Seattle School Board Meeting, May 22, 2024

Update

There are four directors present - Rankin, Briggs, Topp, Mizrahi. Rankin referenced two who were remote ( Sarju and Clark) and I guess Hersey is out.

They had technical problems with public testimony so it started late. Rankin went on and one about "legally required public testimony" but they didn't have to answer anything. She also said the vote at the last meeting on the Superintendent's Plan was NOT for the plan but for "receipt" of a coming plan. 

Seriously?

Public testimony was certainly jaw-dropping. Just as Rainier View Elementary has real and severe administrative problems so does Pathfinder K-8. Speaker after speaker, some were children, some were adults reading anonymous testimony from teachers who feel unsafe - it's a horror story. One child, who said they were 9 years old last year, had to stop another child from killing themself in a classroom! In another classroom, a student was acting out sexually against other students. One speaker said there had been 40 incidents in one kindergarten class. The last speaker summed it up by saying that they have asked for consultations, for meetings and now "we are asking for change." There is an overtone of race as the principal is Black and that was met head-on. It appears

How does the district let things get this bad? What are they paying the overseers of each region for if not to address these kinds of issues? 

There were also speakers on Native Education who said that, in the past, there were bi-annual meetings with staff and Native leaders on Native Education as well as community engagement with the Native Community by superintendents but no more. 

There were several speakers standing up for Laurelhurst Elementary and frankly, it was not the usual suspects I expected. Laurelhurst used to have this tony, country-club like feel but not now. These were down-to-earth parents who talked about belonging for their children including bi-racial kids and Special Education students.

Consent agenda went through with no issues. Well, I have an issue and it's that I DID go check about the BTA V elevator item which says:

The Dover Elevator Modernization project, located at Adams Elementary, Bryant Elementary, Coe Elementary, Franklin High School, Hawthorne Elementary, John Hay Elementary, Olympic View Elementary, Thurgood Marshall Elementary, and Wedgwood Elementary schools, is funded through the Buildings, Technology, and Academics/Athletics (BTA) V Capital Levy, passed by the voters in February 2022

I checked and elevator repair is NOT in BTA V. So to say again, when you vote for a school levy, you are voting for a POT OF MONEY.  Apparently because the district cut facilities staff, they can't do the work themselves so they have to contract it out and are taking a lump of money from BTA V for it. But that means, some other facilities work isn't going to get done.

Topp asked about talking about the Guardrails now. Rankin stutters around and Jones is not there. Oh my. But Topp says okay. What the hell are they there for? Now they are talking about community outreach speaking engagement scheduling. Because that's the most important district business. 

I cannot take these people seriously. 

end of update and end of meeting (before 7 pm which seems a record)

 Here's the agenda. I don't know why but "how to testify," which is normally at the top of the agenda, is not there. I believe you can now only register by computer, instead phone/computer.

The State Auditor's office does regular reviews of various areas of district operations. 

This report contains the results of our independent accountability audit of Seattle School District
No. 1 from September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2023

Use of restricted funds– professional learning and local revenue for enrichment
activities
• Compliance with supplemental contracts for enrichment activities
• Student enrollment reporting – basic education
• Self-insurance with unemployment and workers compensation
• District vehicles and fuel cards – compliance with District policy
• Procurement – public works and cooperative purchases
• Accounts payable – procurement card

• Open public meetings – compliance with minutes, meetings, and executive session
requirements
• Financial Condition – reviewing for indications of financial distress 

No laughing at that last one.

Next up in December, 2024 are:

- accountability for public resources

- financial statement

- federal programs

That should be fascinating reading.

I won't got through the entire report here but will report any important findings in a separate post. 

Public Testimony

Huge list with 25 scheduled speakers and a waitlist of 31 people.

Most of the speakers are divided between well-resourced schools/closure as well as issues at Pathfinder K-8. I had heard that school has similar complaints as Rainier View Elementary about their own principal. 

I see some familiar names on the list including Sarah Sense Wilson, a prominent leader in Native education, former school board candidate, Debbie, Carlsen, and former school board director Lisa Rivera,.

Consent Agenda

This looks fairly routine except for one BTA V item which is a change order for "the Dover Elevator Modernization project at nine school sites" in the amount of $862,117.38 (plus sales tax). Elevators in schools are vital for students with mobility challenges.

Apparently, several of the Dover elevators that the district has in buildings are "obsolete" and no longer have parts available to fix them. The district says if any of them stop working, it would be months until they could get a new elevator delivered and installed. That would mean rerouting classes to accommodate those who need the elevators. They would like to finish these projects by August 2024.

The schools affected are all elementaries except for Frankin HS: Adams, Bryant, Coe, Frankin, Hawthorne, John Hay, Olympic View, Thurgood Marshall and Wedgwood. (One interesting side note is the both Thurgood Marshall and Olympic View are Tier 3 schools.)

The district says there is a modernization project for the elevators via BTA V (I'd have to go and check if that project is actually in there.) 

Here's the wording that struck me:

Due to district Facility Operations resources being allocated elsewhere, SPS can no longer self-perform the electrical, fire alarm and HVAC work that was originally omitted from the proposals. This is the fundamental cause of the change order.

Where were those resources directed to? Does that mean that Facility Operations lost staff due to budget cuts?  And why is the change order only available "upon request?" 

And that does it for real district business. 

Then the Board will be navel-gazing ("self-evaluation") and then they will examine "Progress Monitoring."  

Under "Progress Monitoring, " there is Guardrail 4 - Discipline.

Viewing the report, you can see some good news and some hard to quantify news. The good news is that the number of Special Education students with discipline incidents is steadily going down, from a high of 11.3 per 100 students in 2018-2019 to 5.4 in 2023-2024. 

But the the rate for all students has bounced around but appears to be dropping somewhat, with the 2018-2019 number of 3.6 to this year's number of 2.5.

They are also going to examine Guardrail 5 - Safe & Welcoming

The news on this guardrail is not good. The really bad story is that their goal of AA males in 3-12th grades who attend 90% or more of the school year will increase from 60.1% in June 2021 to 65% in June of 2023-2024 did not happen.

But reading on, I see that the attendance rate for AA male students "decreased significantly from the baseline of 2020-21 (60.6%) to 2023-24 (46.7% Year-to-Date as of 4/4/2024).