001there we go wonderful well welcome everybody to the equity Committee of the Harwood unified Union School District School Board uh we are calling this meeting to order to 7-Eleven on June 19th 2024 um we have a couple of quick orders of business before we get to public comment um the first one would be according to the agenda would we do we have a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting motion I so second okay we have a motion a second do we have any objections to um to approving it great all right so approved um board members present very quick roll call uh I'm life leras I'm chairing this committee and I represent ducksbury Elizabeth Brown representing Waterberry Tor Tavella representing Waterberry Mike you want to say hi to Sure Mike Li lighter
002I'm the superintendent wonderful and it looks like we have um one additional person member of the public would you like to introduce yourself say hi hi I'm Casey special educator at Harwood this past year fantastic on Casey for a member too just so everyone is aware great um so uh public comment um Casey I you're welcome to if if you'd like to start with a comment um that we would we would be all ears and also I shared with Casey at the invitation to come and talk a little bit about the draft agenda too so um if she wants to is it okay if she postpones if that's if she wants to as well yes thank you yeah I was check on that um I would love for um you know the agenda actually is
003kind of like do a kind of finalize our our thinking and then do a handoff so if you're able to stick around Casey you can participate then as well um but if you have a if you have anything you'd like to say to to start off um you're more than welcome but you don't need to thank you I really I really wanted to listen and learn um more about um the work that you've been doing and then also share and contribute when it comes to revising the draft awesome thank you thank you um all right well so um agenda wise we're into our our topics area and essentially we wanted to kind of finish up um where we think we are with the current draft before handing it off to to Mike and Casey and
004the rest of folks who'll be working on it this summer and and into the fall a little bit um so just a reminder that our general uh trajectory is that um here we are in our fourth meeting we've um done some learning together done some thinking and at this point we've drafted um some language for the policy drawing from various sources and we also have some design principles and the idea is um once we're feeling good with with our start on it we will hand it over to a district team um that's kind of starting with with the um task force for anti-racism um and then expanding out and um they'll do some work this summer maybe into the fall um and either that team or us or some combination will get um some input
005from community members and organizations as well and then we'll um finalize the draft in late fall and um hopefully bring it back to the full board and get it approved um by the end of the calendar year if we can pull that off does that sound like a summary anything to to add anybody who's who's been in on this can we just be open to accelerating it you know I and again can't wait to hear it what Cassie or Casey Cass Casey okay just wanted to be clear um and it'll be it'll be very it'll be great to get additional feedback but I was kind of impressed by what we pulled together I I personally thought so you know if we end up getting positive feedback and it turns out we can accelerate this faster
006you know I'm assuming assuming we would all be open to try to bring it to the board sooner right totally yeah I just I want to give the district folks time to to do what they want to do with it um and make sure they can get the folks involved to who they think um should be and you know I know getting together people during the summer can be a little a little tough um with schedules I know there's some stiens involved which is great um and there's still a couple of days here where teachers are still on the clock and on their email so um we're hoping that there's some more recruiting to do that can be done in the next couple days so yeah totally Elizabeth if it all works out that way
007um who knows maybe and did we did we Define exactly who we are putting together for I keep calling it like the diverse panel in terms of being able to provide that input I think it's still coming together is that right Mike I met earlier today with the people we had about five people who volunteered to be on that kind of mini group from T and we we decided that July is probably not a good time to put together a focus group there's just too many people out so uh what I'm going to do one of the people on the group is the administrative assistant at uh at Brookside and uh Kelsey and I are going to meet the second week of July and lay out based on what we talked about lay out somewhat
008of a plan and some ideas ideas for the different groups and then a time frame for putting that together uh probably we we we're hoping to be finished by maybe midep um that would give us kind of the beginning of the year teachers are back third week of August and that would give us probably about four weeks to to assemble groups some focus groups uh we have one of one of our teachers Matt henin uh who is at Harwood he works with a group he has a a group of uh geared towards bipo students who uh he suggested and has volunteered to meet with them but the group does want to meet with some other groups as well uh groups that we talked about um parents students uh focusing on some different equ areas of
009uh Equity uh to make sure we're getting a wide representation and making sure that we're not just getting the people who uh will respond to an announcement and you know post it on Waterberry roundabout or something but people who uh that we seek out for input okay that sounds great and would it be appropriate Mike if members of this committee or we could even open up to the broader board if people know folks in the community who are particularly interested and or have expertise in one of these areas to kind of Point them towards um you and Kelsey absolutely if you would uh do that we would love that I would like to try to box in ex exactly you know once we get some of this input in terms of making sure we've got
010representation of the various groups that we've articulated in here making sure that there's a weighted representation around that one thought I have is you know how do we kind of box that in so I'm not trying to exclude a lot of voices but I kind of am in a way as in I think we've seen this in a lot of communities where it's been literally dragged out for a couple years where things have gotten quite heated and I again think that this group has done a really good job of creating a really balanced Equity policy that I'm hoping will be well receive by a number of people um but I have some concern that if we don't articulate early on in this process who's going to be involved to what degree that we're just leaving
011that open-ended and it may be hard to bring this to a conclusion in the time that we've articulated yeah um but I I I I think that we kind of have to be ready for the possibility that it'll go super smooth and move even quicker than our timeline but we also have to be ready for the possibility that you know there'll be some complexities that we hit along the way and some challenges like I agree with you that you know we don't want like a multi-year process by any means um but you know I definitely um live by the philosophy that you know Equity is both an outcome and a process and so you know when we're thinking that you know Equity um should um you know provide empowerment to groups who are historically marginalized
012or currently so um I think that you know we have to make sure that we have a process that that allows those voices to be heard and clearly life I'm not trying to uh insinuate that we're trying to exclude especially the marginalized voices we're trying to care for in this policy clearly I'm not saying that what I'm saying is making sure we've got weighted equal representation of all the different groups that we're clearly articulating in here and you know the particular groups that I had to make sure that we had a balanced representation in here so for example you know making sure that we have students who have learning disabilities who are able to speak to their experiences in here and so what I'm saying is that balance representation and if we're going outside into
013the community you know beyond our school walls that we also have that balance representation but we're also realistic in terms of um you know if we have people people coming in providing and put in in terms of testimony and so on are we leaving that open-ended you know or are we going to say you know within a certain time frame in limits or numbers or something we're trying to box that in I think what I'm hearing is we'll we'll deal with that when it comes time yeah I think I think deal with it when it comes time just honestly because we don't even know how many people we're going to get to participate um so I mean ideally we'll have people CL ing to Give opinions but for all we know we might be dragging
014five people in you know so I think I think it's a you know let's let's worry about it if it becomes a problem kind of thing that sounds fair yeah I I like that yeah let's let's let's play it out um I mean in an Ideal World you know we we do have a good healthy dialogue and we have enough folks coming and and presenting views and impacting the process and walking away feeling like they were heard and that this is something that they can like you know believe in and support um even if not every single line is absolutely you know their top priority um so sometimes that can you know we have to kind of be responsive um that's one reason why I think uh having the the district folks who are um
015you know really in the work in the weeds um you know facilitating that process I think they're just well positioned for that um for the sort of O open and sometimes sometimes timec consuming dialogue that um it can be a little tougher to have it at the board level and that kind of in a formal setting like that um I'll be interested to hear Casey's and you know case you've been part of the the tfar group which is dealing with one super important of equity with racial Justice and I sure looks like from what we've seen that you've been you've been in the weeds and that you all have been having some pretty complex conversations with people bringing different perspectives at least from the notes that we saw around the the statement um do we
016want to keep do we want to keep talking process um or do we want to look at the document I I'm I'm fine if we want to do process stuff first do we want to play this out a little bit more and make sure that this that your concerns are met Elizabeth no I think they've been met so I think we decided that we'll deal with you know the numbers and the amount of input when it comes time to do that so I think I'm fine with that okay um Mike I maybe we can keep playing out the process piece and then come back to the document Mike I appreciate you kind of opening and and talking about the the group that you met with today which it sounds like we're we're mostly um if
017not all sort of core tar members is that right correct and you said five like how many people are officially part of T at this point uh Casey do you know how many I don't have the list in front of me I'm think it's around maybe 10 people 10 or 12 people who are on and and this is the group that uh asked for volunteers and we had a really enthusiastic group uh who volunteered uh and I'll let uh Casey share about herself but uh uh she unfortunately will be leaving us this year to uh do something that's pretty pretty exciting own right um but she will not be with us next year but she's been a very integral part of the team for the last uh last year or two and has some really
018good perspective we we had met uh on on a topic yesterday and just uh think she'll have some good contributions for the group um it's it's been a a great year we only met about um five times once a month um but I think we're all leaving with more questions than answers um around this work um and really starting to think about even just kind of um creating a a a mission statement um for the work um was really challenging and I think one of the biggest questions I have is um how will the research be done in terms of what methods and what strategies to uh implement this work I think right now there um have been a lot of models a lot of researchers um a lot of literature has been put forth
019um and a lot of it is controversial in terms of How It's implemented or how it frames the challenges um and so I think a lot of the questions that I'm walking away with are um how how will we go about or how will the team go about um implementing this work um in a way that um doesn't do more harm but in a way that it it really um does focus on um Solutions um and so really thinking about how it's framed um the strategies I think we even had the discussion of you know are we saying um anti-racism or are we saying racial Equity um and that was a huge shift just in thought and how the the challeng is framed and also how I think the work will be guided um but
020really thinking of there's just a whole spectrum of um you know philosophies and strategies to tackle this um and and I think some can can lead to more harm and some are more open-ended um but I think it's also just something kind of in the zeist and something really happening right now um where people are just really feeling mixed about um how how it's implemented um and learning from some of the challenges of How It's been implemented in some places and has worked better than others can you articulate a little bit just so I better understand where the concerns are around how the implementation could potentially do more harm than good I think some of some of the research in terms of um who who's accountable and only you know parts of society being accountable
021for certain types of work uh thinking through things through a dichotomous lens um that doesn't always match the scenario um so really just kind of thinking um in in who who's been affected by um racism and um who's responsible for it and kind of like how to move the pendulum um specific strategies of who can have uh voice in certain rooms um and and kind of like this oppressed and oppressor um dichotomy um and through some of the framework um some of it you know um thinking in some of the Frameworks I'm thinking um you know of that it's this work is needs to be done by the the white community and thinking that many groups you know for growing up in a with systemic racism um have been affected um have in many cases
022you know internalized racism um in terms of um different groups right um we can get into like the oppression Olympics and things like that but it's not as clear-cut as I think just um what one one one group being responsible um for the damage one group being responsible for the harm um and another group being victims I think sometimes it it puts certain groups in Perpetual victim land um without the autonomy without the the ability to um move from that that place in society um and other groups in oppress oppressor lands without the ability to move from that I think sometimes it creates more divisiveness versus really being able to to move forward um and really creating the society that we want I think of you know sometimes it's led to things we we're having
023um you know race based college or orientation and things like that where we're going so far that we're going back towards segregation in some ways um so I think just finding that balance um and I think it's hard because I think there's a lot of of voices out there um but I think sometimes we're creating more divisiveness by um classifications I think we have to find this balance of having these classifications for protection and groups need to be protected um but I think sometimes that we are um putting people into these silos um and then again attributing certain features certain roles um based on those classifications I guess that's the only concern my perspective is I felt like that was very well articulated and thank you for sharing that perspective um and you know I
024think it will be interesting having your involvement here today as we look at the policy looking through the lens that you just articulated to see how it might be reflected in the policy but I think it's also I could see this applying you know Tor as we put together the actual procedures around this is also applying you know that lens that was just articulated yeah I uh yeah I agree I think this is really going to come into play a lot once the procedures start getting put in more so than a policy it's a weird line I sorry sorry Cassie we tried we tried defining that line last meeting um but it is it is definitely something for us all to keep in mind as we work on it and and I'll say that we
025you know we haven't done a ton of work with the the procedures piece or I guess in the in the there's not supposed to be procedures in the policy but where where it sort of bumps up against against that line in in the policy under the implementation section um most of the things we did was was in the the front matter and the definitions and I think part of that again is thinking that the district group is pretty well positioned to help think through that a little bit more closely um so that will be interesting Casey would you say what you were just articulating um is that like is is that a a a view across the group or were you giving us an idea of some of the kind of conversations that have ensued
026those are some of the conversations that have been raised I think um everyone's coming at it from um very different experiences which was great because then it fostered these conversations um I think everyone um really has a passion for this work and I think it's just really trying to find a way um to do it in a in a safe and steady way so that it doesn't further exacerbate or or or do the opposite of what it's trying to achieve um and I think we we really came up with you know we came from very different perspectives and came up with a lot of different ideas um but without consensus of how to move forward because our main focus was was building the statement and so the the the it's it's listed as the proposed
027racial Equity statement do you feel or do you have are you able to comment on whether do you feel there's consensus among the group on that on those phrases I think at this point we did come to consensus I think we worked through it and refined it um but as you said it should be a living document because I think you know for all of us Educators right we build a summi of and then once we have students actually take it we find 10 ways that we want to improve it and I think this is going to be the kind of the same work is like once it actually guides um different different um actions I think we'll we'll get a lot of feedback about you know things that were unintended consequences for the best
028and those that you know unintentionally created more challenges so I think we're at a really good starting point we found consensus but I think for sure it should be a living document and and adapt as needed yeah yeah I think I think it'll really be helpful to you know I mean we have in this proposed policy that Mike needs to report to the board on a quarterly status so I think reports that frequently will help us kind of adjust as especially in the first couple years and then you know check in as it goes because there will will definitely need some finessing I'm sure yeah um well thank you Casey I think we can look at the policy in a moment and um maybe we can see how some of what you were just talking
029about applies um Mike when you talk about there's you know 10 or so members um we remind us there's there's a couple people are designated as co-chairs right right Sarah Schoolcraft and mag McDon are the co-chairs and they both couldn't be here tonight but they're also both willing to participate and when I help with that okay so when we're looking at that next layer of work they're they're going to be the The Guiding The Guiding forces right great um and you mentioned kind of it sounded like multiple um multiple layers of vetting and so um are we right to assume that that um you're comfortable with you the co-chairs and the rest of the group kind of um putting that together whether it's from students whether it's parents um Community organizations Etc I think so
030and then we can come back to you and have you kind of evaluate what we've done and see if there's more information that you think is necessary and then we can go back and do another round of work based on kind of your observations fantastic and through that process like what do you do you have an idea of what our role should be or could be or are we going to be kind of hearing from you summarize of what what transpired I think we'll we'll share that information and then give some feedback because I know the that some of the people we met with today had had some questions and some comments and certain areas I think Casey does as well uh but that would be part of that that we would give some some
031feedback kind of highlighted areas that there were questions or suggestions on and then uh let let you kind of vet that through and uh decide the next steps but give you some recommendations okay and some of them might be like consensus we have a strong theme across all the groups of this should happen and there might be some other varas that are counting like uh some people think this some think that you all need to make a call on it right not sure about this or maybe we're we're missing something in this area yeah that sounds good to me um process-wise Elizabeth Tor does that sound okay sounds cool yeah um well maybe we can just uh take a minute then to just make sure that what we're handing over is is um you know
032our our best work at the moment so just turning towards looking at the um draft policy uh I'll just mention that I think the one thing that's changed since the last meeting is that we added a definition for Universal Design for Learning um and in terms of um Casey what you were mentioning about you know thinking about what strategies um actually look like to implement this you know the two big umbrella strategies that are called out out here our um our Universal Design for Learning and culturally responsive practices um and so we we kind of you know the the model policy from the state and and most every policy you look at includes culturally responsive practices and that's also in the the education quality standards draft um so that's that's very loow hanging fruit but
033we added in udl as a as a complimentary and overlapping strategy and particularly for um students with disabil ities or or students with learning differences who not have not necessarily been identified um so uh Tori and Elizabeth any any thoughts like is this okay as a as a placeholder for now we we pretty much took the language and then as I mentioned um in the informative email Shannon Lesley helped us with some wording in that first part which I thought was a great great suggestion and up yeah I yeah I definitely I appreciate these changes and thank you so much for hunting down that um definition the only thing is I I I hope you don't mind I can always put it back under Universal Design for Learning on subsection a it had provides flexibility
034in the ways information is presented in the ways students respond in the ways how students engage so I just kind of took out the in the ways repetition um because that was really starting to annoy me as I was reading it um but other than that I think I think it's a great great great start um great handing off point but happy to hear otherwise I I like those changes Elizabeth I'm happy with it as well thank you awesome um so maybe this is a good time Casey do you do you have any thoughts on you know just thinking strategies and these two umbrella strategies of culturally responsive practices and and Universal Design for Learning do you have like any big reactions or red flags to that at the moment um I really appreciate both
035uh the the one question that um comes up and um is what what happens when we have students who have extremely different cultures from the cultures at school uh where they are not compatible so thinking about um you know students um are top values about um you know not having genders you know be um equal or um respecting um certain um sexual orientation identities and things like that how can we make sure that for the most part right we're respecting cultures but at some point um the school culture and the the values of the district Trump um the culture that students are coming with yeah I think that's a great point to raise um you know I think most of the language in here is about honoring identity and backgrounds and I think we we've
036T we've kind of created this new uh catchphrase if you will identity ability Andor background um but I really appreciate that language because I think it's it's really um inclusive yeah good and and we tried you know we tried not to to list out different groupings we tried to just use that and you know in the implementation section you'll see that some of that still shows up and I think you know we could we could clean that up as a group if we want to now or we could um see what the the district team says um but I I agree that it's it is a little bit of a conundrum what happens when identities essentially are kind of um I don't want to say in opposition but you know if if somebody's identity is
037based on in part denying somebody else's identity that's that's an issue um so I know what I've seen in in other policies um is some sort of language that says something like you know in so far as you know everybody's identity should be affirmed in so far as they do not um in any way detract from anybody else's or something like that um just to like note you know because it could be somebody could have a a you know a a strong religious conviction about something as well that you know is actually um detracting from somebody else's identity so I it's it's all sorts of scenarios that can come up that we um would want to account for where somebody doesn't just say well this is my identity is like yeah can you help me
038to understand that like can you use that in an example where somebody expressing their identity would take away from someone else just so I can better put that Contex T sure like if somebody said you know hey I'm taught at home that you know um men are superior to women yeah or that um you know transness is not a legitimate thing you know um or you know you could play that out with race or anything else right um yeah it's more what do you do with that what's that more and and just thinking back to what Casey was saying when you have these students who are coming in with you know these different experiences right these different perspectives and values that are being instilled at home or otherwise and if they come in and they
039make I mean we we've got anti-discriminatory like and and other sort of policies we have I believe we also have other protections so I'm trying to understand how we build that into this particular policy I think I think you know we we talk about you know respecting them and and honoring their backgrounds and stuff but at the same time the core of it is creating um an inclusive you know place where everybody feels you know belonging and inclusion um and I feel like it is it is going to have to be a call of you know how do you handle in that moment of like how do you handle something that's messing up that inclusion and belonging as a whole um but I I don't know how You' put that into words and into the
040policy is the trick I'm just thinking about like how do you react to that right you know I'm you know without saying your family is wrong right and but it's more like we as this community and our school are inclusive we don't exclude people for blah blah blah versus telling them that where they come from is incorrect because in a way what we're saying is we actually respect the culture you come from even though you know what I'm it's it's really tricky yeah it is and you know some people have called it the Paradox of Tolerance right like how do you tolerate intolerance and it's very tricky I think generally saying like this is our shared value values in this community that's right when you're here this is how you are expected to behave and
041contribute and respect each other right that's right and and you're you know you're allowed to believe what you want um but certainly the way you behave here there's certain expectations and you you should you know you need to be open enough to you know thinking about these things um and if not then we need to like figure something else out for you well and I think that's what gets tricky I think I think that open to it and if you're not open to it then we're going to have to find some other way you know so I think that's where and I I hate to use this but I do think that's going to be something that'll come up for you know that Mike will have to deal with probably first um and you know
042that'll show up in the quarterly review how do we handle it how do we yeah does the policy need tweaking to address it um right I mean you give me an idea on let's say an annual basis of how many incidences we're dealing with where things are being escalated up where you know let's say students are expressing themselves in a way that is not consistent with what we're trying to articulate here as in let me just be more forthright you know how many incidences in the class classrooms where a student is calling out to another student and making them feel unwelcome or not seen or not validated or you know well and I think we have we have policies that address that we have even it doesn't arise to that level we have other we
043have teachers who address that with students and in most cases we we try to air on the side of addressing it but then using it as a teaching opportunity to help them understand right how to do things differently it doesn't always work that well yeah there you there was there was a situation that Casey and I were talking about yesterday where um it it involved education uh and conversation and people willing to uh have difficult conversations on something and and help increase awareness and knowledge of of how to handle that particular situation so that's that's the reason why we have a policy and part of the reason why we're doing this work so that people can feel comfortable and supported and engaging in those tough conversations I like the ability to like in real time
044be able to have the conversation about that and I think I had shared with you all probably two meetings ago with my son in eth grade and a very close friend of his making fun of him for his learning disabilities and the reaction to that actually there was a formal investigation that happened I mean it really sort of spiraled and I kind of wanted to put a stop to it you know my perspective was this is a learning opportunity not just for this particular boy but also for others in the classroom to learn about different learning styles um I I think wherever possible we can do that that's a real opportunity for others to get involved in versus pun you know punishment but it sounds like you know that's that's the preferred route wherever possible
045definitely but I I think you have you know I think you're that's that's a really important insight to recognize that like what actually gets reported and dealt with on a formal basis is very different than what's happening on a daily basis right yeah and certainly like you know um students of color that I know that are in high school um you know many of them will will tell you like it happens all the time but they don't take it anywhere because it's not necessarily GNA make things better always right so I'm thinking just like a few years ago when the the board was looking at potentially raising the black lives matter flag for example and what um they heard back from students of color was yeah don't do that please it's just going to make
046our lives harder right now so you know I think it's a tough thing to gauge and I think that's why it's really important to like get student voice involved in this policy and educator voice because like when it comes to the Practical for practical purposes as it is kind of like trying to say like okay we get it like there there is a red line sometimes when somebody's expressing themselves whether it's you know Identity or just belief system in a way that's harmful but like what does that actually look like concretely right um and and trying to draw that line right there's some things that are like very clearly Crossing that line right like a Swatch sticker or a Nazi salute or whatever but that can get pretty squishy especially in the political climate that
047we're in and so trying to trying to you know I think what what what you've all said that like the check-ins are going to be important because wherever that line gets drawn um which I'll you know support the Educators on um um it might have to shift depending on how it actually plays out well and I think an example we just had at the board meeting with with uh someone stealing the the pride flag and uh we we wanted to make a very clear statement that we support our students that uh we're not going to hide this fact we're going to deal with it and we're going to be very open about it but at the same time how far do you take that reaction and that's where the student voice was important and and
048there were some ideas that that involved being a little more uh forthright with kind of the response and uh when I had asked the advisor to respond and part of this was based on a conversation I had with the students last year my first year when uh when we uh when June 1 came and it came time to raise the flag I asked the students did they want to have some kind of uh place where we had students gathered and and they wanted it to be a very quiet piece that raising the flag for them was their expression and their their statement they didn't want to go beyond that so that's why I was very careful this year in making sure that anything we did as a reaction was supported by the students who are
049there each and every day totally Acy do you have any any thoughts based on the what we've been kicking around here we don't want to put you on the spot but you're in you're in the the the trenches every day with our students so you so I'm not in the position you are so your your position would be valuable to us and not at this time I just think I I wholeheartedly agree that uh student voice is a huge driving force in this great you you might notice Casey that um one of the one of the changes we made um you know I think the originally said something you know the superintendent will figure out how to measure this and report back to the board annually um but we added this language at the end
050there about you know there'll be a I think as a placeholder it's called the equity advisory team um and so you know part of the idea there was that there will be um you know re ongoing work and that it'll potentially you know the equity advisory team would be a a you know a diverse group it wouldn't be just racial equity um I don't know if you have thoughts on that do has t thought about like whether they want to expand their scope or do you think there's room for both TF and something that's more generally Equity or you think that's an ongoing conversation it's an ongoing conversation I think a lot of the feedback um when we put it out to the entire District was you know what about all other issues of equity
051that need to be addressed um but the thought of the group was you know each each challenge of equity is its own Mountain you know and that for one group to really focus specifically um on addressing one at a time but absolutely that there's room for the more the marrier like the more mind's put together and and solving um and creating strategies to to do this work I think um the better and then also having other groups um that can all you know everyone come together to to share um and collaborate but then also having their own time to work on these different issues can be really helpful interesting yeah it's it's just hard when there's there's only so much you know time and energy and people to go around and many people SP you
052know like you you're you're involved with T4 and obviously you have you know expertise and and interest I assume around you know disability Justice and things like that so um yeah they're trying thinking how that's structured maybe that's part of what um the group can come back with recommendations around two they're looking at that last piece absolutely I'm boned we're losing you you casc your your expertise in energy I I hope you're I'm sure you're on to do interesting things making the world a better place and whatever your next Endeavor is but and I so appreciate you coming and spending your time with us tonight and representing T thank you very much for allowing me to join thank you is there anything else um that you saw in the in the draft policy Casey that
053you think we should address before handing it off is are there any other red flags or big question marks um just just a couple small things and I apologize I wasn't at the meeting this afternoon um but so I'm not sure if these these also came up um but there's a couple places um on the first page under definitions talking about Equity goes beyond formal equality and then on the second page um both equality and Equity are used um in terms of the definitions of inclusion okay and I'm just not sure if that um creates confusion yes um thank you um in terms of that um yeah and then providing res so yeah again the concern of you know how do we really um make things inclusive but also you know keep the safety um
054in terms of you know um cultural values that that may not mirror the the District values um and then the the top of the second page discovering cultivating the unique gifts talents and interest that every human possesses um just again it's a semantic piece of um gifts and who who's gifting um and kind of that passive voice for the word and I'm just wondering if strengths or or something else can be um used in its place I like that cool I want to make sure to capture that we oh all right looks like oh life you're in there already great yeah I made suggestions on both those things I think strengths instead of gifts is is really great suggestion and I think we could maybe just take out the equality below and just say agree
055yep um committed to supporting personal growth clim respect differences yeah and then just one I think um just instead of educational historical I was learning if it was historical educational and current practices um under definitions in the very beginning that recognize the economic social political and um historical educational or historical and current educational practices yeah I like that that did not that did not make sense did it good um I wonder about if you look at the very second line of the policy where it says you know district is committed to creating inclusive educational opportunities through udl and cultur responsive practices and then it talks about addressing the impacts of bias prejudice and discrimination do you think that's enough to kind of say like inclusive and addressing impacts of bias do you think that potentially
056gets to what you're saying about kind of bounding the inclusion to to recognize that you know in toolerance will not be tolerated kind of thing right Bal how how do we balance so many different cultural values um while protecting the groups that this is designate to protect I do I do okay yeah um it sounds like if that's been part of the conversation with with TF up to this point too that that will be brought up and people will bring that lens to looking at we we're handing over as well is that safe to assume you think so if they want some stronger language in there that'll that'll be part of that conversation I think so inclusive education right it's it's it's I don't I I don't have the words to change it but it
057is balancing that how do we be culturally responsive while also negating um Prejudice yeah when when um you know School at some point are places of um assimilation yeah into the school value so um for better and For Worse right there that's I think exactly what this is designed to tackle totally um if you're com comfortable for us to kind of put make note of that see what comes back and then um see if the group did something with it but make sure that we have addressed that by the end and then the one last question sorry no go ahead the one last question I had um asked Dr Le leer earlier was um disaggregated um when it's talking about the data in terms of implementation disaggregated by race and ethnicity and um he had
058shared the federal document that guides this work and I just was um left with more questions about what what groups and how is it broken down in Vermont um in terms of when it the federal document that was shared looked like it it included all of the racial categories and then a few different ethnic groups and I was just curious about how it was broken down in Vermont um and I just know from in the past um many students you know for many different reasons are unaware or uncomfortable sharing some of that information um or sometimes just don't know um for for very different reasons um they're um um ethnicity for ethnicities totally um you know that's that that line is one of the that may be the only place left where it still calls
059out a bunch of categories um and I know just Federal accountability wise um you know there's certain categories and I think they use the unfortunate terminology of subgroup groups that you're held accountable for anyway so I wonder about just rewarding that part um to say something more about you know using data to look for patterns across groups instead of calling them all out um because you know we the the what was it called I think the the aspirations program right like that I mean that's a fantastic datadriven program and it's you know that the C ategory of um first generation is not mentioned here you know but we want you to use all the data you got quantitative and qualitative to be looking for different patterns so if what would people think about um we
060don't have to do it in real time right now but I'd be happy to just suggest some some wording um that doesn't limit the categories but says something more broadly about using data to look at patterns I mean I think you could just say data and where there's The Comma just take out sort of those specifics and it's just individual data to inform the district decision making right we could yeah we could do that or we could even just throw back in our our three of you know systematically used districtwide data and individual School level data um to identify patterns in what R R3 um including but not limited to even like or to identify patterns in bugger in identity ability and background um or we could just do the easy thing and take it
061out I think just take it out and just say to inform District decision making is fine Mike do you have thoughts on this not at this time um I think that's you know Casey brought up some of the some of her questions that she had with me uh and a lot of that is based on kind of what what we're we're required to have so I'm not quite sure how to kind of reflect that in that language so I'd have to I I think maybe taking some time and over the next couple of months to reflect on that and get some input would be good but I don't have anything right now okay my my question Mike when you collect that data is it like a is it a set form or we we collected
062it's part of the registration process and and we're required to collect know now it's self-reported data number one but it's also right um self-reported and people don't have to fill it out but it is it is information that we have to report back to the Vermont agency of education and they have to they have to report it to uh US Department of Education so there there's there there's guidelines on what has to be asked and how right yeah so I'm wondering if we would be better off just leaving it um without even saying our three just in case it does change because yeah because it changes and I just I don't know if you expanded what you're asking if that would necessarily be allowed I'm going to guess no um you know if it's if
063it's mandated what you can ask it'd be it could be tricky you know so it might be easier to just leave it a data yeah I mean and I think you know that data is pretty limited right like I I include data to be a wide right like asking you know student surveys like asking kids how they're doing and whether they're they're feeling like school is an inclusive place with belonging like I think that's important data as well so maybe leaving it just at data if we assume data is going to be assumed to be Beyond is going to include qualitative that's the case you say data gonna be broad definition okay so we'll we'll go with what Elizabeth was suggesting on that then yeah keep it simple Yes awesome sometimes simple is more inclusive
064I think right yeah and and I feel like you know that that last bit around implementation could use some more work but again I think the district groups are going to be well positioned for that and one of our design principles is to be conscious of procedure versus policy so I think they'll be looking into that so um well both thank you Casey wow thank you for like reading it so closely my goodness I did not realize you're going to be in there doing doing the word smithing for us hugely for as say it's helpful to have somebody with kind of a fresh set of eyes and and thoughts that that wasn't part of those conversations to kind of edit it and kind of tease out some of the important parts that we may have
065missed so thank you Casey thanks for being here and good luck to you thank you all thank you all for having me and good luck with this work it's all important thank you take care take care um okay well I think then um I would say maybe we should hold off on setting another date and see um Mike you can give us an update on what happened over the summer and how you're doing and that looking towards mid-september thing um when the board reconvenes in whenever that is when is it end of August end of August I think it's August 28th okay yeah you give us a little update then and we can set a date sometime soon after that maybe on an off Wednesday and I should have mentioned again that I I was
066taking notes for the meeting so we have that covered thank you so much hey question is Retreat next Wednesday it's Wednesday right or is it Friday it's Wednesday at the Mad River Barn okay thank you oh boy okay it's really summer my friends yes of course Tori thank you for joining from the car Tor and from wherever you are in the world whatever fabulous local yeah yeah no I'm I'm in Chittenden I needed to actually um padle board the reservoir for work and I thought I was gonna be done soon so thanks for putting up with my sporadic attendance locations duty calls I mean honestly like if you blurred your background I would think you were like in your office like on full Focus mode because you're always on point wherever you're come calling in
067from so exactly I really appreciate everybody's work on the committee so far thank you that was a positive response and and I think again Casey did a great job but it didn't seem like she found anything like glaringly obvious that we missed so I'm taking that as a positive as well and she clearly gave it a really deep read and as very age good sign can't wait to get hear hear from other Educators and students and see what happens with it appreciate you all I'll see you we'll see each other next Wednesday next Wednesday sounds good good night thanks a lot thanks again Mike everyone