Seattle School Board Meeting, April 23, 2025

Update:

There are 25 people on the list for public testimony and 80(!) on the waitlist. Clearly, people want to be heard. 

People on the waitlist mostly want to talk about Highly Capable as well as enrollment. There are several that want to talk about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. The people on the waitlist also want to talk about those same topics. There are several people  on the waitlist asking about Concord International Schools and they have one question, "Where is Ms. Peace?"

I'd be interested in hearing more about that story.

End of update

 

Before the meeting - from 3-4 pm - the Board will discuss, vote,  and then announce their selection for the search firm to find a new permanent superintendent for Seattle Public Schools. They have narrowed it down to three candidates. It will be interesting to see what the discussion sounds like,

The regular Board meeting starts at 4:15 pm; here's the agenda.

Both meetings will be live-streamed at the SPSTV broadcast on YouTube.

Also, on Thursday night, the 24th, there will be the first of the Board's "public engagement" meetings at Aki Kurose Middle School from 5:30-7:00 pm. 

 

Board Meeting Agenda

- I see from the Personnel Report that the director of Racial Equity Advancement, Madelin Hall, left in February. 

- Also, the temporary replacement for principal at Rainier View Elementary, Jo Lute-Ervin, also left in February. It appears the permanent replacement is Justin Booker who was also serving as an interim administrator. 

- The BAR for "Approval of 2025-2026 Regular Board Meeting Dates" reflects that the Board is still going to continue having just one Board meeting per month.

- It appears that B.F. Day Elementary - the district's oldest operating school - needs windows replaced. I am somewhat gobsmacked at the cost - $4,915,000.  It looks like it's not just the glass but 212 window frames (they are wood-framed and would get new aluminum-clad wood-framed windows.) The work would be started this summer but not finished until 2026-2027 school year.

- Approval of schools' CSIP plans. I see this notation:

Regional Executive Directors of Schools are the central office leads for ensuring schools are making good-faith effort (sic) toward implementing and achieving their CSIP goals.  

I hope parents pester the ED in their region if they see that their school's CSIP plan is not being covered, especially around HC. 

-  Since the Board is making their search firm selection in the hour before the regular Board meeting, they are then making it official during the Board meeting, giving authorization to execute a contract. 

 

Introduction Items

- Here's a good one. The Board has a BAR which defers repayment of the Economic Stabilization Account (aka the Rainy Day Fund) until 2026-2027 AND allows the district to take $4M of interest funds (from various capital levies) to use for the 2025-2026 budget. The deferment would save the district $7M and take $4M worth of interest. 

The Rainy Day Fund is supposed to be at 3% of the "District's total prior year operating expenditures." If it is used, then a repayment plan is required. 

As for the capital levies interest, "The funds are not required for the District's planned capital projects and would not negatively impact the District's capital project program." One, this is NOT to say that there are not PLENTY of capital items that could use that money. But the "planned projects" won't suffer. 

In the items that are all rolled into the Consent Agenda, there is one for some work at Jane Addams Midlde School around drainage, irrigation, concrete stairs and walkways, etc. They went over the budget by 28% (and said that was normal because of "regulatory agency requirements." That overage was $382,246.

Great to know that the district is just swimming in capital dollars to the point where going over a budget 28% doesn't really matter and that there are no real pressing capital needs elsewhere in the district. I am being sarcastic but I know that many staff and parents at any number of school buildings could tell you a specific capital need not being addressed at their school. 

- The other Intro item is also interesting but in a happier way.  Basically, it allows students 16 years or older to earn credits through paid work experiences.

Career and Technical Education

Students may obtain up to 1.0 mastery-based credit for qualified worksite learning experiences, including paid work, by 1) completing a high-quality partner program approved through the CTE Department’s approval process or 2) passing a district created assessment that is aligned to state learning standards.

This assessment will include:
• Written report by the student;
• Student-designed portfolio of work; and
• Hands-on demonstration of knowledge and skills.

This policy also states:

To ensure cultural responsiveness and equity in awarding mastery-based credit, the district will collect and annually review disaggregated data to see which subgroups of students are receiving mastery-based credit. If disproportionality is found, the district will take appropriate actions to ensure equitable access to these crediting opportunities. 

The Equity Analysis in the BAR says: In 2022-23, 67% of students who participated in worksite
learning were SOCFFEJ.

 

Then we come to the ever-exciting SOFG parts of the meeting.  (Actually there is one - Progress Monitoring - right before public testimony. It has no documentation attached. The first one near the end of the meeting is "Interim Metrics for New Guardrails.") 

After that is an Enrollment Planning Update.  I've chosen to create a separate post for that topic. But hey, here's the topline. The district gained 14 students from 2023-2024 and enrollment for this year stands at 49,240 students. 

- Then more SOFG stuff. 

 

Informational Items 

I don't know where this category came from or what it really means but it includes the monthly budget status report, another SOFG (final interim metrics for new goals) and THEN, Highly Capable Services Plan. 

Now why would that be at the VERY end of the agenda? Again, hmmm.

This is the actual plan which I am going to create as another post to discuss. 

 

Here's the last thing the Board is doing at this Board meeting:

Executive Session: To discuss with legal counsel representing the agency matters relating to agency enforcement actions, or to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency, the governing body, or a member acting in an official capacity is, or is likely to become, a party, when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency. RCW 42.30.110 (1)(i). This session is scheduled for 30 minutes. (Added to agenda 4/21/25) 

Any guesses?