In Advance of Tonight's Seattle School Board Meeting

 It's a slight agenda for tonight's meeting but one item packs a punch. We continue to see in this agenda how the directors are trying have changed the agenda format to push further and further away from the public. 

There are just 8 speakers for Public Testimony.  There are three for Middle College HS that look to be about defunding it because of the district's decision to close schools and these speakers' concern that Middle College might be on the chopping block.

The agenda again reflects putting items in the Consent Agenda that will take just one vote from the Board to pass all the items. And the Board continues its uptick of Intro/Action items on the same night which is just plain wrong for non-emergency items. 

One is the really big item:

This Board Action Report is requesting approval for the Superintendent to accept funding from
Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) Project AWARE grant in the amount of $7,200,000 ($1,800,000 per
year) for the period of December 31, 2022, through December 30, 2026.

Yup, nearly two million dollars a year through 2026 for mental health supports for students. This is great news and the district should be applauded for getting this grant.

The good:

- Increase culturally responsive Social Emotional Learning (SEL) support PreK-12
- Provide a 1.0 FTE School Social Worker focused on serving American
Indian/Alaskan Native students
- Facilitate staff trainings on mental health, suicide prevention, and restorative
practices

But there is one problem item:

- Expand Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Services (SBIRT) to 6
additional middle schools

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) currently provides School-Based Screening, Brief
Intervention, and Referral to Services at eight schools: Eckstein, Hamilton, Jane Addams,
Madison, Meany, and Whitman Middle Schools, and Franklin and Ingraham High
Schools. SBIRT is a substance use reduction and mental health promotion program in
which identified students are provided additional support services either internally or
through community partners. Project AWARE will fund an expansion of this successful
program to an additional 6 middle schools, which would allow SBIRT to be delivered at
all comprehensive middle schools.

The district is not calling the SBIRT screener by its real name which is Check Yourself. As I outlined in the past this is NOT a good screener; it's overly long AND asks a lot of questions that shouldn't be there. I will be addressing this issue in a separate post but man, I hate to see that expansion.

This is a heavy lift grant and it appears the district will need more staff just to service it.

What I see from the district's timetable isn't much in the way of direct services to students except for the Check Yourself screener. Again, SBIRT is not a bad thing but this screener is. What is also troubling is that there are not enough mental health professionals to cover the number of students who may put up red flags except in the case of self-harm or harm to others. Meaning, the district sure can gather lots of data but can they actually act on it to help more students? That's not clear.

The Board is also sticking in a Work Session right in the middle of the Board meeting. Here's what they say it will be about:

Building Relationships with Youth Continued (with Kings)

At least they are being true to the Strategic Plan because "Kings" refers to Black boys in SPS. There is no link for this Work Session which is troubling.

After the Work Session, the Board will do their SOFG required "self evaluation." 

There are several new courses coming to SPS.

• American Indian Studies Natives in Media
• Kiswahili 1A & 1B
• Latinx US History
• Somali Heritage Language 1A & 1B

The Somali courses fall under "World Language" as does the Kiswahili courses. The AIS Natives in Media course comes under "Fine Arts." The Latinx American History courses will be under Ethnic Studies/Social Studies.

Then comes the last item on the agenda, "Informational Items." This area is particularly important for this meeting because it has:

- District's annual financial report to the Board. I found this one a bit puzzling because if I'm reading it correctly, financially, the district doesn't look so bad off for last year.

- Annual Disclosure of Financial/Conflict of Interest for directors and senior staff. 

Nothing of great import here except for:

• Mia Williams who reports being "assistant superintendent of AAMA until June 30, 2022 then (Executive Director of the Thriving Center.)" Does she still work for SPS or not? Unclear. 
• Director Liza Rankin's doesn't make it clear if she or her spouse works for the named company.
  

- Board Director Questions and Staff Responses for items on the agenda.

Really pleased to see how in-depth Director Lisa Rivera-Smith and Director Vivian Song Maritz are in their questions (only those two submitted questions). But oddly, for a couple of basic questions, staff is basically saying, "We'll get back to you."

? - The resource gap between revenues and expenditures is about $30M than budgeted. What accounted for this?

Staff will follow up for additional context and provide responsive information in a follow-up communication to the Board

? Can you please provide staff count for certificated salaries, classified salaries for both 21-22 and 20-21?

The requested information is not immediately available for inclusion in this Q&A document but staff counts will be provided in a follow-up communication to the Board.

But Song Maritz didn't ask for that to be in the document; she just wanted some basic numbers. You can't tell me someone in HR doesn't know those numbers.