Friday Memo to the Board Superintendent’s Office for the week of November 9-16, 2020

Happenings:

• Chief of Staff Kokx and Chief Wyeth Jesse met with Police Chief, Chief Diaz, to discuss our common work moving forward in partnership • Small cabinet attended several PTA/PTSA/parent meetings at schools this week to share information about remote learning, the upcoming levy, and Seattle Excellence • Shared information about Asynchronous Learning at the virtual townhall with Kari Hanson, Principal Dr. Gary, and Principal Jones-Huge thank you to this team! • Held monthly meeting with SEA leaders to discuss educators SEL in remote learning and brainstormed ways that we can collaborate to support our educators • Visited with the Seattle Times Editorial Board about, among other things, the great work aligned to Seattle Excellence happening in our schools, leadership during a pandemic, technology and internet, HR transformation, and SPS anti-racist work. • Virtually attended a reading Native author Traci Sorell at Fairmount Park with students, staff, and parents as a part of Native American Heritage Month.

The Remote Learning Task Force page- https://www.seattleschools.org/families_communities/committees/remote_learning -is up to date with upcoming meeting dates and other information. The minutes from the first meeting have been posted.

Friday Memo to the Board Schools and Continuous Improvement for the week of November 9, 2020

Behavioral Health Resources Guide

The ongoing stress, fear, grief, and uncertainty created by the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism can have an extraordinary impact on our mental health, and young people may have an especially tough time coping emotionally.

According to ’ 2018 Healthy Youth Survey data:

• 1 in 4 eighth grade students, and 1 in 3 high school students, reported experiencing depression during the past year • 2/3 of high school students reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge in the last 2 weeks • 26% of tenth grade students, and 32% of twelfth grade students, reported using illegal drugs in the past 30 days

Research shows that preventing drug use and promoting mental health among students is associated with higher productivity, better academic performance, and more consistent attendance. We strive to support every student in need and work to accomplish this through various strategies, including partnerships with youth behavioral health agencies. These partnerships increase student access to services and reduce interruption to instructional time.

Coordinated School Health staff have created a Behavioral Health Resource Guide to assist staff in providing relevant and supportive referrals to our students and families. This guide contains responses from 18 local agencies and includes information on types of services provided, insurance accepted, diversity of staff and clinicians, contact information, and more. Please note: this guide does not designate an agency as preferred or approved, it is simply meant to provide supplementary information to assist in referral. Friday Memo to the Board Office of African American Male Achievement for the week of November 9-13, 2020

The theme for this week is Meta Cognition (thinking about one’s thinking) great educators like DuBois and Dewey have asserted that experience alone is not the greatest teacher, moreover, it is our reflection of experiences that leads to wisdom. Aligned with COSEBOC we were engaged with scholar practitioner Dr. Angela Ward, our office was challenged to embrace legacy and generational thinking. Whereas, Chief Dr. Williams always says the goal is to work ourselves out of jobs… Dr. Ward reminded us to serve as if we are directly impacting 7 generations from now! In the spirit of such, through collaboration with HR, (Kendrick Wilson) and SEA (Marquitta Prinzing) the office of AAMA facilitated its first Black Male Affinity Group meeting on Thursday November 12. This week launched the start of KOSE with 25 registered Kings across 7th – 12th grades from various schools across the district. The focus for this week has been on the importance of brotherhood and support. As the Kings engaged with one another, brilliance illuminated the space through their powerful perspectives on why these affinity groups are essential. In the words of one of the Kings (Nasir) when asked, “Why do you think KOSE exists?”, he responded, “As African Americans we are here to learn more about our strengths than our weaknesses”.

This week we did not host a Student Leadership Council meeting relative to Veterans Day! However, we have been convening in smaller writing groups as we push to complete the first edition of the AAMA newsletter for review next week.

On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, I was fortunate to amplify my voice as a visionary speaker during the five-day virtual Intersect, Women’s Foundation’s signature annual educational program, There were speakers from throughout our community and country whose knowledge, lived experiences, and roots in community inform the work that can lead to community systemic transformation. Intersect 2020’s theme, “Building Beloved Community,” is inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of a world in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth, where poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated, and where racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by a spirit of love and connection. I had the honor and privilege to participate on a panel with these phenomenal Black women educational leaders, Angelique Davis, JD, Associate Professor, Seattle University, Lindsay Hill, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Raikes Foundation and Brenda Leaks, Head of School, Seattle Girls’ School. We were asked to consider the following questions: What does it take to have an educational system no one wants to escape from? How can education be the foundation of a Beloved Community? Why is it so difficult to navigate our educational system? Should one specific system work for everyone? Why are the different sectors pitted against one another? We need thriving systems in all these areas. I attached Lindsay’s PowerPoint about the critical history of the inherent bias and inequity of our education system

Also, want to let you all know that the audio/video of Tuesday's session, as well as the other days of Intersect, are available at: wawfintersect2020.com. You scroll down to the day and just press play. The videos will be available for 4 months! Friday Memo to the Board Office of Public Affairs Essential Information for the week of 11/06/20 - 11/13/2020

Goal 1: Media Relations • Seattle Times – 11/10/20 - “Emergency rules allow WA school districts to redefine school time. Did they go too far?” https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/emergency-rules-allow- washington-state-school-districts-to-redefine-school-time-do-they-go-too-far/ • US News & World Report – 11/10/20 – “Bye, Betsy: educators celebrate the end of the DeVos era” https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-11-10/bye-betsy-educators-celebrate-the- end-of-the-devos-era • Ed Week – 11/9/20 – “Replacing DeVos: contenders surface for Biden’s Ed Sec pick” http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2020/11/replacing-devos-biden-education- secretary.html • KUOW – 11/12/20 “Juneau and Inslee on lists for potential Biden administration spots” https://www.kuow.org/stories/kuow-daily-digest • Washington Post – 11/8/20 – “Biden plans series of reversals on education” https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/biden-education-change/2020/11/08/b5b25c7a-21d5-11eb- a688-5298ad5d580a_story.html • Seattle Times – 10/29/20 – “Only 1 SPS student is receiving special education services in person right now” https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/early-data-suggests-some-schools-can- safely-reopen-state-health-officials-say/ • Seattle Times – 11/5/20 – “Remote instruction was hard enough. Now teachers have to explain the 2020 presidential election” https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/what-its-like-to-teach-and-learn- remotely-through-the-2020-presidential-election/

Goal 2&3: District Messaging – Outbound Communications, Customer Service • Continue to send out a weekly School Beat newsletter to school leaders, staff, families, and partners. The newsletter was translated and sent out in our top six languages, including English, to families. Around 100,000 people receive these weekly newsletters. This last week we saw a lower open rate 35%. As a reminder, School Beat used to be a once monthly communication. We will continue to monitor trends to determine if and when to reduce the number of editions each month. • The Communications Team supported a Virtual Town Hall focused on asynchronous learning with Superintendent Juneau, Director of Student Support Services Kari Hanson, Rainier View Elementary Principal Jones, and Madison Middle School Principal Dr. Gary. There were over 100 live viewers and around 1,500 total views. • Public Affairs staff, along with staff from Coordinated School Health, have been meeting with the Youth Advisory Board from Asian Counseling and Referral Service in support of their Beyond Youth Mental Health project. The young people have created social media content for SPS channels to help other teens understand and access mental health supports. These posts will be shared on SPS social media throughout the next few weeks. • Have launched a Strategic Plan social media campaign to direct people to progress towards our collective goals. Initial posts are focused on workforce diversity, AAMA, Seattle Super Readers, and the Academy for Rising Educators. These posts will change each week and will each run for two weeks through the end of December. • Created a nutrition services video and feature story celebrating the work of nutrition services: https://www.seattleschools.org/district/calendars/news/what_s_new/increased_student_meal_distributio n This video and new data was also shared via a press release. • Chief Campbell and Chief Kokx continue to present remote learning updates and progress towards strategic plan goals. Each cabinet member is presenting to school communities. Presentations this week included Eckstein, Licton Springs K-8, and Robert Eagle Staff.

• Web Team • Approved high fidelity designs for new MySPS website – reminder that the MySPS sites launch week of Nov. 30 • Worked with DoTS to ensure that the HS Performance Report is as accessible as possible • Met with to discuss their engagement strategy when they went through a recent redesign • Held a document accessibility training workshop • For the Seattle Public Schools redesign, the team is creating opportunities for community participation website redesign project through user experience (UX) research and studies. The insights through the UX discovery and testing will synthesize community recommendations for website design and priorities. Below is the link to the Public District and School Websites User Experience Plan, which included overarching timeline and tasks and organization we will be reaching out to as a channel to ask students and families to participate in UX research and studies. https://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Technol ogy/web_training/spswebsite_redesign-public-district_ux-strategy-ADA.pdf • In April 2020, SPS web team launched a revised district home page to prioritize COVID-19 school building closure resources. This adjustment was based on end-user research including web analytics and usability testing. We are starting to see a decline in visits for the remote learning family resources and technology hub announcements. • In Sept, the photo icons on the home page received Student Meals: 29,376 views, Family Resources: 18,955 views, Technology Resource Centers: 9,592 views. In October, the Student Meals: 14,267 views, Family Resources: 7,393 views, Technology Resource Centers: 6,770 views. In the coming weeks, we will continue to evaluate engagement as students, families, and staff adjust to remote learning, and we may revert to the previous photo icons to include direct links to the School Board and Superintendent Juneau if we continue to see a downward trend for Family Resources and Tech Resource Centers. • Feature Story: 11/09/2020In Recognition of Veterans Day 2020 https://www.seattleschools.org/district/calendars/news/what_s_new/veterans_day • Feature Story: Join Superintendent Denise Juneau for a Virtual Town Hall December 8 https://www.seattleschools.org/district/calendars/news/what_s_new/virtual_town_hall_with_denise_june au • Feature Story: Tips for Fall 2020 Parent-Teacher Conferences https://www.seattleschools.org/district/calendars/news/what_s_new/parent-teacher_conferences Friday Memo to the Board Teaching and Learning Division Essential Information for the week of November 9-13, 2020

CURRICULUM, ASSESSMENT, & INSTRUCTION

Preview of Quarter 1 Grading Data Friday, November 13 is the due date for SPS teachers to submit their Quarter 1 grades at the middle and high school level. Given this, we anticipate being able to share a summary of the data, particularly with respect to “Incompletes”, in a Friday Memo in the next two weeks. In anticipation of this report, it should be noted that the quarter grades are mainly progress reports indicating where students are currently, not necessarily where they will be when the final grades are submitted at the end of the semester. In addition, we expect many more potential “Incompletes” than we had in the spring given the policy for 2020-21 and messaging related to this policy. As was shared at the September 16 Board Work Session, in a typical pre-COVID year, there are several thousand Ds and Es at the end of each semester. At the same time, we also anticipate that educators will take a number of steps between the quarter and semester mark to help students make progress towards standard and earn credit and a grade of “A-C-“. We will have a more complete update when we share the Incomplete data from the quarter 1 mark, including a summary of the communication and engagement we have done with school-level staff on this data and our grading guidelines.

Preview of New Courses The Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction (CAI) team is once again working with the district’s registrar and others to help middle and high schools get ready for the planning of the 2021-22 master schedule. This is work that typically begins in December and January in preparation for student pre-registration. Specifically, the CAI Content Managers continue to work with school-level educators to refine the course offerings available in the district course catalog and to bring schools in alignment with district guidance to improve equitable access to rigorous coursework. CAI is also working with the Equity, Partnership, and Engagement team and school level staff to draft course descriptions for potential new courses in Black Studies and LGBTQIA+ History and Culture. These are in response to the two Board resolutions that passed in June. We look forward to bringing these and other new courses to the Student Services, Curriculum, & Instruction Committee for their review on December 8.

Status of College Board Testing As it has been decided that SPS will not be returning to in-person learning until second semester, the January 26 administration of the school-day PSAT/NMSQT has been cancelled. The College Board is not providing additional school-day administration dates for the PSAT/NMSQT during the 2020-21 school year. Seattle Public Schools will not be incurring any cost associated with the PSAT/NMSQT. The PSAT/NMSQT is the route of entry into the National Merit Scholarship Program. Since students were unable to take the 2020 PSAT/NMSQT (offered in October 2020 and January 2021) due to school closures, students may use SAT scores as alternative method for entry requirements. If families have questions about this program, they will contact the National Merit Scholarship Program or College. The school-day SAT is still scheduled for Wednesday, March 3, 2021.

RESEARCH & EVALUATION

Remote Learning Pulse Surveys Between October 19-30, SPS Research & Evaluation partnered with Panorama Education to deliver “pulse surveys” about remote learning to students, families, and school staff. Here are the total responses and participation rates:

Students (grades 3-12): 26,189 (65% participation rate) Families (grades K-12): 15,242 (20% participation rate) Instructional School Staff (all schools): 3,134 (55% participation rate)

Results will be shared with the Superintendent’s Remote Learning Task Force, beginning with a preliminary analysis of student survey findings at the November 24 Task Force meeting. Research & Evaluation will compile a District summary data report for the School Board and public by early December. Schools can already access their data from the Panorama portal. Fall pulse survey data will be loaded into our publicly accessible data portal by December: https://www.seattleschools.org/district/district_scorecards/school_surveys.

Final Research & Evaluation Reports from 2019-20 Next week, Research & Evaluation will post its final research and evaluation reports for the 2019-20 school year to the department’s public website. These reports will include studies and research briefs aligned to strategic plan goals, and our curriculum adoption studies. A link to these reports will be provided in next week’s Friday Memo.

For additional information, please contact Dr. Diane DeBacker at [email protected]. Friday Memo to the Board Equity, Partnerships & Engagement (EPE) For the Week of November 9-13, 2020

EPE Division • ERAC (Equity and Race Advisory Committee) Meeting will be held on Monday, November 16, from 5-7pm via MS Teams.

Department of Racial Equity Advancement (DREA) • The director of DREA and the chief of EPE had a meeting with the Youth of the NAACP where they discussed the Ethnic Studies Program. They also visited the newest Academy of Rising Educators (ARE) cohort in an online classroom this week.

School Community Partnerships • Please see Responses to Questions below.

Stakeholder Engagement • Partnership for Racial Equity - Ongoing collaboration work with the Partnership for Racial Equity. This joint effort between the , Seattle Education Coalition, and Seattle Public Schools was initially established to explore the varied Racial Equity Team implementation approaches and their efficacies. The current iteration met this week in an ongoing effort to develop more inclusive data gathering, aggregation, analysis, and integration practices in service to the District strategic objective of Inclusive and authentic engagement.

• School Site Visits - This department effort has a single driving goal: to meet with all 104 school administrators and their teams before the end of the academic year. The benefit of our frontline educators' accumulated insights cannot be overstated, and the establishment of a regular information exchange cycle critical to effective engagement. This week our team met with John Muir Elementary and Thurgood Marshall administrator Racial Equity and Family Engagement teams.

• Tech Resource Center - Current workgroup focus is evaluating center deployment strategies grounded in qualitative and quantitative data acquired in the process of delivering IT supports to students. The work seeks to determine the most effective re-deployment/reconfiguration strategy for this critical ongoing educational resource

• Antiracism Policy Work Session - The community-institution workgroup convened this week, facilitated by Erin Jones and Nikka Lemon. The group looked to review the multiple version of the proposed antiracism policy 0040. The policy's current iteration under development begins to merge the extensive community engagement/insight gathered from independent District, SCPTSA, and other CBO-/Community-lead efforts.

• Superintendent Affinity Groups-Community Conversations - As part of the Office of the Superintendent's efforts to meet the institutional commitments to Inclusive and Authentic engagement, Stakeholder Engagement continues to work to close the Community-District information loop on these series of Convenings. This week the post-session debrief was held with our most recent CBO partner-host Southeast Seattle Education Coalition. The purpose was to ensure that information gathered from the preceding community event was accurate, actionable.

Responses to Questions from Board

Question 1 • As requested at the EPE Oversight Work Session on October 28, 2020, below are resources regarding community partnerships including childcare. o Partner Platform: Information on which Community Based Organization (CBO) partners work with each school, and what sort of programs/services they provide: https://sps.communitypartnerplatform.org/ o Fall 2020 Childcare Information (updated daily/as needed): https://www.seattleschools.org/resources/childcare o A copy of the current Master Community Partner excel sheet, a constantly updated list that captures school-based and external partners with relationships of varying levels of formality, can be requested at [email protected]

Friday Memo to the Board Student Support Services for the week of November 9-13, 2020

Chief Dr. Concie Pedroza: In response to the requests from the members of the Student Services, Curriculum & Instruction policy committee meeting of Tuesday, November 10th:

Regarding the Special Education Community Forums, we will be posting these dates on our website when we finalize two dates. The additional meetings are based on community feedback and our goal will be sharing back to community what we learn and where we have shifted. In addition, all meetings will be co-facilitated by myself with essential stakeholder members from each group. I will send an invitation to the school board after they are posted on our district website, please note that all meetings will begin at 6:30pm.

• Vietnamese/Chinese families (language support provided) – Friday, December 4 • Spanish families (language support provided) – Friday, December 11 • Indigenous Families (Native American, Pacific Islander, others) (language support on request) – Tuesday, December 15 • Black/African American families (language support on request) – Tuesday, January 12 • Somali/Oromo families (language support provided) – Friday, January 15 • BIPOC families (language support on request) – Tuesday, January 19 • Tigrinya/Amharic families (language support provided) – Friday, January 22 • All families (language support on request) – Tuesday, January 26

In regard to Restraint & Isolation Policy update, I will provide a list of agenda item discussions in the next board memo. The internal work group as identified through Superintendent procedures outlines the role of these groups which comprise of district staff. Stakeholder engagement will occur in collaboration with members of the committee to co-design our plan for engagement. Internal work group members consist of representation from the following groups: African American Male Achievement, Security, Discipline, Office of Civil Rights, Special Education, School Leaders, McKinney Vento, Transportation, Behavioral Health and the Legal team including PASS and SEA representation.

Admissions: General admissions for the 2021-22 school year begins January 4, 2021; with open enrollment starting February 1 – 12, 2021. Marketing strategies and community engagement planning for early Kindergarten enrollment in collaboration with the Early Learning department, media and communications team are underway.

Advanced Learning: The Advanced Learning team is preparing for the last day of the referral window on December 7th with additional communication with our families furthest from educational justice being underway. This referral process gathers information through a survey from parents, staff, and community members to add to the gathering of evidence for the identification process. More information is available on the Advanced Learning website.

For High School support, a .5 AP/IB Central Office coordinator will soon join our team to continue building consistent support with a focus on racial equity. This position will work from the Department of College and Career Readiness and in collaboration with the Advanced Learning Department.

Athletics: The Athletic Department, in partnership Seattle Pacific University, secured gymnastic equipment for our nine high school gymnastics programs. Together with Seattle Public Schools’ capital division, the district can support our individual school teams and further develop the growth of our programming. Friday Memo to the Board Operations for Nov. 9-13, 2020

Facilities • Master Library software update: Using the new event scheduling software, Master Library, we are now able to import the entire Seattle Public Schools Athletic Departments’ schedule from the Seattle Parks and Recreation system. This is a huge benefit in supporting the logistics of scheduling activities because previously Facilities and coaches were not able to access this information. Please note that open fields must be booked through Seattle Parks and Recreation. • Grounds: The Arborists and Sports Complex staff at Nathan Hale, with the help of Graham Goodman in Resource Conservation, have received permit approval from Washington Fish and Wildlife to remove two Poplar stumps that are causing significant back up of Thornton Creek and major flooding of the area. With the guidance of an environmental analyst and an environmental scientist from , we will be removing the stumps at the water level and relocating the wood back into the natural environment to provide habitat for fish and wildlife. • Maintenance: The Major Preventative Maintenance Envelope team has begun preliminary activities to repair, restore, and stabilize the exterior of The Powerhouse at B.F. Day Elementary School. The Powerhouse was built to house all the equipment necessary to provide steam heat through a 125-foot tunnel to the school building. When B.F. Day was remodeled, a heating system was put in the school building and use of the Powerhouse was no longer needed. Fremont Arts Council is leasing the space. The masonry, including the chimney, is in poor condition and needs significant attention. We will be working with the tenants, Landmarks Board of the City of Seattle, and technical experts to create a plan for implementation.

Transportation • The Transportation staff continues to assist at the Technology Resource Centers. Also, routing specialists are updating lunch routes and establishing transportation services for McKinney-Vento, in-person evaluations, and tentatively for in-person services. The team is working to develop transportation models for hybrid learning. Friday Memo to the Board Department of Technology Services for the week of November 9-13 2020

ITAC Membership Application Seattle Public Schools is seeking members for the Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC). The committee comprises dedicated students, community members, teachers, and other staff that help plan future funding and provide technical expertise and community input on technology solutions' recommendations.

The application has been extended until December 7, 2020, 6 p.m.

We encourage students, community members, teachers, and staff to apply for this exciting opportunity to serve our district. Applications will be reviewed by the Executive Director of Technology and the Board Executive Committee. Based on that review, new members will be selected to serve on the committee.

Committee membership application can be found here: ITAC Membership