction materials what they need to know about their final selection and they need to pass that information along to the IMC so that information can then go along to the board. So what I did is I took out those non-criteria and I added them to a lower paragraph where it indicates the process for the adoption committee
258for what they do when they submit their their final selection to the IMC. It indicates that not only do they indicate their final selection the IMC but they also detail with the IMC the specificity of the mediums of those instruction materials and the complete cost analysis so that that information is not being removed from the policy and it is staying as a duty of the adoption committee but is just placing it in the proper place. And then last the last big change the policy is the the addition of additional language from RCW 28A320230 and that is the law that that controls the adoption of instruction materials for public schools in Washington State and the law indicates that districts may within limitations and board policy use an experiment with instructional materials for a period of time
259before a general adoption is formalized. And it also indicates that within the limitations of board policy school district’s chief administrator may purchase instructional materials to meet deviant needs or rapidly changing circumstances. And what we know from past adoptions and also our recent experience with the pandemic is that I know that in previous adoptions we've had numerous times where people have questioned our legal ability to do field testing or do piloting prior to the adoption of instruction materials and we know that the law allows that it specifically says that is allowed. So I felt it was important to insert it into the policy to just avoid any questions as to our practice. And then second the the second portion of that law where the district's chief administrator may purchase for deviant needs or rapidly changing circumstances.
260We know that during our preparation for remote learning that we found that our ELA materials were insufficient for the remote learning and we had to because of rapidly changing circumstances we had to very quickly pivot and try to find instruction materials that could work for remote learning. And we didn't know if this portion of the law confirmed that and that is something that we're able to do subject to that those conditions. So the rest of the policy changes and the amendments are primarily formatting issues and changing the sequencing just to make sure that everything flows from the way that it actually occurs. So I would say that although the the track changes version appears to be very red in reality I would say the a big portion of that is really just paragraphs shifting from
261one page to another but the content has remained the same. So I have taken a lot of time and I will answer any questions that anyone may have. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Wow. Ronald thank you so much. That was [indistinct] truly I appreciate you going through that with us because I know that this is a policy that that often has a lot of [indistinct] and eyes on it. And if I could just add a personal point of personal privilege thank you to Directors Mack and yourself for all of the support with the LGBTQIA+ plus resolution and continued collaboration on this policy. I was really excited to see that we could kind of trance transfer a resolution into policy and it's really cool to see that here and I think it's it's a wonderful addition. So Director
262Rankin I’ll have start with as our Curriculum Instruction Policy Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I do not have any questions or comments to add. We had a good — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: —conversation in committee and Mr. Boy was just very illustrative of what the what what we're talking about today. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I don't think I have any questions. The questions that I would have I believe pertain not to this particular BAR which I support but to prospective other changes in 2015 and so therefore I'm going to leave that for another time. But I really appreciate what you've brought forward today and the clarity of it. Yeah. So I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris.
263>> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Hugely appreciate the hard work that's gone into this. Appreciate watching a resolution turn into policy and implementation. But I guess part of my continuing frustration as is I believe is shared with everyone. Policies are lovely but implementation is critical and I'm looking for implementation of ethnic studies I’m looking for implementation of Black studies and still waiting and and I think that it needs to be elevated and focused and implemented. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: We discussed this extensively in Ops. No further questions for me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Thank you. Actually it was C&I not Ops. I [indistinct] but I was I did I’ve had lots I've had a number of conversations with Mr. Boy about this previously. We had long
264conversations around the science adoption around some of the challenges and I it it sounds like Mr. Boy has been thorough in responding to those as well as integrating. Sorry. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I'm I'm so sorry Mack I meant we worked on 6900 and Director Rankin and I worked on 2015 I apologize for the confusion. Getting late. >> DIRECTOR MACK: It's all good. It's all good. The it sounds to me like Mr. Boy has done a thorough job of helping to clarify some of the challenges that were in 2015 that were identified through a number of different processes recently not the least of which would have been the science adoption. And I my question I don't I don't think it's for him is more maybe for Ms. DeBacker related to the authority of educators to alter
265and utilize a different teaching strategy there was something that came up today on posted on on one of the middle school sites from a parent who has written to the principal stating that the 8th grade Spanish teacher is is teaching Spanish using gender neutrality and questioning that and this person states that they are a Spanish native Spanish speaker and is concerned about this change in process so I'm I guess I'm kind of curious about in the context of 2015 and our approval of courses and instructional materials what's the what's the feedback loop for whether or not instructors are using the approved thing or dramatically altering curriculum. I guess I guess the question is with this parent’s complaint around the Spanish language being taught very differently than the materials that are provided what's the remedy for
266responding to that concern. Or if a school is not using an instructional material that has been adopted. >> RONALD BOY: And does a Dr. DeBacker want to take that or. >> CALEB PERKINS: I. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Quickly quickly please. >> CALEB PERKINS: Director DeWolf this — >> DIRECTOR MACK: I know it's out of left field because it's something that just I saw today but it's it's a it's related to the you know. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: That's fair. Maybe — >> DIRECTOR MACK: This policy doesn’t. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Pull that offline just because it's not technically about this policy discussion. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Well I think my question is whether or not in 2015 that adoption process does it does it have the accountability internal in the process for having our staff utilize that. That's in
267that right. There has to be there's a waiver process. That provision is still in there. >> RONALD BOY: I guess I could speak to that little a little bit. The policy specifically states that adopted instructional materials must be used by teachers and that we at the same time I believe you have to remember that teachers do have the and I can't remember the exact language language from the CBA but the instructional freedom to to teach in the way that's consistent with their you know their education and training. That I don't believe that we dictate every portion of how they roll out or use the [indistinct] materials. They would they should do it consistently with with they should use them and that they should you know subject to the freedom that they do have within their
268CBA as a professional. >> CALEB PERKINS: And Directors DeWolf and Mack. This is Caleb. I'll just share quickly that I know Dr. DeBacker is trying to chime in and can't be heard but to add to quickly to Ronald's point there is definitely the CAI is actively working to ensure that recent adoptions are in fact followed and there is that waiver process that helps us to ensure that we do have a follow through on that. And there were also in terms of some supplemental materials where we're also working with a number of folks to try to develop anti-bias tools to to help recognize things that should not be taught. So that's an initial response. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I appreciate that. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I don’t mean to. >> DIRECTOR MACK: [indistinct] thank you. I’m done. Thank
269you. I appreciate all that. But we can move on. Yeah. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And Caleb I didn't mean for you to quickly answer it I just meant like somebody please identify themselves. Next we’ll move to Introduction Item Number 12: this is — >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I did not get to speak. This is Direct Smith. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I’m so sorry Director Rivera-Smith [indistinct] Yes please Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I'll try as quick as I can. One thing I would I would appreciate Ronald if you could attach RCW I lost some that were here RCW 28A.30.230 to the BAR just so that we can have that as a reference in there. >> RONALD BOY: Yes. I’d be happy to. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Okay. And then I won't because I hate to pass it
270over we we did speak at the meeting. The committee meeting regarding the use of Latino in in this policy and I did say how I think there should be a bigger discussion on the issue you had said something about maybe moving it to Latinx and I know that that's a wider bigger topic than we’re gonna have now and I don't think we have the energy to talk about that. But I will be exploring that. I have a one on one with Dr. Scarlett next week. I think I might introduce that topic with her and talk about just going forward how we want to approach that terms there. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rivera-Smith that's really great. And please share what you hear back from that conversation with the board. I would love to hear
271how that goes. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I will thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And I'll start with you in the next round of questions because I I made that mistake. So now I move to Introduction Item Number 12: this is Resolution Number 2020/21-7 Requesting a Waiver From the 180 Day School Year Requirement for Remote Learning Professional Development. This came through the Curriculum and Instruction Committee on September 15th for approval. Mr. Boy I know you'll be briefing us again and I just want to do a time check for directors it’s 7:25. We're on item number 12 and we have 16 to go. So Mr. Boy I'll turn it over to you. >> RONALD BOY: Thank you. This is a resolution that is part of requirements for a special waiver application that was put forth by
272OSPI for this year only in response to remote learning and the need for our instructional staff to receive professional development for remote learning. And as you know this year we offered our instructional staff six full days of professional development. Two of those days occurred on what would have been school days. And this application to OSPI allows us to get a waiver of those two school days. So we are still still receive full 180 days’ worth of state funding for the work of our schools. And as per the waiver application that OSPI put out they required that a resolution accompany it and it's approved by the school board of the district. And this is the resolution for that application. We have actually already submitted the application to OSPI and we have received a provisional acceptance on
273the basis that they will receive the resolution by October 30th. So long as this is approved by the board we will submit it after the next board meeting and we expect to get if we do that we would expect to get for a full approval of the waiver from OSPI. So any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. We'll start with Director Rankin as our C&I Policy Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No questions or comments. Pretty straightforward I think. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Nope. We already approved the superintendent asking for it. I think this is we're good to go. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No questions. Thank you. >>
274DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: No question thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: All right. And I have done for you as well Mr. Boy Thank you so much. Next we'll be moving on to Introduction Item Number 13: approval to name the Daniel Bagley Elementary School primary wing (south first floor) in honor of Mrs. Barbara Stone. This came through the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta. Take it away. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. As the board is aware the BTA or the BEX IV Levy included a project to modernize and do major additions to Bagley Elementary and the project was completed late this summer and has resulted in a in a beautiful modern building
275landmark building and an addition of a gym and a classroom addition and the school community sees this as a great opportunity to honor of longtime teacher Barbara Stone a kindergarten teacher who taught at Bagley for 48 years and principal Carla Holmes has done a great job of following Board Procedure 6970 to garner feedback and support from students staff and community. And we're here to introduce the name change to name the primary wing after Ms. Barbara Stone and I note that Principal Holmes has joined us today and so I'll invite her if she'd like to make any additional comments of this great opportunity we have to honor one of our teachers and really be a capstone to a great career and a great project. >> CARLA HOLMES: Thank you. So this is Carla Holmes Principal at
276Daniel Bagley. Again during this pandemic to have something like this to celebrate and honor someone who's been so dedicated. We had really started during the school design process several community members came up with that idea and then we've been able to engage our BLT our Building Leadership Team during the pandemic we couldn't have an in-person community meeting so we used a community message board that several committee members helped me facilitate online and we received many letters of support from students families and community members. And it was something to celebrate. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you so much. We'll start with Operations Operations Committee Chairperson Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Thank you for the presentation and the support and the robust engagement and support for this. It sounds like the community is in support. We had a
277robust discussion around this at Ops and I actually don't have anything further to add. Happy to support this effort. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Hi. Yeah. Thank you. It sounds like a great as you said a great kind of ending point to a good project. I just had one question that was about the racial equity analysis. Can you talk about why that wasn't completed. >> CARLA HOLMES: We just didn't find that during our BLT process that we needed to do to engage in that process. But I'm happy to talk more about it if that's a question that you have. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Well I mean I think anytime the naming of things and you know who we honor is always one that we want to make sure it's not going
278to reflect positively on the impact that that individual has but also doesn't harm any other community members in the process particularly those that that might be on the other side of of any kind of racial divide that might have existed in prior years if not current. And so I just think it's really important to have done that that research of that background so that we don't have any surprises. And so that's why I ask that question and you know with respect to her contributions I should say with full respect of her contributions that we want to be conscientious as well. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you very much. It was unclear to me whether Ms. Stone is still with us and if we pass this what we intend to
279do in that honor and the plaque in rolling this out. Obviously we're not going to be in person necessarily but I have questions about that. Thank you. >> CARLA HOLMES: Yes Miss Miss Stone is still with us and we hope to do some sort of virtual celebration as similar to what we did with our ribbon-cutting ceremony given the pandemic situation. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Dr. Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: I'm just really thankful for the work that's gone into this. I don't have any further questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I already talked. Next one. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I'm so sorry Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No just echo the sentiment that it's nice to have something positive and something to celebrate even though we
280can't all be together in person. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. Thank you Chief Podesta for a tiny edit there was one just number digit was wrong in one of our BAR references so I you got that. Thank you. I’m just ex am very excited about this one as Director of Daniel Bagley. I'm excited to celebrate with them this naming. No further questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. I don’t have any questions at this time. Thanks for bringing this forward. Next item is Introduction Item Number 14: BEX V Award State Master Contract Number 05416 Classroom Lock Security Upgrades for the secure lockdown project. This came to the operations committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta you'll be briefing us on this item. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. This action
281authorizes the contract to buy lock hardware for classroom security measures as as part of assessments that have gone on through the years and were developed as part of the BEX V levy. It was decided that security improvements at schools that allowed individual classrooms teachers to control access to individual classrooms are important in potential security incidents in school buildings. This uses an inter-local cooperative purchasing agreement to allow us to have access to lock hardware over the course of a 5-year contract. We had a in-depth discussion at the Operations Committee about the timing of this work. While the contract is will give us access to parts and equipment over 5 years facility operations will work to accelerate the work as much as possible which is relatively easy to do with actual lock hardware. This does involve working
282on 9,000 doors across the district some of which need to be milled and significant work needs to be done on the door so those may take a bit longer. But just to address questions that Operations Committee members had. We will front load as much of this work as possible to make as many improvements as doable in the early years of this work. I’m happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay well we'll start with Director Mack Operations Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah. I just appreciate it. We did have a robust conversation around the timing of things and I noticed that the BAR that the BAR was actually updated and changed from what we saw at Ops. And it feels like it's reflecting that. The just just for clarification the this is the contract
283for purchasing the actual locks and the work is done by our own facilities and there's certain tech there's certain expertise that's required to get it done. But in this environment you are actively looking at whether or not it's good timing to try to accelerate that work at this point. And do we have an estimation of what that might look like. I mean because the idea of not getting it all done for another five years was concerning to me. >> FRED PODESTA: That planning hadn’t been completed just yet but because we also this work involves locksmiths obviously but also our carpentry staff who have been very busy preparing parts of our buildings at the start of school so we will get to re-sequencing and planning this project early earlier in October but it is it seems
284again that there may be some things that lag a few years but the in the case of just lock hardware and not a lot of structural changes or milling changes that need to be done to doors. We will get most of this done within the first couple of years mark. More than likely. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Excellent thank you. That's all very supportive of making our buildings more secure and meeting the voters’ expectation of the commitments made in BEX V so thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I hate that I have a lot of questions but I'll try to take some of them offline if possible so we can maybe decide which ones after I ask them. But so the first question is a 5-year contract seems like an awfully
285long term. >> FRED PODESTA: For again we're using a cooperative agreement inter-local cooperative agreement. So you know we have many again and for parts of availability this is you know we're doing the work where with our own four are our own labor. So I think we typically renew a lot of our parts of maintenance contracts around this period but we can check into the and we did. Since we are trying to address issues that at for 9,000 doors we wanted to take advantage of the volume pricing of a of a large buy and that's how the procurement was made. And again thinking that it might take that long to get to the very last door. So we wanted to have availability for that period but it's really a quantity of equipment that we're buying more
286so than in a period. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So the price is fixed. >> FRED PODESTA: There's a price list and we have different equipment for different different types of classroom — >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So we’re locking in prices. >> FRED PODESTA: We're trying to lock in prices based on the volume of work that will be done over a period of years and want to have the contract in place for the end of it. And and as I we discussed at the Operations Committee we will try to accelerate the work but we want to have the contract enforced for as long as this work might take. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: So for example what's is this that this involves steel what is that kind of price fluctuation on this. It just is. That's my concern is that
287it's such a long period of time with something like steel where we have lots of tariffs right now. I don't know what would this look like in 3 years. Couldn't prices be significantly different in 3 years. I don't know where these are coming from. Yeah I can ask some of these questions around the pricing and the term offline but particularly as a board director that's elected to a 4-year term and this extends beyond that I start to have some concerns about obligating future boards. This is beyond any one board members term already and that feels really inappropriate and I'm not even sure if we have any policies around that. We may not but it's I have some concerns about that so I don’t I don’t I can check with Legal about that as well. The
288other concern that I have is this is a massive amount of money. With respect to the money in the levy is for security. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Broadly. >> FRED PODESTA: Broadly I think this was identified as a specific improvement as part of those security improvements. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Within the. >> FRED PODESTA: Within BEX V. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: The language of the levy or. >> FRED PODESTA: I yes. No I think it was it was fairly specific in terms of improve classroom security at that level that that was seen as a big gap that classroom doors could not be could only be locked and unlocked with a key. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Right. Right. Okay. So I just have to go on record as saying that I in general these are the
289kinds of of really high-cost I mean I realize it's over five years hoping to be but this is a pretty decent dollar amount for something that as is as likely to happen as lightning striking. You know it's it's a this is some expensive insurance if I really want to break it down so I'll leave it at that for now but I'm I'm I'm struggling to support this right now. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you very much for this. I am in favor of increased security measures because we've heard about tragedies all over the country and one hopes that it never visits us. My question to you Chief Podesta is do we now have front doors that are locked and intercom systems in all 104 of our schools.
290>> FRED PODESTA: We do not. We have a few. We have been installing more. I I can't give you specific numbers. We have in most schools but there are still some of the AI phone technology still to install. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Could you update the board and could the minutes please reflect this as an action item of which schools are still remaining to have front door security intercoms and I'd like to see that done before we do the classrooms please. It's an issue that has been of highest priority for a number of years. >> FRED PODESTA: Will do. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you sir. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Yeah we've discussed this extensively in ops and in the interest of time I'm gonna go ahead and pass. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank
291you Director Mack Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Sorry. Finding the right window. Yeah. We did discuss this quite a bit in in Ops and the you know the contract itself and the the you know I understand why the dollar amount is the way it is and why it's you know why it takes a while to roll out something over the course of several years. My real outstanding question is do we need these at all. Because they are to lock classrooms from the inside in highly unlikely well unlikely scenario and yes of course if this scenario were to occur we would want them but to go across every single door every single classroom in the whole district at the cost of 2.5 million dollars I just wonder if that's the most effective use of 2.5 million
292dollars. And it just to echo I will echo also support for Director Harris's comments that the lock the secure front doors and intercom systems seems higher priority. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I actually missed this conversation in Ops so I have no questions or comments to add thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. I see Director Hampson’s hand up. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Oh I just wanted to point out that the chance of any school shooting happening at all is 1 in 614 million just just for some data. What we're about to spend two hundred two point five million dollars on to prevent. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Well we're not acting today but yes. I don't have any questions for you. Thank you. The next up on our list is
293Item Introduction Item Number 15: This is BTA IV Award Contract P1766 to perform seismic analysis services for the Seismic Building Assessment. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta you'll be briefing us. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes this again is a contract approval to begin site continues seismic assessments funded by BTA IV. We are continuing to look at unreinforced masonry and concrete buildings and make assessments and also planning ahead for potential code changes being studied by the City of Seattle too that would affect our future construction. So as we continue to plan and maintain buildings we are continuing to conduct further assessments of the seismic readiness of our buildings of various construction types. And this is just allows us to continue this work. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Chief Podesta. Alright
294Director Mack we'll start with you our Operations Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah. The commitment to do the seismic upgrades for buildings and make them safe for students in the event of an earthquake has been a long-standing commitment. And this I understand that this is also tied to some potential city codes that might be shifting and we may be required to do things that we weren't previously required and so this is this study and this information would be both helpful for the development of our next levy and or be responsive to the city's code changes. So it's it's incredibly important that we do this. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Let's start backwards with Director Rivera-Smith first. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Well thank you. I wish I had questions or comments I don’t. Thank you.
295>> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Nope. Just echoing and Director Mack this is an important thing to do. And yeah no questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. Okay we'll move to Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yes. Couple of questions for Chief Podesta please. So this is not strengthening any of the buildings it's a survey is that correct sir. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. Didn’t the Meng report already address these things. >> FRED PODESTA: It we have had in our condition assessments. There is a certain amount of work spent on the seismic but there are and over time there code changes either made or considered that we want to be able to respond to be responsive and compliant but also to give regulators feedback on code changes that
296they're considering and that the state of the art has is also changing in construction methodologies and different types of construction that we have given our building stock. So this is a deeper dive and asking some new questions that frankly we're all getting smarter about as time has passed. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay and have we identified the 15 billion the 15 buildings out of our 104 to apply this to. Because frankly when you start talking about engineering and design and and that sort of thing 210 211 thousand dollars doesn't seem like that much. How do we get there from here. >> FRED PODESTA: I I think we're really looking at particular construction types with concrete buildings because we had in the past I tended to focus more on it unreinforced masonry. And I think we have
297particular questions about sums of kind of mid-century construction that we want to take a deeper dive into. So as you noted we've done condition assessments as part of building levees as part of state requirements and each of those gives us data but also delivers a set of questions that invite further analysis and that's what this work is. Things that are — >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: When we do this are we going to be done with seismic analysis for the time being for all 104 schools or are you coming back to us next year and piecemeal. >> FRED PODESTA: I as the city and other entities consider code changes we may need to understand those a bit better. You know our first pass of this has been really immediate life safety. As you've seen some of these
298reports in the past are kind of tiered is will the buildings survive. You know how survivable is it for occupants. I think we're getting more into what how can our construction and our major maintenance work reduce our financial risk beyond will people lived through it. Can we reduce damage to the building depending on what we do going forward as new construction methodologies are available and new remediation are available so I I'm not sure we'll ever say OK we're done we're never going to think about this again. But you know where we've taken a lot of the big chunks of risk out of the system. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay I guess my concern is that frankly I thought that we had already done this and if we still have a ways to go this board needs
299to know that for future planning and with all due respect it's about the occupant safety for me not the building. And I when you look at past earthquakes in Mexico in China and in other places it's our duty to make sure they're safe and if they're not now we need to know that. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah. So unlike the prior BAR that we do actually have significant risk with respect to seismic activity and I appreciate all the efforts and I realize 2.5 million dollars is really not much compared to the cost of doing seismic upgrades but to the extent that we can anything that we can do to improve the pace at which we're completing seismic analysis and upgrades to make sure that our schools are in fact
300as safe as they can be in the event of an earthquake. We we all data points to we us being at relatively high risk for an event that would be potentially life threatening to students in our building. So I support this and encourage us to move forward on any seismic work as quickly as expediently as possible. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thanks Director Hampson. Chief Podesta I don’t have any questions but I do just want to echo Director Hampson’s comments. So thank you. Okay. We'll now move on to Introduction Item Number 16: this is BEX V Approval of Site-Specific Educational Specifications for Kimball Elementary School Replacement project. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta you'll be briefing us and then I'll begin with Director Mack. >> FRED PODESTA: The Educational Specification
301is a document that really describes the the program needs for a building and it's a process we undertake for any building replacement and is also a required step to get funding assistant from funding assistance from the state. So the project team has worked extensively with the with our Curriculum and Instruction staff and staff at Kimball Elementary to develop this specification for at a high level what the program needs will be at the new Kimball Elementary School in terms of square footage for program space and classrooms and it's it's not a design again it's a kind of an inventory of what the new building will be like. And I'll be happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Apologies. Yeah. Apologies. Yeah. We had a pretty robust discussion. This has
302also been reviewed by the BEX BTA oversight committee and we I believe at Ops we saw the full presentation of the building plans etc. so I don't have any questions at this time and look to my directors for any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: No questions thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: I’m good. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I have nothing from me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you. I just have one question Chief Podesta. I noticed that the Site-Specific Educational Specifications document was done on
303March 3rd 2020. This would've been before the LGBTQIA+ resolution that we passed requiring all new buildings to provide to include at least one multi-stalled gender-neutral restroom. Is this that is this in for future post LGBTQ resolution. Is this where we would see that information reflected particularly I see that there's a space here where it talks about how much you know toilets toilet spaces is part of a process. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Going forward that as again this is more of an inventory than a design but that that should be the place where we make sure we include that information. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay thank you. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: But Director DeWolf. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: —introduction. Yes Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So given the overlap in COVID is Chief Podesta saying there is going to
304be a gender-neutral restroom or not. Clarity here please. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes I expect there will be again as we move from site from ed spec to design given the direction we’ve had from the board. Thank you so much. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thanks for the clarification Director Harris. The next item is Item Number 17: this is BEX V approval of the site-specific site-specific Educational Specifications for Northgate Elementary School Replacement project. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10 for approval. Chief Podesta over to you. >> FRED PODESTA: And again this is the same exercise for a different school replacement project Northgate Elementary and produces a with the same exact conceptually document a an educational specification for the new building just as we discussed with Kimble. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And Director Mack if
305you can. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yep. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Kick us off as our Operations Committee Chair. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Nothing else to add. We had conversation around this and had the same review in various places and if directors have any specific questions. I would assume that they answered in relation to your question about gender-neutral bathrooms would be applied here as well. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes yep that would apply. Okay so Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: None for me thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack oh Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No questions just to say again how much I have enjoyed and appreciated the collaboration
306between community and architecture in the development of this project. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions or comments. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you and none for me as well. All right. The next item is Item Number 18: this is BEX V Approval of the Value Engineering Report for the Northgate Elementary School project. This came to the operations committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta over to you. I feel like we’re on a TV show here. Back to you. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. Yeah. The not the most interesting TV show on on the air right now. The value engineering report is a report that's conducted by independent engineer to go over our designs and plans on projects and develop a set of proposals that could either lower our construction
307costs or perhaps operating costs. That is then reviewed by the and it's required is a step in getting state funding for projects it's a good practice anyway and in some projects and they produce a report that the project team looks to see if the suggestion would be consistent with the educational specs we've talked about or other program goals or if to see if the savings would be realized. In this case there were 43 recommendations made and the team adopted 17 of them feeling that they were consistent with the project and would realize the benefits without compromising our our program goals. And the report is approved by the board again as part of our state funding process. And I’m happy to take any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Fred. Okay. Director Mack kick us off.
308>> DIRECTOR MACK: I’ve nothing to add. This is part of the process and they're very thorough in the work that they do and it is all there in the BAR. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay thank you. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Excuse me. A clarification. Chief Podesta this is kind of our touchstone to get a second opinion and input. Is that correct. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. And when they reject recommendations what's the next process there. >> FRED PODESTA: You know that ultimately is decided by the project team that you know it's not elevated to a another level. They you know assess each of the recommendations and really decide if they're if it's going to lead to comfort issues or amenity issues
309or operational issues in the building and you know ultimately technical staff engineers and architects and our own staff that work on this call balls and strikes as part of the project. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay so. >> FRED PODESTA: And we do review and as Director Mack has mentioned the team on occasion also consults with the BEX BTA oversight committee too. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. But if the team comes in and they make approvals and as in this case there they rejected some of our suggestions and they rejected some of suggestions does it come back to us does the state ever ask this question or is there are another loop of approval I guess is what I'm asking. And also for public accountability transparency issues I think even though it's been discussed ad nauseum on so
310many projects I think it's good for clarity to explain to the to the public and the taxpayers how we're watching the dollars because in the distant past we've had no end of scandal. >> FRED PODESTA: You know being a public levy we we do have an oversight committee. We do also commissioning and close out of our of our work and at the end of projects to make sure that you know everything is is working as designed. We do ask that public on a regular basis every few years. And to fund our projects and we describe what how we delivered on all those promises and and how we have used the public's money to build this program. The state does not ask for another level of review. They review the report themselves and if they have
311questions about it. But ultimately the decisions are made in our are in the hands of the district as the as the steward of these funds and as the steward of the projects and the facilities. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Terrific. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No further questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I'm actually really intrigued by this and I'm wondering so who are who is this is that the study was undertaken by a team of professional architects engineers and cost estimators. Who are these people. Where did we find them. >> FRED PODESTA: We you know we go out to bid just like we do for our other projects
312and then you know hire. Again it is as Director Harris alluded it is generally a a second opinion and you know what we're specifically asking them for is mostly in the construction side is there is there any less expensive way to build and construct a particular program elements and the same kind of people that would build projects themselves and understandably going into this you know that that's what they're looking for and there's an element of risk in anything. And you know this is not the appropriate way to think about this but in some respects we are asking folks to look at our projects and say are there any corners we could cut to try to make this less expensive. And so that's why the team looks at and people come up with suggestions that you
313could try this. And that's why they're looked at very carefully about you know is this a good idea because there is probably always a less expensive way to do anything and you have to decide and I certainly in the past have seen the outcome of deciding wrong and and using one of those cheaper methods and then living with the results. So that's why on all these reports which we do fairly regularly as we have a lot of state funding in our projects you know the we tend to accept you know something less than half on average because you know we're asking people to think creatively and not each idea is going to be deemed as a cost-effective way. But but but that's the question we're asking is there any other way. And there are there
314are are they ultimately over the life of the building a good idea is usually where we decide not when we reject an idea. That's usually why it might be expedient and less expensive on the front end but it will cost you on [indistinct] over the long haul and we are trying to build at least 50-year buildings typically. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: So who checks who's the who's in the project team that goes through [indistinct]. >> FRED PODESTA: Yeah a project team evaluates each one. The architects and engineers we've designed you know we've hired to design our projects and they they as in this case they take some and they reject some. And and also our our project you know extended project team because we have to operate and maintain the buildings as well. We don't we're
315not constructing them for somebody else. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. I have no questions for you at this time Fred. Thank you. We will now move to Introduction Item Number 18: this is Introduction Item 19. We are at about 8:11 we have just about 10 more here in distress. This is Item Number 19: Distressed School Grant Award Architectural and Engineering Contract P1692 to to Studio Meng Strazzara Architecture for the Madison Middle School Eight Classroom Addition project. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta over to you. >> FRED PODESTA: Again. Yes we're doing a classroom addition at Madison Middle School. And this contract will support the design of that classroom addition. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah I have no additional. Thank you
316Mr. Podesta I have no additional information. We had a conversation in Ops and recommended for approval. Look forward to any directors’ questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hampson would you like to share any questions or comments on this item. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No I was. I was looking forward to hearing you pronounce Meng Strazzara. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Oh shoot. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: I don’t know if that’s how you’re supposed to say it the architecture firm. No I don't have any particular. I actually since I'm spending the time to talk about the architecture firm the do we have a list of we pick from from you can be on a list for architecture firms for this kind of thing. This is a firm that does a pretty wide range of projects. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes we have
317a variety of procurement methods to get engineering architects and engineers under contract to us but it typically through a request for proposals. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay so they're coming to us. We're not I mean that's something we can look at as part of our procurement policy. Do you have any. My understanding last time I looked was that some of those lists haven't been updated in a long time in terms of any go-to women minority owned business opportunities to make sure that they get access. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes we'd be happy to — >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Let’s take that one offline. >> FRED PODESTA: —share our information with you about our our roster of architects and engineers. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Okay. All right. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Appreciate
318my colleague’s question. You talked about providing a roster you didn't talk about what efforts were making for women minority entities and in the past our outreach efforts have been fairly weak. Well we go to Tabor 1000. What else are we doing. And again if you could put that in a Friday Memo. Much appreciated. Thank you. >> FRED PODESTA: Happy to do that. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I just wanted. I just want to say too I think Tabor 100 does a really great job and I think they do connect with a lot of incredible business organizations. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: I don't have any additional questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Mack. Oh excuse me. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No question. Thank you. >>
319DIRECTOR DEWOLF: None for me as well. Thank you Chief Podesta we'll come right back to you in a moment. I’m gonna introduce Item Number 20: BEX V/BEX IV award Architectural And Engineering Contract K1386 to Rolluda Architects Inc. for the North Beach Elementary School Heating Ventilating Exterior Door and Seismic Improvement project. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta to you. >> FRED PODESTA: As part of BEX V and BEX IV we're making HVAC improvements exterior door improvements. And as we talked earlier some seismic improvements at North Beach Elementary and again through a selection process we've chosen Rolluda Architects to do the design work associated with this work. And this action would authorize a contract with them. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Nothing else to add at this
320time it was recommended for approval important work that needs to continue moving forward. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay thank you. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: None. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None from me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No questions. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you and I have none for you on this item Fred. But I challenge directors if you're sitting while I read this to take a stretch stretch break. I know we've been sitting for a while. Introduction Item Number 21: now this is BEX V Award Contract P5152 for General Contractor/Construction Manager
321(GC/CM) to Cornerstone General Contractors Inc. for the Van Asselt School Addition project. This came through Ops on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: We are building a 30-classroom addition at Van Asselt school and it's a complex project given that there is a 1950 year building and an old 1909 building and that some of that will be occupied as an interim site during construction. So we are doing an alternative public works process and want to award a contract to Cornerstone to be our general contractor and construction manager which that project delivery method allows us to handle more complex projects and get the design and other elements on board. Earlier in the bid in the project planning and construction and this action will allow us to get that GC/CM on board and authorize their
322contract. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah I'll also add that the this project and the plans were presented at the BEX BTA Oversight Committee last week I think and this is important to move forward in order to get that project moving so that we have the interim site that's needed going forward and can meet the needs of our students. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. We'll start with Director Rivera-Smith this time. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I have no questions or comments right now. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Nothing for me. Thanks. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: None for me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: So because we just passed the Student Community Workforce
323Agreement then this will mean that that will be applied to this 27 million dollar contract. Is that correct sir. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. It will be applied as the bid packages are prepared to support this work. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. Outstanding. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yeah. That's music to my ears. Great question Director Harris Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Director Harris stole mine. So thank you. We'll move to Item Number 22: this is BEX IV approval of budget transfer from the BEX III excuse me BEX IV Project Program Contingency for the Synthetic Turf Playfield Improvements at Hazel Wolf K-8 at Pinehurst School project. This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval. Chief Podesta right back to you. >> FRED PODESTA: Again this allows
324us to use program contingency to replace the natural turf that was installed in the play field at Hazel Wolf K-8 when the building was opened. As always there is a preference wherever possible to to use natural turf and so that was attempted but given the use of the field and the how the amount of space for the number of students who use the playfield it hasn't worn well and you know it's left a we're not able to sustain natural turf it leaves a kind of unsafe muddy environment and we need to go back in and replace it with artificial turf a synthetic field because that that will survive where our attempted natural turf did not. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I just want to add that we had the opportunity because of
325the other item that was on the agenda to hear from a parent that was at this school that was super excited to hear that this is happening because it it's kind of dangerous mud pit at this point and that this will be helpful for the students going forward so looking forward to having this move forward. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you and we'll start with Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I actually have one little question here. Is that the official name of Hazel Wolf K-8 at Pinehurst. Or was this because it used to be connected. >> DIRECTOR MACK: The building is called Pinehurst. It still is Pinehurst the actual building. And the school is Hazel Wolf K-8. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Okay. Yeah. Thank you. No further questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay. Next we’ll move
326move excuse me next we’ll move to Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Just to piggyback on what Director Mack said since this is a school in my district. They it is I am always kind of bummed when we lose real turf but the the lot size of this space and the the tremendous amount of use that it gets. Yeah. As Director Mack said it is a mud pit. So this will be much much needed upgrade. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Mm hmm. Thank you. Okay. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: No further questions from me. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I want to clarify that this school district no longer uses crumb rubber turf. Is that correct Chief Podesta. >> FRED PODESTA: That is correct. And this project will adhere to that standard.
327>> DIRECTOR HARRIS: And is that a matter of policy or is that a matter of precedent from 4 and a half years ago. And does it need to be policy. >> FRED PODESTA: I think it's best practice that we do. I I'm not sure that they'll never be something better than cork. So I'm not sure it needs to be policy. But it is certainly our current building standard which we revised from time to time. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: No questions. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Next we'll move to Item Number 23. And before we move to item 23 Mr. Podesta can we actually bundle items 24 through 28 and Director Mack would you be comfortable with bundling 24 to 28 they are
328final acceptances. >> FRED PODESTA: I believe we can. >> GREG NARVER: Yes we can do that for an on introduction for final acceptances not not of course for action when they come up but for intro as long as they’re final acceptances they can be presented together. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Ok — >> DIRECTOR MACK: I'm cool with that. Also okay with recommending potentially that they even though I I like the celebratory aspect of final acceptance. I don't mind them being moved to the consent agenda. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Consent. Okay. Thank you Director Mack. Okay we'll move to Introduction Item Number 23 I know I've personally been looking forward to this one as the Director represent Lowell Elementary and this is BEX IV approval to utilize funds from BEX IV program placement to fund a School Based-health
329Center Project at Lowell Elementary School. Chief Podesta I believe you’ll be providing his final brief. >> FRED PODESTA: Yes. Program placement funds are fairly flexible in our levies to do address program needs as they arise. The school community and school leaders have secured a distressed school grant to assist with the construction of a school-based health center at Lowell Elementary. You heard some testimony this evening about what a benefit this will be to the community. This allows us to use those flexible capital dollars to augment that funding and construct the health center at the school. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you okay Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yeah I was excited to hear from the various partners that helped to advocate and pull together different pieces to bring this to fruition it's an important needed service particularly
330at this school. And I appreciate being able to find the funds to support the capital side. So thank you. And if anyone has any questions. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: I no I don’t have any questions. I appreciate the the public testimony who came out and to share their gratitude for this and it sounds like well well-needed and will well serve the community there. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: No. Same. Same thanks to folks who took the time to come and be part of public testimony and also in committee we heard from community members and supporters and the school principal. So really excited that this can happen for them. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: Nope no questions for me.
331Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Okay director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Yeah I I'm I'm thrilled about this especially for this very high need school. And I wonder if we could amend the BAR to show the percentages of folks helping us and to emphasize the the collaborative nature of the different organizations and us coming together. Sure I will take that back to the project team. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Appreciate. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Yeah. Fantastic high needs. I'm really glad to see this happening. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thanks Director Hampson and I just want to say how excited I am to finally see this come forward. I've certainly been talking about it in community a long time. I was really grateful that they asked me to write a
332letter of support last year to Kaiser and so so excited to see this and I just want to give big ups and congratulations to the folks the community the grassroots the parents the administrators in this and it's gonna be such a huge huge benefit to this community so thank you. Okay next we'll move to Item Number 24 through 28. Chief Podesta I believe you will be briefing us on sorry Introduction Items 24 to twenty 28 are Final Acceptances that each moved forward from the Operations Committee for approval. So I'll ask Chief Podesta to just brief us on these items together and then we can move into any director discussions on these items. >> FRED PODESTA: Again final acceptance and in general I know as the board knows but for anyone listening in is is the
333where we accept the product from our contractors and and when there are cases of state funding issue resolution that we're closing out the contract and we accepted the work it's always again it's a celebratory moment because this is the project has been completely closed out. The work at the facility is in service at this point whatever the construction or improvement was and we have 5 in this case. They are acceptance of new field lighting at Cleveland High School. The acceptance of construction work at Dearborn Park Elementary is a roof replacement and a seismic upgrade. There were seismic upgrades the third project are seismic upgrades that were completed at Eckstein and another the fourth project are also improvements at Eckstein to sun shades that have made the building much easier to maintain comfortable temperatures and have
334dealt with glare issues that were affecting some instructional spaces and then the final acceptance of the geothermal well heating system that was installed at John Muir. So all these projects have been completed and closed out and all these improvements to our school facilities are in service now. And if anyone has [indistinct] project I'm happy to go into those. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: Yay. Very excited always excited about being able to do final acceptance on all these great projects. [indistinct]. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Okay Director Harris. Excuse me. Hampson. But go ahead. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I just remember. Did you call on me sir. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Go ahead Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Yes yes yes yes. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I’m sorry I mis-heard. I thought that he
335called on me. Whichever. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: I did. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: What do you want. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: You Director Harris go ahead. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: Okay. I'm sorry I didn't mean to be out of turn. I thought I heard my name. I can remember 15 short years ago when the capital division of the Seattle Public Schools was so very sad and so very far over budget and so very non-transparent that there was a great deal of talk about shifting that to the City of Seattle. And when I see 4 of these contract acceptances come through and BEX III BEX IV BEX V BTA’s coming through on time on budget just the huge shout out to that team and also to our man Richard Best who we don't hear from very much as a board
336except in committee. My what a difference it makes and sometimes frankly it's hard to appreciate the progress that in fact we have made. And I say thank you. >> FRED PODESTA: Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Director Hersey. Excuse me. Director Hampson. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Congratulations and thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Director Hersey now to you. Okay. We'll go to Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Just thinks great thanks and congratulations and yay yay final acceptance. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Yes the same thank you. This is so great to see all these contracts get the final acceptance and we can we can celebrate later. Thank you. Bye-bye. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. And I have nothing except congrats. Thank you so much Fred. [indistinct]. >> FRED PODESTA: I’ll pass
337on your appreciation to the team. They'll be very gratified to hear it. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. We have now come to the board's comment section of the agenda. I will start with Director Hampson and just move through and just obviously note that it is 8:30 so Director Hampson to you. >> DIRECTOR HAMPSON: Well I kind of had some prepared remarks but I really hate to take away from the kind of ending on those acceptances which I know we'll have we'll bring forward again in the meetings but I kind of wanted to reflect back for families that are that are and students that are struggling right now. We had some some great comments from our student speakers that I noted with respect to the sense of that things are starting to stack up on each
338other in terms of the issues that our families are facing and I think my caution would just be at this point that while we aspire to be focused on those that are the least resourced we’re we're not being successful in that and we really do need to be focused on the things that are that we're failing to do well because the extent of the overwhelming sense of stress and anxiety and helplessness and frustration and disconnection both literal and emotional that our teachers are feeling from one another from their students students from each other. And then even just fear fear of going in a classroom for what going into a classroom because of what you might experience. And I know that we're working hard to remedy some of those things. But I do believe we need
339to also be looking at how we make better decisions going in. And it's important for families to hear that we can reflect that back that we are able to acknowledge how how difficult things are. And and I I get calls all day long from counselors and teachers and parents who want to tell me their stories and the things that they're experiencing and students who just got their devices today and are still struggling with with Wi-Fi. Foster students. And I think that whatever relief and support it provides to at least let families and teachers know that we we hear all of that and are dedicated to doing what we can as board directors within the scope of our policy making obligation to try to lift some of that weight off of their soldiers. I don't we've
340got to get past one off log-ins. They're not an adequate proxy for access to learning because even if they log-in that doesn't mean their attention is sustained beyond an hour or two. And so that's that's certainly where my focus is or my attention is is hearing from those families and students and then figuring out what we can do to make this situation work better. And from the standpoint of return to in-person I firmly believe that it's a mistake to focus on that. That's not to say that there aren't aspects of that that we need to be paying attention to. But we do not have a functional prospect for returning to a hybrid model. It's way more complicated than than I think families imagine once you take into consideration child care and when we have failed
341as of yet to even fully dedicate ourselves to our reopening resolution it's difficult if not impossible for me to turn my attention to that. So you know I'd like to see us get some mastery of where we are right now. And and I’m just a a thank you to the unwavering commitment of our educators and our students who are pressing on in such trying times. They really are pushing themselves beyond I think I'm sure what they would have ever expected in order to access education. And you know it's not it's okay to not be celebrating the fact that our that our children are confined to their homes and child care and community centers and staring at screens rather than than you know looking forward to the normal bustle of of of school environments. It's okay
342to acknowledge that and to sit in that with our families and then figure out together where we can find open connection. So and I'll just leave it at that and thanks to all of you and all of the staff for hanging in there and bringing levity where we where we can. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Harris. >> DIRECTOR HARRIS: I’ll add to that and I will also add that I heard a piece on NPR the other day and I think it was KUOW where a psychologist or psychiatrist who sits on the state committee was talking about the absolutely real [indistinct] of this pandemic and how it’s affecting all of us and certainly especially our children and our families. I pulled over to listen to it because I found it so profound. I'll
343find the link and send it out. I guess one of the things that that would help me immensely as a board director if there is a potential emergency or a heads up and it's in in District 6 I would like to know about it as opposed to having to triangulate on social media very upset anxious and frankly very angry parents to tell me about something that frankly I should know from staff and from our Directors of Schools and/or principals. And again if we have an information void then rumors and mis-statements and incorrect facts fill that void and it takes 10 times the effort to unravel that. And if we have screwed up I want us to acknowledge it. Give our lessons learned as a district as leaders. Figure out what we can do better the
344next time. And and absolutely acknowledge the collective pain and anxiety that everyone is feeling. And the and the communication just has got to be better. Up and down and around our district. There there is no excuse for not knowing that a Title-1 school does not have 57 hot spots and and that they were delivered last Friday. I I am stupefied by that and I share that Title-1 Concord Elementary School International Elementary School’s pain. And I wish to heck I'd known about it before. And I know people in DOTS and all the chiefs and the superintendent are all working very very hard but we need to have more timely information. We need not to have to wait until the budget session to find out what our school numbers are. The vacuum of information is extraordinarily troubling
345to me. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Hersey. >> DIRECTOR HERSEY: I'll keep my comments brief. I just wanted to say thank you again to all the families that have been reaching out and all of the families that have been participating in our weekly calls in District 7. I would say that I echo director Hampson's comments around how we should be approaching this conversation about potentially returning. I think that through the resolution that we passed with options for outdoor school and through our very clear commitments to ensure that we're serving special education students as were applicable in our our buildings we accomplish much of what our expectations and what what our really priorities should be at this moment. As an educator I say that to say that I still have several of my
346students who have family members in their homes who are battling COVID I have several instances where where kids in my building are just reaching out and saying that they they just feel more safe at [indistinct] And so even through every conversation that I've had with a District 7 parent there there is no interest in even entertaining the idea of returning to school in any in-person fashion especially not in the hybrid model. I think that we're really missing the mark if we're not giving our educators the opportunity to to really refine the practice that we've been asking them to develop as we heard earlier for 40 days over their summer. So we need to really be a leader in this space and not reflect and deflect to the what is the normal operational model for our
347system in terms of trying to get bodies back in buildings. We need to continue to hold strong and prioritize our students furthest away from educational justice who we have not done a great job of hearing from or engaging with. And so it really just baffles me that we're even seriously entertaining the notion of returning to school in any in-person fashion. So I just want to make very clear that in no way at this juncture do I support even starting to have those conversations. What we really need to be focused on is lifting up the resolution that the community worked with Directors Hampson and Rankin and I. To uplift as well as making sure that we are providing all of the resources necessary to do remote learning effectively. To Director Harris's point just a moment ago
348if we still have buildings that are struggling to provide hotspots I shudder to think what's going to happen when we try to go back to school in any way shape or form. I think that our system really needs time to breathe in this moment where we are. To perfect what we know we need to perfect in terms of delivering a sustainable and epic and effective online model. And if we're not truly focused on that then we're doing our families and our community a vast disservice. And I really worry for the direction of our district if we are seriously entertaining any any real return to school in terms of this hybrid model. I think that our educators have made it very clear that we need to give them the space to do this well because that
349is what we asked of them and if we if we turn our backs on that commitment from our end and asks them to come back and re-imagine and not re-imagine but come back to a system to where we have not adequately planned and putting them into situations to where they are not safe and risk cannot be mitigated then we again are doing our students and our community a vast disservice. Thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Mack. >> DIRECTOR MACK: I have three kiddos and so I'm experiencing this transition to promote learning from a very personal level of helping them navigate it manage it the complexity of the platforms and the clicking and the number of transitions throughout the day and the expectations and the it's it’s I mean I mean educators also they're
350there they're doing I mean they're sitting on the computer for 10-12 hours a day. I mean the work that is happening right now is incredibly taxing on our educators on our building leaders with the increased amount of you know materials hand-outs they need to do and that it it's just overwhelming for everyone in the system right now. And I would like to ask for the superintendent and staff and district and I you're working very very hard as well and I and we know this. And in thinking about the need for shifting resources or potentially bolstering supports in different places I would like to encourage increased supports around providing one-to-one tech support for students and the family reach-outs utilizing staff to whatever extent that we've got them to help support those things even more now. That
351because at that the level of stress that we're all experiencing is in in some cases it may be reaching crisis levels. And I just really want to express and ask for you know everyone's working really hard. But if we can think of however additional ways that we can support our schools and our families from the district office in terms of simplifying communications reducing stress reducing churn. The the October adjustments are coming down the line. We haven't had them fully announced yet but they're being told to families. So on top of the massive adjustment of doing schooling online and clicking through and trying to manage a full day with like I don't know 8-10 different transitions. The a number of our families are are going to be experiencing potentially a change in teacher and that is
352disruptive. And that information being pushed out but we don't I just I I'm I'm incredibly nervous about that. And I wonder I wonder how the district can support reducing the disruption for students and families at this point as well as the points made by my colleagues around the gaps in service that we already know exist and what can we do to ensure that those needs get met ASAP. the the question around returning to an in-person conversation. I mean families were getting push. Everyone would it would be nice to be able to go that direction. And I also share I share the perspective that I'm not sure that we can pivot effectively and that that our our focus should be on doing the best for our families and students that we possibly can now and bolstering
353the supports around the remote learning model that we've got going. And so I just I really just want to express to the entire district on all levels family staff that this is hard this is this is very hard for everyone and I deeply appreciate everyone that's trying to make it easier and support our families and students in this time. So thank you. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. Director Rankin. >> DIRECTOR RANKIN: Thank you. I'll try to try to be brief as we're approaching 9:00 p.m.. I just wanted to really think the students that came and participated today especially in this remote model feeling even further away from from students and so it's really nice. It was really nice for them to take the time to and to be able to hear from them directly. So
354thank you. Thank you. I also want to really think speaker Jeannie Shu for talking about secure gun storage. Is an issue that Director Rivera-Smith and I actually proposed the very same thing sharing information with families about safe gun storage laws last Spring I think as when we started talking about it and with everybody at home and with stress levels high it's even more critical so I really appreciate the work of Moms Demand Action and other groups. And Jeannie for bringing this forward and I hope that we will figure out a way to push that information out to families. To connect to what my colleagues were talking about in terms of remote learning and in-person. We're starting to get a lot of emails that just say you know remote learning isn't working. And as the parent
355of a 3rd grader and a 6th grader I hear that so hard. But the reality is as other people have said the push can't be to return to school as quickly as possible for everybody because it's you know as we look across the country this virus is behaving in very bizarre ways that we still don't understand it. Children do get it. Children do pass it. Young people get it and get very sick. I know of someone whose daughter is getting a EKG for a potential inflamed heart related to COVID tomorrow. And she had enough symptoms that you know she didn’t have respiratory symptoms but she was sick and this could potentially impact her for the rest of her life. So I hear the urgency and and and it is it's scary and hard for all
356of us with kind of everything at the same time in our homes. But I would just ask that as much as possible people shift their thinking from remote learning just isn't working to what do I need for my family to make remote learning work for us. And I would encourage folks to you know let your teachers know you know in the in the MOU and in discussions we have made it really clear as a board in the MOU that was agreed to that there would be teachers would be recording some lessons for students to access you know if they can't make the direct the live schedule work there should be a lot of flexibility for for students and families to let your teacher know if you know if you’re if you've got a child and
357you're struggling every day to have them sit at the computer let them get up and move around and figure out something else. There is actually it feels very rigid and like it's sort of a one-size-fits-all but there's actually a great deal of flexibility in there but you will have to ask for it and let your teacher know and let us know what could make it easier for you so that remote learning can work because the reality is that most of us are going to be in this scenario for for longer than we want to be so instead of you know it's not gonna work. Let's go back. We've got to think about how can we make it work. So let us know how we can make it work and what you need and just really
358quickly I want to say I have serious strong objections to the proposed October adjustments and as much stability and reliability as we can give families at this time that should be and teachers that should be all of our top priority. So thank you and see you all next time. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you Liza. Director Rivera-Smith. >> DIRECTOR RIVERA-SMITH: Thank you. I'm. I will try to close us up quickly. I want to also thank the students who came out today or came online with us to give comments Gisele and Savannah from Franklin. Thank you for the information and feedback from there and how [indistinct] spoke of what's going on here but also [indistinct] about the struggles and Savannah mentioned wanting to wanting to have a district-wide partnership going on. So I really hope that Savannah
359will connect with Director Hersey or even myself because I would love to find out more about what the idea is there. To Danny from Ballard. You're absolutely right it should not be that hard to to change your name and your preferred name in there. I. We have a system that's not working so I really just I urge our district to figure out how to make that more fluid and more more accessible to families and students who are who are experiencing trauma when they have the wrong name up there and are that’s following them around. So please please do what we can for that. Just in response to the families we are getting lots of people asking us what's our plan when are we going how are we going back. It’s not even just when it's
360how are we deciding and we do have metrics that we're going to use for that and they are the best place I can find them is actually in the MOU where we talk about utilizing the Department of Health’s K-12 schools Fall 2020-21 guidance and a decision tree. So if people are wondering how we're deciding that that's what we're using. But of course that comes with the caveat of a lot of engagement that will have to go with that when and that's for even if the MOU [indistinct] the work group obviously we have community obviously now. So the superintendent the task force for reopening and remote learning. So there's a lot of people who have to get buy-in and a lot for stakeholders involved. I know patience is is if not running thin all but gone.
361But but we are it is something that is our minds and has we have not lost sight of it but are just trying to be very smart because losing lives is a serious thing. We all know that remote learning has been very difficult. And so I would also encourage obviously we're doing it but obviously want to say that we do need to figure out how we're going to operationalize the outdoors classrooms that we approved resolution for for the pilots. Our youngest learners are the ones who I would see being great recipients of that opportunity. I know it's not it’s easier said than done so our district does need to get in with the guidance as as quick as we can to make those kind of things possible. It's it's [indistinct] more heartbreaking than staying at
362home with us. Your big children you know not as much sympathy for the little ones you're looking at them and it's heartbreaking to see the struggles and it's no parent can take this very long. So we need to. We need to get things together as much as we can. I know we're working hard but we need to work harder. So thank you everybody. I hope everyone has a good night. >> DIRECTOR DEWOLF: Thank you. My comments are. I want to thank the students for joining us today. So great to have students today. I want to thank my colleagues for your support on the student community workforce agreement. Super super transformational. And I'm so excited about it. Thank you for your for your incredible support. I know that's going to have a long lasting impact for
363seven generations to come. And I think [indistinct] today is you know while we’ve been sitting on this call for about 6 hours just now. You know there's students that don't have a place to live tonight. They don't have a place to sleep that's safe. They don't have enough food. They don't have a device or they don't have access to Internet. And so much of our work is really about just making sure that every single one of our kids is safe and supported and can learn. And you know even as we sit here on this call and know that you know we're we're falling short of that and that just weighs heavy on me. I don't have anything more to say. But there being no further business to come before the board tonight this board this
364regular board meeting is now adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday September 23rd 2020. And thank you all and please do get some rest.