Seattle Schools, First Full Week of 2023-2024 School Year

 I'm going to have a busy week personally so I may not be putting out many posts. I will, of course, monitor a couple of media sources in case there is breaking news.

I see tomorrow is the first day of school for kindergarteners; if you are a parent of one, really, it will be okay. I work with kindergartners twice a week and they are such fun and funny little people. 

As well, tomorrow is the 9/11 anniversary. I had a young woman on Twitter who told me it was "sad and all but it's done" and we must move on to other issues. Well, I know I'm old but if we cannot remember and honor a day that is probably one of the worst for our nation, then I just don't know what to say. Did all those first responders that day who now have terrible health from working in that toxic ash get to move on? Did SNL's Pete Davidson, whose firefighter father died in 9/11, get to move on? And Saudi Arabia, where the overwhelming majority of terrorists that day came from, should we move on in that relationship? 

We Americans are getting mighty clever about rewriting or ignoring history.

There's a Board meeting this week; here's the agenda.

I see in the Personnel Report that Manal Al-ansi, one of the two senior staffers that experienced HIB from Director Chandra Hampson and Director Zachary DeWolf, left in July. 

The Board finally attached the "evaluation tool" they will be using for the Superintendent's evaluation and I must say, it's not much. I see that under "Community Engagement" that "not applicable" is checked. So the Board is not interested - at all - in how the public sees Superintendent Brent Jones' work? Duly noted. 

There is a lot of "targets," "evidence of," "progress monitoring," "role clarity and accountability clarity," around strategy, execution, and accountability. I will be interested to see if the Board has a discussion on this issue, given that at the last Board meeting when this was introduced, the actual tool was not attached to the BAR for public viewing. 

Under Introduction Items, there is the "Appointment of Discipline Appeal Council Membership" who will serve through the end of the 2025-2026 school year. That's a long volunteer gig. 

The Discipline Appeal Council is appointed by the Seattle School Board to decide appeals for
certain exclusionary discipline decisions for students. This includes short-term, in-school, and
long-term suspensions; expulsions; and emergency expulsions/removals. The DAC may also be
tasked with deciding student Harassment, Intimidation, or Bullying (HIB) appeals
under Superintendent Procedure 3207SP, Prohibition of Harassment, Intimidation or Bullying – Students.

The district racial equity tool guided revision of Board Policy No. 3201 including development
of new appointment criteria that underly (sic) this appointment process. District discipline data shows that racial disproportionality (sic) persists in district disciplinary responses, and the district commits through Board Policy No. 3240, Student Behavior and Disciplinary Responses, to eliminating this racial predictability and disproportionality (sic). The Board states in Board Policy No. 3201 that it will appoint a Discipline Appeal Council that is reflective of the students most impacted by district disciplinary decisions through race, ethnicity, and experience.

It's a little confusing because they are actually still taking applications (see the BAR for the form) through September 12th so there are no names attached to the BAR. The proposed appointees should be in the next BAR on September 27th. 

There's also the "Guiding Principles for the Building Excellence Capital Levy (BEX VI). They don't seem all that different from previous ones. 

Yet more SOFG "Guardrail" assessment. Much of the assessment is in the gray zone which means they don't have the data metrics yet. Page 7 is interesting because it's results of climate survey of school staff/district staff. It starts off pretty good:

Staff in this school are productively taking action to address issues of racial equity in the school

School staff 74%     District staff 74%

But, with each following statement, the numbers go down until you have:

This school deals with racial conflict in an effective and fair manner

School staff 44%.    District staff 42% 

Then, on page 8, you see the statement:

Staff in this school can have honest conversations about race where principals agree at 78%, teachers at 69% and it drops from there all the way to 45% for "educational service associate."

Near the end of the meeting, the Board will have a Work Session to discuss what to put forth at the Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA) General Assembly.

• WSSDA expands on Basic Education to include SEL (Social Emotional Learning) which is a no-no in other states. Glad to see it's there.

•  The Shoreline Board has a proposal on AI that:
  WSSDA shall initiate and/or support legislation that establishes the following for generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies:
  • A regulatory authority that establishes, and provides ongoing oversight of, standards for ethics,
  content, interaction requirements, and privacy for these technologies; including:
  o Full disclosure of source data/content used, noting specifically any violent, abusive, explicit
  and/or copyrighted / trademarked content;
  o Privacy practices employed and full disclosure on how anything input during each interaction
  will be used, stored, and/or managed;
  o Affirmative consent by the user before first use, and an easily accessed way to deny that
  consent if so desired;
  o Documentation on what kinds of things it tends to get wrong and inherent biases it contains;
  o The ability to turn it off when embedded into other applications.
  • Amply funds professional development for educators and staff on understanding how these
  technologies work, how to recognize and counteract the inherent biases and issues that exist within
  them, and how to use them as effective and ethical learning and teacher resource tools.
  

• Seattle is submitting an amended proposal on "Comprehensive School Safety" (see page 24). This would now include: Approaches to discipline and intervention that reduce or eliminate unnecessary or unreasonable restraint, restraint devices, isolation and other uses of physical crisis intervention."
  

• Shoreline SD also submitted this proposal: WSSDA shall initiate and/or support legislation that amply funds sidewalk construction and maintenance, traffic and speed calming measures, and other evidence-based safety measures for pedestrians and bicycle riders around all public schools. 

Currently, funding for sidewalks and traffic/safety measures is not part of funding provided by the state. While grant programs exist, this is an essential need for student, family, staff, and community safety around our schools in every district. To that end, a specific position on these important capital investments will support advocacy to elevate these specific physical safety aspects which remain unaddressed by the state legislature in their funding of schools.

• Edmonds SD put this idea forward: WSSDA shall initiate and/or support legislation that amply funds measures to increase:
  • Student awareness and understanding of the dangers of addictive and harmful substances, including
  nicotine, alcohol, recreational and illegal drugs; including opioids and fentanyl;
  • Substance use and abuse prevention and response strategies for students, families, and staff;
  • School district capacity to prevent and respond to overdoses on school premises, transportation, or during school-related activities at other locations. 
  

• Seattle and Shoreline co-authored a proposal around "board orientation and continuing education" "to assure a high level of competency for each school director." 
  

• Tukwila SD has this brief proposal: WSSDA believes that the education system should support the civil rights of all students and that local control cannot be used to violate those rights. I wonder what this is about.

The last item on the agenda is "Board Director Questions and Staff Responses" but, as usual, they are not yet attached.