[Music] good morning everyone the March 28th 2024 meeting of the libraries education and neighborhoods committee will come to order it's 9 :0 a.m. I'm marit Rivera chair of the committee will the clerk please call the role council member woo present council member Hollingsworth council member Moore president council member Morales chair Rivera present four council members are present thank you there are a few items on today's agenda first we'll receive a briefing from the Department of Education
and early learning following that we will learn about four pending appointments to the community involvement commission if there's no objection the agenda will be adopted hearing no objection the agenda is adopted we will now open the public comment period public comment should relate to items on today's agenda and when and within the purview of this committee clerk how many speakers are signed up today no speakers today chair there are no speakers so we'll now proceed to our items of business
um want to say for the record we are being joined by council member Hollingsworth will the clerk please read today's first item into the record agenda item number one a briefing by the Department of Education and early learning thank you today we have with us Dwayne Chappelle director of the Department of Education and early learning joined by Ismael Fardo who's the director of impact and external Affairs for the Department thanks to both of you for being here you could proceed to the desk pleas
e introduce yourselves for the record once you get S settled and then you can begin your presentation is my Fardo Department of Education Early Learning happy to be here good morning uh Dr DNE Chappelle the proud to director of the Department of Education and early learning glad to be here as well good morning you can proceed okay thank you well good morning council members again uh I am Dr Dwayne Chappelle the proud director of the Department of Education and early learning and as you just hear
d a moment ago I'm here I'm joined by my uh colleague Dr farjardo so thank you for having us today we will walk you through an overview of Deal's Mission goals and um Investments we will share details regarding select Investments and look forward to answering your questions um at the end of this presentation thank you so Deal's mission is to transform the lives of children youth and families through strategic investments in education as you'll come to see in our work we are a datadriven organiza
tion with a strong commitment to using results and a focus on racial Equity to make decisions to guide our investments we take our roles as stewards of voter of the voter approved Fel Levy seriously and strive to Foster collaborative relationships with our implementation Partners rooted in transparency and a shared commitment to closing opportunity gaps predictive by race through our invest ments we envision a city where all children youth and families have Equitable opportunities access to high
quality Education Services and supports and outcomes deal itself was founded in 2014 uh the same year that voters approved the Seattle promise excuse me the Seattle preschool program Levy I was appointed as director in 2015 and I am so proud of the work our team has accomplished in partnership with many others over the last nine years we successfully passed uh families education preschool and promise Levy in 2018 which merged the families and education Levy with the Seattle preschool program Le
vy bringing the largest education Levy in Seattle history to voters for consideration at 619 million and guess what it passed with 69% of voter support and at the same time our at the same time historic work was under the way to establish the sweetened beverage tax which deal receives funds from as well the covid-19 pandemic affected us all and deal staff and partners are no exception impacts to Educational Systems and student achievement were profound our department continues to adapt our strat
egies to meet the emergent needs of children youth and families who are still recovering from covid-19 or should I say from CO's impact to households economic factors as well as child development the fep levy expires in December of 2025 and we look forward to partnering with the exec cutive Council the public to bring forth a reauthorization package to voters deal is organized with four divisions Early Learning k12 and postsecondary impact and external Affairs and finance and operations we have
more than 100 FTE and as you'll see on a subsequent slide our 2024 adopted budget is more than 150 million our investments strive to achieve four goals access to affordable quality Child Care kindergarten Readiness on time high school graduation and attainment of a postsecondary degree credential or a certificate these goals are not achieved by deal Alone um however I'm sure everyone has have heard that old that adage um it takes a village to raise a child and that Spirit of collective impact is
how we approach all of our investments we partner with families Community Based organizations Seattle Public Schools public charter schools and the Seattle colleges to to implement strategies that Advance these goals our Focus across all areas is to serve students further from educational Justice or simply put the students who need the most additional support to achieve these goals our investments focus on a combination of these three strategies Equitable educational opportunities and as an exa
mple example this looks like free or subsidized tuition to increase access to preschool and postsecondary education student and family supports and an example of this is our Seattle preschool program inclusion classrooms we call it SP Plus in this instructional model children with individualized education plans participate in learning alongside their um neur typical peers and lastly highly qualified environments we advance this through professional development and career advancement for educator
s in child care preschool and in the K12 setting so as I noted earlier Deal's 2024 adopted budget is 1557 million we have four Revenue sources uh the general fund Sweeten beverage tax uh grants and the FB Levy the levy is our largest revenue source which is at 69% so here we have members from our amazing fep Levy oversight committee these individuals are responsible for monitoring implementation of the FB Levy advising deal on investment course Corrections and advocating in the best interest of
the levy and uh Seattle's children youth and families this committee meets monthly throughout the year and also engages in site visits to observe programming and to meet our uh fantastic Partners there are 17 members of the levy that are on the levy oversight committee five are required members by ordinance this includes the mayor or his dese the chair of the education uh Council committee Seattle College's Chancellor uh Seattle Public School Superintendent and uh Seattle public school board dir
ector 12 members are appointed half by the mayor or and half by city council members serve a three-year term with no limit on reappointments and I just want to pause here to take a moment to acknowledge that uh we have a change in our city council representative on the levy oversight committee this year uh so welcome council member Rivera and um I also want to say that it's been a pleasure for deal to work with council member Morales um past representative on the levy oversight committee and pas
t education committee chair and we're glad to see you remaining um here on this education committee along side um our new um amazing council members okay so let's um get into the work so today I'd like to highlight a few of our early learning Investments and a signature program for you our child care assistance program or CCAP provides subsidies to eligible families to help them better afford high quality child care services I'll share more um on this slide in a later I'll share more on this in
a later slide our Seattle preschool program or SP also subsidize tuition to increase access and I'll provide more details here later as well our prenatal to three Community grants are funded by the sweet and beverage tax and aim to reduce disparities and outcomes for pregnant individuals infants and TOs and their families one of our grantees uh through this program is the uh original uh organization um families of color Seattle families of color Seattle will convene parent caregiver groups over
a span of 8 to 10 weeks to support caregiver mental health increase knowledge of family resources and equip caregivers with tools to support raising strong compassionate children of color home visiting Services include two programs the nurse Family Partnership and the parent child plus program nurse Family Partnership is an evidence-based program that serves first uh time lowincome mothers who receive support from their second trimester until their child is 2 years old parent child plus is desig
n ated to support two and threey olds by enhancing caregiver child interactions in families um needing additional support and this could be young parents or immigrant or Refugee Refugee households or even our low income households CCAP um is our is a legacy program for the city it was launched in 1970s um or should I say it was launched in the 1970s we currently have more than 250 participating licensed child care providers Citywide that accept our subsidy CCAP serves serves 715 children ages fr
om one month to 12 years old in 2023 there is also a State Child Care Subsidy program called Working Connections child care as well as a county program prog funded by the best arts for kids Levy deals program shares excuse me serves families whose household income makes them ineligible for those programs so as an example A family of three whose household income Falls roughly between 56 and a and 88,000 a year will be eligible for uh CCAP and we know the cost of living is high in Seattle and we'r
e proud to continue to offer um CCAP as a resource to our families the Seattle preschool program is in its ninth year of implementation following voter approval in 2014 we launched in the 156 school year with just five providers 15 sites and 15 classrooms serving 283 children so fast forward seven years we have 26 providers 87 sites 130 classrooms serve nearly 2,000 children in the seventh year of implementation this this growth is truly remarkable and it speaks to the commitment among Early Chi
ldhood Educators and business owners to support the vision of preschool for all this expansion has been done with high quality standards and we are proud to have earned a gold medal from the National Institute for Early Childhood excuse me early child Early Education research and the City Health Initiative two years in a row two weeks ago um we opened we we opened enrollment for this upcoming school year and I want to encourage all families with a child who will be three or four by August 31st u
h to visit our website or call us to learn more about the Seattle preschool program this program is open to all three and four year olds who live in Seattle it is free for most families and offers A reduced tuition for others so as you can see from this map we have classrooms all over the city and offer a lot of variety to meet families unique needs some sites are dual language we have have programs designed specifically to serve children with developmental needs and individualized education pla
ns half day and full day sites as well as school Center or Homebase options so transitioning now to our uh K12 Investments so we chose to examples today to highlight just the range and scale of strategies that we support to two of our largest investments in the K12 are the school-based Investments and our school-based health centers both funded by the uh fep Levy in our school-based investments we competitively awarded 30 grants to schools in 2019 we are in our fifth year of investment at 20 ele
mentary schools five middle schools and five high schools these schools receive grants of 200 to 560,000 to implement academic Support Services expanded learning opportunities including social emotional skill development and College and Career Readiness programs both during the day during the school day and out of school time the goal of this investment is to advance students academic achievement and close opportunity gaps this investment Works in tandem with our school-based health centers whic
h are implemented in partnership with Public Health Seattle and King County for those who may not know um the school based health centers are essentially full service clinics within school buildings that offer comprehensive medical and Mental Health Services the school-based health centers are staffed by teams of Health Providers typically a nurse practitioner or phys uh physicians assistant or social workers and health Educators who partner with the district um employed School nurses to serve s
tudents during um the school day the school based health centers are evidence-based models um proven to increase access to utilization of Health Services increase um School attendance and to increase academic outcomes the fep levy funds 29 school-based Health Centers eight uh school-based Health Centers a up Citywide eight Elementary seven middle schools and at 14 high schools and as a related strategy research shows that academic outcomes for students of color improve in culturally responsive l
earning environments one way to increase cultural responsiveness in the classroom is to have Educators who look like the students that they teach and have shared live experiences and in Seattle Public Schools about 55% of the students are uh bipo however um only 20% of the classroom teachers are bipo so to address this Gap deal invest in programs like the academy for Rising Educators which seeks to increase the number of educators of color in our classrooms the academy for Rising Educators that'
s a partnership between Seattle public schools Seattle Central College and City University to support aspiring teachers on a pathway from high school diploma to a uh bachelor's degree and teaching certificate this program includes Outreach and recruitment tuition assistance culturally responsive mentorship through educator preparation and professional development so now what I want to do is take a uh I want to share a bit about our opportunities and access strategy so this grant it provides fund
ing directly to community-based organizations through a competitive funding process one partner um Ace um Ace Academy provides black and African-American Middle School boys with culturally responsive programming on early dismissal days and during um school breaks their activities include steam or science technology uh engineering arts and math um enrichment as well as field trip and career exploration opportunities another one of our grantees friends of the children Seattle provides one-on-one m
entoring to students to develop positive future goals and prepare them for uh their postsecondary transition and our last investment area is in postsecondary our upper bound program is funded by a Federal Grant from the uh United States Department of Education to prepare to prepare first generation students or students who are the first in their family to attend college our program supports students at Garfield High School and rer Beach High School and they're serving more than a 100 students an
nually the regional Grant uh the regional challenge Grant was awarded to deal from the Washington student achievement Council to fund culturally relevant and Regional Partnerships that increase post-secondary attainment and close Equity gaps one approach or should I say our approach expands uh mentorship opportunities for bipac high school juniors seniors and Seattle promised scholars in partnership with Seattle colleges and uh Seattle public schools and our communitybased um organizations the S
eattle promise program is our uh last um investment in the postsecondary space the Seattle promise is a um Student Success program designed to promote College enrollment persistence and completion this program is implemented in partnership with Seattle colleges and Seattle Public Schools this program Grew From the 13th year model scholar the year scholarship model at South Seattle college with incremental funding from Council until the uh passage of the fep levy which then expanded the program t
o a multi-year model and brought it to scale Citywide like the promised programs nationally the Seattle model includes tuition assistance and academic advising what is unique um about our approach is our equity scholarship and Equity enhancements that are designed specifically with students who need the most support in mind the equity scholarship for example provides income eligible students an additional scholarship of up to $1,000 per semester the promised Scholars use this funding to reduce c
osts related to um books Transportation housing or other needs that that may arise so this table here what it does is it it shows you some highlights of the program's growth over the last five years and as you can see with each High School graduating class we see more promised applications and more students enrolling in the Seattle college and uh promise program we love to see the number of application grow year over-year and what this tells us is that the Seattle promise program is helping to c
reate a colleg goinging culture here in Seattle or every high school student believe that they can successfully pursue a postsecondary education as well as afforded so now um the numbers do decrease from applications um to actually enrolling to the Seattle colleges and we expect to see this um for the five years shown here we observe roughly a 40% matriculation rate which is precisely what we included and our initial projections for the uh fep Levy we'll soon be uh releasing this um our um fep a
nnual fep annual year four-year report um and what you'll see there is that the 2023 cohort for the uh Seattle promise um exceeded expectations again um and it was the largest cohort yet with 900 students enrolled and 68% of the those uh students identified as students of color so there's so much more to celebrate and share about the Seattle promise program and we look forward to digging in deeper at our uh um committee presentation coming to you in May okay so now moving on to our uh to Deal's
priorities for 2024 so what you'll see we have six priorities the first priority is uh prenatal to postsecondary alignment deal will be exploring ways our current Early Learning Program through postsecondary strategies can support critical transition Milestones such as preschool to Elementary to Middle School to high school and to promise this will allow for strong student transitions across our partners and strengthen um the student supports overall the next is the S uh is our uh Seattle presch
ool program expansion we will continue to grow the Seattle preschool program to meet the F Levy Target and that is to serve 2500 students annually by um 2026 the next one is uh equity and action excuse me Equity anti-racism deal will continue our existing practice of examining our internal policies programs and Norms to move us closer to becoming an anti-racist organiz gation and this includes opportunities for staff and supervisor training with organizations such as the Nao that the national Eq
uity um project and Equity matters we also are planning for a um fep Levy renewal so we're just kicking off our work for this project and as I said from the beginning we're looking forward to partnering with the executive uh the council and the public to to bring forth uh a reauthorization um to voters package to voters and um youth mental health deal will be working to increase and expand youth uh options for culturally specific and responsive clinical and non-clinical mental health services at
schools I will share more about this um um on the next slide and then finally um is our uh operational excellence uh goal or priority and to accomplish all of these priorities and continue the great work at deal that we're doing I just want to ensure that we have strong Department operations and infrastructure okay so um the youth mental health overview um so youth mental health is a new Focus investment um area for deal and I'd like to share a bit about our student mental health support networ
k in 2022 for former council member herbal found uh sponsored a $500,000 um coun Council budget action to expand mental Mental Health Services in schools subsequent Council action grew this investment to a total of 4.5 million over um three school years drawing from general fund the payroll equity tax and FB Levy resources um deal has leveraged this funding to develop a framework work for school investments in student mental health that is co-designed with students and school leaders to meet the
unique needs of their school communities in the current 23 24 school year we have um we we we have grants at seven schools each receiving 250,000 to best support students the schools use these funds to subcontract with community- based organizations to provide staff training and to increase interventionalists in the school um this increase this increases access to counseling um referrals family engagement and the social emotional supports for students and as you know um during the 2024 budget p
rocess Council passed um a budget ad allocating pet resources towards mental health and the city's um the city office of our Innovation and performance is currently conducting stakeholder engagement and a proposed investment strategy is expected um later this spring and we would we would expect to launch any new programming during the 2024 25 school year and we're working closely um with the mayor's office and so this year deal will have four competitive funding processes to invest more than 8 m
illion into the community these include summer learning programs uh Community proposals to support expecting new parents prenatal to age three facilities and capital projects for the Seattle preschool program providers as well as funding to continue growing the Seattle preschool program to additional sites by bringing new bringing in new providers or adding um new sites with our existing providers okay so um this concludes our presentation um we as as I started this early we're super excited to
continue to partner with Council throughout this year our um Next plan presentation to the committee is in May where we will share the um results from our fourth uh year of the levy implementation and so we just also wanted to extend the uh invitation to meet one-on-one with council members or help arrange a site visit so you can see our investments in action or even um meet the Fantastic uh providers that um um or the youth in our programs so again um thank you thank you director Chappelle um c
olleagues uh I'm going to open it up for questions but I have um a comment and a couple questions myself so if you'll indulge me those first um I did want to uh note uh director Chappelle did mention the co9 pandemic and I want to say because I happen to be at the city during that time that um deal as did other departments had to really shift um during those years to accommodate the needs of students um especially given the um students were schooling from home during that time uh and all the thi
ngs and the supports that they needed during that time so um I would just want to acknowledge that was a difficult time for students um and uh I know that deal was working with SPS to accommodate as best they could under very difficult circumstances so um wanted to acknowledge that um then also wanted to also acknowledge in terms of the FB oversight the FB Levy over oversight committee um it is a committee that was established by ordinance to be a advisory uh in nature and to make recommendation
s to the city on the fep Investments um so that's where that uh comes from um I do have a couple questions director Shel just in terms of some of these programs um I know that we was not discussed here uh was results and outcomes of these various programs um and so I I suspect I know I do I suspect my colleagues will have questions related to those um outcomes especially given that we're facing the opportunity for another fet Levy next year for passage next year hopefully it will be really criti
cal to understand the outcomes and results for each of these programs uh so I will just note that as a general overall question and something that we will look um for you to bring at subsequent uh uh committee meetings and um we can work together on timing on that um I did also uh want to note um that in terms of um you know I have some questions in terms related to results on some of these Investments uh particularly on the K through 12 space um how deal is going about measuring how successful
these Investments have been in the schools and who is determining what schools get these particular Investments uh because I know that the need is great and and subsequent to the pandemic the need is great across all schools across the city um and so wanting to know how you go about measuring how well these programs are doing because they've been at the schools for quite some time how do you measure those students that have access to these Investments how well they're doing over time um and then
you know do we need to shift do you shift Investments if students are too starting to do well or doing well rather um to other schools where students maybe are not fearing as well because I know that the Investments can't cover every single school so um I'm going to uh allow Dr Fardo um to speak a little bit to how we're measuring the um um schools and the outcomes um but just know that I I think part one part of your question was about um how we selected the schools and did you want to speak t
o that too as well okay I'll let Dr hardle take thank you Dr chel uh yeah so the fep levy um as you know um there's greater need in schools um so with the limited amount of schools tools we did a competitive um request for Investments where we uh U looked at proposals we evaluated the proposals and selected the proposals based on a set of criteria uh that would meet the U the requirements of the fep levy um with that we were not able to select all of the schools that had need so we do acknowledg
e that there is need in the community um but as Dr Chappelle mentioned we were able to award uh 20 elementary schools five middle schools and high schools um in terms of how we're measuring impact U the good news is we are measuring impact for all of our investments uh we do uh the FB annual report which you'll get an insight into uh how our uh programs are meeting the outcomes at a high level we also have internal and external evaluations that we conduct uh on a set of uh programs um so we do h
ave ways to measure um your third kind of question was because uh based on the results if we're seeing improvements do we shift funds um I believe and I would have to check with my colleagues but I believe the FB schools that were selected is for the duration of the seven years of the yeah Levy and can you just say in terms of high level you said in the fep annual report you do high level outcomes what does that mean high level outcomes because I think what folks are really interested in seeing
is if if you're investing in particular Elementary School how are those kids doing going into middle high school and are they going to college that type of a of of outcome is what I think people are interested in seeing so when you say high level what does that mean yeah it means uh So within the Early Learning space our um uh our goal is kindergarten Readiness so we assess how our preschool program leads to uh higher kindergarten Readiness when they're in ele or in kindergarten for those that a
re in elementary we look to see uh students are meeting standards at the third grade early uh early literacy and math and then we also look at other critical Milestones along the Elementry middle and high school pipeline so for Middle School we looked at we look at seven eighth grade math uh we then also look at students that are meeting on time or getting ontime credits in their freshman year and then we also look at graduation and we so we have a lot of indicators along the way so we report it
in two ways one is reporting the numbers as we see them and then the evaluation uh tries to draw uh comparisons for students that uh received the intervention compared to those that did not receive the intervention and we also do longitudinal studies to assess U if we can attribute some of that success to our investments and we do that both internally with our deal staff and we also hire external evaluators when necess necessary great question though thank you and I look forward to getting more
information about the particular data points and how well those programs are doing um uh and then my my last question um for now uh I know that you mentioned doc uh Dr Chappelle that you all um do tutoring for instance and I know other City departments do tutoring as well like H hsd so how do you work with other City departments to ensure that we're coordinated in our approach and that the the investment is going to as many kids as possible um as as we are putting forward these particular Inves
tments yeah so um the so we we do um try to collaborate as much as possible with our uh other City departments um and we know that the services we offer in Deal May overlap in other departments and so what we try to do is when we have touch points just to look to see like whether it's Geographic areas that's being funded or whatnot um how can we collectively come together to have more of a collective impact around the uh the goal that we're trying to accomplish um so that's just something that's
ongoing that we we constantly look at our department is is more so interested in um doing continuous quality improvement to seeing how we can improve and so this is something that we're always striving to look to do better in thank you director Chappelle and I'm sorry colleagues just one last question and that is on the mental health investment um why so I understand that you all are currently Contracting with cbos for this particular investment why did you all not make the decision to work wit
h the health centers that you already fund um to provide this Mental Health Service since I know this isn't something that's necessarily mental health isn't something um that the Department of Education and early learning necessarily does provide this is a new thing for the department but you do fund Health Centers why did you not work with the health centers versus with the cbos what what went into that decision um and also I'm thinking if you had worked with health centers maybe you would have
had more investment to bring to more schools because I know it's not robust given the number the the the the need and the number of schools across the city so let me uh first apologize for not being clear um when I um mentioned about our student mental health support network um I did not mention Health um provider I did not mention Public Health uh Seattle King County but they are part they were part of who we worked with um when coming up with this uh mental health student support network so m
y apologies I left them off sometimes it's hard when you're uh thinking about everyone you always leave somebody out so um but students um building leaders Public Health uh uh Seattle K County War were part of um us creating this mental health support network thank you and no worries on that I this is why I'm asking thank you thank you colleagues for your patience questions I have a question council member modales thank you good morning uh it's morning I'm losing track already uh nice to see you
both again um I'm happy to see that the preschool program uh is seeing increased sites I know there last year maybe it was the year before we opened a bunch of sites that have bilingual education so I'm really happy to see that and that the number of students enrolled is increasing um in part because we know that kindergarten Readiness is one of the really critical factors for a Student Success later um we also know that third grade reading achieving those third grade reading levels is critical
to success for the rest of school last summer I think it was the um the levy oversight committee was talking about um perhaps investing some of the underspend in literacy programs and I know there was a huge interest in really making sure that we're focusing on that as well can you just talk a little bit about what happened there and and how we are maybe achieving a third grade reading level success oh I'm sorry to cut you off yeah go ahead um so no um yes you're absolutely right literacy was o
ne of the concepts that that um was proposed by the levy oversight committee and we're still right now internally um working to figure out how what is that blow what is that concept going to look like moving to scale so we're still all that to say we're still in the development stages of um leaning into that concept okay and Dr V can you talk a little bit about where we are with third grade reading achievement yeah in these programs yeah know that's a great question um we are we're do we we curr
ently have uh education Northwest doing an evaluation of our Seattle preschool program so we're and also internally we also look at U of those that were in s how do they go into kindergarten and then understanding to see if s had an impact on third grade reading so as Dr Chappelle mentioned we have a lot of alignment opportunities to look at how our investments contribute to a common goal in this case third grade reading so one of those uh uh studies that we're doing internally is to look how ou
r school-based investments uh support course at third grade reading at a at an investment level and we're also taking data Dives specifically at certain interventions uh its impact on third grade reading so a lot of studies but we are looking and we have also have a lot of interventions so there's a lot of room to understand how our investments contribute to that goal um I will say that um I'd be remiss to not uh remind us that there are over a hundred you know elementary middle and high schools
schools in Seattle and our investments are 20 elementary five middle and five high school so there's a lot of uh comparison schools that we can look at to see uh whether our impact on third grade reading is um because of us uh thank you and I would say you know so the yes the annual report that um the oversight committee does I think is really useful to start to see how you do those measurements and what gains have been made and where there's still room to grow it's it's a really helpful report
um and I the I guess the last thing I'll say is that um as we're thinking about the renewal conversation that's coming up and which schools are getting the investment um the intent really was to focus on those schools where the students are furthest from uh e uh not economic Educational Opportunity um and and we know that those kids who move through the program are successful and that the kids coming up behind them are still in those environments that create disparity for students so it's good
to know that students are achieving success and able to graduate from high school and potentially go into college or trade and their siblings are still coming up through public living in public housing living in communities that are underinvested in and so I I think if we can expand the schools that get access through the next renewal program that would be great um but I not that it's my decision to make but I would be advocating for the schools that are cons currently getting that funding to co
ntinue to get that support so thank you chair thank thank you council member Morales I will say that there are other schools with students similarly situated all across the city so the reason I raise the issue of can we help some of these other students is because those families are also families with students who are furthest from economic need um and academic achieve aent more importantly because this really is about academic achievement for all our students I will say we're in near Six of a s
eveny year Levy correct me if I'm wrong and so I would think that when five year five so I would think by now we have the data sets to show whether the you know preschool program investment for kindergarten Readiness we would have some data to show um um yes we we do have the data but I just want to remind us that during covid there were some data disruptions in how data was collected and um some of the data may not uh reflect what students were at that stage of their lives cuz some were um at h
ome uh having a different instructional model and also the state did not collect certain uh data sets like U the student uh SBA test scores and uh walk kids Readiness so there might be some a gap and knowledge but we have enough data to U do some of these analysis thank you um uh Dr Fahad though I I say it I started saying about covid-19 and its impacts and to acknowledge it will be really important to look at the data um because there were at least a couple years preco um uh where we have some
data to pull from to see if those um uh three and four year olds were kindergarten ready and then for the Third third graders what their literacy um scores are at for instance and I think still even with the blip of covid we have some data to to we have to be able to show the public is what I'm getting at that the Investments we're making are well made and the students are actually achieving because at the end of the day as I said earlier this is about making sure our students are achieving so t
hank you and and I know that at subsequent committee meetings we'll take the opportunity to Deep dive take a deeper dive at some of these programs and those data sets and we'll work together on that yep thank you council member thank you um I had a question but I think Kathy did Kath you okay council member more great thank you very much Madame chair um thank you this is uh very impressive the amount of services that the department provides and I really appreciate the focus on the Early Learning
[Music] and again I would just Echo chair Rivera's comments that the need uh for mental health is across the city um and certainly beginning I would say we've sort of lost sight of the middle school and it's beginning we really need that those Services beginning in middle school but across the board so I would I know that Ingram is being um receiving services but Nathan Hill has a significant population that could also benefit from the services of Mental Health Counselors and just to reiterate
that the North End does have a significant population of people who are um from lower socioeconomic uh backgrounds we have a significant Refugee and immigrant population as a as do we have a significant bipac so uh it's just important that we be clear that the need does exist very much in The District 5 and across the city um that said I'm curious about the child care assistance program um the cut off is 94% is that Seattle median [Music] income the state state medium income okay so has there be
en any discussion of trying to increase the eligibility the income eligibility for that program because that's still rather low and and it is a I think one of the the statistics are it's cost more for child care than College um yes um um there are trade-offs right as you increase who's eligible um for the the subsidies is the decrease in amount right so you there is right now a weight list on the CCAP um which means if you increase U the SMI uh most more folks would be eligible for that that fun
ding and we are still on the weight list so there they're just tradeoffs um for increasing the SMI I'm go ahead no I was going to say in Council M what I'm also happy to do is um is schedule an opportunity whether whether it's a oneone to have a deeper dive here um or come back here to talk a little bit more about that I would be more than willing to do that just wanted you to know okay so in an area uh an era of budget deficits this would be an area where we would grow the budget then right to
expand the pie um and I'm curious about the um Seattle preschool programs um looks like there's a pretty good distribution although um I'm just curious how do um how are parents made aware of the availability of the preschool program so you said how are parents made aware of the preschool program so there's opportunities um so we we we we do um several uh what would we call Outreach to inform parents and whether that's um through social media whether that's through our website whether that's thr
ough other um our current Seattle preschool program providers reaching out to families in their community so we try to try to figure out diverse ways to inform families of these Services um right here and even when it comes to multiple language we we try to make sure that it's it's um represented in in whatever the language of the families of need because at the end of the day we don't want any barriers to prevent any family from having access to the preschool Seattle preschool program okay do y
ou have any kind of data on how effective that Outreach has been um I it looks like there's a heavy concentration in South Seattle somewhat in North Seattle but we could be using a lot more there um and again to my earlier point about the the makeup of the North End and how we get those messages out I'm happy to uh come back and share um or come to a one1 to talk more about that with you okay great and and I want to say council member more thank you for raising this because this has been my conc
ern as well and Dr Chappelle and I have discussed this what you see this map is the sites the the the preschool sites and so acknowledging that there's need on the North End and that there are families on the North End that would also U qualify um under the current income requirements for this eligibility I mean for this program so Dr Chappelle and I have been talking about their um not the latest investment but upcoming Investments ensuring that we have preschool program opportunities on the No
rth End where there are also families that are in need and so just so you just for full transparency we are having that so thank you for sharing that because it's something that I also think about in terms of the D4 and families for instance uh in the Sandpoint housing and making sure that there's um opportunity there so I know it's something deal is going to be looking at and something take a deeper dive in especially in lie of an upcoming Levy there is greater need and this is why I think it's
really important to show the outcomes measurable outcomes as with any other program because we're going to be going to voters to ask for a levy renewal and we want to make sure that the public is aware of how their money is currently being spent and if we're thinking about making any expansion which we know the need is there then we really want to be coming with them with actual numbers so that we're making that case so just know that we were engaged in that conversation welcome your engagement
as well which is why um we've talked about uh doing deeper Dives for some of these programs at this committee meeting coming up uh uh in the months to come leading up to the lbby great thank you I I appreciate that uh additional information and that uh additional Focus uh very important so thank you so much no problem thank you Council more just to make sure I want to make sure I didn't um I want to clarify that there is no if I said it um there is no income requirement for SP so I just want to
make sure if I did say the opposite U my apology but there is no for CCAP excuse me for CCAP okay okay thank you there is for SP though because we have there are prioritizations because we just don't have enough slots for all the families that would want to participate in the program um thank you thank you I just had a quick question member Hollingsworth thank you chair Rivera thank you Dr Chappelle and Dr Fardo I maybe it's a question in a comment but um I had a great conversation with Dr Brad
ley Lane um at Seattle Central and we had um and they were expressing how incredible the Seattle promise Levy has been to the Seattle colleges and when he told me some of the stats because I had him send me some that 60% of the graduates from Seattle public school were applying to the program I thought that was like absolutely phenomenal and then I was rolling breezing through the website because I was like well how is that you know because you can be able to say hey we have this program what do
es the Outreach look like and um I was really Blown Away with the Outreach that you all have done from posters to QR codes to the accessibility of the website which is incredibly important for these kids at 171 18 navigating you know just how to navigate College which can be very very frightening um one of the things uh I know that we're struggling with this in in the city is having mechanics plumbers like just trades and growing up in the CD we had the svi building that was trades Trad trades a
ll my friends went there it was like a great accessibility piece is deal now since we have this pipeline from our Seattle Public Schools into our our um uh Seattle Public Schools into our Seattle colleges uh which is incredibly important will we start thinking about hey how do we also Drive our kids into certain like mechanics and trades and Engineers I just saw a job posting for our parks department for a plumber starting at $55 an hour like wow right how do we get our kids into those types of
um you know Pathways of of work I'll say that um it'll definitely start with as you mentioned the Recruitment and Outreach um that uh the that the um Outreach and retention officers um excuse me um Specialists do at the C at uh the Seattle promise program I think it starts there but we also need to make sure that um we can continue to partner with the Seattle colleges and looking to see okay if there is a need you know how do we collaboratively work together to build out some type of a pipeline
for that and um I'm happy to think more about that and and get back with you yeah yeah no I I would love to cuz just seeing the amount of students that are taking advantage of that Pipeline and knowing that our Seattle colleges are Treasures to our city and South Seattle has a phenomenal amount of programs in the trades and just some way to like steer some students towards that I think you all do phenomenal Outreach I just I like to see branding and Aesthetics of things and I was like oh that's
dope like if I was a college kid I would scan my QR code and the accessibility and how easy it is to apply you know I think is is huge and then uh pairing that with different types of Trades that the kids can be able to get involved in I think would would really go a long way for us to start filling some of these uh jobs in our city thank you for that council member Hollingsworth I want to note that uh our own Chief gaggin did a a partnership with the Seattle colleges to do a certificate program
for firefighters and it's to get kids prepared for that type of um uh of a job and it they can pull the fire department can pull for the economy from those uh kids that have the certificate program so that's an example of a partnership with the colleges for uh these types of jobs and so it is it is something that um I know the city has delved into with the fire department and something that we've talked about um with other trades so I I really welcome the partnership and I appreciate you saying
you saying that um have quick comment I just want to say something really quickly I just want to say thank you for your leadership since 2015 and I'm really encouraged by direction that your department is heading in and you know especially after the pandemic when we see that our young people need the most support and seeing all these programs and its Evolution adaptation has been amazing so thank you so much well thank you and it's and it's uh we have a fantastic Department the best department
in the city we have some amazing people um that are committed to our uh Youth and fam so ultimately it's really about our department so thank you for that any other questions definitely lots to talk about lots of programs to uh do deeper Dives in uh and and we will because even for promise um I love to see the number of applications coming in I know that the disparity between number of applications and actual kids are because some kids actually go to private colleges and and take other opportuni
ties um but for the colleges that that or excuse me the students that are uh utilizing promise and going through the program uh we also need to make sure that there's something on the back end and so their academic success through the program is something that that I'm sure you you're tracking and we'd love to hear more about uh so that we know that we are making the investment in the right areas and if they're not successful through that 2year program what do they need to be successful which is
what the the equity scholarships Were Meant to address but we also need to know well how well is that doing and and our kids getting the support that they need to make it through that two-year uh college process and also I know there's a partnership with udub to take some of the promised students and complete their four years so we would love to hear how that's going you know have students been successful in uh transferring from the 2-year program into udub um and and have they been able to gra
duate Etc and again I know uh covid-19 had some impacts here colleagues so that means that the two-year program had to uh be tweaked to allow for a third year for those students because they were not able to complete necessarily in the two years which was the original intent of the program um but due to covid uh uh there was a third-year allowance for those students so wanted to to let you know about that as well so looking forward to having you back Dr Chappelle uh drar fararo thank you for com
ing if there are no other questions then we will proceed to our next item on the agenda thank you all thank you agenda items 2 through six appointments 2779 through 2783 the appointment and reappointment of Julio Perez as a member of the Comm Community involvement commission for two terms to May 31 2024 and to May 31 2026 the appointment of Martha Lucas as a member of the community involvement commission for a term to May 31 2025 the reappointments of AA K and Heidi morisset as members of the co
mmunity involvement commission for a term to May 31 2026 thank you all all appointments and reappointments have been read into the record we are joined today by Laura Jenkins and Alvin Edwards who are from Seattle's Department of neighborhoods welcome thank you for being here Laura and Alvin um Laura and Alvin are Community engagement coordinators and they both serve as staff leison to the community involvement commission uh please introduce yourselves for the record and then we can learn more a
bout these four nominees for the commission Thank You Cher Rivera um so my name name is Alvin Edwards I'm a community engagement coordinator uh with Department of neighborhoods uh my areas of support are uh Southeast Seattle Georgetown and stto um I'm also um the staff liaison or one of the staff liaison for the community involvement commission um and I'll pass over to Laura to introduce your as well here thank you Alvin and uh good morning chair Rivera and good morning council members and any c
ommunity members watching I'm Laura Jenkins I'm a community engagement coordinator with Alvin and and I cover Central Seattle so the neighborhoods in and around central Seattle and I'm the other staff lays on for the community involvement commission and we're here we'll talk a little bit more about the commission and then talk about the appointments and reappointments great all right so thank you again for having us here today uh to talk about the community involvement commission uh so we'll sta
rt off by giving a little bit of background about the cic for the record and then uh Laura and I will talk a little bit more about some of the council me the uh community members MERS who are up for appointment today uh the committee involvement commission advises the Seattle Department of neighborhoods and other City departments on coordinated city-wide Outreach and engagement activities uh a total of 16 individuals serve as members of the committee involvement commission seven positions are ap
pointed by the city council with each member of the city council District corresponding to their position number seven are appointed by the mayor with one of those seven uh seven positions reserved for a young adult through the get engage program uh the final two members are selected by the commission subject to approval by the mayor and Confirmation by a vote of the city council uh and the commission has been uh meeting since about 2017 and then we also just wanted to share a little bit about t
he commission's current makeup So currently seven of the 16 positions are vacant two vacancies would be filled if the appointments today move forward to a vote by full Council and if that's approved um and then for the council's awareness um Council appointed positions tied to districts 1 2 3 and four are currently vacant the position tied to council District 5 will also be vacant at the beginning of June when the current uh commissioner's term is up and then we plan to do a recruitment push thi
s spring and we'll reach out to your offices um as we move forward with that and just wanted to note um that a few Commissioners have already met with council member morales's office about recruitment in her District as well thank you Laura uh so uh we'll kind of go into the uh council members the excuse me not coun the Commissioners uh who were up for appointment today uh so the first one is Julio Perez uh so Julio is seeking appointment and reappointment uh Julio has been attending commission
meetings in a personal capacity since uh September of 2023 um without knowing when his appointment would uh go to vote by city council uh Julio uh he him was born uh in Seattle to Mexican parents jul was raised in a fusion Mexican a fusion of Mexican traditions and American values uh after graduating from college Julio pursued a career in the nonprofit sector marked by a profound commitment to positively impacting the community and supporting the vision of a community free of poverty uh with a b
ackground in social work and a passion uh for Community Development Julio has dedicated his time to working for organizations that prioritize ize social change and addressing societal issues uh Julio's goal for joining the community involvement commission is rooted in a desire to make a meaningful difference in the place he calls home through active involvement uh and collaboration he hopes to shape a brighter future for his community and then uh the second um Community member here who we are uh
who is seeking appointment um is Martha Lucas uh Martha has been on the commission and a council appointed position since 2021 uh Martha is Martha is one of the commission's uh subcommittee chairs and has previously been a co-chair on the commission uh Martha was born in Ethiopia and moved to uh Seattle at the age of two and is a district three resident uh Martha is a proud Garfield Bulldog a double husky uh with a background in management public health education Insurance caregiving 25 plus ye
ars of community service organizing and uh racial Justice uh for over 10 years Martha has been a local Insurance uh broker in car home business life and disability and Medicare uh currently Martha wears two hats as an executive director for Washington State Coalition of African Community leaders which is the largest African diaspora Leed nonprofit in Washington with 60 plus member organizations and 90 plus individuals uh Martha is also the program consultant for Riverton Park United Methodist Ch
urch Asylum Seekers program where she oversees all the shelter resident program services and I'll pass it to Laura to talk about the the final two uh Commissioners thanks Elvin um so for the final two these are both people seeking reappointments um so we have AWA K who's been on the commission since 2022 um she's very consistent in her participation and always aware of contributing to conversations but leaving space for her fellow Commissioners um to provide their point of view um so AWA is a pu
blic health practitioner and a licensed attorney who is a faculty member at the University of Washington uh School of Public Health she's a first generation immigrant from the Ivory Coast and has a lived experience as a black woman in the US for nearly four four decades she has led large Health projects in Africa and in the Seattle area and as a mother and activist she has been extensively engaged with Community organizations and commissions to provote uh promote equity and justice and to amplif
y the voices of marginalized communities and then our last um commissioner or commissioner who seeking reappointment is Heidi moriset and Heidi's been on the commission just since December 2023 um but her term is up at the end of May um and in that short time she's shown great initiative in meetings and is in active in the commission's conversations as a snow quami Tribal member Heidi is rooted in the heritage of these lands Heidi's educational background is psychology sports management and ment
al health counseling which has aided her professional and personal growth by providing insight into human behavior Heidi has worked at several seattle-based companies and finds her passion through Making Connections in the communities and with people around her as a young indigenous person Heidi hopes to bring A New Perspective to the city her goal as a member of the community involvement commission is to make Civic engagement exciting and easily attainable to all po populations and people in Se
attle thank you Laura uh uh and Alvin it's I really appreciate hearing about the backgrounds of these nominees um uh and it's really helpful to hear folks really want to be engaged and and that is very encouraging to me colleagues do you have any comments or [Music] questions seeing no comments or questions I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments to7 79 through 2783 is there a second second it is moved and seconded to confirm these appointments are there any further comm
ents will the clerk clerk please call the role on the confirmation of the appointments council member woo yes council member Hollingsworth I council member Moore I council member Morales yes chair Rivera I five in favor zero opposed the motion carries and the recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the full city council thank you again Laura and Alvin as I've said of other boards and commissions it's so great to see F fellow seattleites who are willing to step up and vo
lunteer their time to help our great City and I'm going to underscore that volunteer their time uh to really be engaged in this very important work um in the city we are so grateful for their service and their continued Service as some of these are actually reappointments uh really appreciate their willingness to continue to serve in this volunteer capacity so thank you both for being here today thank chairperson do any of my colleagues have any other questions or comments in general okay seeing
no further questions I want to thank you again for presenting these nominees and thank you to the Department of Education and early learning for their earlier presentation this morning this concludes the March 28 2024 meeting of the libraries educ a and neighborhoods committee our next committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday April 11 2024 at 8 excuse me 9:30 a.m. if there's no further business this meeting will be adjourned hearing no further business it is 10:44 a.m. and this meeting is ad
journed thank you
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