We’ve collected the links and information community members need to know if they want to participate in the Seattle School Board meetings.
Scheduling
- Regular meetings take place approximately every two weeks, beginning at 4:15 p.m.
- Meeting agendas are made available 1-2 weeks in advance on the Board meetings page of the SPS website
- Open to the public – community members can attend the physical location (John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, 2445 3rd Ave S) or watch on YouTube (live feed and archived Board meeting recordings)
How to Give Public Testimony
- Public testimony is accepted at all regular Board meetings
- Signup is online via MS Forms, and the link goes live at 8 a.m. on the Monday preceding each regular meeting
- There are usually 25 spots reserved for speakers, and a waitlist is maintained.
- Speakers may testify in person at the Stanford Center or remotely via telephone. Adult speakers are limited to 2 minutes of testimony (4 if they require interpretation); students get 4 minutes. Public testimony is not a dialogue, Board directors do not engage with speakers.
Common Agenda Items:
- Board Director comments
- Superintendent comments
- Public Testimony
- Consent agenda (this is when the Board votes on a list of Grants/Gifts, Contracts & Capital Projects Approvals rather than as individual items, and any director can pull an item from the consent agenda for discussion and separate vote)
- Introduction items (for a vote at a future meeting)
- Self-evaluation time (to ensure that most of their time is spent on items relevant to district goals for student outcomes).
- Work session, which is generally an informational presentation to the Board. For a work session, Board members come down from the dais and sit at a separate table, and they do not take votes during work sessions.