001Good afternoon everyone. I'm um happy, very happy to call this meeting to order. This is a study session um as part of the board's duties to review progress against our policies. This one is superintendent parameter 9, our racial and educational justice policy. And so we are here to talk about all the great work being done under this framework. I don't know, Superintendent Irish, if you want to kick us off before we hand it over to Dr. Thomas. >> All right, there we go. Um, yes, it's an absolute honor and uh to share the great work of this team and to hear from our students um as well. Um, I am as a as a new superintendent three months on very impressed with the work that is being done, the work that was done before my
002time, the work that has been done over the last several years. Um and you'll see um continued evidence of um the ways in which racial and educational justice are not just in one department but are being um part are a part of the DNA of the organization and how we are ma ensuring that there is accountability across the organization um across departments and schools in relation to this work and um making sure that this is the forefront and and again the DNA of the organization. So, um it's been an honor to get to know the team um over the last several months and excited to hear and learn more um as well as um be a huge sponsor and ambassador of this work. So, thank you Dr. Thomas. I guess I'm on testing. Can you
003hear me? Okay. Um so, thank you for having us today. Um I I know that this work has evolved over time and both um expanded in depth and breadth and so we are going to be spotlighting and highlighting some of those areas some of the many areas as you've seen um the 20page report that we've been able to put together. Um and I do want to note too that that report wasn't just done um within our department work that was done across our system. So we had not only racial and educational justice represented but also student services, teaching and learning, human resources, communications, food and nutrition um all around this parameter. And I think that speaks to that ongoing evolution of the work and how this really isn't just aspirational. You know, we like to
004identify what our north star is in this work and I don't know that we'll be able to reach that within our lifetime. though we continue to maintain that hope that we'll get closer to that goal um and we can be very technical and concrete in the progress that we are making and continuing to make in this and measure that progress over time. So we'll talk more about that. But in um Dr. Foster and mine and Rena's conversations. Um, this year and at the beginning of this year, we really talked about how can we take this breadth of work and try to really narrow that focus so that there is some solid arrows pointing in one direction driving that work forward and then how can we measure that progress over time and we've been able to
005collect data which we'll be able to point to and speak to kind of throughout this in a qualitative way. Um we also have quantitative data measurements that you see in the goal reports mostly. Um but we've been able to really fine-tune thinking through how can we change adult practices over time and how can we measure that. So we've structured this um slide deck for you in the presentation for you into three themes that you'll see emerging. So the first one is building and sustaining leader and staff capacity. The second one is building and sustaining structures of support. And the third one is building and sustaining cohesions cohesion within and across our schools. And we believe that as we continue to engage in this work and scale it, we're able to actually measure adult practices. And
006we're going to continue to fine-tune that measurement of work over time, but also not see it as a side dish over here, but as a part of the strategic work that our school district is doing. That's that collective work over time. So, I will turn it over to Rena, but also want to welcome our special guests as well. So, we have organizational change and student advancement here. And um with me is Rena Harb, our specialist. We also have Jasmine and JD who are two of our incredible student leaders um who are on the student justice collective and student board and and and [laughter] RJ committee all the things. So your brilliance is um I think should be centered in this space and we truly appreciate you being here because for me personally it's the heart
007of the work. So, I'm not going to cheer up. I'm going to keep moving on, but thank you for being here. We also have Dr. Craig Foster here who is our director of research and evaluation. And we're continuing to have conversations as we navigate what does measuring this work look like because we can measure it. We can put it into technical and concrete practice and we can think about how that can be benchmarked over time and throughout the years. And then we do have Nikki Smith here who's our assistant director of curriculum instruction and assessment who has been such a strong collaborator in ethnic studies and thinking about how to apply racial and educational justice lens to not just that work but to all of our curricula across the district. So, thank you all for
008being here today and I will hand it over to Rena [clears throat] to share our land acknowledgement, but also how we've been able to take that work off the page and make more meaning of it through partnership and collaboration. Hi everyone. Um, as Ava mentioned, my name is Rena Harb. I'm the specialist for the organizational change and student advancement division. I've finally gotten that down after a lot of practice. Um, so I wanted to talk about today the land and people's acknowledgement. Thank you. Um, we have seen this before. We know that we are currently on unseated coalish lands that have been colonized, occupied, and renamed to both, Kenmore, Redmond, and Woodenville. And also, um, when we're thinking about land acknowledgements, what comes after a land acknowledgement? um how do we continually actionize our commitment
009to recognizing that we are visitors on this land and recognizing that we do need to do more to build relationships with our um Native and Indigenous tribal partners. So in that we've done a lot of work and continue to do work with Lauren Nabahi who is the East Side Native American Education Program Manager. Um, we are actually currently building out uh land acknowledgement questions, slide decks, and videos for staff and students around the importance of understanding land and people's acknowledgements through an actionizing lens, through the lens of intersectionality, through the lens of racial and educational justice. Um, that's exciting work to come and I really am hopeful, excuse me, that it will, um, help build knowledge around more understanding about what a land acknowledgement is because that is the intentional intentional piece that if we're
010reading this statement that um, us as visitors on this land need to be recognizing. So um, I offer you all just a moment to read the land and people's acknowledgement to recognize the lands in which we are upon. And this is the Northshore um land and people's acknowledgement for elementary which again you have all seen. just kind of trying to make it actionizable and understandable for um preschool to fifth grade um in a way that understands the harm institutions have had on indigenous and native people but also in a way that helps understand or for their learning as well. So that is our land and people's acknowledgement. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> So we're going to launch into the first theme of this evening and this is all about building and sustaining leader and staff
011capacity. So as we've um when we initially started this work from the systems level it was um kind of separate and then we named and formalized a department. At the time it was the equity and diversity department that was named in the fall of 2018 and then has since evolved into the racial and educational justice department so that we're diving deeper into what we actually mean when we're talking about this work and that it is institutional work but that it should happen at every level. And when we think about that as two people, we cannot and should not do that work just as two people. We need to do that in collaboration across departments, across stakeholders and with students. And so when we think about building leader and staff capacity, we should not be doing
012work for people. We should do be doing it with them. But then also building the capacity of the adults in our system so that they can feel competent and confident to engage in that work themselves. So for this first one, we're focused on leader capacity building and we've been able to do that in a few different ways. And that first way is through a racial and educational justice leadership learning strand. So we have presented um every year at the August leadership days. And so we did that this last August through a racial and educational justice lens. But part of that desiloing the work at the district level is partnering with various departments. And so I was able to collaborate with Dorene Milbour who is our executive director of special education to bridge together identity affirming
013practices through an inclusionary lens because we shouldn't be doing that work separate. We should be doing that work together and it shouldn't be seen as separate department work. It should be seen as systems work. So Dorian and I are leading this strand forward this school year to really build that out and build the capacities of our leaders with our leaders so that they know how to engage in that work themselves and that they can then bring that to the school level. Um, we are also engaging in modeling restorative conversations and discipline protocols um to address discrimination incidents which is that last indicator and I'll continue to talk about that throughout um in the P9 report. But what we can't do is go to every building when every incident of discrimination happens because we don't have
014the capacity to do that ourselves. And also it is part of a leadership capacity that every leader should be able to have that competence and confidence to engage in. And so we've built out slide decks, tools, modeled what that looks like to engage in those conversations because um a punitive discipline measure is not enough. We have to be able to sit alongside and educate our students and our youth for what does what they said mean? What's the difference between a swear word and an identity based slur? What does it mean to repair harm? And what are the strategies and options to be able to engage in that? and how can a building leader within their seat be able to facilitate that conversation in a restorative but a technical and tangible way. And so those are
015conversations that we're having and I will go out to a school and sit next to a principal or an assistant principal and model what that looks like. So and then have them take notes. So they're part of that conversation with me and then they're able to have this template for them to try it on next time. So then maybe it's this gradual release of me going in next time, but they're facilitating the conversation and then they feel competent to then do it that next time and then they can then sit next to their their building admin colleagues to then facilitate that as well. So that's kind of a process of helping to build that um capacity among our leaders. And then the next piece is our staff capacity building. And so Ren is going to
016kick that off. >> Yes. So I think something really special around the learning that we are doing is really student driven and it's stem has been stemmed from um what students say is urgent. So the last year we've really dug deep into through line one of our racial and educational justice framework on um addressing microaggressions and incidents of discrimination when they happen and when they occur. And so with our racial and educational justice school teams, we spent a lot of time the last year um meeting with them to talk about what that those tangible pieces look like, how to implement it. um what what what it looks like when an incident happens and what to say in the moment because I think a lot of the time we like know what to say and we
017have things that we want to say and then we get caught up in the moment because we're taken aback by somebody actually saying a microaggression or something discriminatory and so we've created countless which I'll talk about in a little bit a lot of uh resources videos slide decks sentence stem badges like tangible things physical things as well um for like in the moment. Oh my gosh, I heard a microaggression. I can stop it right now or like pause the conversation and address it. And then that teachable moment can also be in there too. And in that um Ava and I have also attended RJ school team meetings to help support staff um at the RJ school team level to address when microaggressions occur as well. Um is it And we also have required professional learning
018because we've talked about kind of over the years, what does accountability look like within our system to not just have this work be optional or a choice, but part of what teaching is or part of what leading is. And so we've been able to have collaborative conversations over time to get to the place of actually having required professional development hours set aside so that educators are getting equity clock hours, but they're also required to engage in this training. So in August, um Rena and I facilitated a um pretty extended three-hour training um across the system that was live streamed into each school, but we had multiple opportunities for them at the school level to pause and to engage in whole school conversations where there was both certificated and classified staff there and be able to
019engage in that as a whole school in small groups in partnerships. and then think about what that meant for their planning work moving forward and then tie that back to their strategic action plans. So I think and we collected feedback from that and there was a lot of positivity because they were able to fine-tune and customize the conversations to meet the needs of their school. But we had this what's everyone doing which is the work that we were able to facilitate and then what is this school doing based on you know what we're asking of the system but then each individual school can tailor that to their own needs. So we tried that model we got great feedback on it um and we'll continue to think through that. We also have um required professional learning
020hours for racial and educational justice this year for one first semester and then the second one second semester. And um that's an opportunity in terms of building capacity for leaders to be facilitating those conversations and that learning with their staff. So it's not just they're hearing from Rena and I, but the leaders are taking that ownership and that accountability of the work. And we have then provided support through customizable slide deck templates for them. So you can be doing these things to help narrow that focus, but then how can you step in front as a leader to lead that work alongside your staff? Back to me. Um, and alongside that too, we have located or relocated everything into our staff toolbox, our racial and educational racial and educational justice staff toolbox. Um, because we were
021using a shared Google folder, which is great in theory and also in practice, it makes it really hard for people to actually access the resources that they need. And so, we had a great idea. Why don't we just move it to something that we're everybody's already using? Um, and so it's made it like a generalized hub for REJ related work and then it will continue to be built out as um, we continue on with throughine two for this school year as well. Um, but for now it has everything related to racial and educational justice, our REJ uh, school teams information for that um, information and resources related to addressing anti-discrimination, the slide decks, the sentence stem cards, the videos, everything. Um, and then also things related to our racial and educational justice committee. And then
0222D is what we're on now. [laughter] We're going down the list. Um, yes. So, in terms of also staff capacity building, what we're doing is modeling learning through elementary student workshops. And so this started a few years ago when staff were asking us to come to their classrooms to engage in learning with their students about a racial and educational justice related topic. And one of the themes that we noticed was identity. How do you build empathy? And then what is the power of words in the language that you're using? So um we built out slide decks that we then went to facilitate in mostly fifth grade and then we started getting fourth grade um to ask us to come. So um we've been to numerous elementary schools um two years ago and last year to
023build out that work and to facilitate that work um as the two of us whether that was individual classrooms or a whole grade band at an elementary school. But then this year, we've noticed that as a result of the work that we're continuing to build out and then there's teachers talking to teachers and staff talking to staff, we've gotten more requests and so we've been able to now think through at the elementary, middle, and high school level. We've had staff reach out to us and they have requested that not only are we coming to facilitate workshops for students, but that we're sitting alongside them to collaborate with them on what that could look like across their grade bands so that they can then facilitate that learning themselves with their students. So there's been this really
024unique shift of Ren and I going in to randomize classes to we're essentially doing this kind of pilot model of workshops and activities across grade bands. And we're doing that work this year. So by the end of this year, we'll have set workshops and activities with identity, empathy, and the power of words ranging from preschool through 12th grade built out alongside educators. And I think that's a testament to the work that we as a system are continuing to do. The work is not going away. We're centering the work. But also there is increased skill and will of this work and an increased desire for educators to take that work on themselves. So it's not let's have someone else come in and do it, but how can we do that work alongside you? So, I'm I'm
025very excited to see um what that work looks like this year and that we can get to work on that immediately. >> Thanks. Okay, we're going to be talking about student leadership capacity building. So, I'm really excited to introduce Jasmine and Jadeie who are two incredible students. I think we introduced them earlier and said all the things that they do and then the numerous other things that they do. Um, but a part of their leadership and the work is uh the student justice collective, which they're going to talk about in just a second. But the student justice collective has become a really cool space that has just been for student voice and it's led solely by students. Um, we've seen this in the most recent August advance that we had. Um we asked uh students
026from the collective to come facilitate um a workshop around micro um no identity affirming environments and experiences which is through line two. And we met we talked about it and they showed up and they blew us away with how incredibly um articulate and also like the urgency around building identity affirming environments and experiences that um students are craving. So a part of that work that I just like it really centers my own pedigogy when I think about it was this phrase that they used was build create and connect. So we have to be building educational spaces creating um identity forming experiences and environments and connecting with students in order to do that. Um and also that was their call to action. So, I take that um to my own practice as as well and then
027think about, you know, how are their experiences as students um being affirmed every single day and what do I have to do in order to do that? They're going to talk a little bit more about that in relation to the student justice collective and what that means to them and all the cool things that they're doing. So, I'll hand it off to you. Nice. at least I got the mic to work. So, it's half the job already done. So, on a personal level, the student justice collective for me has really been a lifealtering experience just for so many different reasons. I love that it's a cross-d district community of a lot of different students from all sorts of different high schools. So, it allows us to facilitate such multiaceted dialogue and have a lot of
028conversations about things that we have in common, things that are different for us. And it really helps broaden the array of voices that we have. And especially since those are student voices and we're influencing such an important department in the district, it's always been a really wonderful concept for me. And I also think that the work that we do and the energy that we put into certain resources is really important because I feel that we choose things that are really relevant to common things in the district today and there's a lot of things that we do and it's a really layered approach but one of the things in particular is the conference that we work towards. So every March we have students who aren't from the collective and high school students they come and at
029Cascadia College they do workshops and there's been community cafes and there's been guest speakers in the past and it's all centered around that goal of racial and educational justice. And so the way that I first got into all of these boards and collectives and all of the amazing options that the district requires was I was one of those students who wasn't involved with any of them as a high school freshman. And I went to the conference because I got an email and I was like, "This sounds amazing." And the things that are discussed in that conference are amazing. We talk about history. I've learned more about myself and my heritage as a person and the culture in the district and the land that we live in as a whole. I've met some amazing people, the
030guest speakers we've brought in and fellow students who again, there's so many leaders and articulate people and artists who are all using their voices in our school and they're all youth and it's incredible. And I've also in terms of the collective, I've learned to express my voice. The thing that comes to mind most clearly is the slam poetry workshop is always the most popular around with the microaggression workshops. Those are the two most popular that students will write their own slam poetry and they perform it during lunch. And it's a really amazing experience to hear everybody step up to the mic and talk about the experiences that they think are important. And it's just an amazing use of time. And I'd never felt that I'd been in an environment where we were discussing racial and
031educational justice and what that means to us and how we're applying it in action and how that relates to students. So, it's been a really important outlet for me as a whole. And I'm really glad that we're working towards that and the district recognizes that as a priority and it's continually evolving as people graduate and new people come in and priorities change and again as we work towards different through lines and different places in our framework. So, it's just an amazing experience overall for me and I'm glad that I can be here and provide ideas towards that work that we're doing because it's really important to me. >> Thank you. Yeah. Um [laughter] uh thank you JD. Um just as a reminder, my name is Jasmine. Um just to uh touch bit back on base
032of uh what the student justice collective is. um is pretty much just um a student-ledd space where we collaborate and we co-design different projects on the communities around us. So, our our schools pretty much and it has really just been like a familyoriented community where we all get together and we're able to just discuss um the different issues that we see within our own schools and we're able to collaborate and figure out different solutions to those issues and build those justice driven uh projects. Uh like JD said, the student justice uh conference is something that we obviously heavy heavily work on throughout the year and is something that I'm really passionate about myself. Um about how I got into the collective, I think I met Rena and Ava when I was in eighth grade and
033I was like I was a part of the student justice colle of club in my or the racial educational justice club in my middle school and I met them. I'm like wow that's what I want to do. Um, so I was I was very fortunate to to know about this like as I was going into high school. So I've been a part of this collective for the last four years and I'm really excited to be approaching my last year here and being able to do the conference one last time. But um yeah, it's kind of sad now I'm thinking about it. But um um something else that um that I really want to talk about is uh they also talked about it the annual August advance meeting about the microaggressions. I was one of the
034five students who was able to present about microaggressions and anti-discrimination. Um and we started off that by it was a collaboration between the student justice the student justice collective and the racial educational justice department and originally started as just one of the workshops um at the conference for the students which I was one of the students to create. So it was my sophomore year and I just created this um I've always known about microaggressions from a young age and being and experiencing them and um seeing the impact that they had on myself as well as others as well as my peers. And so I've always been aware of them and always like fought against them. And I was very fortunate to to have this stage that they help build up so that I can use
035my voice to fight against this injustice. So uh we had this microaggressions workshop for students originally and we came across that not only do they have so many experiences but um we need to also like have staff acknowledge um what microaggressions are. So um I think that's just super amazing that we that that has started from just like a small idea just like a workshop for conference high school students and now has grown into this amazing huge thing where we have gone around to seven different schools and presented about microaggressions um and yeah so and so now we are going into Thorine 2 and uh presenting about identity affirming environments and experiences and I'm so beyond thankful to be a part of that work and um to further educate uh staff and students alike. Um
036but yeah, so that's why I think it's incredibly important not only to understand microaggressions, but also to give students and staff the tools to to interrupt those um difficult situations that they can be a part of. But yeah, thank you. Are there any questions for our students about their experiences on this? I just want to give an opportunity to say I was able to see them present at August this year and last year and it's just amazing. It really touches our hearts to see the impact of the work and what you guys Thank you for your comments. Um, I've remember seeing the both of you at the student justice conference and um was able to sit in on the microaggression workshops and also slam poetry that I I can see why it's popular. [laughter] Um,
037my question to the both of you, what [snorts] what motivated you to get involved? You said you saw the email and you thought it was cool. I'm curious, you know, what what um triggered that thought? And and for you, Jasmine, like at 8th grade, seeing two role models that helped you get involved. So maybe your question is more along the lines of what's been your favorite moments or your favorite workshops within the student justice collective or conference, sorry. Thank you. >> Yeah. So when I saw that email, honestly, I think it was because I'd never had any dialogue before discussing racial educational justice. So frankly, like prior to that freshman year in high school, I'd never stopped to seriously consider like what kind of land were we living on and what microaggressions meant to school
038culture as a whole, just because I hadn't really been exposed to that during my previous years in middle school and elementary school. and I thought it was something that I needed to discuss and I was like I never really thought of things that way and and honestly it was also a chance to get out of school. So, it was all around it was I think there's just so much more to learn here and it was something that I thought was important. So, I decided to go and I think that instinct was correct and I think it's one of the best choices that I've made. Um, I think for me like I also like in eighth grade like going into freshman year I saw like the email like student justice collective join. and I was like,
039"This is what I heard about in 8th grade." Um, but I think some of my favorite parts of being about the collective is meeting so many different people from different schools because without the collective, like I wouldn't know my North Creek friends or my Woodenville friends. So it's just building those different connections and being able to spread awareness um about various issues to different students um like um for the conference like being able to lead that work and to educate others has been really such a fulfilling part for me. So thank you for your years of service. Um I have two questions for both of you. one, after years of doing this work, do you feel like it's moving the needle? Is it changing the culture in our schools? And if so, do you have
040thoughts on what our next steps should be? Um, I think for for me, I think for I feel like we have been doing a lot of work with elementary schools. Exactly. So I can't exactly speak on students from there but I know for high school students I feel like having these uh different collectives and committees to be a part of and having these conferences has definitely opened the conversation for a lot of students and like like what JD said it's giving students the opportunity to to think about these ideas that they may not have been thinking about earlier or it's opening these conversations up um especially like ethnic studies like and AP African-Americ American studies like those are classes that we're now seeing in our high schools and personally I have taken them and they're
041just more like community builders and they're more spaces for students to open up and talk about their experiences. So I think giving students those spaces to collaborate and to talk because so often those are conversations that are looked down upon and uh students are told not to think about those things. So I think building those places I would say is a good step to take in the future. >> So in my opinion I always have felt that racial and educational justice has been an ongoing process and we can never say if it's finished or there's no we've done all of the justice that's needed to happen in this district. But I do think especially in the last couple of years that we've had some really concrete changes like you said that the integration of ethnic
042studies into curriculums like that's a really concrete change and just the sheer amount of students we've been able to touch with our work I think has increased considerably in the last couple of years. And in terms of the work that we're doing I think the through lines are really important. I think there's been a lot of energy put into the framework around racial and educational justice and I think it's a really good roadmap for us to follow and there's a lot of ways to approach that. There's history curriculums just normalizing microaggressions and identity affirmation in normalized student culture. But I am proud of what I've seen and how I've how I've grown and changed as a person since my freshman year to my junior year and how the district as a whole, how I've seen
043reflect that change in that time because it's been really amazing what we have been able to do and the amount of students that have been here. This may be a little bit off topic, but first thank you again for being here and also for clearly everything that you're contributing to your schools and the district and your classmates and and the conference and we can tell it's clearly impacted you um your involvement in this. I guess I'm I'm wondering from your observations of your your classmates and where you've been involved, do do you think this is, you know, it's kind of like moving the needle, but with respect to you or your friends perspectives as you're leaving here, you know, in terms of where you might be going, what you might be doing as you as
044you leave high school. Kind of a big big ask, but um yeah. Could you wait um could you repeat like the exact question? I'm like not sure. Has your experience and involvement had any impact on where you see yourself going after high school? >> Um I would definitely say like yes. Like obviously like racial and educational justice is not really a field of work. Like I'm going to be an like an well yes like [laughter] [gasps] I'm coming for your job [laughter] but like not there's like there's very baby steps in this field of work which obviously I'm very interested in pursuing but I think for me it has led me to like I want to make a difference where can I make a difference the most okay government so I have leaned a lot
045into like law and wanting to be like a lawyer and advocating for people there, especially juveniles since I think there's a lot of um work to be done in that department. But yeah, for me, I think like criminal justice and being a lawyer. Yes. >> And for me, I for me personally, I think the college that I choose to uh I have I have that little Google doc that's like here are the things I want out of a college and diversity is on the list. And that's something that I don't think I would have thought about prior to high school is that going to a place that is actively promoting diversity and racial educational justice in their culture, in their policy, I think is a really important place for where I want to go and
046where I want to dedicate my time in my education. And I have not decided what I want to major in or what I want to do with my life post high school, but I think that racial educational justice will inevitably play a role in that as that is something that I think will stay with you over the course of your life. Especially since I lean towards humanities. I've always been a lover of history even though it's not the most money-making industry out there. But I think it's amazing how history really shapes our modern day life and the interpretation of it changes even in modern days. And honestly, I think a lot of the workshops like there there was one that was Asian-Americans in the minority model stere model minority stereotype and that was something that
047I thought was really cool. So yeah, that's personally what it means to me. Well, that was the highlight of my evening. I could just put a bow around things. [laughter] Thank you both for your ongoing leadership and voice and advocacy um and brilliance. So, just know that I personally see it, we see it, and we're so very proud of you. So, thank you. And I think that what JD and Jasmine have um surfaced is well many things, but one of which is the ripple effect. And so the conference is one day of the school year and the student justice collective happens twice a month, but what's happening is the more reach that we're able to get by having almost 200 of our students in one space one day, they're going back into their schools to
048advocate. And that advocacy looks like a range of things. Whether that's um getting the idea or feeling empowered to advocate for a course offering or wanting to sign up for part two of ethnic studies and action or trying to advocate to have community partners come into their class or for them to go to field trips or asking a simple question um that they might not have felt empowered or confident enough to ask before, but them asking a teacher why or why not or can we learn about X or can I learn about X within my identity or connect this back to the curriculum or I don't like this but those um what feel like very subtle interpersonal changes um are a result of that systems work that we're up to and it's because we have
049students who are at the center of it who are leading that work alongside us. I can't say what students need. I can listen and advocate, but really students are experiencing what they're experiencing in real time and they have their own social and academic circles and networks that they're able to bring back what the voices of their peers are saying to help inform that work moving forward. So, I think that this is so much bigger than a one-day event or a one group that meets in a silo. We're really trying to have that impact and it's because of them. And um I also noticed that um you know I look at our students in the collective as ambassadors um and co-designers of the work. So both of them were narrating um the racial and educational justice
050framework and Jasmine and JD were talking about the through lines and naming those and how they've engaged as leaders to teach into that. That's not me telling them what to say. That's because they were there the whole time from the start to the finish and to the implementation stage of that work because they are thought partners with us and so they are taking ownership you both are taking ownership of that work and speaking that into existence through the implementation. So that's for me the power of co-design and how we can continue to inch this work forward. Um, and I think the last piece too is Jasmine mentioned going to schools. We're literally having building administrators asking for our students to come present to their staff. So staff are getting clock hours. It's a whole staff
051professional learning experience and staff are learning from adult or student leaders in a space. So it's like a flipped classroom. So, it's not that we're just having um students learning from adults. Adults are now willing and wanting and craving to learn from our youth. So, I just wanted to highlight those pieces and say thank you again. Um we do um we're going to move forward. Um the last piece is the student board. That's another um student group um that has had tremendous influence and both of you are on the student board. Yes, you're on the student board. Are you on the student board? >> You were on it last year. So we have overlap in the students leaders who are influencing that work. And so that's just another strand as well. I won't fully dive
052into that, but we have multiple opportunities and avenues for our students to engage in their leadership with various adults in our system being able to facilitate that work. So, but for the sake of time, we will move on. Two, um, building and sustaining structures of support. So we think about the capacity building pieces, but then we also have to build structures that are supporting the work of our educators in the system. And so that first piece which Jasmine and JD really talked about was our 2024 to 27 racial and educational justice framework as well as our handbook. and that framework. Last year we focused on through line one which is anti-discrimination and microaggressions and this year is through line two identity affirming environments and experiences. And those two topics should not and do not happen
053in a silo. So we're continuing to bring forward if students identities are not affirmed that means they're being silenced or harmed. And so we have to actively continue to fight against the discrimination and also really think about okay what are we not trying to do but what are we trying to do? So we have to focus on both of those pieces. So we're bringing both of those along this year um alongside of our students. Okay. Um okay we I'm going to talk about school level structures of support. Um I mentioned earlier that our department has collaborated with the RJ committee students families and community members to develop microaggression sentence stem cards. So we created I think four or five different sets of cards. Um and then we made them to the size of our badges
054so that way staff can actually put them on their badges. And then we also made them not gradeb banded but we have some with um thank you symbol sticks and then some with uh just symbol sticks some with words and symbol sticks and then just some for words and they can be used across grades so it's not specific to who who can use them but anybody can use any sentence stem card but um this was really a great way for staff to like like I was saying earlier oh I hear something here is what we can do in the moment to address um an incident of um discrimination. Um we also created alongside our student justice collective um and alongside the REJ committee grade banded two-part short videos about microaggressions. Um and so each video
055the first one is about understanding what a microaggression is and then the second one is how to address it. So part one came out fall or spring of last year and then like the part two came out end of last year. So, um, we're still in the implementation process and it's such a great resource because we're hearing from students how to address microaggressions in the moment when they happen. Um, and then we also created um, slide decks for early childhood and we collaborated with a team of early childhood staff to teach into the foundations of kindness and friendship for our youngest learners. Um, one of the slide decks has a kangaroo on it, so it's my favorite one. Um [snorts] and then in addition to the sentence stem cards, uh we also created banded calling
056in calling out sentence stem responding to um incidents of uh microaggressions in the moment. So there's one for K5, one for 68, one for 912. Um, and then also what to do in the moment for teaching into when a microaggression happens and maybe ways for calling in like, okay, something happened in the class, we don't feel comfortable pausing the class or something super disruptive happened, we're going to call out in the moment, here's how we're going to address it. Um, and so we are continuing to to implement those pieces. Um, those are also available for all staff in the staff toolbox. And then on top of that, we also created uh Northshore values posters that reaffirm our commitment to racial and educational justice in these trying times. Um we created um I don't have them
057pulled up in front of me, but there's ones um basically just showing that everybody is welcome, valued, and affirmed in each and every one of our schools. And we created them in different languages as well. um I think in Spanish and then one that says everybody is welcome in multiple languages and then we encouraged um schools to to put those in their in their front office. So um schools are also sent 12 color copies of each one so that way they just have them ready to go and they don't even have to think about ordering some. And then we have the PDF digital versions on our staff toolbox. And now I'm going to hand it to Nikki. So, I think the mic is working. So, um I I'm in curriculum and instruction and was brought
058into the P12 ethnic studies work uh and the high school ethnic studies course about two years ago. Uh if you remember, if you've been here for a little bit, you've heard about the really important work of creating these two documents. Uh the course description for high school and then the P12 ethnic studies framework. And this was not something that uh Rena or Aan and I just sat in a room and we created on our own. In fact, I wasn't involved in that creation from the um from the start starting point of it. It was something that Melissa Riley and uh Dr. Thomas led and brought in community members, our students and our staff. And it started with just that thinking about the state had a requirement around ethnic studies, but to get ahead of that
059requirement that thinking about what does that need to look like for Northshore. And so the initial group was really all about what is a vision for Northshore around ethnic studies. And there was some learning that needed to happen. And ethnic studies is not sometimes easy to wrap your head around what the meaning of it is and what that looks like in the classroom, what that could look like for educators and for students. And so that learning was really really important. there were uh quite a few people involved in book studies and at the end of that with the vision the thought was we need to bring in teachers to start thinking about what does this look like in the classroom and that's where the P12 ethnic studies framework was created and implemented by these teachers
060as pilot lessons uh and so these two artifacts uh the high school course content and the P12 framework are unique to Northshore and those were something that the school board approved And then we ended up putting on our website and uh this is in support of the work that the state is now requiring. So if you go to the Northshore School District website and you look under subject area, you'll see ethnic studies as a course uh subject area on its own. When we often think of ethnic studies, we think of the high school course. And I thank you for mentioning that we offered ethnic studies in three of our high schools last year and at Innovation Lab High School this year. Uh and so that work is uh ongoing and we want to continue to
061expand it. What we heard especially from students who have taken ethnic studies is that this is something that they wish that they had had way earlier in their school career. Uh it was uh for many uh um school engagement changer right to think about how I can have voice and choice and how what I do impacts uh what uh other students are feeling and what can happen in the community. So as an extension of that uh the course was uh offered a second semester action a ethnic studies and action was the name of it and that was taking that leadership and that learning from our students and then offering them an opportunity to extend it into their school community or much broader community. So that ethnic studies and action course is now an option for
062students as well. So that high school uh course is one that we feel pretty uh set about as far as the curriculum, the content, and those teachers supporting each other. What we want to do now is start talking about our P12 ethnic studies framework. And if you go on that framework, and we're talking about preschool through 12th grade, the hope is that we embed that into all of the content that we teach. That's a much larger ask than what we've done in the past and we think that uh we know that it can be embedded in any kind of content area and we're finding that out as we continue to grow the teachers that are in a part of our PLC. So we have teachers from uh middle school science all the way up to
063high school ELA and preschool teachers as a part of those PLC's. and what they're creating for their classroom is so important. And the emphasis is really on a reflection not to bypass content. Content um in our curriculum is important, but to rethink who's sharing the knowledge around that content and who who are the other perspectives that need to be brought in to that work. And so it's been really really exciting just to see how that is embedded. So, if you bring up that P12 ethnic studies uh framework on our our website, as I said, these themes are a little bit uh daunting at first. We're talking about overall that reflection and action. But when we talk to elementary school teachers uh and we say now we want you to embed uh the concepts of identity,
064power and oppression, history of resistance and liberation and healing and futurity into your content. Uh it doesn't go over authentically well. And so what we needed to do was to think about how can this really come into all of our classrooms and be something that is supportive of students and done well by the teacher and all of our um teachers that were involved in that three-year process of creating this were the resources that we decided we needed to go to. They had done the learning. They were a part of hearing what our community said. they were a part of hearing what the students needed and they had that background to say, "Yep, this needs to happen in our classrooms, but we need to make sure that we do some teaching for any teacher that is
065going to try to embed these into their lessons." And so that was the start of first of all in that first year after the creation and approval of the P12 framework that thought around how do we start sharing the information about what this is. And so for that first year these uh it was initially eight lead teachers they were a part of the creation uh helped to lead the work around uh getting that information to teachers about what is the P12 ethnic studies framework and then in our leadership uh learning we ended up sharing that information with principles because not all of our principles were a part of that. So that initial year was to share what the framework was and why uh it was created and how. And then in that second year of
066implementation, we created a PLC, a group of 35 teachers to grow the leadership around the ethnic studies framework. And again, those teachers were from preschool all the way up to uh 12th grade. There was a good representation between buildings. We had teachers that were very interested in what this looks like in the classroom. So those lead teachers were first of all able to share what they have done in their classrooms or with their departments and how that it looked for them when they brought it to their schools and other teachers. And then second of all, we were able to let those PLC's create and share together throughout that first year and focusing on a theme for each uh each meeting that we had and bringing those resources in back to each other. From that, we
067were able to grow some uh some really strong teacher leadership in buildings. So, a good example of that is uh the PLC group from last year. one of them is now leading that work in her building uh during the SDLT time. And so now every teacher in that building is being impacted or our Washington State history teachers that were a part of that were looking at new content and curriculum for the work that they do in seventh grade. They were able to take that uh ethnic studies framework and embed it into the content the state standards that they're looking to meet in Washington state history. So that mesh of uh what it looks like for content and also very thoughtful presentation of that content. So that that was the work last year. This year we're
068continuing with that first PLC group, the PLC 2 is what we call it now to extend their learning and starting a new group of teachers and staff to be a part of PLC 1 this year. Another 35 staff members. So, we're very excited about that and we look forward to seeing the work that they're able to create for their classrooms. >> Um, I think you said that uh and from the report three of our four comprehensive high schools have a standalone ethnic studies elective. Is the fourth comprehensive high school working toward that? >> Uh yes, I believe that they are. The um thing that right now we're working with is that it's not necessarily a graduation requirement. So it's by choice uh that the students register. So uh initially right now it's based on registration.
069Yeah. Okay, we're going to continue talking about structures of support. Um, I think at this point you all know what the racial and educational justice committee is. It's exciting that we're on year eight of implementation. Um, this year we have five identified areas of work. Um, and we have 19 community members, 14 staff members, and eight students who are part of the committee, which is great. Um some of last year's work um was around those short great band gradeb banded videos that they helped support and then also community panels um which we are also sustaining this year. But the identified areas of work are team one toolkit for how to create and sustain an REJ related club at school for elementary students and then the same thing for team two but for secondary students. Team
070three is community panels. Um team four is guidance and consideration for religious and cultural observances. Team five is um religious and cultural observance calendar and the REJ toolkit as well. Um and then A is going to talk about that. So, the Family Engagement and Resource Center lives under um communications and um so I'm not going to go super in-depth about it, but I do want to note that it is a structure of support um centrally that we've been able to build into um our school district to think about how we can scale up and then scale out supports um for our families, but also alongside our families. So that work continues to develop and iterate over time as that structure um continues to be part of our district. So I I think it's been wonderful
071to see the the kind of groundwork of that um structure, but then also excited for the opportunities moving forward, how to continue to scale that work um both out and down and back up and all around. [laughter] Yeah. Um the the second p well the third piece on the list is the staff of color coalition and administrators of color coalition. The staff of color coalition has been around um for a few more years and the admin of color coalition um is a little bit newer. So we're in um our third year of operation this year. Um, but we're really wanting to um I use the term iterate not loosely because we want to continue to be responsive to the needs of our staff while also recognizing the diversity among our staff and time constraints and
072competing interests and all of the responsibilities and work life balance and all the things. So, right now I'm in the process of really trying to gather feedback and input from um our staff and administrators to consider do we need to have those groups separate. Can we combine potentially um with the student justice conference? Our first year of operation it was a students of color conference but then gathering feedback from students. We have a range of um wonderful diversity among our student population. and we thought about what's kind of the driving need and desire for students and it was justice and recognizing that from an intersectional lens. So, we're potentially leaning into that um as we think about supporting our staff and administrators and maybe we lean into, you know, a justice um coalition across intersectionalities.
073So, we're continuing to iterate on that and then u and do that alongside. Um, and so, you know, I'm excited about those possibilities moving forward as we think through that. Um, and so I'm going to talk quickly about the student justice collective because I know Jasmine and JD talked about it, but this year we had 55 students from across high school sign up, which is the most we've ever had sign up. Um and then we have returning members who are consistently attending. So it's really great um to be have like this is becoming more institutionalized over time and like the need and the want is becoming greater. Um and then the like Jasmine was saying um part of the collective facilitated workshops on identity, empathy, and the power of words um and addressing microaggressions and
074incidents of discrimination to seven elementary schools and one middle school. and they're requested to come back to more. So they are busy people. Um and then the collective continues to be shaped by what students identify the greatest needs are um through mapping, planning and actionizing actionizing that at the conference. Um in that we have the student justice conference. Again, JD and Jasmine talked about it. Um but last year the student justice collective facilitated six workshops which included understanding intersectional microaggressions, slam poetry, art and activism and then they also made a mural which is really cool. Um there was a student focus group on mental health and then exploring identity through storytelling and understanding the themes of ethnic studies because they see ethnic studies as a really um integral piece to racial and educational justice. And
075they also wanted to share what the key themes of ethnic studies is. And all those topics were created by the student justice collective. And then the last piece here is um as we are thinking about the last indicator of uh the P9 report um we're we're really wanting to do justice to um reporting and monitoring on incidents of discrimination and microaggressions in our schools. And so um as we've um continued to build out a team at the central office, we're also um going more in depth in that work. um and doing it with fidelity. And so we're working through um kind of brainstorming and also mapping and planning um what what does a structured root cause analysis look like as well as action plan templates for our schools and then um kind of structured ways
076to collect that data, analyze that data, and then work across our departments um and across executive directors to co-lead that work together. So that's an an additional um body of work that is meaningful that's bridging racial and educational justice student services and um our executive directors of schools to think through um how we can meaningfully engage in that work together. But then um really ponder what does that look like from a systems level and how do you scale that to um really bake that into our system. And the last kind of bucket of work of in terms of themes before we get into our last component which is data collection, measuring progress is building and sustaining cohesion within and across our schools because we don't want to just have it be up to, you know,
077what what classroom is a student in or what school is a student at, but how can we scale so that It's teachers and educators taking an initiative at the school level to take that co-ownership and scale that out across a school and what are we doing across the school district to um set kind of accountability metrics and measures and then um assess that like what does that look like and so um just I I know I've kind of talked about this already but just wanted to circle back to professional learning that's a strategy and then how we've continued to shape and reshape and look at feed feedback loops for how we're delivering that professional development. It's one thing to say we're doing the thing, but it's another thing to do it meaningfully um based on
078feedback and being responsive to the needs of our schools um and building leaders as we build that out. And then um Nikki has talked about ethnic studies implementation, but I don't know if there's anything else you want to share um in terms of cohesion building. Yeah, I think um a good example of how we're looking at that ethnic ethnic studies implementation is a presentation at August and VA advance. Those teacher leaders really uh looked at uh how is the work that we're doing with the new Danielson framework. How does the P12 ethnic studies framework help teachers meet especially uh 2A the cultivating respectful and affirming environments but also that tie to identity and the work that we're doing through RAJ. So just that connection and I would just add one more thing. We also know
079we have since time in memorial as a curriculum that we are implementing in our district and so those uh teachers are now we have a group that's partnering with the tleup tribe to think about that um partnership and curriculum. So, how do we take that since time in memorial curriculum and put a lens through the tle of tribal perspectives onto what's being taught into the classroom? I am going to quickly talk about AVID. Um so AVID has been uh put under our department as well and Ava and I have been trying to understand and see the cohesion piece of AVID across schools from middle school to high school and um where there can be more cohesion. So we have over time created a scheduled school visit. So me and Ava are going out to each
080of our AVID sites four times a year um and just sitting listening, talking to students, listening to what they're learning, how AVID is um a part of their learning. And then also we have leveled site team meetings for collaboration across middle schools and across high schools. Um and then we also attended the AVID regional path this year for our own personal learning. I learned so much. Um and then we also structured funding. So, we have funding for field trips this year and then funding for supplies for AVID support for the classroom. Um, and then we also work closely with our district implementation strategist who is an incredible incredible support um and is also a wealth of knowledge. His name is Dan Novik and he has really um he actually came to one of our school
081team site meetings um and he's just like a really great thought partner for us to be thinking about cohesion across schools at all levels. And it's not that we acquired more funding for AVID, um, but we were able to think about resource allocation, um, from a needs-based perspective and shift around the dollars that we had ad um, allocated to our AVID budget to um, really listen to what students needed, what they um, felt was a positive and meaningful experience for them, and if the goal is to help prepare them for um college um and higher education after high school within this AVID work. Um yes, they're taking the class, but it feels to them sometimes theoretical unless they're actually able to step onto college campuses and look at what what does a um college campus
082feel like? What does a classroom feel like? Let's look at the spaces there. Um some of them have not been able to have that opportunity before. Um and so we wanted to um think about where our funding was going and um be able to support schools in that way. Um as well as equip teachers with the supplies to engage in that learning with students. Um the next two pieces um I feel like are also meaningful and able to build cohesion. So, as part of our collective bargaining agreement, we have joint meetings with racial and educational justice and our NSEA leadership um and their equity team leaders. And we've been meeting with them the last um couple of years. And to me, that's been an incredibly meaningful experience because um we've been able to um build
083the relationship and partnership, but also co-c collaborate on, you know, what does professional learning look like? What should it look like? what are our educators asking for and what are the gaps they're seeing needing to be filled. And so from that it was able to make that much more meaningful the microaggressions and anti-discrimination work we did last year. Um thinking through identity affirming practices this year we have our first meeting with them coming up. Um and that's just been an additional kind of feedback loop and collaborative process. And then the last piece is our um school action plan presentations. Um Dr. Irish drew an incredible um drawing on a whiteboard of circles and dots and lines and I don't have time to redraw it right now but what uh do Dr. Irish was doing was
084really thinking about um as you know uh district leaders, how can we be thinking through um what the school level responsibilities are over time connected to strategic um goals, but then how can we as um executive leadership continue to go in and think through what's happening at the school level to then inform what we're doing um across our departments and then think through how does that then inform our work to help support schools um and building their cohesion. Did I summarize that? Okay. Okay. I listened. [laughter] Thank you. Um and so uh there's been a lot of um thought and consideration um co-c collaborating with building administrators to rethink and reimagine what the SAP um presentations and what that process looks like. So it's not just a, you know, feeling like there has to be
085a script that's fit into, but how to make the most meaning out of that experience. So that's been really great to um be a part of. There's a question. Okay, I have two very different questions. Um Mickey when you talked about working with the Chile tribe on that time immemorial is that a continuation of the work that was done seven or eight. >> Okay. >> So thank you for asking that. Um so there was a a cohort of uh districts that came together with the TLE tribe and um our teachers were a part of that. Um and in the end I believe it was five different districts. Uh and what they did during that time was to create helped to create those lesson plans uh for for grade level bands and um prior to CO
086the elders were able to look at it and approve it and then then COVID happened and so we've been reaching out to help uh continue that. Uh Lisa, Sophie, and Dr. Craig uh in uh the Mary'sville school district have uh finished that work and uh they were able to now work with our teachers this year for a group of we actually had um so many that it was hard to make room for everybody but we did so 35 educators and just recently and I'll stop because I know we're running out of time but just recently those educators were able to visit Quila to Leop Elementary to see the opening ceremony, to see uh the um sacred circles in a classroom, to go to the Hibbul Cultural Center, and then to take those lessons that have
087been created and given to them and bring those resources into those lessons. So, thank you for asking. >> Great. Thank you. Okay, this one's um so the AVID the work around kids going to college. Um, many of the students in the AVID program come from backgrounds that are being targeted, not necessarily because of their documentation status. What conversations are we having around the filling out of the FASA form given that we can no longer guarantee the privacy of that information in the FASA and families may be reluctant in putting their information in. So we do have college and career readiness. Um, and so I don't have the like specific details on that specific component with FAFSA. Um, I'll get that to you. Um, but what I can say in terms of supporting our students and
088families, um, is that we should not know documentation status. Um, but and also we know that there is very real fear within our community. And so we've been able to communicate um last year and and then recirculate resources and language moving forward about what happens if um there are individuals who come onto campus and what does that mean to protect each and every one of our students and what are the protocols for that. um but also connecting with um some building administrators who have connected with me directly to think through um various um student and family events and um platforms for that. So we've gotten creative with you know how to shape um the the um titles and the messaging around how we're supporting our students and families and the events that we're holding and
089potentially shifting platforms for that. And I will add just a quick reminder that we will get into FAFSA and strategic goal five which is the first goal. And so anybody that wants to watch on November 24th if you want to ask then um we'll be able to address that with more time. >> Okay. So our last slide before the questions slide is um data collection that informs our work. And um I say data collection because we're really trying to um think through how to fine-tune and focus and scale how we're measuring progress over time um and to do that in a breath of ways because we know that students are not numbers and we can't just solely collect quantitative data. So I've had some very meaningful conversations with Dr. Foster as well as colleagues here
090um to think through what that looks like. A couple of pieces really quick before I turn it over to Dr. Foster is this ongoing notion of street data. So thinking through how to um collect data on student voice and experiences to then help inform the work that we're doing. And one I think key example that's come through today is the work of the REJ framework and how we really I mean we had pages and pages of um taking notes across levels of what students were saying about their experiences. Took that back to our student justice collective to look through that. Rena and I then um disagregated that based on what were the themes that we identified and then um identified the three that we turned into the framework. So that's just kind of a highle
091overview how we can make that meaningful change based on what students are saying and then turning that into systems work. The second piece is staff surveys. So we um continue to do that through such things as Google form surveys. Um for example, we've done that for the through line one and then the through line one and two um every fall to track progress. What we noticed this year is that um the percentage of staff who were feeling like um discrimination, microaggressions were happening in schools went up this year. But we're not saying we don't feel like the conclusion that we're drawing is um necessarily potentially that the incidents are going up. But because we're continuing to use that language and use it across the system and educate people about what microaggressions are, how to look
092for them, how to respond, um that that it's in the in the minds of our educators to look for that more. And so maybe that's um we can look at the silver lining of that data point to um celebrate not the discrimination but to celebrate that staff are able to identify it more and they're feeling more skilled at doing so to then respond to it. And then I will turn it over to Dr. Foster to talk about panorama and discrimination and discipline data. >> Thank you. it it's been really rewarding to be involved with this and much of my job really isn't um it's so general that much of it is about just listening and then clarifying and so in like an area like this I'm very clearly not the expert in the room and
093it it's been really interesting to ask these questions about how do we respond to this data as it comes in how is it useful to us so one of the first issues that we came up against was parameter 9's goal for measuring um basically bias or uh something that would be disruptive to the environment and we typically have used the discipline report for that. If you think about the discipline report, it's really useful in a particular way because it's it's a very real thing that happens to students, but it's also not broad as a sampling characteristic, right? It is just reports about discipline. And this led to a bigger conversation about how do we use Panorama as effectively as we can. And we had questions in Panorama that from what I can tell we weren't
094utilizing at a high rate. And so we met and we discussed can we adapt these questions to make them more effective. And this led to six new questions that were aligned with the RHM framework. And one of the things I really love about these questions is they're actually more inclusive than the panorama questions are because they align with the idea of being identity based. And so it really includes a wide array of of things that students might feel from all all sorts of students. Um just to refresh real quickly. So we added six new questions. Uh these were questions about um are you experiencing what identity related bias from students, from teachers? Do you feel like people value your identity? Um we had a question about I like learning about others identities. This is really
095an enthusiasm question. I I wouldn't feel immediately like there's a a correct or incorrect answer to this although I would feel uncomfortable not at all but um but this is a way of seeing how students feel about this program of work broadly and then the last one is um I have the opportunity to collaborate with teachers at my school and so you saw great evidence of that here and when I hear about the idea of collaboration or empowerment it reminds me of strategic goal two where that's named really clearly as It's an important skill. And then I also think about during this discussion, I think about having been a college professor and how important that skill is for students and also being in the working environment and how important that skill is for young people.
096Um, how they're going to need to have that to succeed. That's part of the learning process. And that's one thing I've loved about hearing this for you and the role modeling that you're doing for other students. And this leads to a discussion that can now happen twice a year with the panorama data that gives us a pulse in terms of what's going on in our district and in specific areas of our district around how students feel. Um Dr. Thomas alluded to this. I don't see this data as being um I don't imagine that the number is going to be zero. I don't see the school district being able to achieve that. So at some point I think we have to use this as an informative type of measure. I don't think it's really the um
097you get this issue and and I I went through this at another institution where you look at the data and it's hard to know how to respond to it sometimes because you don't know if it's a reporting issue or if it's an incident issue. And that doesn't mean the measure is unhelpful. It's just something we have to be aware about of in terms of being actionable with the data that we received and the framework that was provided with the structures of building capacity, having uh support systems within buildings and making sure there's a consistency that takes the best things that we're doing and spreads them across Northshore School District. Those are things that we're evolving to measure more effectively. And that's that to me is the really exciting part of this work. And when you
098think about building teacher capacity, well, that's easy. We want as much of that as we can get. And when you think about things that are working, we want those to be as consistent as possible. So, I think what you see here really is a a measure where we're moving in a positive direction, but it's been really really important to the school district to get a foundation that's going to work long term. Thank you, Dr. Foster. I'm curious um with the difficulties or challenges around identifying whether we're seeing a spike in or an increase I should say in microaggressions of whether or not it's because of you know improved identification and people are thinking about it more often versus another reason which is you know there is actually an increase in microaggressions How are we thinking
099about teasing those two prob probabilities apart? Because it seems pretty important to know if there's actually an increases versus uh we're identifying more which is great. I mean the identification part is great. >> Well, I'll start this because Dr. Thomas will give the better answer, but I I think that the work they're doing teases that out um in terms of the experiences that they're having going into classrooms. If you wanted a more formal way of doing it, I think then you have to embrace a qualitative study of some type. But that require those qualitative studies require a lot of resources and a lot of thought. And then you get into this principle of altering the environment by trying to measure it. But um I mean there are ways to to get at this and I
100I think they could be quite valuable, but it's also an evolving target. Students find new things to offend people with and be offended by much like people do in the workplace. But um do you have anything you want to add to that? Yeah. So, um, last year we sat down to look at all of the incidents of discrimination and microaggressions to identify themes and that helped to inform the slide decks and the resources that we built out to support our building administrators in um, how to address that and to think through um, essentially conversation templates for how they can address the educational piece based on those themes. But I think also kind of scaling out um our school district is in um in a concentric circle and um when you zoom out of that we
101have um s systemic happenings um we have national happenings, we have state happenings and then school district and then school and then classroom. And so, um, we try to overlay kind of spheres of influence and control into that. And while, um, to Dr. Foster's point, we may not, uh, a a northstar goal is to eliminate discrimination and microaggressions. And, um, we need to also prioritize that and have a sense of urgency around it because it is continuing to happen in our schools. So it's an and and part of the work of building out kind of this root cause analysis and action planning work is to think through not just looking at the discrimination data over like incidents in the year and identifying themes but now we're going to as a team be diving deeper into
102addressing um patterns of when there are peaks and spikes throughout the school year and then overlay that to the concentric circle of what's happening maybe in our state and what's happening in our country to think through how is that then at you know at the national level then informing and influencing um the behaviors or interactions of our students. So um then that can help us be preventative to addressing that and to getting on the front end of trends that we're noticing. And what we want to do then is build the capacity and the confidence of our students to report and of our um staff to speak up and address it in the moment and of our building administrators to um respond accurately and consistently across the board. >> Yeah. No, please don't. Please do. Do
103do we I'm wondering if it would be useful and you're probably already thinking about it is gathering data on the physical pieces that you're passing out and the efficacy of them right and the implementation. I know, you know, asking somebody, hey, how many times did you look at your little badge thing, right? It's not really realistic probably, but what are your thoughts around that if it would be worthwhile tracking or if it's way too much data that we're not going to get any use out of? >> Um, I think that goes into informing this larger scale. Um, funneling into the three themes that we've talked about today, um, and and measuring adult practice, which is our, I believe, our next big step in this work. And I think that ties directly into it. That could
104be um a metric and a data point like when we co-c collaborate on resources and then it gets into the schools um what is the rate at which those resources are being leveraged. Um and so you know a video we can look at the total views but that only paints a a limited picture. So we're we're thinking through um and trying to plan forward into how to measure kind of more specifics in terms of adult practice. >> Yeah. As we make these create these better alignments between these different mechanisms, it it saves time and it allows us to do more. I I really appreciate is it too much data because that is an issue every school district um goes through and we have to be cognizant of it because the collection it can put stress
105on people who are busy and um it can then you serve a adverse purpose but um it is important and it is something that we're working through and I think with this framework that we have now and thinking about teacher capacity and student skill and will um those are things that that we could potentially measure more formally as we go forward. >> I'm doing a time check. Are we able to do a hard stop at 6:40? >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. [laughter] >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Okay. Um, so we so I think we leaned into number four. of the discrimination and discipline data. I talked about some of those pieces earlier. Um and so I kind of want to shift into um data collection, measuring progress, and looking ahead um if that's okay. And
106that's our last kind of piece. And so in review, there's three overarching themes that we identified to help really narrow our focus um for this larger scale northstar work, if you will. And while our Northstar work is, I would say, more aspirational, we still hold on to that hope and leverage urgency um for our year-to-year work. Um and that is concrete. And so we can measure progress through that and really getting specific um on what the adult practices are that we're trying to measure and what the student outcomes are that we're also aligning with those adult practices. Um but as we do that, we're continuing to um one engage in um this work of racial and educational justice both in breth and in depth. Two, scale the work, continuing to do that across our system.
107Um three, measure the work in specific and measurable ways. And then four, to see this work as embedded across the system um and in the strategic plan. And so um that that brings me to you know starting out this work at the systems level with the department work and with this parameter um it made very much sense to cast a spotlight on this work [laughter] very much so because it had been not done at the systems level in our school district before and we needed to be able to put that aside and hold it up separately so that we could spotlight that work. That made 100% sense. And if you've noticed in this parameter and the iterations moving forward and how that's continued to very much grow and become maybe a chapter book at some
108point, um you've been able to see how we've uh we could not do this work alone and the system and our colleagues are not seeing this work as separate department work. They're seeing it as the table that we need to set. And I think what's evident in that is the fact that we had so many different departments contributing to that. And quite often um and increasingly so we've been copy and pasting langu language from this parameter into goal reports. Um and so you're seeing that overlap which I think is a beautiful thing. And also in the parameter nine you see teaching and learning um and you see operations kind of both sides of our system be reflected there. Um but going back to the strategic plan and thinking through the um this kind of refresh
109and thinking through what's that next step and that next iteration there is a column of equity means and we have um different goal reports that happen and um in those goal reports maybe there's that opportunity to pull the components of this parameter explicitly into the goal reports because we're not losing that work. We're now showcasing as a system how it's being embedded directly into our strategic planning work. And I think that's very critical moving forward and a testament to the work that this school board has led and that our superintendent have led and that this superintendent has led and that our departments are co- taking ownership over that work so that we're able to cast a spotlight but in a different way. So it's no longer a side dish, it's the table and we're baking
110that into our strategic planning goal reports. So, I just wanted to surface that as an idea and kind of paint a vision for that because um I feel like that could be um a really meaningful step to showing and showcasing how this work is critical and it needs to be tied to all of the work that we're doing as a system. So, I say all that to um wrap up our portion um but I can also hand it back to Dr. Foster or to Dr. Irish if you have any last thoughts to add as well. >> I'll just add to what Dr. Thomas said. Um, as the new guy around the table, it's a a huge testament to the work that this district has done in regards to having Dr. Thomas say it is the
111table and let's think about ways to vision how it's embedded in everything that we do. Um that is a huge testament to your work to our cabinet's work to our district leaders to our principles and the work ahead. So um I guess in the few minutes we have left curious to know your thoughts about that concept. We will have a deeper conversation in January I think or February I can't remember. um talking about parameter reports in general, but what are your what are your general thoughts as we move forward um about the possibility of disseminating these the parameters into all of our other goal reports. [snorts] >> Thank you. Um, I like it particularly because of the way it's it's being proposed and that we're being mindful about making sure that the work is explicitly
112asked for and named throughout the work that we're doing. And it because it can't exist in a silo. Um and it needs to be very much a part of everything that is happening but also called out as work that is being done. And I appreciate the idea that that work is not going to be lost and that it is still important and a critical piece of everything that we're doing in the district. Um, and it creates it creates pathways for that work to be further woven into what is happening for all students in the district and for the adults and in a wider sense for the community, right? Because what we do trickles out into the greater community. And so thinking about how our work at the district can influence the different cities that we
113live in and the different systems within those cities. Um I think it has an eye towards the future and how this work can influence you know because we have students and they grow up and they graduate and they become parts of the communities that we live in. And so this work carries on and explicitly naming it in everything that we do creates um systems of success for moving that work into our communities in a protective way which I really appreciate. We had discussed this a little bit earlier in the week and I I agree completely. Um, I think that the racial and now I'm going to get it wrong. [laughter] Educational justice. Thank you. Um, it h I mean it is the baseline of everything we do in every single department. It's not just, you
114know, this like you're saying some a side dish off on the side. And it's um it's been a beautiful thing to watch as it it's basically evolved sort of organically you know so that it's you know embedded itself and now is the baseline everywhere we look and that's how it should be and I do have to think as we we discussed this is more um expanding it if you will as opposed to you know limiting per perhaps limiting the amount of work you have to do with respect the reporting on it, you know, um but it it will still be reported on only more so because we're doing it in each individual department and and level and aspect of of the work. So yeah, I think I think I think we're there. We may as
115well recognize it as such. Uh we we do have until seven, but we won't hold you till then. Hopefully. You all have been so patient sitting there. Oh my goodness. Yes. [laughter] It's fake. It's a buffer. It's a buffer. I I think that I don't know if this was done intentionally or not. pairing the land acknowledgement and P9 together tonight has been meaningful because both of these things both of these topics are going to be as you've presented incorporated into the DNA of Northshore and once something's in the DNA of the school district it then becomes part of the system as you said but also that scaling because I had always been curious about how we were going to scale all this work. This all this started for me in 2017 2018 being on the
116the ethnic studies curriculum and framework as a parent before I was even on on the board which if that's an aspiration to either of you that's what RJ and um all of this work has done is that it's given another pathway for me uh to to to look at life right and to look at where what I want to be when I grow up. [laughter] But it's it's great that it's part of the DNA. I'm excited to see this work continue and transform and grow into something that I see is going to be a permanent fixture and part of the DNA. Um, as we work across the state with other school boards, we are asked how how do we have such an effective um and well um recognized system. Um, they're all called different things,
117but we call it the racial educational justice. And I I always say it wasn't a top down, right? We said this is work we need to do. You the people most impacted by the need tell us what we need to do. So I to answer the question you just tell us what we need to do and we will support you. >> I think we have to give credit where credit is due because Dr. Irish says he's new here and that may be the truth, but the um ethnic studies framework, the REJ framework actually he's following it. He's he started it in Edmunds. So um to have it come to Northshore and for us to be able to continue that work, I I hope that means something to you too, Dr. Irish. I know you're not
118a newbie. >> Um all of that ditto. Um and it you know the the way I was starting to view it just through the lens of what would support in a meaningful way in the right way at the right pace the further incorporation of ethnic studies in P12 right so what what is the way from organizing reports right because that does trickle down it seems to me by weaving it into the goal reports that it would support you know the continued growth in certain areas so I'm in favor The um only thing I would suggest is that um the hiring aspect um might need might we might want to look at um parameter 3 which is our staff parameter because the language is not the same. So we might want to just align P3 a
119little bit more with this perhaps because that's an annual report also. Um otherwise I think it weaves in together really well. And um one last thing is something I I it's on my little notes from when as I was thinking about this this weekend. So another added benefit about this work is that yes I thank you for the ecosystem thought Dr. Thomas. Um cuz we we need to remember what we you know our little center of the of the ecos ecosystem but um at the same time I really believe this is helping our students and families and everyone respond to things as opposed to re having to react. And so anything we can do that helps our community in the way that we have the ability to to help with and support to respond as
120things continue to be tumultuous. Um I'm all in favor of and I feel like that this would do it. So that being said, it is 6:46. Um any anything else we should think about? I just want to say thank you um to this board and to our students and colleagues because this work is systems work and it's collective work and it's our work and to be able to hear um everyone around this table um take ownership and um collective ownership over that to me is a testament of how far we've come as a district and of course we're still eager to um make strides towards that north star and I just I really want to celebrate um the benchmarked work that we have made and that progress that we have benchmarked moving forward and that's
121a testament to the people in this system. So I just thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Thomas. >> All right. Well, anything else? Super superintendent Irish? >> No, thank you. Thank you, Jasmine and Jade. >> Yes. Thank you so much for helping us here today and we'll go ahead and adjourn the study session. really appreciate.