[12:45] Good evening. I would like to call to order the October 5, 2020 Lake Washington School Board study session. But the record reflect that all board members are present and participating remotely. All meeting participants will also be participating remotely in alignment with the current proclamation issued by Governor Inslee. This board meeting will be live streamed and will be available on the district's website. If you are unable to live stream in the meeting, viewers can call 425.

[13:14] I am 36-2813 conference ID 37-127 to listen to the meeting.

[13:21] Regular board meetings and study sessions will continue to be live streamed to the Lake

[13:25] Washington School District website and posted reviewing within two days.

[13:30] There are two topics for tonight for the study session.

[13:35] The first is professional learning surrounding the operational expectation policy development

[13:39] in particular, our equity policy.

[13:41] And the second is the 2020-2021 budget.

[13:45] We will start with the equity policy.

[13:49] And Dr. Holman.

[13:52] Great, thank you.

[13:53] And so tonight really is part of the launch

[13:58] into the board's work around developing an equity policy.

[14:02] And I heard some comments tonight

[14:04] during the board meeting that the timeline may not

[14:06] be right and so we can talk about that if we want.

[14:11] There was reasons why we built in that amount of time, it was around really community engagement

[14:18] upfront and we have another community engagement process at the end of October, as really

[14:23] that initial discussion with the community and we had talked about then having another opportunity

[14:30] to loop back with communities to dialogue about the work you'd been doing before finalizing

[14:36] And so we can talk about if that's the right process and timing.

[14:40] We also want to make sure that we are accessing community voice through this process so that they understand the process so that the board is informed around community values in this work and that that's really reflected in the final policy that the board ultimately adopts.

[15:00] And so, Matt and Gloria met last week, did some work around, as we think about policy, what are some critical questions to start asking? WASDA has accessed all, well, anyone that submitted their policies to WASDA, or any that they know about? They have listed all of the equity policies. As you know, the majority of districts are not policy governance districts.

[15:28] and so an operational expectation or an executive limitations in policy governance is not typical.

[15:38] And so currently we were able to divine two Washington State executive limitations focused on equity.

[15:47] And so tonight we're going to use those as a springboard to help us think about the aspects of that policy

[15:55] as we start thinking about the development of our policy work.

[15:59] And so I want to walk through a bit of a presentation to kind of reorient us to where we are in process and effort in things like that.

[16:10] Matt and Gloria will also join in.

[16:13] So if either of you have comments or really any cabinet members have comments around the work we've been doing, the conversations we've been having,

[16:21] please feel free just to join in and I don't know if I'll be able to see you so

[16:26] you may just need to interrupt and chime in. So I'm going to go ahead and share my

[16:30] screen.

[16:38] And this is just a visual of that timeline that we have started. We

[16:46] started this last week really with our linkages, with our community members,

[16:52] community groups and different communities, and if I remember correctly, I believe we

[16:59] were able to complete nine of those sessions.

[17:02] I think three of the sessions we need to reschedule and work with those groups again.

[17:09] If I think about that amount of face time with board members and community, I think that's

[17:15] just tremendous.

[17:16] And I think that's one of the benefits of all of us really learning how to use this remote

[17:21] space for really valid reasons and so it was really enjoyable to sit and listen, hear

[17:30] the dialogue, the conversation, while difficult to hear some of the stories.

[17:35] It really helps set the stage for the work you're doing as a board and really we are doing

[17:41] as a district and provides clear rationale that the work of ensuring that our marginalized

[17:50] populations feel connected, engaged, safe, that they can trust their school district,

[17:56] their schools, and staff.

[17:58] That is really important work and that is how we are going to reduce academic gaps,

[18:04] opportunity gaps, and really provide that ceiling of excellence for every student.

[18:10] The next step is really to do that studying and review around policy, policy statements,

[18:16] and really start doing some draft work as a board,

[18:20] then take that work back out to the community,

[18:23] kind of in that January, February timeframe,

[18:26] March and April, starting to,

[18:28] to put pencil to paper again, finalizing a policy,

[18:32] and then really taking action towards the end of the year.

[18:36] As you know, we can adjust this timeline as we go.

[18:39] We don't need to do that tonight,

[18:41] but if that's a conversation the board wants to have,

[18:44] we can engage in that.

[18:45] Just

[18:49] as a reminder, I know the board is aware, but for anyone that is new to our governance structure,

[18:55] the board has policy that really governs the school district and sets parameters and outcomes

[19:01] that the superintendent is to achieve or work within.

[19:05] And really the administrative policy is about the operations of the school district.

[19:10] How do we do the things that we do in a variety of different areas?

[19:15] And so that's just a distinction and so the policy that the board writes may look different

[19:21] to people than they are typically used to reading.

[19:24] Our administrative equity policy that we are working on will probably look more familiar

[19:30] to the community but those two really have to be in concert with one another because as

[19:38] the board sets parameters, which then will require data reporting, either hard data, soft data.

[19:47] We want our administrative policy really to echo those same values and sentiments.

[19:55] During the linkages, we ask the community a number of questions, really more to start dialogue,

[20:02] to really have them express their experiences, their feelings, and really provide the board

[20:08] with information to then start developing and understanding around values because the operational

[20:17] expectation focused on equity will really be a value statement from the board. And so I know

[20:24] tonight during board member comments, I heard a number of values expressed from each board member

[20:31] that the community communicated in those sessions. And so I think that's a great start and we'll

[20:37] continue that later in October.

[20:39] What we are doing right now with all of those data is we are compiling that so that board

[20:45] members, because as you know, two board members at each session, so there obviously were

[20:50] three others that didn't participate in that.

[20:52] We want each board member to be able to have access to the dialogue, which as you know was

[20:58] anonymous note-taking from our cabinet members, just to capture the information and experiences

[21:06] to be able to pass along to the entire and full board.

[21:14] And so tonight, our thinking was to take these two

[21:20] executive limitations policies, which we know are more similar to

[21:25] what operational expectation policy will read like,

[21:30] and just do some analysis and discussion around that policy.

[21:34] We have some guiding questions to help lead that discussion.

[21:38] And so, I think it will be a good launch point to our work in the policy realm.

[21:46] And then, as you know, in future meetings, we'll want to come back to those linkage

[21:51] reports, do some dialogue, pull out values that we heard from the community, and probably

[21:57] start to do some work around that.

[22:00] We also know that we, to do that work, we're going to come in with a set of guiding questions

[22:05] that will help us unpack those data.

[22:12] And so tonight we're gonna start with example policies.

[22:17] It's a quad school district in Northeastern

[22:19] are the two Washington State school districts

[22:22] that currently have board policy focused on equity.

[22:28] And so I'm gonna let Matt and Gloria kind of talk

[22:33] through these questions and they develop these questions

[22:38] really to help the board kind of think

[22:40] think about the policies as they read them and then for further dialogue and discussion.

[22:45] So Matt, Gloria, why don't you kind of talk about how these will help the board unpack

[22:49] and potentially guide them in future work around policy?

[22:55] All right.

[22:56] Thank you, Dr. Holman.

[22:58] And so just a moment where we'll take some time for the board members to be able to read

[23:03] through the two executive limitations policies that Isquan North Thurston have adopted.

[23:11] And as you're reading through those, I thought these questions would be good both to focus

[23:16] you and to attend on elements in those policies.

[23:22] And then for us to come back and to engage in discussion around the board's observations

[23:29] of those policies.

[23:30] And so the first question really is to look at to what extent is race isolated in these policies?

[23:39] And I think director Lilliburty talked earlier, you know, in the board meeting around just your

[23:46] impression from linkages of really how we think about equity. There's a lot of different aspects to it,

[23:53] But how frequently thinking about race in the context of equity came out in the midst

[24:00] of our community discussions last week.

[24:03] And so we want to look to see to what extent is race isolated?

[24:08] Is it called out explicitly?

[24:10] Is it implied or is it silent in these policies?

[24:14] Because that's a decision point that the board is going to have to make around when it's

[24:20] to the point to adopt initial policies

[24:22] of how explicit are you going to isolate

[24:25] and name race in your equity policy.

[24:30] Another question is really to be thinking about

[24:33] what we call a theory of action.

[24:35] So which essentially is if we do X,

[24:39] if we hold this value,

[24:41] or if we have this expectation for the superintendent,

[24:45] is there some, is it clear what the board,

[24:48] these boards intend will result. So what would happen as a result? And I think that in our conversations we've heard, there's some certain outcomes that ultimately, there's an interest to seeing that that happens.

[25:06] And so being able to track back to that and saying, and if we want in order for that to happen, what is it that we believe needs to be explicitly stated in these policies around

[25:18] values or expectations. So can we see that through line between the policy and the intended outcome?

[25:27] And so if we can pull that out and that's explicit and that's clear, generally that would be, you know, probably make for a stronger policy.

[25:35] If that's not as clear to us in these policies, that could give us some things to think about and for the board to have conversations around.

[25:45] You know, we look at exemplars to see, are there things that we might want to copy?

[25:53] So are there things that somebody else has already articulated that really resonate

[25:57] with us?

[25:57] And so I think also looking at, are there specific elements that really seem to fit the

[26:05] board's interest when it comes to reducing the likelihood that we are able to predict

[26:11] education model comes on the basis of race or some other characteristic.

[26:16] And so, since the board has expressed that as a value and an interest around

[26:21] or equity policies, are there certain aspects of these policies that we can point at

[26:28] and say, yeah, actually, that really seems to speak to the challenge that we're wanting to face.

[26:35] And then, are there things that are noticeable in their absence as well?

[26:40] And so, you know, we may not be able to put language to them at this stage, but when you're reading these policies, what don't they speak to is also really important to attend to and thinking about the reason for that.

[26:57] So we were thinking these, these kind of four guiding questions would be a good starting point,

[27:04] in terms of looking to see how at least two other districts in our state that have a similar

[27:10] governance model have developed policies around equity. Gory, do you have anything else that you

[27:20] I want to add for the board to, before they dig into the policies.

[27:26] Nope, you'd explain it perfectly.

[27:28] Thank you.

[27:30] All right, Dr. Holman.

[27:33] Great, and so in the board folder, there are two policies right now.

[27:43] And I believe Diane also emailed them to the board.

[27:47] I can't see board members right now, because I'm sharing my screen.

[27:51] Let me, there we go.

[27:54] Do you have access to those policies, or maybe I'll ask it in the opposite?

[28:01] Does anyone not have those two policies?

[28:07] To us, so we've got minutes.

[28:09] Okay, yeah.

[28:09] Great.

[28:10] So why don't we take a few minutes to read those policies?

[28:14] I'm gonna put those prompts back up.

[28:18] Take a few notes and then we'll kind of go through question by question and actually have a discussion and a dialogue about those concepts related to these policies, document that so we can kind of start our process of documenting the board's conversations around the equity policies.

[33:13] The two draft policies that were shared with us. I don't think these are currently posted to the district's website for public viewing, but can we make sure that they are? I think we're spending time looking at it. I'd like public to see what it is we're viewing as well.

[33:33] I'm checking the district website now. I sent an email to our webmaster, so I'll follow that up with another email with her to make sure that those materials are posted. Okay. Thank you.

[33:58] Let's see a couple more minutes, Eric. Yeah. Okay.

[34:02] I'm ready when others are.

[34:06] Chris, you're ready?

[34:08] Chris, you're ready?

[34:14] John.

[34:15] Yes.

[34:16] I just looked on the district website and those examples of the district equity policies are posted on the district website.

[34:22] So anyone would like to view them and go to the district website and look on the current October 5th board meeting and find examples of those two policies.

[34:32] Great. Thank you, Diane.

[34:34] Thank you, Diane. Excellent. And

[34:59] those examples are North-Thirson and ASQA, correct? Yes, they are. Yes.

[35:06] Okay, I want to make sure I was on the right thing. I can find the other document.

[35:50] In Syrian, Cassandra, Mark, just let us know when you're ready. I'm here. Okay, ready. I'm ready.

[35:59] you

[36:08] know I might ask Gloria to I know there's a question and and maybe this is

[36:15] something we want to do some more studying discussion reading about as a

[36:22] group the idea of centering on race I know that conceptually that can be

[36:32] challenging for some individuals in the community.

[36:37] I would like Gloria to share with us, you know, how does centering on race actually address

[36:43] inequities for all students.

[36:45] And so I've heard her, you know, say this before and she does a great job of explaining

[36:52] this.

[36:52] So Gloria, that would just, I think, be beneficial as we launch into this conversation.

[36:57] Sure.

[36:58] So, we think about centering on race when we look at the foundations of our country and

[37:05] how it was founded even when we think about pre-colonial America with our indigenous tribes.

[37:16] We think about the beginning of our country, even though it's rough to think about it, we

[37:19] think about our indigenous tribes and how people came over to take over the land, however,

[37:25] we feel about it, that is what occurred, and then as we think about the bringing over

[37:31] of Africans to work the land as an economic commodity, instead of people, from the founding

[37:39] of our country and pre the founding, that it will center on race and minimizing a group

[37:45] of people.

[37:46] And so from the very beginning, race has been at the center of this work.

[37:50] So, as we fast-forward across time, race has always been part of it, whether it is related

[37:56] to the idea of the Supreme Court when we have people from different countries, as they

[38:01] came over to immigrate, they petition to be considered white, and what does that idea

[38:08] of whiteness afford people.

[38:10] And with that, we think about how that's centering an idea of whiteness and white people.

[38:17] That's not about someone white being bad or someone not being white being good.

[38:22] This idea that race is a piece of that history even from that point.

[38:26] So we think about fast forward some more and we think about even the point around our LGBTQIA community.

[38:34] When it comes to race with our LGBTQIA community,

[38:39] there's an intersection there for example when we think about our trans community.

[38:44] And for example, if a person is black and they are also trans, that's the intersectionality

[38:52] which means you have multiple identities that come into that.

[38:56] And with that, there are multiple barriers that are erected with that.

[38:59] And another example, we think about the idea of racist self when it comes to women.

[39:05] And we do know that with affirmative action, for example, it was meant that one of the tenants

[39:10] of affirmative action was around the idea that we afford or give or open up and release

[39:19] barriers for people that have had barriers against them. So we think about affirmative action,

[39:23] most people think about that it was meant to, and that it helped black African-American people

[39:29] more than any other group. In reality, it actually centered white women in a sense, and they,

[39:35] certain barriers were broken with white women in the boardroom and around work and around getting

[39:39] credit card things like that. And we think about black women that same privileges weren't really

[39:45] afforded. So we think about all the barriers that were broken over time. Race ended up being

[39:50] that singular barrier that remained. Even if someone made it up to a certain level that had a

[39:56] when race intersected, there was a paid disparity or there was a lack of space afforded to this person.

[40:03] So I give all of the examples to say race intersected all of those from the beginning of

[40:07] of indigenous brethren land being taken away

[40:13] and pushed onto reservations on up to our current time.

[40:17] So even though it seems in the past, it's really not.

[40:19] So that little trip down history is just an example

[40:23] of why we sent you race

[40:24] because when we think about all the things

[40:27] and all these barriers, race is always there

[40:29] and the shadows and sometimes it's in the forefront.

[40:32] So when we disconnect race from that,

[40:34] we don't have a full view of how our society

[40:37] impact people, and we try to take that away from that. Our society makes it visible.

[40:42] So even when we don't talk about it, and we see it come up in income and housing with

[40:48] red lining, which people weren't allowed to live in, which neighborhoods, and even now

[40:52] that there are different rates and insurance and different rates in the price that you get

[40:57] for interest on the house. So race always comes in, whether we want it to exist or not.

[41:02] So, we sent you race. It's like the idea of raising all boats, even though like we may be in

[41:08] the same storm, but our boats are different. So, it's like that idea that when we send

[41:12] you're on race, that means a person that identifies as gay and black. They rise when someone

[41:20] when we think about being in classrooms when we send your race and think about trying to have

[41:29] have a diverse workforce and we want our staff to reflect our diverse community, that

[41:35] then makes our schools stronger. So those are all like just pieces of why we sent your

[41:40] race because it's there. Race is a social construct as we all know but just because it's

[41:45] a social construct, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist and it doesn't mean it doesn't come

[41:49] in the room, whether we want it to or not. So that's why we sent your race because it's

[41:52] always there whether we want to talk about it or not. I hope that helps.

[41:55] Yeah, and so I know one of the questions that potentially that the board has.

[42:03] So if we center on race, when we think about our obligation to all of our students.

[42:10] So let's say there's a student who is Caucasian and is living in poverty.

[42:19] How does then centering on race help us then address all of our students,

[42:25] including a student that may not be a person of color.

[42:32] A good question because sometimes there are stereotypes that are connected with

[42:37] that if it is a person of color then it's a direct link to poverty.

[42:40] As we know we have wealthy people from all racial categories.

[42:43] So we do center on race when we think of that there is a student who's white and in poverty

[42:49] and we think about that the resources follow.

[42:52] So, when we center on race, there are certain deficit mindsets that are imbued with an educational

[42:59] system, unfortunately, because it was made for certain groups to thrive and certain groups

[43:04] to not thrive.

[43:06] And so, when we look at the eye, when we think about funding schools, that unfortunately,

[43:14] and unfortunately sometimes in a strictly tied to race

[43:18] and certain stereotypes that people may have

[43:23] about certain groups.

[43:25] And so when we think about funding,

[43:27] putting funding something equitably,

[43:30] like a lot of schools and many districts,

[43:32] no matter school, that they are funded by student

[43:35] to say this how many principals you have,

[43:37] this how many counselors you have.

[43:39] And when we think about funding in an equitable way,

[43:43] Then we think about what does the data look like, not just SBA data, what are also form

[43:50] of assessments look like and qualitative data that we have.

[43:53] We have that type of data, and sometimes it's linked to a deficit mindset, unfortunately,

[43:59] but that can sometimes drive what resources schools have, and like a lot of times it is not

[44:05] tight to race, but it's done so in a way that is not necessarily appropriate.

[44:10] And so funding can follow a model that looks at data like that, and at the same time a student who identifies as white and who may be low income.

[44:20] They will receive funding because should receive more funding at a particular school, and we think of it that way because it had changes.

[44:27] So in the big scheme of things, when we think about race, even though a school may not have a high population of just say, let's you know, let's next students.

[44:34] But if we reframe how we look at equity, that we can drive our budget in a way that

[44:42] it's not equal but equitable, it does change how we see things because sometimes we look

[44:47] at things in a black and white way and literally black and white by race or the idea that one

[44:53] student equals this much money.

[44:55] So when we start to think of that we sent you a race in that that doesn't mean that it's to exclude

[45:00] as a decision of why students we bring in those other inner setionalities that come in because we are changing a way we think about how we fund and we're changing a way we think about what a student looks like that needs help because one we start think about, we have a lot of students, when our districts and families that identify is black, african, african, african, matrican, latino, latin ex for example, even though there's disparate data right there, and also cause attention to us, calls for us to put our attention on what is the data really telling us. That is a systems issue.

[45:29] and at the same time, that we think differently about how we fund things beyond race, but race

[45:35] sometimes gets us in the room to have that conversation.

[45:38] Great.

[45:39] Great.

[45:40] Thank you.

[45:40] Hey, Matt.

[45:41] Hey, John.

[45:42] I'm going to ask you to maybe expand a little bit more for the board on a concept.

[45:48] I think we've used it before, perhaps, with the board, but it's a critical distinction.

[45:56] And I would argue that it's something we really need to be.

[45:59] as we think about both board policy and administrative policy that we need to really be intentional about.

[46:05] And that's where you use the term deficit or deficit mindset. We also, the opposite of that

[46:12] is thinking as an asset mindset. And so I'll kind of start in on this term and then Gory, I'd really

[46:21] love if you could kind of build off of that. So a deficit mindset is kind of like a fixing mindset,

[46:28] The assumption is that there is something that needs to be fixed within a population that the problem is actually centered with a population.

[46:41] And that's problematic from civil standpoints.

[46:46] I would argue that the biggest problem with that is that it actually absolves us as educators from actually taking some ownership

[46:56] of the role in which we and our systems contribute to the disparities that we see and that we're wanting to address.

[47:08] And so if we've taken an asset base of my view, really is looking at how do we essentially, how do we, first of all,

[47:17] How are we reflective about the ways in which our systems are either helping lifting people

[47:24] up to reach their excellence or perhaps suppressing or marginalizing or oppressing populations?

[47:33] And so, Gloria brought that term into the room. I just think it is very easy to fall into a deficit

[47:41] mindset and would be something that would really caution us to kind of call out and just be

[47:48] aware of as we're engaging in conversations because policies have a lot of power that way.

[47:54] And you certainly don't want to be doing harm as a result of the ways in which we've

[47:59] crafted our policies. So I don't worry if you have anything to add on that.

[48:04] Thank you for explaining that more because sometimes that is what happens we think about

[48:10] policies and how we write them in which students that we are populists and we're targeting because the idea of an equity policy

[48:16] is that we're not disenfranchising one group for another. It's that how do we get to equal but we can't get to equal until we really think about what equity looks like.

[48:27] And so we think about these policies, a technical fix, sometimes comes to mind around the idea of deficit-based thinking.

[48:34] So, one may think, oh, we're going to have more tutors because we're going to help these

[48:39] poor students or these poor families instead of thinking that our families bring a lot

[48:42] into the space around cultural nuance and gifts and talents, and that it is about having

[48:48] high standards, but what do those standards look like and how are they more universal and open?

[48:54] And so, we think about the systems fix and looking at ourselves, it's more like how,

[49:01] think

[49:01] than that, around having strong, diverse categories of teachers.

[49:06] So that when we think of a systems fix, when we think about a policy, that's when that

[49:09] comes in sort of the depth of base, which is about fixing kids and fixing families.

[49:13] Instead of looking at how our system has unintentionally and sometimes intentionally disenfranchised groups

[49:19] of students and families.

[49:20] So, yep.

[49:25] Sorry, I was looking to make sure my mic was my second mic was turned on.

[49:29] Are there other cabinet members that want to comment on this before we then open this

[49:35] up for board members to ask questions and then we can get into kind of the dialogue specific

[49:40] to policy.

[49:48] I'd love to add something.

[49:49] I just said Gloria text and it's on a theory called funds of knowledge and it's with

[49:56] the thinking that people come to the table competent with experiences that add value.

[50:03] And so when you think of asset-based thinking in comparison to deficit-based thinking, that's

[50:09] It's really a good place to start, and I don't know how new the thinking is, but it's

[50:15] certainly one that allows students to be looked at differently.

[50:19] It really came up in a, oh, probably about eight or nine years ago, there was a young Latin

[50:27] next boy in East LA who created, he was the impetus behind the, I'm not remembering what

[50:38] But it's the Cardboard Challenge and there's a link on the Internet and it's Keynes Arcade,

[50:48] C-A-I-N apostrophe S. And that whole concept about him having funds of knowledge and experiences

[50:56] really was the impetus behind the Cardboard Challenge and he talked about his teachers

[51:03] seeing him differently.

[51:04] when they started to look at him as if he came from a place that had

[51:09] experiences and had values and so just thinking about asset-based thinking and

[51:14] how that you know changes the trajectory for students but also for teachers so

[51:21] just wanted to add that in. Thank you. I saw Mike's hand come up and then why don't we

[51:28] go Chris and then Eric? Yeah one other thing I'd add actually it's related to an

[51:35] article that we'll be reading tomorrow in our instructional bargaining group by an author

[51:39] and an instructional kind of expert, Zoretta Hammond. We also have to think about what

[51:45] is every kid need? And again, it's not going to a deficit, but you know, I think a few of

[51:50] us were in a really wonderful session the other night with a high school teacher who was talking

[51:55] about her work to bring social justice into her curriculum. At the same time, if you back

[52:00] that up to early grades, if kids can't read and can't get access to mathematics, they

[52:07] won't have access to the knowledge that's in the things that they need to read and the

[52:11] ideas that they need to access.

[52:13] And so we have an obligation to make sure every kid reads, and I think connecting to the point

[52:18] we were just hearing is, you can't go in to say, well, some kids can and some kids can't,

[52:22] some kids don't have books at home and some do.

[52:24] You have to start with every kid can learn.

[52:26] And we have to change our approaches to make sure every pit can learn.

[52:31] And that means bringing in students experiences and bringing in their strengths and building on those.

[52:39] But at the same time, it also doesn't mean you set aside really good literacy instruction or really good math instruction for every single kid.

[52:46] And when you're not reaching kids, you have to ask what's your obligation to adjust.

[52:49] I just want to have that in the conversation too.

[52:51] I think that's an important part, and oftentimes we make lots of excuses, or we do lots of

[52:57] set-asides and say, some kids maybe can't learn, or those are our biases that we have

[53:01] to explore.

[53:02] But that instructional component has to be built in as well if we're going to talk about

[53:05] racial equity.

[53:07] Thanks, Mike.

[53:11] Chris?

[53:16] So I want to say thank you to everyone who's trying to help me catch up on this, because

[53:22] be perfectly honest, to Joyce's point, I do not feel confident coming to the table on this issue.

[53:29] And it's not just because, if you look at us, I have spent the last four board meetings,

[53:35] trying to find the lighting that makes me look a little bit less like Casper the Ghost.

[53:39] And the fact is, I am clearly the widest number of our board.

[53:44] And, you know, these things, it's, I have a question very specifically for Gloria and

[53:52] Centering race is something where I'm trying to wrap my head around it.

[53:56] When it comes to equity, there are four dimensions that I care about passionately.

[54:00] Race, ability, identity, and the income.

[54:03] And if I'm saying that race is the first among equals, I'm cool with it.

[54:07] But if I'm saying that race is where I have to start,

[54:10] that makes me feel like I've just left the other three dimensions behind.

[54:15] You made them less important.

[54:22] Yeah, so we think about centering raised, it's about not raised being first, it's about

[54:29] being centered.

[54:30] So I think about it as it's like if it's a hierarchy, then it's one, two, three, four.

[54:34] But if I think about it being centered, like you have race here, you have ability.

[54:38] If a student, for example, has a disability, there are more likely, for example, to, for

[54:46] many districts. If there is a behavioral issue, a black and Latino Latinx student, they're

[54:52] more likely to be pushed into or got a really strong towards special education. If it's

[54:58] a right student, it's more likely that that may not happen. So we think about that ability

[55:02] part because the behavior can be seen as per cautiousness or immaturity, where the black

[55:06] student is seen as something else. Especially when they've done studies that when a black

[55:12] Black children and black boys seem like black men and black men are treated like black boys.

[55:17] So you think about the idea around that, that's why ability raises at the center because

[55:22] for ability you are more likely for that to happen.

[55:24] And when I think about even the income piece, there's a study I think in the Wall Street Journal

[55:29] and we've done this work also with PEG that despite income level, a poor white student, sometimes

[55:36] their SAT score is higher than a student that is black and higher income.

[55:40] That doesn't mean that the higher income black student isn't doing the work isn't as worthy.

[55:44] We think about how that test was crafted and about what kids know and about what people

[55:50] tell kids about.

[55:51] You can do this.

[55:51] I believe in you.

[55:52] These are access.

[55:54] This is access information.

[55:55] This is information source, SAT, ACT, all those pieces intersect with that or you can have

[56:00] a really bright Latino life next student and they might not know or be given opportunity

[56:06] or income level to have six months worth of prep sessions before SAT happens.

[56:10] So then race comes in real right there if a person believes they're worthy or not to even have the information or the access to

[56:16] Let's have a prep club that someone doesn't have transportation to stay at school or to get there so it comes in there

[56:22] even identity

[56:22] They've recent through the American Pediatric Association that black students on average receive six to eight races or racialized

[56:30] Incidents at day when we think about that kind of trauma if you're in trauma because a racialized

[56:36] is despite your income level, you are then trying to go into clashing to take a test when

[56:41] you just heard the inward and hallway, or if you just been called inward, or something ridiculous

[56:46] happened, all those things are going on and you're doing racial gymnastics and mental gymnastics

[56:51] to get into a space to be totally engaged. And there are kids that are far exceeding that

[56:57] when I think about our students of color, particularly our black African-American and Latino

[57:02] you know, last night students that in spite of all those things they are still achieving.

[57:06] And we think about the students that do not graduate in a four-year time span.

[57:11] They come from particular groups and I posit it's not because they can't do it, it's because

[57:15] all those layers and with that.

[57:18] So we think about ability identity and income when you have all those layers on top of it

[57:22] regardless of your income or someone is thinking from the age of being a preschooler that you

[57:27] are more likely to be in trouble or get into trouble, those things all come back to race.

[57:31] So it's not about the hierarchy of race, which is really alive and well in our country right now when we think about

[57:38] Patriarch and how that exists and and who people trust the most even being people of color and we think about all of the data around that.

[57:45] So it's not about hierarchy. It's about sintering race because everything else. There's a through line tool

[57:50] We look at data around disparities and even when kids make it race is always in the room because race has been in the room since over 400 years ago

[57:59] when people came here and

[58:01] And that started. So that's why it's there that is there I can work with that as as a premise where it has to be part of the conversation in all of these dimensions.

[58:13] I guess the one thing that I've been fretting over as we go as we pursue this conversation is what about white kids who are LGBTQ?

[58:22] What about the white kids who are spent? What about the white kids who are low income? I don't want to leave them outside of our equity policy.

[58:30] if there's any way we can avoid that and I guess that makes me feel better about it.

[58:35] So that's just something I'm still struggling with and I want to make sure we don't lose.

[58:42] Oh and I'm glad you are bringing that up because that is the silence that's there that people

[58:47] are thinking about which could end up being a negative and like at the tailwind as we work through

[58:53] admin and board policy is that when we center race that means we think about

[59:00] centering race that doesn't mean not white people we think about even though

[59:04] we think about race as being that includes white even though there's cultural

[59:10] pieces that have come in that change that over time that is still there that

[59:14] race that white isn't an absence of race it's just how does that look in our

[59:18] country and how does that look with our educational system and I think we will

[59:22] be remiss if we didn't think about that because what that can end up causing is sometimes

[59:27] anchor. It can cause disenchantment so that always has to be there. So I think we think

[59:34] about even broadly about racial equity work. It means also supporting white students

[59:41] and other people of color that may not identify themselves as people of color for their own

[59:46] particular reasons is that they're part of the process because if we as people

[59:51] color could have done it absent of white people for equality it would have been

[59:55] done so with that it's all of us coming together to do it which doesn't mean

[1:00:00] Meeting white people outside the door, it's having all people together as allies in this work.

[1:00:07] Thanks.

[1:00:11] Eric?

[1:00:17] I'm going to jump in. Chris, I'm glad Chris went first because he said a lot of things.

[1:00:21] I was going to say, I don't, I'll just say plus one to what director Carlson was saying that I was at it. I just want to acknowledge that I'm,

[1:00:31] and be honest about that I'm having a real hard time working on and you know it's a

[1:00:40] new way of thinking for me. These are new ideas for me and I'm just really I'm so wrestling

[1:00:47] with them and yeah I mean I have always thought about I have thought about the same dimensions

[1:00:54] There's Director Carlson for our, for our anchored work, and if I were to have just sat

[1:01:00] down on my own two weeks ago and started drafting a policy, I would have probably had

[1:01:05] bored, you know, discrete subgroups, and I would have thought about it that way and just

[1:01:11] rattled things off.

[1:01:12] The idea of centering on race also, I mean, I'll begin, I'll be taught, I just want to be

[1:01:19] honest, makes me uncomfortable.

[1:01:22] I don't, for me, it is more difficult to have those conversations than to have conversations

[1:01:31] about income.

[1:01:34] I find myself more comfortable, but that's part of this process is learning and I'm

[1:01:42] working through that.

[1:01:43] So I just wanted to put that out there for the board.

[1:01:45] I don't know where I was at right now.

[1:01:50] I just

[1:01:54] wanted to mention when it clicked for me, I do have biracial children, but they're

[1:02:01] not half black.

[1:02:03] I do have disabled children one cognitively and one physically, and it is a, to say it's

[1:02:13] a ton of work and a ton of joy, you know, is an understatement.

[1:02:17] But when it finally kicked for me that race is in the center of all of it is what if, you

[1:02:29] know, I was going through a divorce and I didn't have money and I had disabled kids and

[1:02:36] we were black.

[1:02:38] How much more difficult would all of that been in my life?

[1:02:44] I think it would have been so much more added stress and so many more things to deal with

[1:02:51] emotionally, and I don't know that I would have been as welcomed and treated in the same

[1:02:56] way when talking with surgeons.

[1:03:00] You know, they tell you, you know you're a child best.

[1:03:04] You tell me what you think you want to do with this big medical decision.

[1:03:09] I'm not sure I would have been asked those same questions the same way had I not been white.

[1:03:17] Thank you.

[1:03:21] And

[1:03:24] I'll just kind of speak a little personally here as a father to two young growing white boys.

[1:03:32] And thinking about also when we talk about and have conversations that center on race,

[1:03:39] what are the values that we're communicating to each and every one of our students as well?

[1:03:46] And so that's something that's apparent. I've had to be really thoughtful about how I'm communicating

[1:03:53] around the values and trying to equip my children to be able to talk about race and as somebody

[1:04:00] that's still as a white person trying to learn to be able to really be courageous in that space.

[1:04:09] And so I think also maybe for framing for the board and we've talked about, Dr.

[1:04:15] or home and talked about this a lot,

[1:04:16] but in August is that with your equity policy,

[1:04:20] you're looking perhaps to both disrupt

[1:04:23] the inequities or the predictability of outcomes

[1:04:28] that the board is carrying about.

[1:04:30] But you're also, we're also thinking about

[1:04:32] if our mission and vision is to fully equip each and every one

[1:04:36] of our children and our students to be able to go out

[1:04:40] and be contributing members of society.

[1:04:42] Um, for each and every one of our students, uh, the, you know, the way the policies and

[1:04:50] the ways that we communicate, um, at, uh, at the board and administrative levels communicate

[1:04:55] those values and we're, we're setting examples. Um, and so I also think about how do, how

[1:05:01] does this type of work impact children who look like my children, as well as, as children

[1:05:07] who look like you know who are children of color and so I think there's multiple layers that

[1:05:14] is you're working through this policy that is good to be thinking about because when the board

[1:05:20] articulates values we're also communicating some things around what does it mean to be a contributing

[1:05:27] member in the society and how well are we actually preparing each and every one of our children

[1:05:33] to do so. Thank you. Chris.

[1:05:41] So actually, Gloria, I just wanted to ask a question again. I find

[1:05:45] it useful to try to restate what I've heard from someone to make sure I've understood it. So

[1:05:51] centering race in this conversation is a way of saying that we can't responsibly try to tackle equity

[1:06:00] for any of these other dimensions without simultaneously tackling race as a dimension of equity.

[1:06:06] Is that fair?

[1:06:07] Yes, because of the intersections with that,

[1:06:10] because then it's almost like we're not being as efficient,

[1:06:13] not that this is efficient work.

[1:06:15] But if you say we're going to look at our support,

[1:06:17] our LGBTQIA community, but then we think about that we have,

[1:06:21] for example, that I work with,

[1:06:24] an openly gay black male student service special education.

[1:06:27] His experience in Washington School District

[1:06:29] has not been great on many levels and race intersects

[1:06:33] and also the idea that he doesn't feel connected or valued.

[1:06:36] within the place where he is a student and so we were to say okay student we're

[1:06:41] gonna deal we're gonna think about how do we change policy so or uplift the

[1:06:46] policy levels pass around around gender but if there are still struggles we

[1:06:51] have to do a race we're not looking at the whole person and so not that all

[1:06:54] students have those all those intersectionalities but we're treating we're

[1:06:58] supporting our community solicitly instead of saying one at a time because we've

[1:07:02] done that, and it hasn't worked.

[1:07:04] We think about women's suffrage that when you see the

[1:07:06] commerce like, yes, the anti-versive women's suffrage.

[1:07:10] But black women didn't receive the right to vote

[1:07:11] until way after that.

[1:07:13] So if vote were handled at the same time, we would have

[1:07:16] then not had so many people continuously disenfranchised

[1:07:19] instead of chipping away at it one at a time.

[1:07:24] Another piece for me, and then why don't we dive into the

[1:07:28] policy and actually have that conversation.

[1:07:30] It is so easy for all of us not to talk about race, that it is critically important.

[1:07:42] So for me, that's another reason to center on race, because we have to, unfortunately,

[1:07:50] force and remind ourselves to have the dialogue about race, and that as a key part of this

[1:08:00] work. And so it's that it's the constant reminder that it is race and because it's it's really easy

[1:08:08] to put race conversations aside because they are so challenging. And so I think that's another

[1:08:15] piece. I don't know if that's a piece, a legitimate piece. That is something for me that is important to

[1:08:22] always have race as part of the conversation because I know it's easy not to.

[1:08:28] I see three hands

[1:08:31] Cassandra, Mike and Eric, I don't know if you had questions, and then I just saw

[1:08:37] Mark's hand come up.

[1:08:54] No, I had my call. I lost the audio from you folks. I see

[1:09:00] where we're going. I think we are still are missing another aspect and especially

[1:09:06] there's multicultural as our difference is, the variety of religions. We are at

[1:09:13] ignoring or ignoring, but I seem to be putting on the side religious prejudices, the anti-sivitism,

[1:09:24] the anti-Muslim, pervasive attitudes are in this district.

[1:09:32] This interestingly enough, this conversation was going to happen about a week or so ago

[1:09:38] And then all of a sudden, I made a call, John said that's, we're talking about equity

[1:09:44] on young Kipper and all of the Jewish families are going to be in services, or they're going

[1:09:49] to be with their families.

[1:09:51] So we moved it very quickly, but it's, again, it's one of those things that it's an invisible,

[1:09:56] if you will, issue that I think we still need to address as well as into raise now.

[1:10:02] I think the importance of getting into race gets us past a number of the other barriers

[1:10:13] but when it comes to religious or cultural differences as well, I think we still need to keep our eyes on that, especially with the indigenous peoples.

[1:10:25] I'm failing. I can't see us. I want to see us address the racial issues but I want to be able to bring the others along with us

[1:10:34] Because if we leave one group behind, then we've lived, we've created another chasm.

[1:10:42] Absolutely, thank you, Mark.

[1:10:44] I think to me, there's some key terms in this work.

[1:10:48] One of them being inclusion, inclusivity.

[1:10:53] That concept that 31,000 students feel as though they have a place in our schools,

[1:11:00] they feel safe in our schools.

[1:11:01] they don't have to change who they are to enter into our classrooms and you just

[1:11:11] identified another layer of this work. And so none of this is about excluding

[1:11:17] any group or individual. It's about creating pathways for inclusion for all of

[1:11:25] our students. So thank you. Thank you for that comment.

[1:11:31] Matt, do you want to

[1:11:32] lead the board through the dialogue around the policy?

[1:11:38] I'm happy, too.

[1:11:40] So we've started to have a pretty robust conversation

[1:11:44] around isolating race or maybe around why that is.

[1:11:48] So let's start with that first question.

[1:11:51] And in the two model policies that we looked at here,

[1:11:55] just as board members, how did you identify ways

[1:12:01] in which race was isolated in these policies,

[1:12:05] was there's anything that jumped out at you

[1:12:07] as you were looking at them?

[1:12:11] See I think I see Chris's hand and then Mark's hand?

[1:12:19] When it came to the policies, there's a value statement

[1:12:22] on the top of the both of them

[1:12:23] and then there's a bunch of sub bullets.

[1:12:26] And the value statements in both,

[1:12:28] race was the first dimension listed

[1:12:31] in a list of multiple dimensions and I actually felt that was the appropriate way

[1:12:40] to speak to it that raises is you can't tackle any of the others not tackling race but

[1:12:48] that we were explicitly saying it was race and not that race is the only.

[1:12:57] Director Blusner?

[1:12:58] Sir,

[1:13:12] if you're talking, you're on mute.

[1:13:14] Putting again, cheese, thank you.

[1:13:20] So I guess when I look at these two policies,

[1:13:22] I do see race as stated first, but that to me

[1:13:25] does not give it extra weight in that.

[1:13:27] It actually just lays it out as a list of items.

[1:13:31] I believe that you can call it out more specifically.

[1:13:34] This was actually a discussion that took place

[1:13:36] around the WASDA educational equity statement.

[1:13:39] That really, you call out race and background

[1:13:42] and characteristics, but you do make it clear that race is one of those to play out.

[1:13:47] So, I like the value statement. I think that's important where it should be,

[1:13:51] but I do think it should get called out explicitly separately.

[1:13:58] Can you explain what you mean by that? I don't understand yet.

[1:14:02] So, when you get a whole list of characteristics, like you see on these, right,

[1:14:08] or if they put in the comments of such as, so you see, regardless of race status,

[1:14:14] there's no, that's just listing a variety of terms. I think you could call it

[1:14:20] out stronger, you could talk about racial prejudice, you could talk about

[1:14:24] discrimination, you can talk about multiple things as opposed to inequities and

[1:14:29] bias, it can be a little stronger in that, and that those are races, one of those,

[1:14:34] and it is a key one that you call out separately.

[1:14:41] Eric?

[1:14:47] It's in a, I'm looking at the

[1:14:49] Istiqua policy. I don't mean this, I don't think anyone is supposed to go towards

[1:14:54] listening, but I don't mean this as a criticism. I, in fact, this is probably

[1:14:59] It would be my equivalent.

[1:15:02] I feel like it dances around race without ever really acknowledging it. I'll give you a few examples.

[1:15:10] For example, one subpart A, the superintendent shall recognize the existence of systemic and institutional inequities for students.

[1:15:19] Well, what systems make inequities are we talking about?

[1:15:24] I think the one we've heard the most about are ones based on race.

[1:15:32] And the policy here, it has a lot where if you just went at it, you can say,

[1:15:37] they're probably talking about race, but it doesn't say that.

[1:15:41] And, you

[1:15:46] know, one other note that I had from meetings was a lot of people on the community

[1:15:52] were telling us to be bold with our policy, and I'm trying to do that when I think about

[1:15:58] this.

[1:15:59] Again, I come into this with fear, with talking about race, so these are sort of things

[1:16:05] I'm noticing about myself as I'm reviewing these policies, and also noticing all the policies.

[1:16:14] Mark, I think your hand was next.

[1:16:17] Thank you.

[1:16:19] One of the things I noticed about the other policies and perhaps they predate the timeframe

[1:16:23] for it, I can't imagine it to be quite frank.

[1:16:26] The issue of not, I think perhaps the reason why race got lost in one of the other policies

[1:16:32] that Eric was speaking to, there is no emphasis or there is no galvanizing phrase

[1:16:39] that really draw people's attention, it's kind of just, it was a little paddling, if you will.

[1:16:45] And my thought is, if we avoid the term Black Lives Matter,

[1:16:51] we're not getting anyone's attention and we're ignoring a large segment of the problem.

[1:16:58] And to acknowledge that aspect, that finally it highlights what we really intend to do.

[1:17:05] We intend to raise as an issue and as a look at the way we teach, look at the way we acknowledge folks, look at the way we look at learning styles,

[1:17:22] every all thing about learning what we have in our curriculum so I think that we

[1:17:29] need to be able to have a galvanizing point up front to be quite frank if you

[1:17:35] know the reason get folks attention to listen to it that's it thank you hands

[1:17:48] on moving so I think I see Chris and then Eric this

[1:17:57] race isolated in these

[1:17:58] policies is not the question I'm really interested in. I'm interested in how should

[1:18:02] race be isolated in policies. And from that perspective, looking at this, there are things

[1:18:09] where race should be not just were committed to raising the achievement of all learners

[1:18:17] regardless of race, but to acknowledge the systemic inequities that have been present

[1:18:22] or race. That is, to me how should race be isolated isn't at the level of the bullet point

[1:18:32] because we want the superintendent to provide equitable access for all of these strata.

[1:18:40] But at the beginning, why are we committed to raising the achievement of all learners regardless

[1:18:46] levels of race, status, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because race is the definition

[1:18:52] of institutional disadvantage, but that is the textbook case of why opportunity, how

[1:19:04] opportunity is consistently denied.

[1:19:07] And so I think putting something in there about why we carry about race, perhaps more explicitly

[1:19:15] then we put in for the others where many of these do fit together but you know the problem always

[1:19:23] becomes okay so if we say we care about race because does that mean we then have to have a clause

[1:19:28] for we care about each of these other constituencies because and I don't I don't know how to solve how to

[1:19:35] that needle.

[1:19:42] Eric and then I think we'll move on to subsequent questions. So one

[1:19:50] thing I've as a listener director Carlson also thinking about myself is earlier

[1:19:56] we talked about the idea of the concepts of a desk visit mindset versus asset-based

[1:20:03] mindset. And I still don't fully understand that. And I worry, you know, what's the

[1:20:11] thing Chris was talking about? What do you personally say?

[1:20:16] I can't, so the director

[1:20:18] Carlson just said that those concepts resonate my mind again and realize that I do not know

[1:20:24] how to apply them.

[1:20:27] I still don't know how to apply those in working on this policy.

[1:20:31] or even an understanding policies.

[1:20:35] I'm going to go or is maybe going to rescue me here

[1:20:39] or at least give me some help.

[1:20:40] Yeah.

[1:20:42] Well, I was thinking to help with the idea.

[1:20:44] I hear the word fears coming up a lot too.

[1:20:46] And the idea around what you just mentioned around race

[1:20:51] and I think what would be helpful would be some background reading

[1:20:58] around the idea around death-to-base thinking.

[1:21:00] And I think if some reading around the formation of education and who was meant to uphold and put in a preferential situation, that will be helpful.

[1:21:13] And also there's some critical race theory, which is a little bit different.

[1:21:17] It's a little bit more harder hitting in the way that it traces a direct through line between the concept of race and how that plays out politically.

[1:21:29] and institutions. That could be really helpful. And one, because this work can be fear-inducing,

[1:21:36] especially when it takes us out of our comfort zones. So I was just offering that, because there's

[1:21:42] nothing in this session that I can say to make you less fearful. And like a little bit that you've

[1:21:47] gotten from us around deficit-based thinking, I think that some work Zoretta Hammond lays it out

[1:21:52] really well and also offer resource around critical race theory which could really help

[1:22:00] think deeply about the deficit-based thinking which could frame some of work for your board policy

[1:22:05] even though some of the details of this will come out in the admin policy more likely than a board

[1:22:09] policy. Yeah and I think just building on that I think this you know hearing as the

[1:22:15] the board's having this conversation.

[1:22:19] This is also giving us some ideas of ways

[1:22:24] in which we can continue to support the board

[1:22:27] as you engage in your work to develop policy.

[1:22:34] Siri, and then Mike?

[1:22:37] Yeah, so Mike was just around the whole asset building

[1:22:39] that it would be good to be getting some stronger back

[1:22:42] on the floor, kind of address that really, to Jess.

[1:22:44] Yes, I think that's the way to really think about writing the policy is with that angle

[1:22:49] because I'm 100 percent in agreement that everybody comes to the table with a lot and

[1:22:55] how do we build?

[1:22:55] How do we ensure this policy does that same thing along that line?

[1:23:06] Yeah, maybe just to offer two concrete examples of where there may be deficit-based thinking

[1:23:10] in our system.

[1:23:11] And I think Gloria mentioned earlier, we have an over-representation of students who are

[1:23:16] referred to special education who are Latinx or black.

[1:23:22] And we know that you can look at other schools

[1:23:25] and other districts that don't have

[1:23:27] that same representation.

[1:23:28] And so then you have to ask the question,

[1:23:30] well, why are so many Latinx students

[1:23:32] being referred to special education?

[1:23:34] And that does lead to the question,

[1:23:36] is there a deficit-based thinking there

[1:23:38] that there's something missing that that student would

[1:23:41] need special education services?

[1:23:43] And in fact, there's something that makes us think

[1:23:46] there's a disability there. Rather than thinking that maybe it's the way that we're teaching

[1:23:52] and so are we teaching in a way that makes the language accessible to students? Are we taking

[1:23:57] advantage of their own learned experiences and their lived experiences? Are kids seeing themselves

[1:24:02] in the books that they're reading, in the stories that we're telling? And if not, they may not be

[1:24:08] connecting to our curriculum. And so as a result of that, we assume that there's something missing

[1:24:13] or something wrong with them as opposed to changing our system and changing our structure.

[1:24:19] There was a nice example I heard somebody shared one time, you know, if your flower is not

[1:24:24] blooming or blossoming, you don't try to fix the flower. You enrich the soil, you'll water more,

[1:24:29] you fix the environment. And that's really I think where we are. There was a superintendent down in

[1:24:36] San Diego, Rudy Crew, black superintendent who was saying, you know, oftentimes too, we fall into

[1:24:41] to this, oh, the poor, name the group,

[1:24:44] black student, Hispanic student, poor student,

[1:24:47] and we have a tendency to lower our expectations sometimes too.

[1:24:50] And so again, there are we pushing students

[1:24:52] into special education, because well,

[1:24:54] they're just, they're not coming along.

[1:24:55] So those are really concrete examples of deficit thinking

[1:24:58] and how we have to change our approach

[1:25:00] as opposed to trying to fix our kids

[1:25:03] who really don't need fixing.

[1:25:04] They just need good instruction

[1:25:05] that's suited to their learning styles

[1:25:08] or their learning needs or their language abilities

[1:25:10] and not assume that they're coming in with something missing, but assume that maybe there's just a mismatch between what we're doing and what their

[1:25:17] experiences are, and if we can bridge that, I think it's gross things, or Adam's talking about, then we can actually start making a difference.

[1:25:25] As opposed to if you think there's something wrong with the kid, your approach is very different, and we see that in our system.

[1:25:30] I think there's some real opportunities. It's a function of people understanding more.

[1:25:35] And so Mike, I'm just going to jump off, build off of what you were just sharing there and

[1:25:42] then I think that actually can help kind of steer us in looking into the connection

[1:25:47] between an asset based kind of mindset or outlook and it's a theory of action.

[1:25:54] So Mike just articulated several theories of action.

[1:25:57] So for example, one theory of action would be that if students see representations of themselves

[1:26:04] in the curriculum and to the materials that they're reading,

[1:26:08] the examples that are provided that as a result,

[1:26:12] they're going to have higher levels of engagement

[1:26:14] and subsequently you would expect to have higher,

[1:26:19] you know, better academic outcomes as a result.

[1:26:23] So that's an example of a theory of action.

[1:26:26] It might just articulate several of those

[1:26:28] that really go back and look at the ways

[1:26:31] in which our educational system influences or impacts our students and so I think that actually

[1:26:41] might be a helpful way for us to look at these policies because if we can look at a theory of

[1:26:46] action we can hold up and say is that theory of action asset based because it's really primarily

[1:26:53] focused back on the ways in which we are at the extent to which we aren't meeting students needs

[1:26:58] or as a deficit based in ways in which we're blaming the flower or it's so to speak.

[1:27:05] So why don't we do that and just kind of call out like what just generally,

[1:27:13] what were some of the theories of action that you pulled out in these equity policies?

[1:27:20] And that might help us be mindful as we go to develop a, as a board goes to develop a policy

[1:27:26] around kind of what are you wanting to see that and why would you what's the

[1:27:32] change that you would expect as a result?

[1:27:49] Those are some complicated questions.

[1:27:52] So let me take a stab at starting that conversation because to me it's a

[1:28:01] theory of action comes down to dimensions where we can change this is from

[1:28:08] things in place. And this is where I'm starting to see that there might be a web

[1:28:13] of connections, because not all of these apply to all of the subsets that we've already

[1:28:18] started discussing, I mean, race, ability, which abilities physical, cognitive, or mental

[1:28:25] health, identity, which to me means LGBTQ or religion or ethnicity, all of these are things

[1:28:32] that you get at home, and then income is something, but cultural fluency, does cultural fluency

[1:28:38] apply to income?

[1:28:39] No, it doesn't.

[1:28:39] But cultural fluency sure as hell applies to identity and so, you know, the the theories of action to me sort of start with cultural fluency, support systems, and

[1:28:54] I'm running out of dimensions, but I'm sure that there's a leafy not one hiding that I'm missing

[1:29:02] Expectation that's cultural. Well anyway, but these are the big picture things we need to connect as things we can

[1:29:09] And X is that we can do to influence, to support groups that have inequitable outcomes

[1:29:19] in achieving actual work.

[1:29:22] Is that, I hope that's not.

[1:29:26] Well, thank you for jumping in there, because it is complex.

[1:29:31] I see Siri, Cassandra, I've raised her hand, so Siri, do you want to jump in next, like

[1:29:36] Cassandra?

[1:29:38] Sure.

[1:29:39] So, as I was trying to think about the stare of action, I was like, I needed to move

[1:29:43] to examples.

[1:29:44] So I was just thinking, so I went through the first in policy to look through and say,

[1:29:48] okay, so if this is the policy, that you will not fail to recruit employee support and

[1:29:52] retain a workforce reflective of our diverse student population and continuously develop

[1:29:57] that workforce.

[1:29:57] of course, that day.

[1:30:00] The result is that our students will feel represented and engaged and therefore have stronger academic outcome. Am I giving this correct as to how that's playing out? Yes.

[1:30:13] Yeah, that would, that would be a great example as a theory of action would be if we have a, if our work, our educational workforce is more representative of the student population, which we serve as a result.

[1:30:30] our students are going to engage and have positive outcomes.

[1:30:34] So you're essentially saying that this board is highlighting that we think this is almost

[1:30:39] like a necessary condition to achieve that outcome and so as a board you're going to

[1:30:46] have to talk about what do we think are those conditions in order to get us to more equitable

[1:30:52] outcomes for our students.

[1:30:54] And so when I think of the whole asset conversation was there you know the the one that I see doing and it lines well actually with what I heard in several of the linkages was recognizing the strengths that come to the table of our students, our families, our teachers, our community and being able to build off of those going forward.

[1:31:19] because, ideally, by doing that, you can then start to address some of those inequities.

[1:31:22] I also think the whole key piece in there of addressing systemic problems and challenges.

[1:31:30] That is a key thing that has to happen.

[1:31:33] I mean, I remember speaking about paradigm shift.

[1:31:36] That's what has to happen.

[1:31:42] Thank you, Cassandra.

[1:31:44] I'm just thinking about having good and avid volunteer at the high school level and every

[1:31:54] time I walked in the door I thought why don't we have an element of this in all the classes

[1:32:00] because really it's trying to set expectations at a higher level to give you the opportunity

[1:32:09] to go a couple different directions after high school.

[1:32:12] So why wouldn't we be setting those expectations just generally for all students to make sure that they had the option to go to college by getting all those pre-rexed on and doing things in order so they have enough time and high school to finish them.

[1:32:29] I don't know how avid is going in a remote setting or if we're doing it, but I've always thought that that could be expanded to reach a lot larger population.

[1:32:40] The other thing I wanted to mention was with the home to school partnership, families

[1:32:48] to your local community school and when you're an elementary, it's historically been easier

[1:32:56] to develop some of those partnerships because you're taking your child to school and picking

[1:33:02] them up.

[1:33:03] However, there's now a large percentage of parents that their student goes to daycare and

[1:33:10] somebody else brings them to school, so you're missing a whole lot of connection

[1:33:15] opportunity because they can't be there. And I feel that we need to reach out to

[1:33:22] our parent community to make those ties stronger. If they would like to participate,

[1:33:29] we would like to partner with them. And that goes for all students.

[1:33:35] I think there's

[1:33:36] things we could do in the almost immediate future, that would help us get more

[1:33:43] diversity into our.

[1:33:48] Thank you, Sandra. I see Mark in the Eric.

[1:33:54] Yes, thanks. As

[1:33:56] we're going through this discussion, especially when it comes to curriculum, our

[1:34:00] reminded of shortly after I joined the board, there was a problem with the

[1:34:07] the curriculum on world history, and among the problems, and to be quite frank, it was

[1:34:14] the primary focus at the time because the parents who brought it up, Muslim religion was

[1:34:21] not even mentioned in the history book. And the reason that was given at the time was

[1:34:28] that we had to have a certain century cutoff, and they missed it. And to be quite frank,

[1:34:35] I think that's another example, I think, of disinclusion, exclusion, if you will, culturally.

[1:34:45] I hate to see that happen.

[1:34:47] And I know it is happening in our history classes with race and other ethnicities,

[1:34:55] whether it's black, indigenous people, whatever.

[1:35:01] in Latinx groups. I would like to see us make sure that we learn from that experience.

[1:35:08] And I would, to be quite frank, never heard the end result. I was just told it was dismissed because, after all,

[1:35:16] they missed the cutoff point, if you will. I hope that's no longer being used.

[1:35:23] Thank you, Mark, Eric.

[1:35:26] Yeah, so there's two. I believe both of the policies have similar language.

[1:35:34] and I'm going to try to articulate the theory of action when I think it's going

[1:35:42] to consider it.

[1:35:43] I'll just pick it up from ISQUAS, but I believe it was also in the North-Thirst.

[1:35:47] There's a policy of the effect of to promote an environment and a culture that supports and encourages

[1:35:52] the effect of engagement of all students and fosters.

[1:35:56] I lost the player.

[1:35:58] Fosters cultural competency in students.

[1:36:00] students. And for me, the theory of action is if

[1:36:07] our students feel welcome and feel like

[1:36:13] they can trust the system that they're participating in, that there will be, well, that's

[1:36:25] an interesting question. So I'm trying to connect the dots here. I suppose that one,

[1:36:30] there will feel a bit more comfortable of accessing the different things that our

[1:36:33] system can provide. And two, I think if it's, you know, I can, first of all experience,

[1:36:42] when you feel more comfortable in your environment, you're, it's easier to succeed. It's just

[1:36:47] easier to do better when you feel supported and comfortable.

[1:36:53] Right.

[1:36:54] Yeah.

[1:36:55] Yeah.

[1:36:55] We've heard a lot. We heard a lot of, you know, the community languages I attended, I heard

[1:37:01] a lot of feedback along the lines of just wanting to be able to feel that trust, not feeling

[1:37:08] a part of the district, but feeling like this is something I'm having to push to interact

[1:37:15] with.

[1:37:19] Thank you very much.

[1:37:20] This has been a really, hopefully you found this a really rich conversation.

[1:37:24] I know I've been taking some notes and you know, some ways that we can continue to support

[1:37:31] you as you have these conversations.

[1:37:32] I think maybe a good way to just kind of wrap up and we'll just just go around and for each

[1:37:39] board member to either identify an aspect of one of these policies. So if there was just something

[1:37:45] that spoke to you that just really resonated, I want to hold on to this because that I could see

[1:37:52] that having a place ultimately in our policy or what was just something that was missing and

[1:38:01] that was absent in these policies that you'd like to.

[1:38:05] So we'll just kind of quickly go around.

[1:38:08] And if each board member can identify,

[1:38:10] there's something that's hold on to this

[1:38:12] or maybe something that was missing.

[1:38:14] And if you just want to raise your hands when you're ready

[1:38:17] and then we'll wrap up and we'll address the budget.

[1:38:22] Cassandra?

[1:38:24] Something that really resonates with me is,

[1:38:27] is when you can no longer predict the likelihood of success, I think that might be one of the

[1:38:35] best ways I have ever heard equity define when you can no longer predict whether or

[1:38:43] not you're going to succeed.

[1:38:47] Thank you.

[1:38:59] Yeah, so I've got two.

[1:39:02] The first is that this is getting down in the weeds, but I think at an appropriate level.

[1:39:08] I think discipline didn't get called out enough, equity in discipline, disciplinary

[1:39:13] action was a big theme that I took from several of the meetings I was in.

[1:39:19] The other one that is, you know, of all the things, I don't know if it gives me hope or

[1:39:25] it just confuses me, but gender is not the same thing as sex.

[1:39:30] And the fact that sex doesn't show up in either of these policies, male and female remains

[1:39:37] a breakout that we get. And it's something I think should be part of our equity policy.

[1:39:42] Even if we largely treat it as a mountain that has been summited.

[1:39:50] Thank you. Mark.

[1:39:58] So I look at the policies that we've been given. And now I've left for a crack. I think it's

[1:40:04] the, uh, uh, it's called doesn't really address, uh, the issue of curriculum and a balanced

[1:40:09] curriculum, the idea of being more inclusive in that curriculum. To me, whether it's kids

[1:40:18] that they can identify in the literature, or it's the way history is presented, or

[1:40:24] political science is presented, then they're not going to feel a part of the class either.

[1:40:31] So as I looked, I wanted to make sure that when we look at this, that we look at how we

[1:40:36] can change the system, if you will, if there's a systemic problem, part of that systemic,

[1:40:44] if you will, or part of that system, is the curriculum.

[1:40:48] If we don't address that, then we're really trying to, we're probably going to basically

[1:40:56] do ourselves the failure in that respect, not intentionally, but I think it will be a

[1:41:02] missing GAMP that will come down back to Haunt as if you.

[1:41:09] All right, thanks.

[1:41:11] Siri, and then we'll wrap up with Eric.

[1:41:16] So I think that the focus on systemic issues

[1:41:19] and how you change those as a key thing the policy has

[1:41:21] to have.

[1:41:22] I appreciated the working to be very system focused

[1:41:27] in these policies that they were not trying to say.

[1:41:29] You need to resolve the kid issue.

[1:41:31] But really, it was how do you address the bigger picture

[1:41:33] around it. I liked the way that actually social emotional learning and well-being was called

[1:41:39] out as well as not just curriculum as Mark was speaking to but the extracurricular as

[1:41:46] I think to that it's the whole community component.

[1:41:51] Those are the pieces that I thought about

[1:41:53] that I really liked with in it.

[1:41:57] I also think the value statement at the top where the board

[1:42:01] it actually states a value statement and then it moves through to what the superintendent

[1:42:05] shall or not fail I think is of importance because that's why we can really call that

[1:42:09] piece out.

[1:42:13] Thanks.

[1:42:14] Eric.

[1:42:16] The one that really is resonated with me is in the InstaQuad policy it's the superintendent

[1:42:21] shall and provide equitable access and academic support throughout our educational system.

[1:42:28] We talk about this all the time, you look at who we are accessing a lot of our programs

[1:42:33] and it is not equitable.

[1:42:38] That one really resonates with me.

[1:42:43] Great.

[1:42:44] Well, thank you.

[1:42:47] I certainly appreciate that everybody's willingness to really lean into hard conversations.

[1:42:54] And I think also, you know, the courage we call these courageous conversations and the courage

[1:42:59] to just acknowledge the challenge and sometimes the discomfort in having these conversations.

[1:43:06] And we've for the past hour and a half have a really rich conversation around these.

[1:43:11] So thank you for letting me give me the opportunity to facilitate this and

[1:43:14] for the willingness to lean into this conversation.

[1:43:22] In board briefs this week, you'll find two articles that I'm going to pass along.

[1:43:28] I don't know what those articles are yet.

[1:43:30] but the topics will be an article about centering race in the work and an article on asset-based mindset.

[1:43:39] Just as I heard the conversation, I think those are two key pieces that continue to think about and learn,

[1:43:47] and so I'll connect with the team around that because I know there's a wealth of knowledge within the group

[1:43:56] to provide the board with some really quality reading that's really focused on those two topics.

[1:44:02] So I hope you found the conversation valuable.

[1:44:06] It's not easy work, you know, when I talked about that individual journey that each of us are on,

[1:44:14] it's just that commitment to growth, always learning, always growing.

[1:44:19] And I appreciate the board being willing to do that work in public.

[1:44:25] because it's hard enough to do in a small group and it's probably even harder

[1:44:30] that it's recorded and being broadcast live. So let's just be honest that's

[1:44:36] that's not easy. So thank you Gloria for coming in and you know providing

[1:44:41] context and background and joy and Mike and Matt. So just thank you everybody for

[1:44:47] engaging in this conversation and so appreciate that.

[1:44:54] Are we ready to move on to a budget?

[1:45:01] Can I have a five minute break? Why don't we make a standard header handrake? Do you want to one last? No, I'm just not very efficient. My handrake.

[1:45:15] I'm like a five minute break, do I? So back it eight, 15? Yeah, let's do that. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:50:50] I am here.

[1:50:54] Back live, Eric. Okay. The next and last.

[1:50:59] Last topic for tonight's study session is a 2020-2021 budget update.

[1:51:05] Dr. Holman, will you, I think you're going to hand it off to Barbara, were you latest through this?

[1:51:10] Yeah, I'll preface it and then hand it off to Barbara.

[1:51:15] So, as you know, very interesting year related to finances, I think to start it off, we are in good fiscal shape.

[1:51:27] We have planned well, we have contingencies and reserves.

[1:51:34] And everything that has led up to this year has really set us up to be in a good solid fiscal place.

[1:51:43] That doesn't mean we don't need to look ahead and kind of know what's happening at a very detailed level, but we are in a good fiscal place.

[1:51:50] So, I want to lead with that because I think that's a very important part for like Washington

[1:51:57] school district.

[1:51:58] That is not the case for many districts across the state of Washington.

[1:52:02] When you see districts that have had to lay off their entire fleet of bus drivers and half

[1:52:08] of their parent educators, you know, when you see those things, I would imagine it probably

[1:52:13] evokes questions and how are we doing and why aren't we doing that, things like that.

[1:52:19] And so Barbara and team have walked through really to

[1:52:29] talk about our budget,

[1:52:34] revenues

[1:52:35] and expenditures in a way to articulate kind of the impact of COVID and remote learning

[1:52:43] along with where we are fiscally.

[1:52:46] And so she and I have gone back and forth a number of times around this because it sounds

[1:52:52] simple, but it is a complex topic when you're talking about a lack of revenue coming in versus an actual expenditure.

[1:53:01] Those are two very different ways of either not receiving money or

[1:53:05] expending money that you weren't anticipating.

[1:53:08] And so we tried to articulate this in a very easy to consume way.

[1:53:13] And so with that, I will introduce Barbara Postumus, our associate superintendent of business and support services.

[1:53:22] Great. Thank you, John, and I'm going to share my PowerPoint.

[1:53:38] All right. Here it is. So tonight we're going to review. We've been talking with the board

[1:53:46] since March and discussing the financial impacts. And as John mentioned, it's not only financial

[1:53:54] impacts of what we've had to spend in PPE and software and cleaning, but decreased revenue

[1:54:01] as well. So tonight we're going to focus on the impact, really, to the 2021 budget. So we're

[1:54:07] going to talk about our budget outlook and the assumptions around that. We're going to look

[1:54:12] at specific budget impacts and then talk about next steps.

[1:54:18] So first I want to tie our conversation

[1:54:20] back to our policy. So OE5 is our operational expectation around financial planning and it

[1:54:29] discuss is not only the budget that we will develop but it also in item 5.4 and 5.5, it talks about

[1:54:41] we will share our assumptions which we will continue to do with you tonight and then

[1:54:46] assures fiscal soundness in future years and then our policy also talks about providing necessary

[1:54:56] information to the board on matters with significant budgetary impacts so we're

[1:55:01] going to again talk about that tonight.

[1:55:06] So we'll go over Outlook and Assumptions

[1:55:08] and tonight is focused on the general fund that is our primary day-to-day

[1:55:12] operations and where most the majority of the impacts are being felt. So first

[1:55:21] I want to review some assumptions based on the data that I will share with you

[1:55:25] So right now we are assuming that the legislature will not give districts any mid-year state funding cuts.

[1:55:37] So currently the legislature comes back in session in January.

[1:55:42] We know there is a statewide revenue deficit due to the economy.

[1:55:47] But right now these assumptions assume no additional cuts to school districts, no cuts to school districts.

[1:55:53] We have shared with the board in the past that because we are not transporting the majority

[1:56:01] of our students, they will be reducing our transportation revenue.

[1:56:06] There is the potential that the legislature will provide some relief when they come back

[1:56:11] in session in January, but our assumptions right now assume that we will receive the full

[1:56:17] loss in transportation.

[1:56:21] I'll share with you the enrollment decline that we are expecting and the assumptions

[1:56:29] assume that the enrollment decline won't get worse, so just no additional enrollment

[1:56:35] decline other than what we've already experienced.

[1:56:38] Right now our nutrition services program through the federal waiver is self-supporting with

[1:56:48] the free grab and go meals because that's funded by the federal government, so the assumptions

[1:56:52] assume that continues. Our extended day program again, I'll provide more details later on

[1:56:59] in the presentation currently is not self-supporting. The revenue losses that I'll share and any

[1:57:06] expenditure savings we're assuming right now, the full school year impact, so if as things change,

[1:57:14] we will need to update those assumptions, but right now we're assuming all losses are for the full

[1:57:20] school year. And then PPE costs, we know how much we've spent to date, we know how much we've

[1:57:28] ordered, and some, we've ordered some equipment for the whole year, but we've, other things were

[1:57:36] ordering as we needed, so we're ordering each month. So the cost for the whole school year is still

[1:57:42] determined. And then the assumption this assumes, we know the WIA has pushed sports back

[1:57:51] to the spring, so hopefully we will be able to continue our athletics for the year but

[1:57:58] the assumptions and what I'm sharing assumes that the whole year, that we won't have

[1:58:05] athletics for the whole year. So again, those things, these numbers can change as we go

[1:58:11] further into the year.

[1:58:13] And Barbara, I just want to comment to the board.

[1:58:15] These were, as Barbara and I were talking about, how do we give an update around the budget?

[1:58:21] We had to develop assumptions that we then could apply to the update and to the information,

[1:58:29] versus us really having an indication around some of these things.

[1:58:32] It just was our mechanism to provide clarity around what the numbers actually are representing.

[1:58:38] Right. So this next slide is just high level summary of kind of the budget outlook that we are not going to receive approximately almost 47 million in revenues due to COVID and remote learning.

[1:58:54] We're not going to spend about 33 and a half million dollars in expenditures due to COVID and remote learning.

[1:59:00] And so this is going to mean that we're going to use an additional $13.4 million in fund

[1:59:07] balance. This is above our budget had already planned. We were already planning on spending

[1:59:12] down fund balance of about $9 million. So this will be an additional $13.4 million in

[1:59:18] fund balance that we will need to spend down. As John mentioned at the beginning, as we

[1:59:25] are in a good financial position. I'll show you on the next slide we had estimated a fun balance

[1:59:32] of around $90 million to start the year. We do estimate that number will be higher than that.

[1:59:40] Most likely we're going to have some committed carryover that's committed for certain purposes,

[1:59:45] such as grants, our CTE program, building budgets, things like that. So we are estimating right now

[1:59:53] that will end the year at a total fund balance of 75 million, and as we go forward.

[2:00:00] Through of the year, we will be updating those numbers. So just a reminder, this was the chart that we shared at the board meeting in June and the four year plan. And so we have an intentional use of fund balance. You can see here we are in the 2020 school year, but we are intentionally spending that fund balance down. And so that will give us time to get us through the next few years as we evaluate

[2:00:29] the long-term impacts of COVID and remote, the impacts that remote learning will have on our

[2:00:35] districts.

[2:00:40] I want to talk about the key changes in enrollment and we have shared preliminary

[2:00:45] final September numbers with the board. Go ahead. Before you move on, I believe, I think that's

[2:00:52] Chris, put his hand in the last slide. That's all right. I just wanted to acknowledge that we're

[2:01:01] spending down the fund balance. This is exactly why one carries forward a fund balance.

[2:01:07] In case you have a crazy year or five and thank you for planning to do so because this

[2:01:14] is why we've carried it forward as well as we might know.

[2:01:17] Yes, thank you. We're very fortunate to have that fund balance that we can help us through

[2:01:23] that situation. So we have shared September and

[2:01:29] enrollment information with a board. We did have our official October 1 count on Thursday,

[2:01:36] October 1st. We are still verifying these numbers. Normally, we grow about 2 to 300 students

[2:01:44] between September and October, which is why you normally use the October count as your

[2:01:50] official count. But our FTE this year actually remained level. In fact, it was slight decrease

[2:01:58] but for the most part, the FTE.

[2:02:00] So we didn't realize, again, between September and October.

[2:02:04] So what these figures represent,

[2:02:07] the first column is last year's enrollment.

[2:02:10] So we enrolled 30,637 students in the 1920 school year.

[2:02:15] And these are average annual FTE.

[2:02:17] This is not headcount.

[2:02:19] So this is what we are funded on.

[2:02:22] We budgeted to grow just about 220 students

[2:02:27] to 30,000 eight fifty-fourths. Our budget was slight a little bit of growth over last year,

[2:02:34] not the significant growth that we've been seeing. So we are actually projecting now

[2:02:39] based on our September and October numbers, an average annual moment of 30,000, 30,000, 40 students.

[2:02:48] So we're projecting a decline right now, about 800 students in K-12 and then slight decline

[2:02:54] in our ALE, so 814 FTE students, and again I'll talk about the impact of revenue loss revenue

[2:03:05] because of that in the next couple slides. Barbara, Chris has a question. Okay. Yeah, quick one

[2:03:12] on this slide. Is the 645 elementary student decreases? Is that mostly just lack of new kindergarteners,

[2:03:19] or is that spread across the whole age range?

[2:03:22] It actually, we projected a lower kindergarten number

[2:03:26] in our budget because of, we saw the registrations

[2:03:31] in kindergarten were slowing down,

[2:03:33] so it is very evenly spread though

[2:03:36] between first and fifth grade.

[2:03:39] Okay, so thank you.

[2:03:40] Yeah,

[2:03:43] Mark?

[2:03:45] I'm sorry, Mark, to interrupt a quick question.

[2:03:49] Is there any way to be able to determine,

[2:03:51] I'm guessing no, but I'll ask a question.

[2:03:52] And how many of these students we've lost due to people going into remote schools if

[2:03:59] you will, or the online schools, are homeschooling if you will, I guess that was a question.

[2:04:07] Yeah, we can look the, because we are, we have, we are a typically growing school district,

[2:04:14] we do have a lot of families moving into areas, so we, many students withdraw because they're

[2:04:19] moving but so we did we had a preliminary look at the numbers of students losing

[2:04:26] but it's hard to kind of narrow down the dates of when they're leaving so that's

[2:04:33] something we will continue to look at to see if we can narrow down kind of the

[2:04:37] reasons why families have left because it also could be.

[2:04:43] It's an important thing, I can go ahead.

[2:04:47] Sorry, it also could be that families aren't moving

[2:04:49] into the area as well due to COVID.

[2:04:54] Well, I, you know, it's kind of hard to find out

[2:04:57] why they're leaving or why they're not,

[2:05:00] why they're leaving the district,

[2:05:01] because no one gives an exit interview, I guess,

[2:05:03] for students, do we have any indication

[2:05:08] as to how this compares to the other districts?

[2:05:11] are we now third compared to Tacoma or Spokane or?

[2:05:16] Yeah, I believe we're still retaining our second largest district.

[2:05:22] Again, once we have the official October counts from all across the state

[2:05:27] will be able to compare those numbers.

[2:05:29] We did have preliminary September comparison statewide

[2:05:32] and we were one of the, we were, I think, the lowest loss in King County.

[2:05:38] So we lost about 0.6% compared to last September, where many of our neighboring districts have lost two to five percent, and if some even more than that.

[2:05:54] So our loss is a lot less than everybody else.

[2:05:59] Thank you.

[2:06:00] Yep, you're welcome.

[2:06:03] Okay, so the next slide, I want to just show that our budget is, even though our enrollment

[2:06:13] is down, we still have a commitment to the staff that we hire, and 86% of our budget

[2:06:19] is committed to staff salaries and benefits.

[2:06:22] So, and only 5% supplies the materials and then 9% on purchase services and very slim

[2:06:32] part of the pie on travel and capital outlay.

[2:06:34] So I just want to make sure, just remind everyone how much of our budget is for people,

[2:06:43] the fabulous people that we have working for us.

[2:06:48] Okay, so these are the slides we're trying to give you rather than throw a lot of data

[2:06:55] at you.

[2:06:56] We're going to give you kind of the high level, simplified overview of the impacts to

[2:07:02] our budget this year.

[2:07:03] So as I mentioned, we've lost 800 basic ed students and about 120 special education students

[2:07:14] are enrollment is down.

[2:07:15] And so, and of that in special ed, about 20 of that relates to preschool and the rest is our K-21 students.

[2:07:23] And so, that really impacts us 808.3 million in basic ed and 1.2 million in special ed revenue decline due to enrollment.

[2:07:34] So, that's a 9.5 million dollar loss due to just enrollment.

[2:07:39] improvement.

[2:07:43] Then our transportation impact, as I mentioned, we are expecting a revenue

[2:07:50] loss and for assumption purposes we are assuming 100% loss in our revenue of $10.2 million.

[2:08:01] We do, we are transporting some special ed students, we will be providing that information

[2:08:06] to the state so we will not know probably until January though how much of an impact, how much revenue

[2:08:14] we will receive because of our minimal transportation right now. But yes, we are losing 10.2 million in

[2:08:24] revenue, but we are also saving some contractual services costs. Our McKinney-Vento, we use a company

[2:08:34] called ALC to transport a lot of our students. One-on-one special ed students were able to do that

[2:08:41] with our bus drivers right now. So we have additional savings. And so we believe the transportation

[2:08:49] impact will be approximately a 5.6 million dollar loss in revenue or net.

[2:08:59] So we also talked about,

[2:09:01] we want to talk about staff impacts. As I mentioned with our enrollment decline, you know, we didn't

[2:09:06] start seeing that enrollment decline really until two weeks before school started in August,

[2:09:14] and so we had already hired most of our staff, and so we committed to those staff.

[2:09:22] We are experiencing, so we will expect to experience savings in, we have some unfilled positions

[2:09:28] this year that we haven't filled.

[2:09:30] We believe we will have less expenditures for substitutes this year due to remote learning.

[2:09:38] We will have, there's contractual services that we aren't sending right now, such as our SRO program is on pause due to remote learning.

[2:09:49] And then we will have additional costs probably for leave impacts.

[2:09:53] the federal government provided an additional, what's called FFCRA leave through December 31st that provides additional leave,

[2:10:04] allows staff to go on leave due to school closures, so all of those impacts we will be, you know, feeling through the rest of the year.

[2:10:14] So, but right now we're estimating $5.2 million in savings due to reduced staffing costs.

[2:10:21] We

[2:10:24] also have local fee programs where we receive revenue, such as our athletic participation

[2:10:30] fees, our facility use fees, we have the community we charge for when the community

[2:10:36] rents our buildings, rents our stadiums, rents our theaters, all of those fees, we are

[2:10:43] assuming we will receive none of those fees this year.

[2:10:46] We charge our preschool families, our typical preschool students who join our special ed students in preschool, pay fees for part of that program.

[2:10:59] Those fees are reduced this year, not because it's not all families are registering for preschool.

[2:11:08] and then we also are buildings collect material, fees, and fines, and those aren't being collected this year, but we also are saving money in not spending funds on replacing lost items and purchasing certain materials.

[2:11:25] So overall, the impact of our local fee programs is the savings of about $700,000.

[2:11:33] So,

[2:11:38] and then our federal program, as we've shared with the word, we received a total of

[2:11:43] about $1.7 million from the Federal Government through the CARES Act, and that is to help

[2:11:50] districts with remote learning expenditures, including PPE, professional development and

[2:11:57] training equipment, and so our district has spent the current cost and spending for remote

[2:12:05] learning, and this includes a mention curriculum training and software. All of our distancing

[2:12:13] signage and markers are disinfectant and cleaning supplies, hand sanitizers, the masks.

[2:12:22] I mentioned our technology. We bought additional servers. We also used – so we also provided

[2:12:32] additional staffing support, so all of those costs are adding up right now to about $3.8 million

[2:12:42] and of which we will receive reimbursement for 1.7 so that we at $2.1 million loss due to the

[2:12:50] cost of remote learning.

[2:12:57] And this doesn't include the additional PPE that we will need to continue

[2:13:00] to buy throughout the year.

[2:13:04] So the last slide I have is nutrition, our self-supporting programs.

[2:13:09] I talked a little bit about both of these under our assumptions. So as I mentioned, nutrition

[2:13:16] services is normally a $10 million program, both on the revenue side and the expenditure side.

[2:13:22] That has been significantly reduced. The Grab and Go meal service right now is being funded through

[2:13:30] the federal waiver. They've committed to funding that through December 31st. So beyond

[2:13:36] that we don't know the long-term impact on that. So right now we're assuming nutrition

[2:13:41] services through the the grab and go through the federal waiver is operating on a self-supporting

[2:13:48] basis. I will mention, you know, we partner, we've been a partner with the DEXO food service

[2:13:54] for over 30 years.

[2:13:57] They, again, they're a separate company.

[2:14:00] They did have to furlough staff

[2:14:04] in order to maintain self-supporting programs.

[2:14:10] So they have staff on furlough

[2:14:12] because we are not serving students

[2:14:14] in our schools right now.

[2:14:16] Our extended day child care program normally operates

[2:14:20] at 12 locations and serves over 700 students

[2:14:24] before and after school. Right now our extended day program is serving 20 students at two sites,

[2:14:31] but we have commitments to maintain the staff, and so right now we're expecting a 2.1 million

[2:14:40] dollar loss in that program.

[2:14:46] So overall, just continuing in the short term, we will continue to

[2:14:51] review unfilled positions as they come out to determine what should be filled, what should remain unfilled.

[2:15:00] Due to remote learning, we will continue to monitor our revenues, expenditures for changes, and then as we begin planning for next year, we're going to need to bring our staffing back in alignment within our enrollment, whether those the enrollment continues to decrease, or we will see, you know, re-eaning enrollment, but we will need to bring our staffing back in alignment, and then we'll need to continue to align

[2:15:29] align our expenditures with our resources so that we do remain physically sound in the long-term.

[2:15:38] So, that concludes my information and presentation. So, any other further questions from the board?

[2:15:53] So, Cassandra, Chris and then Siri?

[2:15:58] So, thank you for the presentation and I have been wondering quite a bit if our numbers have been

[2:16:05] changing since last time you and I discussed the expenditures. It sounds like it has gone up to 2.8

[2:16:11] million as far as COVID related expenditures. So we do have a lot of assumptions which sound

[2:16:21] like smart sound assumptions at this point. When will the board be notified if one of those assumptions

[2:16:28] changes. Will we be, will you give us a heads up, drop an email just to say, okay, this

[2:16:35] part change, are you, is there another report that you're going to say, okay, and quarterly

[2:16:39] imminent update you?

[2:16:42] You know, I would, so those assumptions are all kind of like you said, it's almost like

[2:16:49] programmatic decisions that we had to assume in order to do this. And so, we know, you

[2:16:56] You know, WIA is planning for a return, and so along with that will come probably a message to the board around when athletics and activities will start up.

[2:17:09] As Barbara and team then analyze the budget impact of that, if it's substantial, then we would bring that to the board.

[2:17:16] If it's nominal, then it's probably not something that we would bring to the board initially, but start kind of collecting those pieces and notify the board along the way.

[2:17:30] So yes, the board will be notified of this along the way, but probably if it's a nominal change, it probably won't be elevated to notifying the board.

[2:17:41] But as we start collecting some of these things, yes.

[2:17:44] If I could ask that just the COVID-related expenses, if you could give me a heads-up barber

[2:17:50] when those change so that if I'm talking with legislators, I can give them sort of an

[2:17:55] accurate picture of where we stand.

[2:17:58] Yeah.

[2:17:59] And we've been working on an infographic and we'll get that posted on our website as well

[2:18:04] and we'll share that with the board as an infographics showing all of those expenditures

[2:18:08] and how that breaks down.

[2:18:10] And again, knowing that that's really the impact of what we've had to buy or what we've

[2:18:16] had to spend, there are other impacts such as the revenue losses that we've talked

[2:18:20] about, that that infographic doesn't capture.

[2:18:25] So, but yes, we will share that with you and the other piece is as we normally do during

[2:18:32] a legislative session, once the legislature is back in session, we will keep the board

[2:18:38] informed as we hear about major legislative decisions or bills that might impact us will

[2:18:46] keep you informed of those impacts. Thank you.

[2:18:53] Chris,

[2:18:56] thank you, Barbara, for the heroic efforts

[2:18:59] to develop a budget when the assumptions we know this year has been crazy for violating assumptions

[2:19:05] So, this is a great gun.

[2:19:09] And the other thing I wanted to see is give you feedback that I really liked the way

[2:19:14] you've managed to still be usually the last dozen slides in this deck would have been

[2:19:20] the series of tables.

[2:19:22] Distilling that down to here's the subject and here's the impact is huge.

[2:19:27] Thank you.

[2:19:28] I really appreciate that.

[2:19:30] You're welcome, Chris.

[2:19:32] And guess what the first draft looked like.

[2:19:34] it had a lot of a lot of very complex tables that probably would have been

[2:19:40] diffusing and I finally had a shift and gave you the simplified version so

[2:19:47] well you're definitely was excellent good job well thank you

[2:19:53] in Siri

[2:20:01] okay

[2:20:06] one of

[2:20:07] these days so thank you and I would agree I appreciated the the remedy in which

[2:20:14] to put that information together and do that in a very complex sort of thing that often

[2:20:18] takes more time than all the other information.

[2:20:22] The question that I had was in regards to we, I know transportation and drivers are not

[2:20:27] being utilized in driving buses as much and you had mentioned like with extended day that

[2:20:32] we're keeping all that staff on or only so my question would be what roles are those staff

[2:20:37] now in if it's not in providing the services that they were doing prior?

[2:20:43] Yeah, great. So our bus drivers are the majority of our bus drivers are being utilized to transport

[2:20:50] special ed students with an AM-PM model that actually takes more drivers and so we have

[2:21:01] number of drivers just they're working less hours but more drivers. So some are doing AM routes

[2:21:08] and others are doing PM routes and we have some drivers because many of our drivers are in the

[2:21:15] high risk category so some drivers have voluntarily taken a leave this year. Other drivers,

[2:21:22] we have a small number of drivers that are continuing. If they're not assigned to a route, they're either

[2:21:27] studying. We're using them as subs or they're coming in on a daily basis to clean buses and do work

[2:21:35] on site. We have, we are utilizing other drivers to deliver, do the male deliveries. And so that's

[2:21:43] how our drivers are being used. Our extended day staff are being distributed to our elementary

[2:21:50] schools. And so they're helping out our elementary schools with the needed supports of remote learning

[2:21:59] that our schools are needing right now.

[2:22:03] Okay, thanks. It's great that you were able to come up with

[2:22:05] a very flexible way in which to address these and be able to

[2:22:08] sheet through that.

[2:22:10] The only other piece I was trying to understand that might be easy

[2:22:12] if you actually go back to it was looking at your ending fun

[2:22:15] balance.

[2:22:16] I was just trying to put all the numbers together and I was not doing a

[2:22:19] very good job.

[2:22:22] Yeah, and it's just an estimate right now, so a regional budget.

[2:22:27] So let me go back.

[2:22:28] So this slide, we had originally projected a $90 million

[2:22:33] dollar beginning fund balance for this year and use of fund balance of 10 and so that

[2:22:40] left us with $80 million. We are expecting this number to be higher, around $100 million.

[2:22:49] Our beginning fund balance is expected to be higher. We are expecting to use more fund

[2:22:56] balance, so about $25 million. So that leaves us with this, let me go back one, the $75 million

[2:23:05] that we mentioned here. So we had planned for 80 and it's coming out to be 75 instead.

[2:23:13] Yeah. It's going, it's, we're going to start the year with more, we're going to spend more

[2:23:18] fun balance and in the year with slightly less than we estimated. And so this is also that

[2:23:25] I can serve this budgeting process that we've gone through in order to be able to have that.

[2:23:30] That's correct, so no, that's right, that makes.

[2:23:32] And one other aspect to the fund balance, it's also now accounting for the savings from being fully remote last spring.

[2:23:45] And so with the school closure, that also brought along a number of savings which then increased our fund balance unbeknownst.

[2:23:54] to us at the beginning of last school year.

[2:23:59] Well, I'm assuming any decrease,

[2:24:01] that's the reserve economic impact.

[2:24:03] That's the reason we put that aside

[2:24:05] specifically for anything that was COVID related.

[2:24:08] Correct.

[2:24:09] Okay.

[2:24:10] Thank you.

[2:24:11] You're welcome.

[2:24:12] Eric.

[2:24:14] Yeah, so I want to stay on,

[2:24:17] I've already got back to slide nine.

[2:24:20] Sorry.

[2:24:24] So we have set aside the reserve economic impact

[2:24:27] fund to cover unplanned contingencies.

[2:24:31] I essentially have that right, right?

[2:24:34] And we are, as I look at this, we are retaining that because we still,

[2:24:40] there are a number of assumptions built into this budget.

[2:24:43] We still, we still don't know.

[2:24:46] There's still a lot of risk related to COVID.

[2:24:49] So the plan, as I see this here, is to not spend that piece down currently.

[2:24:55] It's to spend down the other part of the fund balance and retain this other, the reserve economic impact fund for what we set up for, which is unknown contingencies that could resolve.

[2:25:09] Do I have that right?

[2:25:10] Okay, thank you.

[2:25:11] That would be the plan, and as I mentioned, we still don't know, you know, what the next, it's not only this legislative session, you know, and this impacts to this budget year,

[2:25:22] but the legislative session could bring impacts to future budget years that we are not prepared for right now.

[2:25:31] So I think that remains very prudent.

[2:25:34] Okay, thank you.

[2:25:35] And if I remember correctly, Barbara, correct me, but to use the reserve funds, it takes formal board action.

[2:25:43] Correct.

[2:25:45] Yeah, okay.

[2:25:49] Okay, thank you.

[2:25:50] Great. It's any other questions?

[2:25:57] If not, that's our budget update.

[2:26:01] Great. Thank you. It was very digestible.

[2:26:07] Thank you.

[2:26:08] Obviously digestible.

[2:26:12] Okay. That is the last item on our agenda for tonight.

[2:26:19] I don't think I need a motion to adjourn the study session.

[2:26:23] And so we're back on October,

[2:26:28] although I'm having and having computer problems again.

[2:26:33] I can't remember where we're back.

[2:26:34] Thanks to each of the day.

[2:26:35] So whatever that, whatever that works out.

[2:26:37] October 26th.

[2:26:38] Very good.

[2:26:41] Yeah, October 26th.

[2:26:43] October 26th and the waiver was extended until November 9th.

[2:26:47] It was extended.

[2:26:49] Yes.

[2:26:51] So we'll be having the business meeting at 5,

[2:26:54] followed by a study session scheduled for 6.

[2:26:56] But comment say when we finish the business meeting

[2:26:59] Okay, thanks everyone. That's it meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Have a good night everybody

October 5, 2020 Study Session - 6:00 pm.

Agenda

Transcript