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- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Crosscut's Northwest Newsmakers.

I'm your host, Monica Guzman.

And today I'll be talking with Denise Juneau, the superintendent of Seattle schools during what is definitely the most challenging school year of our lifetimes.

If you're a parent in this story, like I am, I have a third grader and a kindergartner in Seattle public schools, or if you're an educator, a student or a concern neighbor, I hope you'll tell us what you would like the superintendent to address.

Use the comment section on the right part of the screen to submit your question.

And our engagement team, it's Ann and Moe today, will make sure that it's in the running for the Q and A segment of our program later in the show.

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Okay, so let me set the stage here.

Superintendent Juneau, who's joining us today, is the 22nd superintendent of Seattle public schools.

She started her tenure in 2018 and came to Seattle from Montana, where she grew up watching her parents and grandparents work in public schools, taught in classrooms for a time herself, and served eight years as the Montana State Superintendent of public instruction.

As an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa tribes, Superintendent Juneau is also Seattle's first Native American school superintendent.

Denise Juneau, welcome to the show.

- Thank you, thanks for having me.

It's great to see you and be be here.

So thanks for offering this space.

- Yeah, and thanks for joining us.

I know, I mean, man, it's busy, busy time right now.

So thank you for joining us.

Thank you for getting real about some of the big issues in education with us today.

Well, we've got no shortage of big things to talk about, everyone.

So before we jump in, I wanna give y'all a map of our conversation.

We're gonna start with the plan return to in-person instruction for pre-K through first grade students and also for special education students in March.

We'll move from there to the upcoming transition in leadership of schools as Superintendent Juneau prepares to leave her post in June.

Then equity, closing the opportunity gap between white students and students of color has been a big stated priority for the district for years.

What's it gonna take to get there?

And finally, we'll turn it over to all of you, our viewers, as I ask the superintendent your questions.

So don't forget to drop those in the comment section.

I will be reminding you several times tonight.

So, superintendent Juneau, let's start with the pandemic.

We're about a year into this awful mess and a fraction of King County is vaccinated at this point.

- Uh-huh.

- When you're bringing students back, what safety measures are you putting in place and why do you believe they're enough?

- Well, you know, we actually, if you think back almost, it's been almost a year since we've had the shift to remote learning.

We were the first district in the country, really, at least a large district to have to make that shift back in March of last year.

And so, you know, we've learned a lot since we've had to do that.

And right now, you know, we have different phases of our return to school.

We've been in this remote setting now, as I said, for quite a while.

We're now looking at a phase and approach for bringing in special education students in intensive pathways, is what we call it, those that needs to have in-person instruction along with our pre-K-1 students.

Then we have a third phase which would include our second through 12th students.

And then the fourth phase would be coming back everybody, all, the usual way we think about school.

And so transitioning into this next phase, really, we've been planning this for really a long time.

And I know a lot of people write to us and say, where's the plan?

What's the plan?

We have been planning this really since the day that we had to close our doors.

We've brought together engagement teams made up of our SCA leaders, our principal leaders and parents and students.

Always try to include students in all the decision-making bodies that we have.

In June, we had an engagement team that came together made up of that same type of group of people that really walked through and helped us sort of categorize who should we prioritize.

And in that meeting, it was these special education students and our pre-K-1 students.

And so we've been working on that plan since then.

Lot of moving pieces.

And people can go to our website and find this in-person sort of plan that we have put together.

The big part of course is negotiating with our labor partners of Seattle Education Association.

- And that's moving on right now, right?

- It's happening right now every Tuesday and Thursday.

Bargaining teams are coming together.

They really talked through this change in working conditions, and that really means shifting from remote to in-person and what will that take.

Our priority has always been safety and following the health guidance of our public health partners.

- So (audio warps) sort of maybe like the two or three top line safety measures that-- - Yeah.

So we are in our 73 elementary and pre-K-8 schools right now preparing them.

So that means setting up desks and tables that are six feet apart, putting plexiglass in places that, like at the front office, making sure that we have the PPE required.

And so the things that we are committed to is making sure that PPE is there.

We have the daily attestation, which really is just the check-in, are people feeling well enough to come to school.

So that's in place.

We have an isolation area.

If people start feeling sick, that will be monitored, separated.

So the model that we want to put in place right now would sort of be a Monday, Tuesday and then a break on Wednesday, not a break, but not in-person (audio warps).

And then a Thursday, Friday cohort.

And that would be at ratios of one teacher per 15 students.

That cohort would stay together all the time.

Like there would be no mingling with other classes.

They'll eat in their classroom.

They'll go to recess together.

We worked with architects to create cohort zones within our schools so that there won't be any crossing.

We are following the guidance of cleaning high touch areas three times a day.

So, you know, working really hard to make sure that we are putting all the proper protocols in place.

And in fact, we have had 50 childcare sites in our schools that have been happening for months now.

And we have 46 of our school sites that are actually offering special education services right now all practicing the protocols, all following the processes, and have been pretty successful in monitoring and mitigating any kind of virus spread.

So it's great to see that we can be in places and it's working.

And so I'm excited to get kids back to school.

- Cool.

So let's talk about the teachers.

Obviously, they're concerned for their safety.

Are you confident the plan you have in place is safe for them?

And what are you hearing from the teachers about it since it's ongoing, the negotiations, and everyone's sort of waiting to see.

- Yeah, I mean I think that's really what is being discussed at the table right now, at the negotiating table is what I just lined out, that's what we are committed to put in place.

We've done all of our, we've looked at all of our HVAC systems and where they weren't up to par.

We are outfitting them, all of them with hospital grade HVAC filters.

So the filtration of air in our schools will be great like a hospital would.

And in those places that do not, that can't handle that right now, we are committed to put in sort of the standalone filtration systems.

And so working out issues like that with our labor partners so they know that we are committed to their health and safety when they return to school and want to put all the processes and procedures in there so that they feel safe in the spaces where they need to receive students.

- So I know this decision was obviously a difficult one to make.

You talked about some of the process.

What do you think was the biggest factor in the decision to bring the youngest students back in March?

And then I have to ask as a parent, how many families have opted in?

Families have a choice to stay home or not, to have their kids stay home or not?

So what can you tell us about that?

- Yeah, so we surveyed our families and about 46% opted for an in-person return.

We still have some that we are reaching out to that did not answer the survey but we are committed also to make sure that we're contacting every family and to see what their preference is.

And we are also surveyed staff and those staff that need accommodations, health accommodations to stay home.

We're trying to make sure that we're adhering to that too.

And I think that's important to understand is that we have a certain number of staff that can come back, right?

And we have a certain number of students and families who want to return, and that matching has to coordinate with the physical distancing that's required in schools.

And so it really is a lot of configuration.

And we also heard back from families that they want to keep their teacher that their student has grown.

- Oh, yeah.

- So that was why we shifted from, we were looking at maybe a four-day everybody coming back to school that wanted to come back to school and then shifting back to the cohort model of AA BB days because that allows us at least to offer more of that.

So more students could stay with the teacher that they've grown accustomed to over this last year.

Won't be true in every case.

But for the most part, we'll be able to accommodate that with this model - Shifting to the pandemic itself, I'm going to do this fun arm wavy thing, and it's March 2020, yay, and everyone gets a do over.

It's day one, school's closed because of the virus.

You're trying to lead a district with 54,000 students going through absolute chaos.

Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

- I think prior to that, if we would have had the magic ball, right, when coming into this district, and especially since it's such a high tech area, it was a little shocking about actually how far Seattle public schools was behind in tech distribution.

They had a plan really to make sure that we had a device in every individual student's hand over time.

It was for three years.

And at that moment, at that closure, it really was when we had to shift to remote and our students did not have the devices that were necessary.

If I had a wish, it would have been that that would have been prior to that point in time because it's impossible to access learning if you did not have that device at that time.

One thing I think that was really promising was how the community stepped up to assist us.

For one thing, I would say our department of technology did a heroic job and they took that three-year plan and squished it into months of making sure that every student had a device.

And the partnerships that we were able to create like Amazon stepping up in providing 8,500 laptops to our families that did not have a device, contacting Challenge Seattle and Alaska Air stepping up to go to Boston to pick up 12,000 iPads for us and deliver them so our youngest learners could have an iPad as we started school this fall.

Those things I think are really tremendous and the partnerships we've been able to develop.

We had been building good partnerships throughout our regular times, but coming into this, I think it really shown through about how people want us to be successful and are willing to step up to do that.

And so that was really promising.

But the one thing that I think that really became glaringly clear was the lack of devices and internet.

I'm still on that of sort of like we need broadband for all.

There's zero reason why a city like Seattle should not have or families shouldn't have, they should have access to broadband no matter where they are.

And I think we're going to have to keep pushing on that issue just simply because there will be a remote learning, something, I think, even upon a full return to school.

And work from home is going to be a very real thing for a long time.

- It's a great new world.

That's for sure.

On all those friends.

- Yeah.

- 16% of Seattle students are in special ed and a lot of them remote school is almost no school at all.

They've really struggled.

At the end of October, Seattle was giving one special ed student in person support.

You've said it's increased since, but back then neighboring districts were able to do more.

Now the Department of Education is investigating our special ed services.

So help us understand what kept us from reaching these kids sooner in the pandemic and how will the district turn a corner now?

- Yeah, so I think one thing is that we've actually took a different approach than a lot of other districts is we wanted to make sure that our students who have special education, individual education plans receive their education in their homeschool.

Some districts sort of designated a building and sent students there.

We thought it was important to maintain that connection for our students, going to places where they were used to, talking to the teacher that they knew and loved and then also our teachers having access to the classrooms that they were in.

And so it took a little longer to make those matches and make sure that each building had, just what we talked about, the necessary PPE and the cleaning protocols.

And so it took us a little longer, but we are now, as I said, in 46 schools serving students.

I believe there's about 144 special education students receiving education in-person right now.

That will continue to increase as our team continues to identify and when we bring back special education students in intensive service pathways.

First, there's a federal law.

Like we have to comply with the federal law.

And it's a moral obligation on our behalf as well to make sure that those, that the students are receiving their education services.

What I think comes out of the special education civil rights letter that we received under the last administration on the last day of them leaving really was, you know, if you look at the school districts that sorta got targeted with that letter, it was very left-leaning cities.

And the letter that we received, those based off of one media story that they read.

But one thing I will say is like, we are ready if they come in.

We have, I think, met everything that we need to that's come out of the Office of Superintendent Public Instruction.

So either the state, you know, those were ready with the paperwork or ready with our process and to be under that scrutiny and believe that we will show that we've actually done everything that we needed to do.

- So do you think the criticism was undeserved?

- I think in a big way, our process did take longer.

And so I know the frustrations, every time that we engage in a longer process, it leads to frustration.

And so one thing that he asked me what I wished for, I wish we could've brushed that a little bit more and things in place to make sure that we were bringing students in, but we're there now.

We have everything in place.

We've been following the guidelines and we're ready to receive more students.

- So one of our readers, Patricia Loira, asked a question is on the minds of parents everywhere, myself included.

She said, how can we best address the learning loss that resulted in the pandemic?

Now of course in that question is the assumption that there's been a learning loss.

A lot of talk about this being a lost year for our kids, how is the district measuring that possibility and what are you seeing that's got you most concerned?

- Yeah, no, that's a great question.

I think, you know, that is the part of the discussion, like we haven't had our usual ways in education across the country, the standardized tests, right, that we all don't think are great measures anyway.

But those haven't been in place for two years now, which actually does show you, like, do we really need them?

And what good were they if we don't have that data and we're still operating, things are still moving forward.

We are relying a lot on classroom assessments.

So that relationship between teachers and students and the way that a teacher engages a student and those, they should know where their students are on the content area.

And so we'll rely a lot on those classroom assessments working with our school building leaders, our principals, and assistant principals to figure out as school-based, like, where are they seeing things that we may need to put in place for interventions come the summer and fall.

Last summer we were able to offer a huge summer school way more than we ever had.

About 15,000 students engaged in our summer school.

Usually it's around 2,500.

So I think we'll be able to put a really strong summer school in place again.

We'll have to put something in place for the fall and when students come back in so that we can really get where are they on our standards.

And we also have a team made up of our SCA educators, some of our principal leaders, and then also here at the district coming together to start thinking through that whole spectrum of assessment going from classroom to school to district.

How do we know what students are learning?

And then also looking at grading.

One thing that this pandemic offered us was the opportunity to really look at those structures of instruction and learning and how we're actually measuring it.

And so I'm excited for the work of them coming together.

They'll be coming together later this month to really rethink how Seattle public schools will look at all those issues.

- Interesting, okay.

So even if we bring back our kids now, which is the plan for our youngest students, isn't this in some way still that lost year?

And even if it's not a complete loss, I know parents are thinking this, is it worth the risk of sending your kids back when it's just a few more months and then it's summer and we can wait until next year when more people are vaccinated, not even taking any of those chances.

How do you (audio warps)?

- One thing I will say is like I don't think families can make a wrong choice for themselves, and which is why it was important for us to kind of survey and gauge where they are.

Some families want their student to be in person and some students need to be in person learning.

That's their mode.

There are students who thrive in remote learning.

And so I think there's a space for that in our future as well of what does that look like.

And, as I said, we'll be gauging where our students are on their learning.

when we come back.

I mean, teachers are doing really a phenomenal job right now.

Our educators really stepped up in courageous ways, learning an entirely new way of educating through a screen, being in their students' families' homes on a daily basis, had to deprivatize their practice in such a way that they never had to do that before.

But also parents now seeing, one, how hard and educator's job is, and also how hard our educators are working.

And I just think for that part of that, that's actually probably been good for our education system is for there to be that type of connection and a deeper understanding of how everybody sort of works together.

So I'm proud of the way that our educators are engaging.

And again, I just think that there are students who need that in-person learning.

And like I said, when we had that conversation with our, with some of our educator leaders and our school leaders, they were in agreement that we should begin with our earliest learners.

- So moving on to the transition-- - One thing I would say, I was just like, you know, you think of kindergarten and they had to engage in this remote way of learning.

That's their (audio warps), right?

It's just like that's how they think of school now.

And that's their first entry point.

There's something about coming back to school.

I have a friend in Kitsap County and her students just went back to school, and just how excited they were as a family but also as the students going back and just that nervousness of a very first day, it felt like the first day of school for her children.

- Wow.

- And there's something about when you're in a school, learning those routines, learning those processes, that's where you get used to the idea of what school is.

There's been also, I think, even more than learning, loss if that's what you wanna call it, just that lack of social engagement.

- Just being with a human.

- That's probably something that we should even be thinking about even more just like, how are we going to create those interpersonal relationships?

How do we know students needs, social-emotional learning needs are being taken care of, what kinds of things can we put in place.

And a lot of those things you can't know or understand unless you're in a space in-person with a young person to really have those conversations or even, I mean, you and I were talking about even interviews earlier, it's different.

- It is.

- So there's a lot that you can't read about a situation without being in-person.

(audio warps) - I can appreciate a lot of those things we took for granted, that is for sure.

- Yeah, and I just had a teacher, and so I just visited with a teacher recently and he was able to create an outdoor learning space for some of his, for technical education students and how excited he was as an educator to be back in space with his students and the types of projects.

And just that relationship building, I think it's just such an important part of teaching that, you know, I know that all kinds of areas from families, from students to teachers, there's a lot of people excited about re-engaging in in-person.

But also we have to make sure that we're paying attention to the anxiety and the fear that's very real.

- Oh, yeah.

- We're making sure that we're mitigating as much as possible.

- I'll stop you right there just because we do need to move on to the leadership transition.

I wanna make sure we hit some of these topics.

When you announced you'd be leaving, you said, this school board must choose a superintendent with (audio warps) they can co-leader and move forward together.

You're the seventh Seattle School Superintendent since 2000 and the third in eight years.

Seattle has this revolving door with superintendents and it's frankly making everything harder.

Why do you think this is the case in our district?

And what's it take to keep steady leadership here?

- Yeah, I mean, I guess what I can speak from my experience is like, you know, I have seven bosses and they're all elected and they have constituents that they answer to as well.

They're all very hardworking individuals.

And the relationship between the board and the superintendent has to be a healthy one.

And that top leadership team, the board and the superintendent, shouldn't be a distraction to the work.

- Are you saying that your relationship with them, not quite so healthy?

- Yeah, I mean, I think there was something to the pandemic.

And, like I said, this whole remote way of having to interact, you know, new people were elected.

They started in January.

We weren't able to have the usual mode and space and time to really get to know each other or to build a relationship.

We were thrown into a pandemic where we had to make huge shifts.

And there's that, all that heightened anxiety around everything and an urgency to move forward and everything, all of a sudden, fits in the urgent and important box.

And so the prioritization between the operation of a district and where constituents wanted to go, sometimes there's a clash and you can't.

My former deputy superintendent used to tell me, we can do anything, we can do anything but we can't do everything, right?

The pandemic sort of threw us into a place where everything became important.

And so I don't think that we were able to build relationships in the way that we would have had we been able to really have in-person conversations, in-person meetings, like our meetings are all remote now.

So yeah, I mean, it's been a struggle, I think, as far as the top leadership.

The top leadership really has to contribute to a culture of collaboration to improve outcomes for students.

And like I said, because of that pandemic, we weren't able to really build that great working relationship because everything shifts under our feet constantly.

There's so much uncertainty that we deal with on a daily basis.

And it's not easy to be a board director or a superintendent in regular times.

And like I said, they can't even meet in person right now.

- Yup.

- It's also like knowing that when my bosses no longer believe in what I'm doing or how I'm doing it, I don't want that to add to the distraction.

It's healthier for the organization if the board finds someone that they can work with.

And so I'm hoping that they have found that person and the interim and that their process leads to somebody who can stick around for a while and lead this district.

I think when we look at, that at some point there needs to be longevity in the superintendent position that spans over several boards.

And so hopefully that person may be the next one.

- Mm-hmm, yep.

And that's certainly something we hope for for the sake of our kids as well.

- Yup, mm-hmm.

- Steady leadership and good relationships behind it.

- No, it matters, it matters.

- Yeah, thanks for your candor on that.

Before we talk about equity in our schools, I promised our viewers that I would remind you to be submitting your comments and questions, especially questions for Superintendent Juneau.

So please do do that.

Thanks to everyone who's been in there already.

So yes, so we'll get to them soon, coming up at the end of the program.

So Superintendent Juneau, of the 200 largest school districts in the country, Seattle has the fifth largest achievement gap between white and black students.

You focused your five-year strategic plan on this exact problem.

It's all about students who are quote, furthest from educational justice, beginning with black boys.

So first, can you tell us why you believe that particular focus on black boys is so important to building a district where all our kids have a solid shot at success?

- Yeah, sure.

Let me first say that, you know, this strategic plan was built with community.

And when I started this job, I did a huge listen and learn tour to get to know Seattle, to get to know the district, to get to know the people, staff.

I made so many stops and talked to so many people.

And then all that information fed into a committee, and the committee really was built in community.

And the community is really the ones that those community members really put the strong emphasis on.

And so, I am super proud of that work.

I mean, like you said, it is steeped in racial equity, focusing on students of color for this, from educational justice, has that intentional focus on African-American boys and teens.

And that really came as a lesson that we learned called targeted universalism.

And it does say that if you focus in on a particular thing, like for example, the example that's often used is the curb cuts in sidewalks built for wheelchairs.

- Those are the ramps that come-- - Right, on the curb where there's the curb cut, it allows mobility but it also helps with strollers and it helps with bikes and it helps, like it helps everybody.

And so that's the idea even just that targeted universalism.

Like if we really rebuild a system around African-American boys and teens and listen to black community and listen to the voices of our young kings in the system and make those structural changes, that will benefit everybody.

And so that's really the idea behind Seattle Excellence, that's what we call our strategic plan.

And just, I mean, been able to spread across the system.

I mean, it's been years, right?

So there's been a progress over the past few years of building up to this point and getting really real about how are we highlighting black excellence in our system and what are we doing around all this.

And then, you know, being able to work with philanthropy and they stepped up in a big way to really assist us with this vision and the creation of our Office of African-American Male Achievement-- - Which is basically the program in Oakland, California, right?

- Yup.

Well, yeah, we've learned a lot from Oakland and their efforts with their office down there.

They are embarking on their own listen and learn tour.

They are working with young men in our system, young kings, they have a student leadership council and those members are on a lot of our decision-making bodies and advisory groups.

And so really just sort of trying to engage and making sure that we keep them at the center of everything that we're doing and all the decision-making that that we have.

And so it's been pretty phenomenal to watch the growth of these young men really speak up and speak truth to power in spaces that are super important to how they experience school.

- So on that point, you've launched programs.

You mentioned the Office of African-American Male Achievement, you've stepped up diverse hiring and reading program to boost reader level for third grade boys.

You've launched programs to move us forward on equity.

Some have defended your work, the local NAACP and other criticize you for not moving fast enough, calling for your ouster in the fall.

Your successor will face a lot of the same pressures.

How do you think that your successor should balance the urgency of game changing, eyeopening social movements with what you understand to be the realities of making reforms in our school district?

- Mm-hmm, and I think maybe communicating early about the work that is planned so that they understand the timelines, right?

It's like this takes time.

I mean, we are not here because things happened overnight.

We are here based on a long legacy and history of racism in our system.

And undoing those legacies of racism is going to take time.

But you can also move quickly, like, you know, making sure that we are bringing students in to the decision-making groups, making sure that we are working with all of our partners across the city so they understand our urgency.

Even taking third grade reading, like we have a third grade reading goal, and being able to work with all of our elementary schools.

Every elementary school now has that as a goal.

That did not happen before.

Like we have had to build, when I came into this job, we really were a system of schools and not a school system and making that shift so that everybody saw their place, everybody sees their place and how we have to promote that black excellence and making sure that we're doing the work that's going to matter.

And that includes our partners outside of the district as well.

And so making sure that everybody has a place.

And I just think, communicating that early, making sure that they're at the table as well during the planning and that they are having a say in what that looks like is going to be super important.

- So I have to say that you talked about how you had community as you were planning reforms and yet many of the community said it wasn't fast enough.

So what is the lesson there?

- Yeah, I mean, I think it is about laying out the timeline, right?

And making sure that everybody has an understanding of like, these are the things we're going to do.

The one thing I will say is that things can still move fast.

And so, like, you talked about diversity of hiring.

Our human resources department has done phenomenal work at recruiting teachers of color, central administrators of color, school leaders of color.

In fact, I think the school leaders that we hired last year, about 55% maybe were leaders of color.

- I'm hearing that our readers would love to hear details.

So please let us know, like, what are the concrete things that (audio warps).

- Yeah.

And that happened in a year.

And so there are things that can happen on a quick basis.

So one thing that I will just say, getting into a little bit of detail about some of our recruitment was we have an academy for rising educators.

And that works with some of our paraprofessionals who are in the system, who are mostly people of color that works with some of our high school students, who are eager to become teachers in the future and taking sort of a model of making sure that, I'll just speak for like, if you're a high school student and you're interested in education, you graduate from Seattle public schools, you take advantage of Seattle promise, which you have access to two years of free college on the Seattle colleges.

We hire you then as a paraprofessional in our system during those two years, so you get more experience.

When you graduate, we put you into our career ladder program or we will pay through your, to get your license and then you come back and teach for us.

So that's what I'm saying is that there are these longer term initiatives that are going to pay off dividends in the future.

But also some of the recruitment that we've done, like I said, have been able to going to historically black colleges and doing recruitment there in Seattle, making sure that people, that our recruitment teams are out in spaces where, and we're doing a huge campaign, social media campaign, like on Snapchat and such that is going to help draw more teachers of color into Seattle.

Just sort of like knowing that this is a place where you can grow, this is a place where we're going to support you.

This is a place where to retain you.

It's a place that we're going to see you.

The number one thing for my list and learn tour that I heard from students was they wanted to see somebody who looks like them in classroom at some point in their career.

And so that's one thing.

That's why it's a huge priority and we're making sure it works.

- So hiring is up, like you said, 78% of district teachers are white and 5% are black, in a district where 15% of the student body is black and students of color make up the majority.

So definitely, a long way to go for sure.

Rena Mateya Walker Burn, a black student, said she quit your advisory board in part because she felt the district's moves on equity just weren't making tangible difference to the racism that she and others feel.

So what do you say to the students, our future leaders, right?

Wonder if these problems are permanent?

- Yeah.

I don't believe they are permanent.

I think that one reason that, I had a student advisory board and one reason we have the student leadership council through the Office of African-American Male Achievement is to make sure that we are at least attempting to put students at the center of our decision-making, to listen to their voices and to make change.

And I know as a young person that change is never fast enough.

But to also know that we are putting structural changes based on their input into place.

That's why we have the priority of recruiting and retaining teachers of color.

Like I said, that came from young people over and over and over again.

And so making sure that we are prioritizing those things that they want to see happen in our system, but things, as we know, things take a little longer when you're trying to work within a bureaucratic organization, which is also why going back to the longevity of leadership, why that's important, because I mean, you have a shift.

There's a learning that has to take place, new things that have to happen and so just a lot of movement that sort of get stymied in those transitions as well.

- So thank you for that.

We're gonna move on to our reader questions.

And first I wanna ask a question that reader Tiara Juel sent ahead of time.

So she asked, what are the toughest problems we have to solve as a city to support our public schools?

- I think it really is, I mean, all working together, right?

We need to find ways that are common and collaborative that we can all come together.

And like I said, it took a crisis, a pandemic to really, you know, things didn't move quickly as far as making sure we were getting devices out to students, for example.

That people came together, they saw that need.

People came together to make sure that we had a great nutrition services program that was out.

Amazon came along, they're making deliveries to homes of our food, right?

And so I do think it is building on those partnerships and just working with the district to see what needs are there.

Listening is sometimes a two-way street where we are out in community, listening to the needs and how we need to change our structure.

But the partnerships that we make, one of the great things I think that has happened over the last couple of years, and I'll just go back again to the Office of African-American Male Achievement, was Philanthropy actually sat with us and asked us what we needed.

What do we need in order to make the structural changes to get after our strategic plan and make sure that we're implementing it in a very real way.

So we talked about the lessons from Oakland and what happened with their office down there and then they stepped up and funded it rather than a funder coming in and saying, here's what you need to do.

There's a change that we need to say, and sort of like also the district needs to have a voice in what that change is because there's a lot of people here that are awesome with a lot of knowledge and tons of expertise and so much experience that can come to bear about how do we make those changes and work in those partnerships come in alongside of us.

- So we've got several reader questions, and really good ones.

So maybe we should treat this a bit more like a lightning round, see how many we can get to and make sure we hear from a lot of our readers.

So many parents are asking about more detail or why there isn't more detail about the date specific timeline for bringing our older kids back second through 12th grade.

So after March 1st, you know, what is the timeline we can hope for?

How long before we know?

- You know, one thing I'll say is what I've heard from school leaders, at least from the middle school and high school, is that they would like some spaces for even after school of some sort of in-person coming together.

Maybe it's tutoring, maybe it's some sort of gathering.

There's a lot to be worked out with the union.

I mean, that's really where when working conditions change for different groups of teachers we have to go to the table.

And so-- - Is the time really dependent largely on that group?

Is that what you're saying?

- I think it's dependent both on the how we're, a lot of it is with staffing.

Like it's not just the union negotiations, it's the number of staff that we have.

It's the social distancing that has to be put into place in schools.

I mean, at some point we run out of space to bring back the numbers of students that may want to return.

And so that's really looking through the fall if we're still in hybrid, which could be likely depending on vaccination rollout and everything else that is outside of our control.

Those are the types of issues that we'll have to look at.

Our priority is to get the special education, students with an intensive pathways back into school.

K-1 hopefully follow soon, after that, pre-K-1 and then we can start looking at second through 12, but it might be a while.

- Yeah.

I mean, is there a chance it would happen this school year?

- The way it's looking I'm not sure it's likely.

- Yeah.

Reader Natalia or viewer Natalia Yudkovski asks, is district leadership engaging with communities about remote learning and how to improve it?

It's a great question.

Many families are choosing to remain remote and there will likely be remote learning in the fall.

There are many things that aren't working for families.

What specific improvements to remote learning are you looking at?

- Yeah, so the board actually asked us to create a remote learning task force and that is made up of community members and parents and educators.

And so they've actually been meeting and talking about what does remote learning look like.

We sent out a survey, it's been a while, just to gauge students and how they're doing to engage families and how they're feeling about things.

So that task force is kind of looking at all the information.

They're looking at attendance data.

They're looking at all kinds of different information points to help define, to help us become better in the moment but also looking forward because she's right, there will be some aspect of remote learning in the future as well.

And so how do we get better at it?

And that can be everything from our learning platform teams, right?

And we're now moving into teams education, which will be a little friendlier for an education environment.

And so tools, professional development, engagement kinds of things.

Like I said, socio-emotional learning.

How are we making sure that this medium sort of allows us the opportunities for real instruction.

- State laws provide exemptions for people who don't wish to be vaccinated.

Will a COVID-19 vaccine be requested of students to gain entry to in-person school in the fall?

You know, we'll probably follow whatever the Department of Health says on that issue.

And so that's yet to be determined.

- Okay, so this one comes from Maria Gutierrez.

Are there any plans for outdoor in-person high school graduations this June?

I know a lot of high school seniors are crossing their fingers for something.

- Yeah.

That's so hard.

It's so hard I know for families and students to be in this remote setting particularly all those high school sorts of rites of passage that happened, proms, dances, homecoming, graduation.

We, as you all know, had to have virtual graduations last year, it depends.

I mean, it's going to be hard.

We're working with our school leaders, our high school school leaders.

And so we'll have more conversation with them.

I'm not sure, given where we are in the phases of reopening that, you know, I think we need to start with that we will probably having virtual graduations unless there is a way that we can be in person.

- Yeah, okay.

A question from Nicholas Miriam, as you have chosen to not pursue a contract extension as superintendent, he says, I'm curious, the advice you have for the incoming interim or future superintendent.

Yes, I imagine it may be hard on our schools, students, teachers, and communities having a leadership change in the pandemic.

No kidding, Nicholas.

- Yeah, so the interim superintendent who is on slate for discussion and potential hiring this next or two weeks from the school board, Brent Jones, Dr. Jones is not a stranger to Seattle public schools.

I worked with him when I became superintendent.

He was here as my Chief of Equity Engagement and Partnerships.

And so he's been around Seattle public schools.

He's from Seattle.

And so I think, you know, using his partnerships and his ties and from the support of the school board and looking towards the next superintendent and building out that process, he's going to do a fine job.

- It's a question from CJ.

Can you confirm that all students will have access to an online learning option as long as they feel that it is appropriate for their family even beyond September, 2021?

- I can't guarantee that.

I guess what I can say is that for this rest of this year, you know, if you express that you wanted to stay remote, you can stay remote.

And as I said, looking forward to the fall, if we're in a hybrid opportunity, there was going to have to be some sort of remote option as well.

So we'll see how it plays out.

And like I said, I think the remote learning task force will help with that.

Our board is going to start looking at what does the fall look like.

So there'll be starting those conversations really soon as well, finding some sort of framework and guidelines and a new resolution sort of directing us how they would like the fall to look.

And so those conversations are upcoming.

- Mm-hmm.

So this is a question just from me going back to your successor and the future of the district.

Let's say your successor picks up the phone and calls you and just says, what is your candid advice for me?

You know, we've got a revolving door of superintendents.

We've got a pandemic.

We've got lessons that hopefully we don't want to leave and follow you out the door.

We want some of the knowledge of crisis management and all this change to stay with the district and benefit our kids.

What would you tell that person?

What are your big lessons?

- Yeah, I mean, my big lessons is develop a strong relationship with your Board Directors.

My another lesson is like we have, I think understanding that the people here at Seattle public schools are working their butts off every day.

Like I said, they have rich experience.

They stick around Seattle public schools.

So they are passionate about the work they do.

They are committed.

They're super smart and brilliant and really lifting them up.

I think that's really been a big part of my leadership of really being able to build a strong team that believes in black excellence, that believes that we can do the work of undoing the legacies of racism in Seattle public schools that puts the work in on a daily basis, to make sure that our systems are operating as best they can and then looking for ways to improve it.

My advice is always to get smart people surrounding you, set the vision, and let them loose and try to find ways to remove the barriers they have to their work.

And so that would continue to be my advice - All right.

Well, with that, Superintendent Juneau, I cannot thank you enough for talking with us today.

We definitely, I mean, it's been quite a year.

A lot of challenges and, yeah, I really hope that we just keep getting stronger as a district, that we keep serving our kids better 'cause that's really all, that's the best we can do.

(audio warps) - I just thank everybody for their patience.

Like I said, this has not been an easy year.

And I know frustrations and anxiety are super high because at the end of the day, families are sending their most precious resource that they have to us.

And we realize and understand the weightiness of that responsibility, and we feel that every day.

So just appreciate the patience and know that we'll get through this.

- Yeah, so we're pulling for all our teachers, all our educators out there.

Thanks for all the work you've been doing and we'll keep on truckin'.

So thank you, Superintendent Juneau, very much for joining us.

To our series sponsor, Waldron, thank you for making tonight's event possible.

We'd also like to take a moment to thank our members and to remind you that Crosscut is a nonprofit reader-supported awesome news site that relies on the support of our community to ensure that our events and journalism remain free for everyone.

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If you would like to make a donation or become a member, visit us at crosscut.com/support.

At last we hope and finally, excuse me, we hope you will join us at the next Crosscut event.

That'll be the next edition of our At-Large series which takes place February 16th.

Crosscut managing editor Mark Baumgarten will discuss the insurrection, domestic terror and white supremacy in the US with journalists, Leah Sottile and Bill Morlin.

You can learn more about that at crosscut.com/events.

Thanks again to Superintendent Juneau and to all of you for joining us today.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, and we'll see you next time.

Thanks, everyone.