001I'd like to call um the um student life meeting to order. Um and I'd like to welcome It looks like we have a lot of students here this evening. So I'd like to welcome you all. Thanks for um sitting in and listening to the end of our um meeting. And now I will turn it over to Mrs. Frank. Thank you Mrs. Peter. Um well they said this evening we have several agenda items. Um the first of which involves those lovely students who are sitting on the front row here. This fall Dr. Christian, Dr. Bidus and Dr. Figureroa Douglas as well as um White Marsh High School building administrators conducted visits to various clubs at the high school. During these visits, students articulated their club goals and discussed ways in which the Colonial School District can
002enhance support for both clubs and student affinity groups. To share more about this is Dr. Figuroa Douglas, who will introduce us to some of our student club representatives who've joined us this evening. So, let me turn this over to Dr. Figureroa Douglas. Good evening members of the board, the community and our amazing dynamic students. Um, we are really excited to be here today. And we're really excited because for a long time we have been speaking about the importance of student voice, student advocacy, and how that frames student belonging. And when we think about the staircase to success and we consider we consider achievement and we strive towards self-actualization, we know that it is imperative for our students to feel that sense of belonging. So this is what we did. We looked at our PSSM data
003and so far we have participated in five surveys and when we look at the data we know that our students feel the highest sense of belonging with the adults in their building. They feel a high sense of belonging with their principles, assistant principles. They feel it with security. They feel it with food services. Their counselors, the adults in the building create a high sense of belonging for our students. And then opportunities exist with peer-to-peer interactions. But when we look at the data even closer, we see that there are subgroups that they don't have a low sense of belonging, but they have a lower sense of belonging. And that we have opportunity to address that. And so when we think about some of those groups, we thought it would be necessary to visit the clubs that
004align with those student affinity groups. So we prioritized that over the fall. And these are the clubs that we visited again based on the data from the PSSA. So, we visited the ADL, the BCA, the GSA, the Hispanic Latinx Club, the International Culture and Asian Student Association Club, the JSU, and the MSA. And what we're going to do now is share and highlight what some of those critical conversations sounded like. And with each club, we thought about three questions. We want to know from their perspective, from their affinity lens, what does CSD, what do we do well as it relates to belonging? We want to know how can we improve student belonging from your lens and how can we help? Again, building that student voice, student advocacy, and creating that real sense of belonging was
005the goal here. So without further ado, I'm going to start with our representative from the ADL, Alani. >> Hi everyone, my name is Alani Sensio and I'm a member of our ADO organization at PW. Some of our strengths of the Colono School District is the way they advocate for students, safety, and school environment. ADL is just one example of many and in ADL we're able to come into the freshman bonus box and give us the tools on how to combat any forms of hate. We're grateful for the support we receive and it reflects the grass we have a dis as a district to respect others and to be kind. An opportunity ADL receives each year is a field trip to attend the ADL youth conference. We're grateful to always have this opportunity and listen to
006speakers who encourage us on how to make our school a safer place. Our school district makes me proud to be a part of and ADO is always grateful for the support. And I'll now pass it over to our ECA representative. >> Good morning everyone. Excuse me. Good evening everybody. My name is Roman Hay. I am a leader of the Black Culture Awareness Club and uh I would like to start off by saying um it has been my experience that our staff and faculty members of the Colonial School District have done a marvelous job quite frankly at uh reaching out with their students and uh invoking um a sort of connection that I'd say other schools pro probably lack. Um, I feel personally very close with my teachers and um, I think I think it's a
007quite a good thing to be quite honest. And um, I think one thing that could be improved upon um, and my community, the black community [clears throat] is probably the uh, the voices of black individuals in honors and AP courses. So, rigorous courses. Uh I know that when I walk into as somebody who takes these courses, when I walk into a classroom, um it's my understanding that roughly 13 14% of the uh of Marsh High School is African-American, but um I'd say roughly two out of 24, which is about 8% is African-American in said honors and AP courses. And uh I think you know it's it's no secret that um you're more likely to connect with people who look like you. So I think advocating for those black voices and uh trying to reach out
008to African-Americans to take the rigorous courses is something that needs to be improved upon. But other than that, I think everything is going well. And uh now I'd like to pass uh I'd like to pass this on to the PCA or GSA, excuse me. >> Hello everyone. Uh my name is Morgan Crower. I am the art director for the Gay Alliance at the high school. Um, one of the or one of many things that I think school has been doing right is I know I personally along with many others in my club. We all feel very supported constantly by our principles and our other staff at the school. We don't feel like we're in danger or anything which I feel like is something that puts us above some other high schools from experiences I've heard
009from other people. Um I we have just recently finished our had one luck shirt fundraiser as well as we have recently uh welcomed our public speaker Lex for who is LGBTQ plus educator into the school to speak to students and staff. However, one of the things that I think um the district could do by work on is reopening the gender neutral bathrooms in the high school, which as of right now, there is currently, I believe, four. Two open in the D-wing and two open in the A-wing right across from the orchestra and music classrooms. There used to be one in the B-wing, but is currently now only open in staff. And I would love for that to be changed at some point as so everyone has a place to be. And other than that, I'm
010very grateful to be here. I'm very grateful that my club is allowed to stay. And so, thank you. And I will pass this on to the next club representative. >> Good evening, Edward. My name is Gian. I'm the president of the Hispanic Latinx Student Union. Uh the club started about two years ago. uh has started started because we noticed a disconnect for the Latino students in the school. Uh one area that we were trying to improve upon was the the actual communication of the club existing. One thing that the staff at Plymouth White Marsh and just CSD in general do very well is giving students the opportunity to actually communicate with them and they will actually help out. In fact, we this year we communicated with Mr. Escona. Uh we our club this year started
011with about five people and actually close to double from five to about 16 and counting due to us communicating with Mr. Econa and actually giving us the opportunity to get the word out that we exist by either announcements or the TV monitors in the hallways. One thing that we that could be improved upon though is maybe a bigger connection between the ESL programs and the Hispanic or the HLSU uh to create a sort of peer system so that new students that come from uh who can't really speak English as well can come to us and we can help them out with actually connecting with the community and the kids at uh Plymouth White Marsh. Great idea. That's a great idea. >> And with that, I'm going to pass it to IAK at the Asian Student
012Association. >> Good evening everyone. U my name is Kuma Tenino and I'm the president of the International Cultural Awareness Club. Um, across IAC, our members have, we all shared the sentiment that it's really great to have a space in our school where we can come together with our cultural differences and share what's unique to each other and learn from each other. And we just appreciate having a space at PW. We come together every other week and we hear cultural presentations. We try unique foods we've never tried before. And everyone looks forward to uh events that we've come to host annually. and just reflecting on everything that our club is able to do. Um we realized that one of our annual events um where we decorate our bridge in the high school um it's like a
013passing area for students um with lunar new year decorations um and this year the Asian student the Asian student association um was established again. So, we decided to work together with them this year to do that tradition and we just did that today. So, we just appreciate having um the opportunity to have our club at our school and passing it on to Rachel. >> Hi everyone. Um my name is Rachel and I'm one of the co-founders and co-presidents of our school's Asian Student Association. So like Kuma mentioned um this year our Asian student association was reestablished kind of as a branch of IAK and um one thing in particular that we had shared with admin at our meeting was um our interest in collaborating with other Asian student associations in our area. um because we
014have relatively a smaller Asian student body and um later this month we actually have been invited to the annual Montgomery County Lunar New Year festival. So through this collaboration with all the other ASAs in our area. We hope that our ASA at PW can continue to flourish. Thank you. And now passing on to JSU. Hi, my name is Addison Stein and I'm the president of the Jewish student union at PW. And being the president of JSU, I take a lot of responsibility in making sure that the Jewish students feel respected and safe in our community. And I really appreciate our district's efforts to make sure that we felt safe with the rise of anti-semitism globally. And they definitely have done that. Dr. Connie especially, I reached out to him after swastas were written on the
015bathroom stalls and I told him I wanted to help. I wanted to come up with ideas and brainstorm and he engaged me in multiple conversations with other PW students from different minority groups, other faculty members and even members of the ADL from like the national ADL. And it was just a great experience for not only me to build my advocacy toolkit, but I was able to help come up with ideas that I wanted to see implemented in our school. For example, with the teacher workshops, I was a part of that conversation for the ones at PW and making heat speech a level three misconduct. And since there hasn't been any anti-semitic acts that I know of, I feel like it's been very successful and I'm really happy to be a part of this community. And
016what I feel like PW could do well is just really showing like having us here today shows that you guys care. And next year when some of us graduate, making sure you find the next line of leaders to help create voices and make sure that everyone is continued to be heard and seen in your school. and I'm gonna pass it on to Marina. I started our Muslim student association because I wanted to help my community gain the accommodations we needed and have a voice in conversations like this one. This year, we had important meetings with administrators to voice our concerns about crosscontamination in the cafeteria and and students access to prayer rooms. With our food services director, Miss McCoy, we successfully implemented a power by plan section in the cafeteria that provides plant-based meal options
017and is kept completely separate from any meat. This paired with a new color-coded system used to cut foods like pizza, has made it more realistic for any student with dietary restrictions, not just Muslims, to feel comfortable eating cafeteria food. Meeting with Dr. Bani and Mr. Through Kona, we were also able to set up a system for Muslim students to access prayer rooms which are located at the administrative offices during lunch periods. I think I can speak on behalf of all of us that we're all very grateful for our school district listening to our voices, accommodating our needs, and embracing each of our unique identities. May we give a hand a round of applause [applause] for amazing student leaders and and we see them here this evening as club leaders but these are also leaders that
018have participated in conversation with community stakeholders throughout the years. they have um definitely supported comprehensive planning as it relates to our comprehensive plan. So these are students that are really dedicated to a Colonial School District, you know, just continuing the work around belonging because they know how important it is to them. So their advocacy matters, their voice matters, and we will continue to do that to support them. I want to just also share before we open it up um for any questions. This was a quote that resonated with me um and it's by Dr. Maya Angelou. Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning. And that's what our students continue to do for us each and every single day. And
019I just want to say and I think I can speak on behalf of the entire board that your voices and actions mean so much to us. Um I feel like I've known a lot of you since you were little and I'm so proud of the people you have become and that you are able to use your voice for good because that's what you do. You have brought so much goodness into our school district and into our community and as a board we will continue to uplift that and make sure that the things you have established and you have worked for will continue and I can promise you that on behalf of every board member. So thank you for all the work you do. Thank you. I want to uh congratulate and thank our student leaders.
020Um your voices are extremely powerful. Um spending a lot of time with each of you u during the club meetings etc. um your speed right um your voice is important makes this even better with Marsh High School in terms of our culture and climate and remiss not to thank our uh club leaders and we've I'm Jason Williams here as well as one of our master teachers our club sponsors as well have been instrumental in in the change we're making from white marshall I want to thank them as well [applause] I just want to that that was uh I've only been on the school board for two years. That was the my favorite 20 minutes of those two years listening to these young leaders uh speak so proudly and confidently and courageously. And to second what
021Beth said um if there's anything that you as leaders and I think uh you mentioned that you know these leaders will be moving on some of them and so it's the next generation and your friends and and colleagues uh and peers within your groups will be taking over and you can let them know that if there's anything that they need from this board uh that they should never hesitate to reach out and ask. >> Congratulations. That was great stuff. >> Absolutely. I have um two things. One is um can we get pictures of the bridge of the decorations in the bridge? I would love to see >> those the collaborations will get a chance to go over Drew during the day. So >> um and then the other one is um and I really hung
022on to all the every word you guys have said um at that podium. And um so one of the things that that survey has shown um or told us is that the challenges amongst the environment tend to be more peer-to-peer related. And I see all of you sitting here and you're definitely a perfect snapshot of a you know cross-section of our student population. And obviously you guys have the peer-to-peer comfort zone, right? So if you have more ideas um besides all the things that you know you've been thankful for and brought to our attention um I love the requests for access to the um multi-gender restrooms and [snorts] um the prayer rooms and those kinds of things that have happened. But if there's more that we can or if you have more of a um
023things to talk about, how do we keep those the communication open like you feel comfortable here but in schoolwide, right? How how can we have more of those conversations um outside of our our leaders in this room? And if you have ideas for that too, we'd love to to hear them as well because um we just want to keep it going, right? So we have this we have this wonderful culture and this great um you know uh building leadership, the teachers, the the principles, the district leadership and uh we just want to want to make sure that we we keep it up and we we even grow from from all the things that you've said um for the classes that come behind you. I just want to say thank you. Uh it's a joy to
024hear, you know, all these young people with such great ideas. And I think that I know the Hispanic group said a great thing about helping those that come here that don't speak the language cuz I know I was one of those students that didn't speak English when I first came here and I knew how difficult it was for me. So that's great. um anything that I can do and with any group and I think that's with every group. I think the earlier we cash people the better success will have. So I don't I'm not sure if you guys go out to the middle school and speak to the students before they come to the high school, but I think that would be a great way. Like for example, my son is really shy. So he'll
025never join anything. But maybe if he has you guys speaking to them early on, maybe that's a great way to by the time they get to the high school, you know, they more comfortable. They have somebody to connect with or somebody to speak to. So, but all of you, great job. It was great hearing each story. Sorry, I I want to piggy back off of what he said. Damas said with respect to the the Hispanic wanting to reach out to uh ELLL students, that's a fantastic idea. Um and the fact that it was brought forth from students, you know, to want to help other students and I know that we do promote um like tutoring, you know, we have the honor society doing tutoring. We have opportunities that are promoted throughout the school for that
026kind of thing. But with respect to the language and the ELLL students, can we begin somehow promoting or working out a plan to be able to put that sort of uh item in in motion? because I think you have the uh the monitors throughout the building and you know um all those ways that you can communicate and I think that's key because a lot of our our uh new community members who face the language barriers they don't know where to start and they don't know who they can reach out to and uh in the climate now especially um it it becomes harder um but the students to come from within you know in the building and with the young people. Um [snorts] there's a wonderful opportunity there and I really appreciate you guys bringing that
027forward to us and I would love to see some action taken on that because I think um that's a huge I think that'd be a huge way to um make those families uh feel more like they belong in an atmosphere where they don't feel that so much anywhere else. >> I'm sorry. Um the other have some suggest is maybe getting this information to the parents cuz sometimes as parents we don't know all the awesome things that are taking place at the school and I think that if you have students motivating other students and you also have that support at home mom and dad pushing you I think the chances of those students getting involved might be a little greater. I thought the uh presentations were amazing. Um I'm so glad to see our students being
028proactive instead of reactive um which unfortunately a lot of things like that are taking place in our culture right now um globally. But at the same time, I would like to invite you to come back before many of you graduate. And even though those of you who aren't this year, just to kind of check in and see where things are, have some of those uh suggestions been, you know, improved or worked on. What can we do in that time frame? I'd like to, since we saw data earlier of academics across the a span of time, I'd like to see how you guys are feeling and doing um as leaders um in May or so before you graduate. So, please come back. Thank you for coming. >> Absolutely. One more comment and that's kudos to Dr.
029Fero Douglas and and Dr. Connie and our administrative team and our teachers and our staff because one of the one of the comments that I definitely heard resonate is that you find our staff to be approachable whether it's the lunch people in the lunchroom people um in the in the office people you know everywhere throughout the building that we're approachable and that is key and I just appreciate that and I want to just say thank you for creating that atmosphere because I really sense it especially with the security works too like they you know everyone and and that's that's a fantastic environment to be in and it's definitely unique uh amongst our public schools >> I have a question how many of you are seniors by show >> I'm sure you are all going into
030great fields of study is anybody going into educ education possibly. >> All right. If you change your mind, >> if you change your mind, you're going to give us a call in four years. Make sure we have you set up for an interview. So, that's right. I'm sure you'll be successful in any of the fields that you uh that you study. So, thanks for coming out this evening. >> All right. And then obviously you are welcome to stay, but if you uh have homework to do, you are also welcome to um be on your way. But we really did appreciate having you and please come back and maybe that is something you can take back to your organizations that um we do really like to hear from students. Um and I know you have great
031relationships in your schools, but if you want to expand them, broaden them to around the district, we would love to hear from you. So thank you so much >> and not only come back but bring your underassman with you so that we can have a facilitate those. Thank you. [applause] >> Okay. Well, this feeds really well with the next item on our agenda, um, which is student voice and input at future community relations, student life, safety, wellness committee meetings. Um, earlier this fall, Dr. Christian, Dr. Brettus, and I met and agreed that increasing student uh, presence at these meetings would be very, very beneficial. Um, and as you can see, I mean, there's so much that we learn from our students. Um and I think it just helps us to be a better institution. Um
032so we hope to have students at future meetings as well. Um so this was a great way to start this initiative. Um so any further comment on that? >> Uh no I agree everything what you're saying. I would like to see um whether it's our unified botchi team. I'd like to see more of our folks with special needs also. sure participating as much as possible and that certainly is our plan. So >> we had the botchi team out a couple years ago but and they have a big match tomorrow. Uh so we'll have it back out again I'm sure and we have unified track this spring. >> Can I also make a plug for Best Buddies maybe having >> Best Buddies also on plan. Um, and certainly all of you are welcome to our Little
033Chef Eery, which um I believe is on the 19th is our next one. Um, so [snorts] we'd love to see you there as well. >> No cookout. >> We're going to wait for the ice. It was the last one. >> I'm sorry. I have those burgers. I only do the cook out because it's above 55°. >> The third item or the last item on the agenda is student climate and culture data sharing at future meetings um of community relations student life. Um this spring we will again present the results of the annual PSSN, the psychological sense of school membership survey. Um this scale for those of you who don't know um is an 18 item survey used to assess student feelings of bel of belonging and acceptance and inclusion within the school community. Um it
034measures student connection to peers and teachers and thereby helping us as a district to improve our school climate, foster dignity and reduce uh job outbreaks. So we do look forward to doing that as well as we have done in past years um to give that. Um we also would will be giving the results of our pay survey, the Pennsylvania youth survey which does also measure items involving student cl uh school climate. So look forward to that as well. Um at our last executive session, Dr. Christian presented the first quarterly student discipline and bias report to the board and it's my understanding that these reports will continue to be shared with the board on a quarterly basis in that format. Um so again is there anything you wanted to add to that question? >> Uh no
035we have great kids that are throughout the district. Um [clears throat] this is what generally happens in the older grades middle school and high school and um number of level three and level four offenses for our yearly 2,800 2900 secondary students in the range of 1.2 to 1.4% of the student body. Uh and those students who make those decisions uh we not only obviously there's a consequence uh but we provide support for their return to school. uh what we always striving for less than 1% to try to get to zero uh but situations happen and we have to make sure we protect all students throughout the school district but uh really encouraged by our I would say [sighs] lack of discipline data hopefully that continues and I think that comes with all the different types
036of supports that the board has heard provided by human services and curriculum uh and then also giving students a voice So so that little things don't become big things. So we'll have data after the third market period and keep moving forward. um at oh did Joseph at future um CRSLSW effect meetings we also plan to highlight the range of programs that we've implemented to support student climate and culture along with the impact of those efforts um so best buddies um just being one of them um our resolver program that we've instituted at the middle and high schools um as as well as areas um for continued focus. So there's always room for us to grow and room for us to improve and we certainly take that very seriously. So these are some of the the
037um initiatives and some of the ideas that we had and we certainly welcome anything that you might have um that you would like us to focus on. questions. >> No, just a well kind of a question I guess and a comment. I'm thinking about with our students in the Black Cultural Awareness Club mentioned in terms of curriculum, black voices, um there's classes and so forth. Um Dr. Gregus, is there any way someone from curriculum can touch base with that group to kind of go over some of the things we've done to increase AP participation, honors participation? Maybe if they had some more of those details, but also be on the receiving end on some of their ideas as well. Yes, absolutely. And just to let you know, Dr. Fero Douglas and I attend the department
038head meetings um monthly and for the last few we have gone over strategies that the AP college board does provide us with. Um one of those most recently was inviting select members. We have a student forum coming up uh in the next couple of weeks. I think is it next week? uh February 17th, I think it is, for the students. And we have asked the department heads um to be very intentional about the students that are going to be representing each of those AP or honors courses. Uh because again, as you heard from a student today, you feel more comfortable around those that look like you. Um so we asked all of our teachers and departments to be very intentional. So we are taking steps uh for that but we'll continue to work with our
039curriculum department as well. And while there's always room for improvement, for the past five years, we've actually had a very specific initiative to have students who are [clears throat] members of underrepresented groups take at least one AP course. And for the past two years, the college board is recognized by the white marsh as part of the college board honoral specifically for that reason. definitely can continue to improve and uh we definitely won't be with the students but it has been a specific initiative for us. >> That's great. >> All right. Any other board comments? All right. Any public comment? >> All right. Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. >> Thank you. Students are efficient.