E45 - There Is Not a List, Part 3 - List in September? November? December?

Jane and Christie cover the June 26, 2024 school board meeting with help from our new intern, Jasmine Pulido. Topics include the postponement of releasing a list of schools to be closed in 2025, the 2024-25 budget introduction and hearing, and the reduction in school board meetings scheduled for the 2024-25 school year.

Contact us: Send corrections, suggestions, and comments to hello@seattlehallpass.org. 

Disclaimer: Seattle Hall Pass features a variety of voices. Each person’s opinions are their own. 

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E45 - There Is Not a List, Part 3 - List Coming September? November? December?

Contact us: Send corrections, suggestions, and comments to hello@seattlehallpass.org. 

Disclaimer: Seattle Hall Pass features a variety of voices. Each person’s opinions are their own. 

[00:00:05] Christie Robertson: Welcome to Seattle Hall Pass, a podcast with news and conversations about Seattle Public Schools. My name is Christie Robertson.

[00:00:10] Jane Tunks Demel: And I'm Jane Tunks Demel. Today we are going to discuss the school board meeting on June 26th. This episode is quite a bit delayed because we took a break after the end of the school year. 

[00:00:24] Christie Robertson: Here's what we're going to cover in this episode.

[00:00:27] Jane Tunks Demel: 1) The latest updates on the school closure plan. And the big update on that is: there's no list of schools to be closed. We'll talk more about why the district delayed the release of the list and the board's reactions to that. 

[00:00:40] Christie Robertson: 2) A overview of the 24-25 budget, which was introduced and had a hearing.

[00:00:47] Jane Tunks Demel: 3) And we'll also talk about the board meeting schedule for next year, which has turned out to be a contentious issue, with public pushback against reducing the number of regular meetings. 

[00:00:57] Christie Robertson: 4) And then we'll play some highlights from the public testimony.

Meeting Basics

[00:01:00] Christie Robertson: Let's start with some basics about the meeting. Just to do some attendance, Sarah Clark attended the meeting remotely, as she usually does. 

[00:01:08] Jane Tunks Demel: She's only been to one regular school board meeting in person. 

[00:01:13] Christie Robertson: Director Briggs arrived an hour late and left partway into the meeting. Director Hersey also left partway into the meeting. But since they only need four directors to be in attendance for a quorum, they could still continue.

[00:01:25] Jane Tunks Demel: We've noticed attendance is definitely getting to be more irregular than it used to be. 

[00:01:29] Christie Robertson: The new directors seem to still be getting their bearings, as there's very little contribution in this year's meetings from anybody besides President Rankin. At this last meeting, she spoke for about 62% of the total time that school board directors were speaking. The next closest was Brandon Hersey with 14%. I would love to hear more from all the directors. 

[00:01:55] Jane Tunks Demel: Especially since in theory we have, or not even in theory, it's in reality, each of the directors are there to represent a different region of the city. 

School Closures

[00:02:05] Christie Robertson: Let's move on to talk about school closures. So the board punted on releasing the list of schools to be closed, just as Jane predicted that they would do. I understand this was bad timing for sharing the list because it was right after school got out. But the time crunch in the fall is also going to be insane. In some ways, there's just never a good time to share a list like this. And I can't help but feel like maybe they should have just done it. 

[00:02:32] Jane Tunks Demel: Yeah, it's hard to say, but they postponed the list for what I feel like are good reasons. In particular, the district appears to be responding to community feedback, which is encouraging.

For example, many of us have asked if the district is looking at how other districts handle school closures, and Superintendent Jones addressed that directly in his comments.

[00:02:54] Brent Jones: We're not the only ones in this predicament. And we're thinking about: What are the best practices? What are some of our colleagues in California, in Colorado, in Texas are going through a very similar set of circumstances. 

[00:03:10] Christie Robertson: And Jane, what were the reasons they gave for delaying?

[00:03:12] Jane Tunks Demel: That they need more time, the community needs more information, and so on. Here's what Superintendent Jones had to say.

[00:03:20] Brent Jones: What we heard from the community is that there's more information needed. There's an opportunity to have more transparency. There's an opportunity to, frankly, bring our community along to the understanding of what's in front of us. 

[00:03:33] Christie Robertson: It sounds like they're really trying to be responsive to community concerns.

[00:03:38] Jane Tunks Demel: Agreed, but I hope this doesn't just turn into an endless cycle of delays. Remember, Christie, when they said they were going to release a list in November of 2023? And then the night before the meeting, they said the closures would be pushed back a year.

[00:03:53] Christie Robertson: Yes. That was the big surprise that we talked about in Episode 12.

The district has an unenviable job, I would say. They have to balance the need for community input and the need to make decisions and move forward. 

Chief of Staff Bev Redmond emphasized the same sentiments.

[00:04:14] Bev Redmond: In order to create more transparency and create that sense of trust that's needed to really invest from a community standpoint in our planning — more detail, more detail. More detail on our budget. More detail on enrollment. More detail on the criteria that we're using in our planning process. And more detail about the timeline. Again, inspiring transparency and trust. We want the community to come along with us and not just be around our decisions. 

Also, questions arose regarding what does this look like? What does a well-resourced school look like in action? The instructional model, dual language, all of the services that our families are using, how does that work in our model? 

And then lastly, the class sizes, consistency and transition. How will it operate? How will we get there? How will we take care of each other along the way? 

[00:05:15] Jane Tunks Demel: The district crew for the presentation included Superintendent Jones, COO Fred Podesta, Chief of Staff Bev Redmond, and Associate Superintendent Rocky Torres.

[00:05:26] Christie Robertson: Fred Podesta was a star in this meeting. He heard community asking for more data and more information, and he dug in and brought it to us. He even added appendices of data to the presentation he made to the board. Here's some of his key points, one of which was about why the district can't just enroll their way out of the deficit.

[00:05:47] Fred Podesta: Of course, we would love to increase enrollment. But just from a purely financial perspective, you know, our revenue is allocated per student. So it does bring new revenue, but it also brings new costs. And ideally, we sort of break even. 

And that per-student allocation is great to cover marginal costs. So hiring more teachers, more instructional assistance, things that are fungible based on how many students — that works. What doesn't work are managing your fixed costs, like keeping a building open. Things that you can't easily change if enrollment is down at a particular school. So I just want to kind of dispel the notion that the key part of our financial issue relates to enrollment. It certainly is a factor. If you look at this model, if we got 4,900 students back, maybe we'd end up $6 million to the good. We could end up in the red, depending on where the students go, what type of services they need, and which school they attend. So it's complicated, but that isn't really the main issue. The reason we're having the discussion is how many buildings do we need to serve the students we have.

[00:07:03] Christie Robertson: So Jane, there actually were a few questions that school board directors asked.

[00:07:09] Jane Tunks Demel: Yeah. They were so good. Let's go through some of them. Here's Director Brandon Hersey.

[00:07:16] Brandon Hersey: We've said several times that even if we close the buildings tomorrow, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are going to be seeing a kickback immediately. I also think that that is fine, but what I do need to know is that there is a plan in place now to show how those outcomes are going to be better. I want to know how inclusion is going to be impacted by having less buildings. 

I want to know about, like, what is the rate of implementing curriculum with fidelity potentially. I think another piece of that is also going to be how does this keep us better aligned with our guardrails, specifically the one around safe and welcoming environments and being able to engage families of color more efficiently, right?

[00:07:57] Christie Robertson: Similarly, Vice President Sarju said this:

[00:08:00] Michelle Sarju: We need specifics. Like, how does this actually translate to student outcomes, not sort of theoretical. It's really a specific. 

[00:08:13] Jane Tunks Demel: Director Joe Mizrahi also said similar things and then turned the conversation to the process.

[00:08:18] Joe Mizrahi: So in terms of process, I'm curious... You don't have to have like dates or anything, but what in your mind, just to expand a little bit on what the summer looks like. Let’s actually, you know, go through that process of getting to a plan that you want to bring forward and what the engagement will look like with the community. 

[00:08:32] Christie Robertson: The answer from Dr. Jones was basically that this was TBD, which was a bit scary. But let's let Superintendent Jones describe their plan to engage outside consultants to help them figure this out. 

[00:08:48] Brent Jones: So we talked about making sure that we avail ourselves to outside expertise. Part of that will be them kind of taking an analysis of where we are right now. And giving us feedback around how far are we from being able to get to the finish line. And so we want to have check-ins, at least, with our status along the way, we're thinking something like monthly as we go forward. 

But in terms of our deadline, we're talking about sometime in late November to actually bring the plan forward. And so we haven't backed up from November and said, “These are our marks” yet. But part of that is, again, the third-party expertise to help us to scope this out to make sure that we've hit all our marks. 

So the timeline is forthcoming. 

[00:09:39] Jane Tunks Demel: Superintendent Jones also discussed working through their process in public.

[00:09:43] Brent Jones: One thing that we've ideated is having specific workshops. It's like workshops on learning environment, workshops on maybe what Dr. Torres talked about. And so we don't bring... to Director Sarju's point, we don't bring the whole thing to the table. Instead we chunk it out in ways that when people have areas of interest where they want to go deeper, we can have a workshop on that. 

[00:10:05] Christie Robertson: President Rankin liked this idea. 

[00:10:07] Liza Rankin: Definitely what we've been hearing from our community is that they... nobody expects a perfect-with-a-bow-on-it finished plan. We actually don't want that. We want to see what the decisions are, and what the trade-offs are, and how we get to that final plan kind of together. So the workshop thing is great. Nobody wants this done to them or at them. 

[00:10:32] Christie Robertson: But then later, directors started to get uneasy with the delay and especially the big time crunch coming in November. Here are Director Topp, Superintendent Jones, and President Rankin.

[00:10:45] Gina Topp: I just want to understand a little bit of clarity on the timeline. So late November is when you imagine our preliminary proposal comes out from you all. Is that correct? 

[00:10:57] Brent Jones: So I'm going to put President Rankin on the spot. This is what we've been talking about as the ideal date for when we bring that preliminary set of recommendations forward...

[00:11:08] Liza Rankin: I think the preliminary. 

[00:11:12] Brent Jones: I'm sorry. Where we tell people “this is the plan” in late November. So we're talking about sometime in the fall, maybe mid-September, for the preliminary plan. And then late November for “this is where people are going to be moving.” 

[00:11:26] Gina Topp: Okay. 

[00:11:27] Liza Rankin: Well, so what we have talked about, and I can get sort of thumbs up, thumbs down right now, is that the absolute latest anyone should know which schools will or won't be open in the fall of 2025 is before winter break. 

 [00:11:43] Brent Jones: And so that period in between is the time, if we stick with this timeline, was where we would be doing... where we'd be seeking the feedback and input. And so that's fast. And that's something that we have to just accept as — if that's the timeline, that's what it will entail. So it'll be compacted, and it'll be intense. 

[00:12:04] Gina Topp: Yeah, that's... that's very compacted and intense. And we kind of look at our previous engagement session that we just went through and we realized all of a sudden, “Oh my goodness, there's so much incoming feedback and information from folks...” 

[00:12:17] Brent Jones: Yes. 

[00:12:17] Gina Topp: “...We need more time to sort it out.” Is that going to be enough time to be able to allow people to react and engage and provide input? 

[00:12:27] Brent Jones: That is a challenge. 

....

[00:12:28] Gina Topp: How are we going to... knowing that is an even more compacted timeline, go into that and be prepared for that. What does that look like? 

... 

[00:12:35] Brent Jones: As long as we know what our delivery date is, then we'll have to be very clear about what a compacted timeline it will be. 

 ...

[00:12:44] Brent Jones: So if we want to have it go out further to have more prolonged engagement, that could be necessary. Then we need to do that. But I think that's an intentional decision that we need to look at. And I'm seeking guidance, and I'm open to what you all would want to do with that.

[00:12:59] Christie Robertson: So this was wild, Jane. All of a sudden, it sounded like they were saying that the decision and the implementation could be delayed into another year.

Here's some more about that. 

[00:13:09] Gina Topp: I think, yes. I think it's further... Talking about that question and really looking into that timeline is important because I don't want to set ourselves up for failure here and I guess be sort of in the same spot we are in today, realizing we need more time. 

[00:13:22] Brent Jones: Yeah, we share that. 

[00:13:24] Christie Robertson: And President Rankin really started to panic at this point.

[00:13:28] Liza Rankin: Oh my gosh. Okay. I am feeling really like I have an insane sense of urgency that I'm trying to keep at bay, because it doesn't feel matched. So I'm trying to — When I was first running for school board in 2019, I knew what the enrollment projection was. I assumed this would be a conversation I would have to be a part of on the board five years ago. And then COVID happened. And even when COVID happened, I was like “Quick, while everybody's home! Close some buildings! Yep. Just do it now.” 

Because seeing the forecast that we're going to be in a bad spot... Like, this is not a surprise. We've known this is coming. So I have this real sense of urgency, and I want a lot more information right now. 

I'm wondering what is keeping us from being more clear about the very real constrictions that exist. We know that some buildings are not in great condition. That's a known. We know that population density doesn't look the same all over the city. We know that if we don't know what's happening before winter break, that that’s really too late to tell people what's happening in the fall of 2025. So if we get to that point and we haven't figured it out, how do we make up that other $30 million if we don't? 

So I have concerns that we're still sort of talking in the theoretical. When the board has already agreed that consolidation is a necessary component of stabilizing our budget to meet the needs of our students at current enrollment and projected enrollment levels. 

... 

I think that people in this room need to be much more direct about the fact that some buildings... I can name you right now the top five worst condition elementary buildings. And one of them is a K-8.

[00:15:59] Christie Robertson: This is Christie Robertson interrupting to give you the list of the five worst-conditioned buildings in Seattle Public Schools. We think that President Rankin is looking at the 2021 Facilities Master Plan Update, which we will link to in our show notes. And on that list, the five elementary schools with the worst building conditions are Sacajawea, View Ridge, North Beach, Wedgwood, and Salmon Bay K-8. So that's the K-8 she's talking about as she proceeds forward.  

[00:16:09] Liza Rankin: So my question is, if that building's not in good enough condition, what's happening to that K-8? We gotta figure that out. We haven't... we have to talk about it. And it still feels very theoretical.

... 

We should be telling them. We should be saying, “Hey, here's the reality of how enrollment has declined, of buildings that have opened over the past 10 years while enrollment was declining.” 

[00:16:20] Christie Robertson: And so President Rankin started to get brave herself and show what it's like to give real-life examples, including naming schools, to show the district staff how it's done.

[00:16:32] Liza Rankin: So we have to figure out how to deal with Wedgewood and View Ridge being 70-year-old neighborhood schools that are both about in need of replacement, with Thornton Creek, as the crow flies, basically right in between the two of them, that was added capacity, and we don't have enough kids for all three of them. That shouldn't be scary to say, because if you look at enrollment and you look at building conditions, you know that. 

So we need to just say those things and then talk about “okay, now, what are we going to do?” Because the reality is we have accepted that we have fewer students than we used to, and we need to serve them in fewer buildings. Our district has the operational capacity right now for over 60,000 students. And we have 49,000 students, and it's projected to continue to decline. That is reality. 

And we can not like it. I don't like it. This is not what I want to be talking about. But dodging around the what-ifs and whatevers are not going to get us away from that reality that has to be reckoned with.

[00:17:44] Christie Robertson: Vice President Sarju chimed in, doubling down on the sentiment that they just need to say what they're doing and do it.

[00:17:53] Michelle Sarju: We are going to have to consolidate schools. This is my fourth (I was trying to count them) experience as a parent in this district for almost 40 years, of some kind of school closure or consolidation. Was I happy with any of them? No, I wasn't. Because it actually impacted kids in my neighborhood. And yet it still happened. 

Ultimately, nobody wants their school closed, if we're being honest. Nobody wants their school closed. And at the end of the day, we're going to have to close and consolidate some schools, period. Point blank. I'm saying it for the record — it's got to happen. We cannot continue on this trajectory. 

So that's what I'm asking you all is to make it simple for yourselves as central staff. Because you are presenting this to us and then we're giving you feedback. And hopefully, this feedback is, like, “Let's just state what's true,” the plain truth, like Liza said, And then let's work from there. And at the end of the day, I think parents will appreciate that kind of process, that kind of, as a former board director used to say, “transparency.” I think at the end of the day, we will meet that mark if we do that.

[00:19:18] Jane Tunks Demel: And yeah, Christie, all of this reminds me of the public testimony that former school board director Leslie Harris where she pointed out that the district has known that this day is coming for a long time and they should just get their stuff done. Here's what she said. 

[00:19:34] Leslie Harris: I am a has-been school board member for eight years. From an admired teacher in the district, “Punting as often as the Seahawks.” You had this conversation in November. Plenty of time this last year to listen as opposed to carefully choreographed sit-and-get meetings. Which you chose not to have in the Southeast portion of our district. I don't get it. You didn't suddenly wake up and realize folks have a desire to be part of the solution. You kicked the can. 

You have been working with a matrix of decision-making for at least a year. Why so paranoid not to show that? If the draft list isn't available until September, and if there isn't a draft list already, then that's just plain cowardness and negligence.

That compressed time frame with the legalities of closures, hearings, boundary changes... 

Boundary changes. You wanna see ugly? Boundary changes. Budget deficit conversations, safety conversations and hopefully changes, and holidays will prevent real engagement and the possibility for input and change. 

Oh, let's add to that list the BEX Renewal Levy and collective bargaining agreement negotiations. That's a perfect storm and was entirely preventable by planning and leadership. That which we aspire to teach our students. Listening and learning. 

This dissolves trust in the district, its administration and board. And I most sincerely do not wish to be correct in this analysis. It's painful. 

Please address the elephant in the room and processes about option schools and K-8s and the rationalization for those beliefs. And if it's going to happen, please say so and why. 

And please address how much real money will be saved for closures netted out with the increased transportation, mothballing expenses, displaced, laid-off staff costs added to these equations.

The district is now bereft of advisory committees or inclination to seek input from families, students, and voters. We obviously need the help. We could — and can — do much better.

[00:22:10] Christie Robertson: All right, Jane. Conclusions?

[00:22:13] Jane Tunks Demel: So the district is saying they're going to close 20 schools, not this year, but the following year, and that the preliminary plan — whatever that means — will come out in September with the final list of schools being released in late November,

[00:22:29] Christie Robertson: Or December.

[00:22:31] Jane Tunks Demel: Or not at all.

[00:22:33] Christie Robertson: So there you have it.

All right, let's take a break before we come back and talk about the 24-25 budget. 

2024-25 Budget

[00:22:42] Christie Robertson: All right. Let's talk about the 2024-25 budget for Seattle Public Schools, which was brought for introduction and public hearing at this meeting. This is the culmination of 10 budget development work sessions that have been ongoing since September of 2023. 

Assistant Superintendent of Finance Kurt Buttleman had a long presentation prepared, but President Rankin only gave him like five minutes to blaze through it because — first, she said, they had seen it before, but also they had to start the budget hearing, which was technically a separate meeting, promptly at 8 o'clock. 

But we still have his slides. So we'll talk about what Kurt Buttleman wanted to say.

[00:23:43] Jane Tunks Demel: And remember, this is a 2024 to 2025 budget, so it doesn't include any savings that might come from future school closures.

[00:23:52] Christie Robertson: Okay, so hit me. What is the bill for running 105 schools?

[00:23:58] Jane Tunks Demel: $1.25 billion, but that's actually just the general fund, which you'll also hear called the operating budget. 

[00:24:06] Christie Robertson: So does that include the cost of new construction and maintaining buildings?

[00:24:10] Jane Tunks Demel: Nope, that's the capital fund, and that fund is $590 million, which is nearly 50% of the operations budget.

[00:24:20] Christie Robertson: It's wild how buildings can cost half as much as everything else it takes to run a school combined, including staff. So when they say that staff are 85% of our budget, they actually mean staff are 85% of the general fund.

[00:24:36] Jane Tunks Demel: And there are two other funds that are tracked separately from the operating and capital funds. The first one is the debt service fund, and that's the money Seattle Public Schools is paying toward a bond that paid for the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, or the central office, to be built. And it looks like SPS is paying $3.2 million a year for that. 

And then the last piece is the ASB fund, and that stands for Associated Student Body. That's the district just holding the money that students raise to pay for various school activities like clubs, sports, and school dances. And that budget is $6.2 million.

So those are the various budgets: Operations for $1.25 billion, capital budget for $590 million, debt service for $3.2 million, and ASB for $6.2 million. That comes to a total of $1.85 billion.

[00:25:39] Jane Tunks Demel: And the budget Board Action Report, which is the document the board actually votes on to pass the budget, also details any money transfers that are occurring. For example, there's a short-term interfund loan of $27.5 million that the general fund is borrowing from the capital fund that was used to balance the budget.

[00:26:00] Christie Robertson: That'll need to be repaid by June 30th, 2026. And also, to balance the budget, they're delaying the repayment of the rainy day fund, which they utilized last year to balance the budget.

[00:26:13] Jane Tunks Demel: So Christie, my question is this: Is the budget really balanced if the district borrowed $27.5 million this year and $42 million last year to balance the budget. How are they ever gonna repay these funds? That question has been asked a few times in the last year, and there's never a good answer for how they're going to pay it back. You'll get vague comments about, “We hope the legislature will give us more money in the next session.”

[00:26:42] Christie Robertson: And I think that's why former board director Vivian Song recommended that instead of doing these loans and using up their rainy day fund, that they go into financial oversight with the state.

[00:26:56] Vivian Song: I recognize the extreme efforts that Dr. Jones and his team have undertaken to present a balanced budget. However, I urge you to vote no on it because I don't think it will adequately address SPS issues. 

Dr. Jones was correct that there are no good options. But at this point, a better option will be to vote to put the district into financial oversight, a form of insolvency allowed under state law. This would be an important step. that will allow SPS to work with the state to make the structural changes needed. 

Dr. Nyland, the superintendent back in 2018 when the McCleary solution was finalized, predicted this moment. Other districts, such as Marysville, have already taken this step — they will not be the last. 

This recommended 24-25 budget requires borrowing against the capital fund. The hope is that it will be repaid by cost savings from closing schools. This is very risky. Does the estimated $35 million of savings include assumptions of lost enrollment after schools are closed? We know from the last time SPS closed schools that enrollment dipped sharply. We know when schools move temporarily when their building is being rebuilt or renovated, families leave. Indeed, several of the elementary schools which now have less than 250 got there precisely because they moved — Queen Anne Elementary, Montlake, among others.

This budget also doesn't address the largest source of our deficit: special education. School closures will exacerbate this deficit because of a percentage cap on special education students funded by the state. If we experience a significant change in the denominator of that ratio, total students enrolled, we risk more deficit spending.

Both Dr. Nyland and Dr. Jones are right. SPS has exhausted all it can do. It is time for state intervention. 

Don't throw the dice that school closures will solve our budget woes. The risk/reward is not there. Not when it so directly impacts kids. Vote no on this budget and vote yes on financial oversight.

[00:28:48] Christie Robertson: The financial policy requires the superintendent to put forward a four-year forecast. And this budget does that.

[00:28:55] Jane Tunks Demel: Yeah, and we're going to highlight a few interesting tidbits. The first one is that enrollment is projected to decrease from 48,000 to 44,000 over the next four years.

[00:29:08] Christie Robertson: Also, the capital fund expenditures are projected to decrease significantly by 2027-28. They're projecting it will decrease from $589 million to $300 million.

[00:29:20] Jane Tunks Demel: That's almost a 50% drop.

[00:29:22] Christie Robertson: I know! Do you think that takes into account school closures? This definitely requires an explanation. Is it because they're not building as many new buildings?

The last thing we want to mention is that there was an equity analysis. I bring this up because I've heard a lot of people asking for exactly that. Seattle Public Schools claims that it doesn't move forward on any initiative without doing a racial equity analysis. And the way they addressed this in this budget document is they say that they have moved to student outcomes focused governance and that their whole strategic plan is centered on those furthest from educational justice. 

[00:30:02] Jane Tunks Demel: So that's the 2024-25 budget.

[00:30:05] Christie Robertson: That's it!

[00:30:07] Jane Tunks Demel: And then they voted on July 2nd to pass it, unanimously. 

[00:30:10] Christie Robertson: Now we're going to take one more break, and then we'll come back to finish up the episode. 

Okay, the last agenda item we want to talk about is the 2024-25 board meeting schedule. For the upcoming year, the school board is scheduling only one meeting per month, which is the legal minimum. And it sounds like the school board directors got some feedback about that. President Rankin addressed this.

[00:30:49] Liza Rankin: State law provides for two types of meetings for bodies covered by the Open Public Meetings Act, which includes school boards: regular meetings and special meetings. 

Under state law and our policy, the full board sets our regular meeting dates, which are our regular legislative meetings like this one. And that is the dates that Superintendent Jones and I are presenting to be approved tonight. 

Special meetings — work sessions, engagement,  anything else that's not this format, this very kind of formalized structure — can be called and set by the board president. The full board doesn't need to vote on those. 

And we set the regular board meetings first so that we have that kind of foundation for the year. And then we add in more meetings. So we do, by our own recommendations, aim to have two full meetings of the board per month. But one of those will be a regular board meeting, which is this one, and the other ones will be a work session, engagement, other types of meetings.  

[00:31:58] Jane Tunks Demel: Director Topp pushed back repeatedly on this, including pulling this item from the consent agenda so they could discuss it. Here is what she said.

[00:32:06] Gina Topp: I will ultimately support this motion, but I pulled it just so I can put an emphasis on the idea of: there is a lot going on from August 2024 to July 2025. It's going to take a lot of coordination, it's going to take more than just one meeting a month, and I'm going to put an emphasis on making sure that at our board retreat in August we schedule these out and publish them for the public and for ourselves. I think that is imperative for us to do. Both because we have so much going on, but also for our community who we want to inform and be as transparent and open about our processes.  

[00:32:49] Christie Robertson: I'm pretty sure that what community is saying is that they want two regular meetings per month with the special meetings in addition to this. This is a giant district. The board is behind at student outcomes-focused governance and the board meetings are dense and lengthy. 

[00:33:10] Jane Tunks Demel: And though I hear what President Rankin is saying, this is actually quite a large reduction in the number of regular school board meetings. I looked up the last few years, and the norm was 21 or 22 regular meetings per school year until a couple of years ago, when they went down to 18 regular meetings per year, and now for next year, they're going down even further to 12 regular meetings per year. And yeah, of course, they can add special meetings as the year goes on, but they did that in other years too. So let's just be real here. The number of opportunities for public testimony will be cut by about 30 to 40 percent. That's a lot. 

[00:33:50] Christie Robertson: For what it's worth, that's our opinion.

[00:33:52] Jane Tunks Demel: Yeah, there you go.

Testimony

[00:33:54] Christie Robertson: And let's conclude with a mashup of important moments from public testimony from both the June 26 and July 2 school board meetings. And this was put together by our new intern, Jasmine Pulido. We're very excited to have her onboard. In this mashup, you'll hear from Andrew Brauninger, Sarah Butler, Izzy Rampersad, Dominic Parker, Betty Pauley, Cherylynne Crowther, Alice, Manuela Slye, Hem Morzaria-Luna, Jeremy Masner, and Brendan Levy. And I apologize if I mispronounced anybody's names.

[00:34:25] Andrew Brauninger: I came in here with prepared remarks, I rehearsed it, and then I kind of threw it all out because I thought today's presentation was very good and very informative. I want to hear what the Seattle School Board is doing to advocate with the state to really fix the problem and not do these paper-cut fixes that you guys are proposing.

[00:34:41] Sarah Butler: Meeting once a month is not enough oversight during an enrollment and a budget crisis or any time. I urge you to adopt a regular meeting calendar that meets at least twice a month. 

[00:34:52] Izzy Rampersad: For my final project in my AP Statistics class, we wanted to investigate whether the current grading policy is allowing students to miss class and turn in a minimal number of assignments yet maintain a passable GPA. What we found was that the predicted value of a student turning in zero assignments was a 61% grade in the class, 11 percentage points higher than the passing grade of 50%. I don't believe that this grading policy is preparing students adequately for those next steps. I don't get half of a paycheck when I don't show up for work. 

[00:35:23] Dominic Parker: I became depressed starting around 10 years old, and I was telling my parents that I did not want to live because my school was restricting my ability to learn and participate. I'm glad to be done with Seattle Public Schools. 

[00:35:34] Betty Pauly: This [closure] plan most significantly impacts would-be fifth graders, the exact same kids who were most negatively impacted by COVID, as they experienced kindergarten remotely. We are seeing from this cohort devastating behavioral challenges. It is undeniably true, and research supports, that disrupting this cohort's fragile stability the year before they make the change to middle school would have long-lasting detrimental effects.

[00:36:02] Cherylynne Crowler: I've gotten curious after talking to a school board member down in Kent about the growing business of ABA by national organizations. Blue Sprig is owned by KKR, a worldwide private equity firm. I intended to talk about equity. Instead, I am talking about private equity, making money off of the public school system.

[00:36:22] Alice: My name is Alice, and this is my brother Zach. Today is our birthday and we are here to remind you that we have about 50,000 students here in Seattle Public Schools. And this means that we have 50,000 individual learning profiles. This is why we must keep the option schools open. 

[00:36:41] Manuela Slye: I'm here to ask the school board to pass the amendment to Board Policy 3240: Student Behavior and Disciplinary Responses. It is critical that students have access to know and understand their rights and responsibilities. In terms of disciplinary action, it is critical students and families are aware of that there are specific guidelines for suspensions and expulsions, that they also have the right to have the notice of disciplinary action within 24 hours of an incident in their home language, and that they have the right to appeal any disciplinary decision within five days of being notified.

[00:37:16] Hem Nalini Morzaria-Luna: In fact, 70% of the schools that are listed in the June 26 data have a capacity that is suddenly much lower or higher than what is listed in the Facilities Master Plan, including 11 schools with up to less than 40% lower capacity than the Facilities Master Plan number. There are also discrepancies in the Building Condition Ranking, and I cannot comment on the Learning Environment Scores because they are not available to the public. To generate trust in the process of selecting school foreclosures, this district needs to make all data available and explain why this data differs from other planning documents. 

[00:37:54] Jeremy Masner: Dr. Jones wrote that business as usual in the wake of such a tragedy is unfathomable, but business as usual is exactly what the Garfield community experienced after the March 13th shooting. You'll find in your email history my message from March 17th, pleading with you to imagine the headline “Garfield Student Slain” and asking you to proactively prevent that rather than waiting to react after the fact. Your lack of response in March, April, and May is indeed unfathomable. 

[00:38:22] Brendan Levy: We want to be your allies in designing optimistic and pragmatic visions for the future. Give us plans, constraints, and real alternatives as President Rankin urges, and let us decide with you.  

[00:38:31] Jane Tunks Demel: And that concludes this episode. Please see our show notes at seattlehallpass.org and contact us at hello@seattlehallpass.org. We love to hear from you.

[00:38:42] Christie Robertson: We'd also love if you can rate and review us on your podcast app to help others find us. I'm Christie Robertson.

[00:38:49] Jane Tunks Demel: And I'm Jane Tunks Demel. 

And our intern is Jasmine Pulido.

[00:38:53] Christie Robertson: We'll be back soon with another episode of Seattle Hall Pass.