Oh, the Things You'll Learn

Update. Found out what the "Garfield Superblock" in the BTA V levy is. 

Robert Stephens, Jr. has been one of the voices pushing the public agencies who each control a section of the Garfield High School campus, Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, to fulfil a promise made back when the school was undergoing a major renovation that opened in 2008 that cost the district over $100 million. 

As part of the public process to approve building a new Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center, Seattle Public Schools had to be approved to get a variance in order to build fewer than the required number of off-street parking stalls. As part of that process, the district was required to provide a public benefit as a mitigation. 

That project was the Super Block improvement project. “The community was just forgotten about,” Stephens tells CHS. 

A center of these improvements is the Legacy and Promise Promenade. This pathway would fulfill the long-envisioned goal of connecting Horace Mann School, now home to Nova High School, just on the other side of Cherry Street, with the Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center in the center of the campus. 

Current estimates of the full cost for the Super Block project are $6 to $7 million; the coalition says they are expecting the school district to contribute around one million to the project. T

end of update

...when you ask for the documentation for Board committee meetings. 

As an informational aside, the Board has four committees - Operations, Curriculum, Instruction and Student Services, Audit&Finance and Executive. The first three are self-explanatory. The Executive Committee is led by the leadership on the Board (in this case, Chandra Hampson, president, Brandon Hersey, vice-president, and Member-at-Large, Lisa Rivera Smith). That committee goes over upcoming Board meeting agendas as well as state legislative agenda, resolutions,  etc. All four committees meet monthly.  The public is allowed to both Work Sessions and Board committee meetings but there is no public speaking time. 

Also to note, when the district has Work Sessions, you will be able to view the agenda AND the documentation online. You cannot for the Board committees and so you must request it. (This on the theory that "things could change" but I think it's to keep the public at bay.)

First up - Audit&Finance

This meeting was held on Monday, August 16th.

The first thing in the documentation is the minutes from the last A&F meeting in May. Reading these I find this fairly shocking information that was notated as "Informational Only." The district belongs to a risk management pool with other districts in order to save money on insurance for liabilities. (I suspect this is where most of the money comes from when the district has to pay out for a lawsuit.) 

Richard Staudt, Manager of Risk Management stated that WSRMP indicated in January that premiums were going to go up due to a variety of different factors and in April WSRMP’s Board voted to increase premiums by 20% except for those holding a Self-Insured Retention (SIR) which Seattle Public Schools (SPS) holds. 

At that time, WSRMP informed Mr. Staudt that they would be increasing SPS’ premium by 36%. On June 1st, they let us know that would be paired with a requirement that our self- insured retention would go up from $250,000.00 to $1M. This increase will significantly impact our Legal department’s budget. They subsequently offered an option to retain the $250,000 SIR, but with a premium increase of 91% ($2.8M). Mr. Staudt stated that SPS is currently in contract with WSRMP for the next 2 years which means that WSRMP would be able to impose the increases without the possibility of leaving the WSRMP. Seattle Public Schools and WSRMP are currently in negotiations over the increases and are looking for alternative insurance possibilities for the 2022 school year. 

That's just jaw-dropping and the district has to pay it per the contract. 

So, at the Board meeting on August 25th, there is this BAR (Board Action Report):

Renewal of Washington Schools Risk Management Pool coverage for fiscal year 2021-2022

I move that the School Board authorize the Superintendent to accept the proposed Washington Schools Risk Management Pool coverage agreement for the 2021-2022 fiscal year and that the expenditure of $4,595,177 in premium contributions to the WSRMP loss funding pool be authorized. I also move that $650,000 be allocated to the tort claim reserve account for management of claims falling under the increased self-insured retention level and that the district provide the risk pool notice of withdrawal. 

Read page 2 of the BAR for the reasons which are also worrisome. 

The district is continuing to accept a grant from OSPI for professional growth and educator support for new teachers. I'm glad to see this happening. The documentation has some interesting charts about teacher data. On page 29 of the documentation is a chart, Characteristics of All Beginning Teachers Statewide for Washington State.

Women continue to dominate the profession with numbers in the high 70%. Same with white teachers with even higher numbers in the high 80%.

The Board will also be voting to adopt a new policy, Workforce Secondary Traumatic Stress, in order to meet the requirements of House Bill 1363 (HB 1363), which was signed into law on April 26, 2021. To note, the Superintendent will create a work group to explore this topic but there is no real money in the district to back it up. 

The documentation also includes a powerpoint on the upcoming BTA V levy in Feb. of 2022. BTA is Building, Technology and Academics/Athletics. Just to note for history, this levy was originally the workhorse levy, doing vast amounts of maintenance like new HVAC systems, fire systems, roofs, etc. The "A" was originally just for Athletics. But the district added more and more topics to this levy. I find it troubling that nearly the entire Technology budget comes from BEX/BTA. If a levy should ever fail, that could be catastrophic for that department. 

It looks like the district wants to ask for between $908M and $719M. They will start having community meetings in September - the 20th, 21st, 23rd, 27th and 28th. Starting on page 155 is the list of possible projects for schools. 

One big item on the list of projects (finally) is Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center. The district uses that stadium for some high schools for football and soccer as well as graduations. It also rents it out and having a better stadium might possibly mean more income for the district. (The district makes about $1M a year from the parking lot in front of the stadium.)

There is one odd thing mentioned in the proposal on page 116 of the documentation:

Funding for retro-commissioning Facilities/Operations personnel for six years

Now I didn't know what retro-commissioning is so I looked it up. I can only find articles about retro-commissioning for buildings and not for people. I am wondering if this is an across-the-board raise for that department. Anyone know what this is?

Also on the same page there is this notation:

Garfield Superblock improvements

and I don't know what this is either.

On page 136 , BTA V Capital Levy Academics/Athletics, they have Identified Facility Needs $48.9M. This includes Special Education Program Modifications, Program Placement, Athletic Field Replacement/Field Lights/Equipment, Outdoor Classrooms, Arts Equipment and Science Equipment.

These are all worthy items and it might be where money will come from for the changes to HCC (under program placement). 

Page 165 lists "Seismic" and I see that Laurelhurst ES, McGilvra ES, View Ridge ES, Emerson ES, Jane Addams MS, McClure MS and the QA gym are all in the worst category.

Page 169 lists "Fire Suppression" and it's fairly shocking how many schools have NO system at all. On page 174 for "Fire Alarm" you can see how many schools there are that need new alarms.