001get seated and all that um welcome to the um EDI committee meeting um we're gonna get started thank you guys for coming um I'm excited to see all these different updates that we've got going on and uh yeah Mr Johnson would you like to take it from here so what we put we put student voices first so we actually just put you first so yeah close yours tomorrow's agenda do you want me to go to that I'm gonna forward it to you right now okay these are microphones and some people who are watching online [Applause] yep okay [Music] thank you very much [Music] thank you [Applause] so go ahead introduce awesome yeah so yeah I hope you all are well um I'm Simon Bond Junior at Hoggard uh here representing student voice we had a
002few conflicting schedules to track and sports Etc going on but I'm here to represent us but some of us will probably are probably watching online and um we came up with all this together as well as the graphics so yeah so I just want to give you guys a quick update um first of all for those who are not familiar to reiterate our purpose student voice seeks to provide structures for students to work and collaborate with equal voice with adult decision makers so that there are options opportunities for students to impact decisions that have a direct impact on them as the biggest stakeholders in our education it's important we are involved in the conversations that affect our education right so last month we had sent a recording video in which we had the intention of
003going to the principals meeting and charging all the principals at the middle and high school level uh with spreading a Google form or a survey or a interest form that way we could collect data and come back to the board and let them know specifically how many students were interested in joining the engagement team and committees unfortunately we were not able to do that in the time frame given as we didn't know the dates we need to submit the approval for our interest form to go out and also the meeting was more of a PD professional development meeting and wasn't the proper form to display this so just to give you guys an update we went another route meeting with the equity team leaders Miss Abby Noble and Mr Brian Jones one of the ways
004the students learn best is through peer-to-peer interaction so our student Voice team will be attending the student Equity Summit later this month we will have a little booth set up where people can learn more about us and from there we'll be able to collect some of the data but we would still like guidance on how we can best get our interest form out to a completely inclusive New Hanover County student population while it may seem like things have been slow there's been communication barriers on the ground but we're striving to be effective efficient timely with our submissions and move everything with Fidelity first so our vision can come fruitful in a successful way that is free of error uh if you guys look at the visual up there with Miss uh Miss Nobles and Mr
005Jones we really hashed out what how student equity and student voice are are proving to be the structures for student engagement in the county and we kind of uh broke down the details of how we're how we're different and how we're similar and as you can see student Equity teams is student centered while we are student-led and so this meeting was really important for us to to figure out how we're going to collaborate in the future as we do have some commonalities and also how we're going to operate using student Equity team as they're already an established group in the county um so essentially in short term student Equity team is almost like the the boots on the ground that's going to help funnel and feed some of our the information to student voice that
006bigger broader Group which is the student engagement team which is open to everyone and essentially these students will have one student a peer advisor representative from the equity team who will be also attending our big student voice meeting we plan to have them rotating and more informal basically whoever feels strongest about the issues that student voice is covering at that time they will be allowed to join our meetings and will ensure that at least one student Equity team person is represented at our student voice meetings so really this is just to show everyone how we are separate but still collaborating uh together and we're two separate entities but with a broader purpose of student engagement so Mr Jones said did I get that about correct awesome Okay cool so so yeah that's this is where
007we are so far um we we still have some more um some more things to work out in terms of the application student voice will still have its own separate application um but really this whole that we've been working on just like the um the dynamic between student Equity teams and student voice and how we can best interact to help help our students in our County so awesome that's about the only thing I want to update you guys on so far but if you have any questions or anything please let me know snowballs did I miss anything am I okay no worries thank you instead of committee members if you guys just take a moment just to look at what they put together and if there's any questions that you have I feel like now
008over here opportunity um because they will be presenting this again tomorrow evening at the school board yeah [Applause] do you have an estimated like how many people do you have engaged in your Equity teams in the student Equity teams for the past three years we've had around 150 to 200 students so we have students representing each middle in high school um and those students are selected by the site coordinators which could be principal social worker counselor teacher um they are selected in collaboration with people with stakeholders from the school so really targeting social workers the ESL teachers EC teachers um just a collaboration to ask students and then from there it's just been a word of mouth and students asked to join so yes last year I believe we had around 200 in each middle
009and high school collectively and of course that size varies depending on what the school is focused on and the meetings look slightly different just because we want to respect what each School site needs and so different projects and I know that I spoke at a previous meeting but um and I can send out our documentation again but different projects that students have worked on are really about bettering their school climate and culture just so students feel like the school is theirs so they're more so when we go back up they're more focused on sorry that's where I said student um equity and engagement teams on the left they're more focused on that school building um whereas than the student voice is more focused on speaking on the student's behalf at being represented being Representatives yes
010thank you how did your presentation do at the principal's meeting oh like I said we unfortunately couldn't meet at that meeting it was more of a professional development it wasn't really the right place we found out so um we're gonna probably have a little booth at the equity team meeting instead and that'll be part of the place where we start collecting that data so we unfortunately couldn't couldn't do that our principal's meeting no one told you that ahead of time that it was a professional meeting a little bit late and then also there was some um like I said communication barriers sometimes and we found that out late and so we had to go with a different route so who you talk to to make sure you get the next one that would present the
011next one principal's meeting not the right place to do it because that's a place of professional development for the principals oh it wasn't just that means yeah that's the whole it's the whole yeah so right and that was part of our conversation so we're looking for different Avenues right now oh yeah to also say what Malcolm was saying we were under the impression that it was a a forum where the students could go and present and get them you know like we're presenting now but it was just we were told it was just mainly professional development for them and it's just not the best place for that so what is the best place for this that was my question I just grab the mic yes I think it would be ideal for all principals in
012the district to be aware of both of these do you see this graphic so what would be the place yeah kind of what this students have been trying to do is just small days that's kind of what the students have been trying to do is really touch base with principles like send it an email um it's just you know also one of the communication barriers like it's like a wall sometimes because everybody can't always get to their emails so if they had the the space to present to them to say hey this is what we're doing whatever way you'd like to implement delivering this interest form at your school we would like your assistance in that because they don't have you know the means and the power nor the time to be able to issue
013that interest form out to every single school so taking to the principles at the top we felt or thought was the best thing but at this point we just don't know how we can best reach all of the principles to present that to them so I apologize because I I was not aware I don't I'll refer to Ms Walker as well with Walker oh one in our understanding from a regular principal speaking I don't remember saying professional development we wouldn't even thought that that would be the opportunity that was the idea was to present to the president yes okay so I'm sorry I don't understand no one told us and no one told us that it would you wouldn't be able to present but that's a question for ladies well and here's an interesting question
014of order of operations in New Hanover County I don't have the answer but maybe somebody does it's not your principals are busy right is it just anybody from the community or any student can come and get the entire principal Cadre to think about something or does that come from the top down who supervises the principles so do they need to know about this to make this happen so I can take this um so moving but what we're doing uh is not saying that they cannot get in front of principles saying we're not saying that's not impossible okay what we're saying is that particular meeting is where it cannot take place because that's geared towards the principles professional development okay all right so what our conversations will look like moving forward is other convenings where principles
015and Gathering uh whether that's over the summer but those are things that we typically just have to parse out and it's much more is bigger than this we have to really reach across the Departments just to get a better understanding of where we can make sure we can seat them for them to be heard and it's the best best case to ensure uh total bites from all of our problems right that's that's awesome I think anything the sooner the better obviously if we want to get that those numbers and that data collect like collected for a smoother operation and running for the next couple school years and stuff it would be really great to have have that soon when do you graduate I'm a junior yeah okay so we at least have 12 more months
016be better to get it done sooner right right absolutely um student voice oh absolutely there are and we're we are we are yeah we we sometimes do feel stuck at times and we're trying to do our best to get those what those numbers will be helpful for is then that those future discussions of how the rest of the implementation will work will be powered by those numbers that we get that's why we need those now can I can I suggest something and I don't know if this is doable or not whether or not there's a list serve for principals emails I mean just to even get some information to them before we get in front of them because I feel like that would be pretty quickly quick and effective I don't I don't know how
017much principals know about student voice do we know a few do for sure from like I know for Lainey Tanea and hogrid high school and we've had the round table and a few other locations but Myrtle Grove ctac ctex so we do have some but I think um we've struggled a little bit with the emails and we've tried other methods like sending a video online like we I remember Cassie and I once I made a two minute video we sent those It's Tricky It's Tricky online so really convening whether all that would be you know [Music] allies to help the kids negotiate these areas because it seems like this is an untoward roadblock Zach we should be able to help them um that it's true because it really helps their ability and we don't want
018them to be frustrated in moving forward so that's the first question and then comment is is is this the only way that they can get the interest survey out because I know the college department will send you know they have emails to our families [Music] that you know find out for email like other announces because I know that's what they did um a few months back for a second they they put out an announcement to the cost of apartment to let the community know that we exist just like we want to do for the kids and then um how to contact for membership for information so is there a workaround is way to do this and is it under our foreign [Music] so to your first point uh it's absolutely Uncharted Territory so which is
019why this opportunity is very unique on both ends of the spectrum for our students and for our adult allies in the divisions because um as they're implementing their policies now we're at well they have their policy confirmed and now we have the implementation what does that look like you know so that's the conversation we're happy we're having and moving forward you will have consistent updates from student voices so what it so it doesn't appear that there's no movement um so that's one thing that one of their promises well my promises to them was an open line of communication so that's things that we are navigating um and as far as the principles um there are many Avenues uh to get that information across but student voices which is a student-led organization made a point to
020one identify the principles so with that being the Avenue I support it if we shift we shift but however you guys want to you know move you know I'm here I wanted to say something too and did you have something to say oh okay so uh um I just forgot oh so one of the things that I thought was really super powerful here recently which was also super sad um the young man DJ who passed um what what I saw from that is the way that communication was delivered um I never I never met DJ I did not know him but I prayed and I contributed and I tried to do my part as much as I possibly could in support of his life while he was here um but in the process Instagrams were
021hit up Facebooks were hit up School Facebook pages were hit up the county newsletter I believe sent out information about him and then from that our principal had sent out our regular newsletter inviting teachers and students and and families to wear purple in honor of him and we all did and it was done throughout the county and I looked at that and I thought well okay if that can happen here can it happen here because if if he could if all of those forms could be used to celebrate his life and to encourage and pray and hope for him can we not do the same I hate to use the two as such you know as an example but that's the only one that I saw that was like really super effective can we also
022use our student Voice page use Twitter can we um you know encourage like communication send out something in the mass email to all employees to get this information to see hey would you be willing to do X Y and Z would you be able to share this interest form out with your schools however they wanted to implement it like if so please give us a shout back fill out this form give us a something but we just really need the push because at this point we're meeting to still have the same conversation of delivering our information and support us on delivering that information if that makes sense can I just say it doesn't it say in the policy that um you guys can communicate with Communications or no um yeah it says Communications and Outreach
023Outreach divisions so I think I think maybe that might be because it is like Malcolm instead of student what group I think if the policy says it's okay it'll just reach out to jobs the communication or whoever is entirely communication so again I just want to remind her this is a student-led organization our students right there the team of students identify the principal at the Avenue um so I just don't want to conflate it that we didn't explore or we weren't open to the principle of what that Avenue and any new exploration of any Avenues is something that's been identified right now and that we're going to take that in full account so in our conversations now is not necessarily approaching as if it's been a barrier if now we're seeing that this is going
024to be another course of action so I do want to make sure I'm redirecting that so we're not approaching that this is a very no this is new information shared with idiot committee like it's supposed to so we can Workshop all right so I just want to reframe that right and just also as a clarification the student equity and engagement teams on the left side those are not student-led so these are student-centered but adult facilitated because they're at their school sites they're students are working on projects during the school day they need the support of a facilitator an adult facilitator who would be that site coordinator counselor social worker teacher principal so there is that difference which is why we have underneath student-centered versus student-led yeah that's really helpful so I reading the policy and
025this was passed in October of 2022 October 4th 2022 in section D of the policy the superintendent or designee which is the chief Equity diversity and inclusion officer will establish and maintain the following structures each Academic Year to reach the goal of increased student voice in New Hanover County schools and so that includes the student advisory Council for the superintendent the student Equity teams one student on at least all board committees and board advisory committees and the student engagement team that goes on to say 0.5 that this will provide opportunities for connecting and convening any students who are included in the formal structure so I think the board passed the policy October 2022 the superintendent is responsible for creating procedures through a designee or some other structure so that's the question and I think Malcolm
026you're doing a great job of telling us that's underway but I think the timeline from the point of contact what's the timeline to make this happen because it's to happen annually so what do we think the timeline is because I love seeing these people and every month conversation right now we talked uh we met on the 28th yeah um it's past 2018 we talked about what a scope and sequence for programming because when we're talking about the student these student-led organizations we do have to recognize that especially if um in the case of student voices or the student engagement umbrella receiving funds you know you can't program then go for money these things have to be budgeted prior too so those are all conversations we have in of you know the structure so is this
027going to take on a district Club structure I know there's a district called structure that doesn't happen but when we meet um so when I say we as the student engagement team and myself um those are the conversations um that we're having because we have to really not we they and we have to support when they land on a Model that they want to adopt we can't move forward without really solidifying what they what would their existence look like in addition what's that structure and so we're starting to see that today um okay okay there has been a structure established for the past few years I guess three years Ryan how long have we been doing this I'm always sorry yeah specifically for student voices okay which is something new um right again this umbrella
028want to get a confused student voices is part of the policy that came with Equity diversity and inclusion what you're seeing now is student Equity teams and just a collaboration in alignment so we don't have so many student groups operating independently so this is just showing alignment however student voices is what's going to filter straight into the equity diversity inclusion officer out into the board got it okay Mr Johnson yes sir the purpose of sharing with the principals is the principal needs the principles and I know I spent over half my life principles are key to what happens in their schools absolutely if that's that's all you're thinking about about that they all need to be aware of what we're trying to do and then we know that all the principles know what it's about
029and then we can go from there but what I'd like to do is if you would talk with the superintendent and Miss Walker and Miss Mason and I will talk about finding a principal's meeting ASAP so that this group can sit down and share with the principals because it's all about that's why we're here and somebody's got to make something happening we're dragging this out and it's time that we don't or even and that's why I apologize to you because I did not know as a board member that that was not a right time because when we set that time everybody was in the room that could have said oh none of us or an AP an assistant principal's meeting as well just so I think it should be the best because again they can
030delegate they can also say this is a priority surveys you're not sure what is your who is your specific independent audience is it something that you're trying foreign [Music] and to ask students questions that they would be interested in joining student voice so that we could gain more membership so that we could be totally inclusive of all schools from that they list the different committees that students will have the opportunity to sit their thoughts and collaborate with them as they make decisions for students so from that we'll end up having from that Google form two points of data one how many middle schools and how many high school students we have that are wanting to join and then two of those students which specific committees they're trying to join me a part of and so
031using the Google format just will break it down all in the percentages and we'd be able to know first of all who wants to do what yes what monies do you need help what is the cost essentially of what is needed for this I guess yeah I don't think they mentioned that calls being associated knowledge every year that you would budget for like one bedroom set or is there something about that I just um so I'm not sure how conclude I'm sorry the only person that I would I mean student voice like and sending out what we're doing and what we've been with what they've been doing I mean it's the internet the major the major cost for this student um Equity part of the program and which is also I guess written in the
032board policy is the convenient like the spring Summit that we host every year um for all middle and high school student equity and engagement team students to attend um as well and and the student voice members as well as um a beginning of school kickoff so because student Equity teams are focused on collaboration to improve their school culture they they need some sort of guidance and Direction on like what is their project that they want to do this year so for example I teach at New Hanover High School I lead the student Equity team at New Hanover High School this year they wanted to do a Hispanic Heritage Month activity they wanted to decorate the door contest for the holidays and they wanted to do um a training for teachers on why student staff relationships
033are so important and vital so so they at these convenings they like they per they get ready and hyped up and excited to do this so our spring Summit um the biggest barrier that we have seen historically with that is just the transportation cost and the cost to provide lunches um so those those numbers we can get to if you were curious about that um but yes so those costs associated with the bigger convenings and then for our School site coordinators historically we have had a day of professional development for those site coordinators so they can lead their groups effectively and really facilitate student growth and gaining those leadership qualities because we're very focused on leadership opportunity and voice for those students so um so there's we can give you a detailed list if you
034were curious but those are just off the off the Dome a couple ideas of what we need um money for for those but one question um well we need to we need to move on pretty soon is it is it possible for you to if you want to do it quick that time yeah it's really cool but but budget should not be able to it should not have to get in the way of like the the process and the procedures because a lot of that is just collaboration right so so I think that that although budget is indeed important for all the reasons you just said hopefully we shouldn't use be able to have that be a oh we have to wait for something that's what we're hearing more right you're hearing that more so
035I also want to again want to clarify because I don't want to make I don't want to enter into any type of budget conversation during the up board committee meeting um what student Equity needs um it doesn't land through it doesn't come through EDI committee um they are they're we're supporting them because it's equity and we supporting our students okay so I don't want that to get confused with specifically EDI budget questions or conversations what their initiative they're doing they were doing that before EDI and now the EDI exists how do we support them and keep it going but that is an issue that's led by the student Equity uh Team yeah okay thank you guys so much um if anybody has any other questions I'm sure oh I'm so sorry um I I just
036want to ask the question and coming off the last statement has anyone looked at the notes over the past few years because um I agree with brother with my brother um Mr Johnson um the student Equity teams was before the EDI office existed but so was the school system it's it's is it really fair for us to completely Overlook all the work that has been done and is it fair to have this conversation here and to really expect to make progress there were things that was going that were going on rather um and I have to say again we cannot ignore all the publicity it has stopped the momentum but at the end of the day regardless of who's still employed who's elected or however how does it affect our students and our climate and
037our environment that is the only thing I'm really concerned about but I I would have to ask this would it not be imaginable that the work has slowed down because of all of the negativity that was centered around it and how do we get back to the place to where we were supporting one another's one another and and that's what I just want to see return when when and how and in order to do that we have to consider all things and I feel like we have I don't I don't even feel like we've mainstreamed it I think we're not being completely honest and so my question is at what when do we have a side conversation do we do we all go out Mr McManus pay for everything my whole principle yes he hasn't
038I mean but at what point in time do we have a time to have a conversation we need to take a vote to do that I mean the perfect time is y'all planning meetings you know invite the individuals on this panel into those planning sessions so you can have it in an environment to where it's suitable so we could have we could really jump in through those departmentships um because right here is right now we can't make any calls we can't so I just want to make sure you guys are supported um and invite them because every last person who spoke on here that's their agreement to come show to your plan so add them to your calendar yeah I agree I'm never a board member been invited to any what y'all doing plan and
039I think we and I I mean I only speaker every board member but we'd be happy to help out here and then and should close because we actually I think historically we've done that through the equity work group meetings because many of you were a part of those meetings so when that dissolved um I think that the line of communication has not been as as robust as it has been so we can move on here we'll take it thank you I have some at home up next we have the EDI parent work group update so um I can get the update of Miss DD Dot do you but I'm calling you just to share from your perspective as our parent here if that's okay awesome um so as you guys know we did we've selected
040uh EDI parent work group um and we've had the opportunity to meet three times um and on our second meeting uh we really identified um a task and a area of focus for our IDI work group uh and that's our teacher appreciation week that's coming up in May recognizing that all of our all of our schools uh do not have a PTA Council uh so on that second meeting I had the honor to reach out to a great Community partner of ours this interim president miss Bernice Johnson um for the national PTA uh if I'm not mistaken and she came she spoke to our ADI parent work group um I don't want to steal your thunder uh because we've identified three schools we're going to support we provided a head account and in that EDI
041parent work group it was the task task of the parents to identify Community Resources that they're associated with that wouldn't mind coming in and helping us fill the Gap so with that being excited well for you to talk about the organization that you have coming to party sure I can just it's limited that LifePoint Church is going to be donating to the new schools that we have yeah introduce yourself tell us who you are tell us what school you're a parent of absolutely formal introduction again my name is indeedy Dayo I am a parent of a freshman at Hoggard high school I have served as a teacher with New Hanover County schools in the past working in the ESL Department as an ESL teacher and I'm currently kindergarten teacher for Wilmington Preparatory Academy as far
042as our contributions that we have listed as of now I know that LifePoint Church will be donating to the schools that we indicated that do not have PTA right now and so they're really excited about being able to lend a hand and help out with that so they're getting sweet D's and all kinds of goodies and treats delivered to them so look forward to that so awesome so shout out to LifePoint Church uh so far we're still looking um right now that's just one um church one organization institution that has agreed to help so if you guys know of anyone who would love to come help and support us and kind of bridging that gap for our teachers they definitely deserve it we have the head count so if you want that information please feel
043free to email me directly and I will update our spreadsheet with that information so again uh thank you so much indeedy did I understand that that's for select schools so it's for the schools that do not have a PTA so I can give you the name of those that would be great thank you can bring that up sorry about that [Music] so right now the schools are you have Lake Forest um JC Rowe and Mosley are the three schools am I missing any schools I don't think I I'm okay I see some head knives I like that all right um so absolutely if you can support reach out to me directly um and I can provide you the faculty account for those schools to the EDI report okay all right also good evening board members
044committee members community members uh I am pleased to bring forward the EDI division report um on Tuesday March 7th UNCW Watson's College of Education um in partnership with Cape Fear Community College and New Hanover County Schools hosted the coloring landscape Summit um I definitely want to take a moment to think about human resources uh division um and Mr Bittner for inviting me to join in on a conversation about increasing the pipeline for diversity for diverse Educators and New Hanover County Schools for the month of March and continue throughout the school year I'll be working with our graduation teams to make sure we get each of our students crossed the graduation stage and just really supporting their efforts because you know graduation seasons is upon us um our kids deserve to be engaged and it's our
045duty to make sure we give them that so that's an effort I'll be supporting student support service on making sure that happens um also in collaboration with curriculum instruction um the EDI division hosting professional development alongside Mr Glenn larklier um where we discuss aiming to proactively just here mitigate and provide guidance to principals on issues related to racial ethnic bullying and harassment and EDI will continue to support our curriculum instruction um and tailoring their PD needs to really meet um the needs of our students through our school leadership um this month I also have the opportunity to to join Maureen Meehan who was the AIG supervisor and get the advisory and the gifted advisory council at the union Hanover School site visit where I was able to sit with a student focus group um and
046sitting with those students about 10 to 12 students they genuinely highlighted areas in which we can increase our enrollment for these programs and really highlight potential barriers around even The Narrative of some of our special Elite programming so what can students do at the student level what can leaders do and what we can do as a greater Community to really encourage that enrollment um and efforts related to that will be forthcoming um so just stay tuned for those um I also joined Miss Marine again I've been doing a lot of work with her uh and also Angela Jeffrey and Miss Jennifer cudelli the New Hanover County I mean the New York County Schools AIG specialist doing the most recent uh professional development where teachers explore the 2022 AP participation and performance data okay um and
047one of the most notable data points was the increase overall AP participation and exams taken for all of our students and with overall increased participation we also saw increase in some of our underrepresented student groups so um curriculum instructions continuing in their effort to really increase the amount of students we have in our specialty programs taking the riggers curriculum and just kudos to the whole curriculum instruction team for allowing me to jump in with them on that effort um on March 3rd uh New Hanover County students traveled to Greensboro to take part in the blue and gold gold bus tour Mills exploring Pathways and education um I was able to join the students on this event uh where Dr Carlson was one of the speakers um on the panel there and being at that event
048where you had Educators and over 200 students 200 male students in one room um able to talk to seasoned superintendents teach student teachers about education in the different avenues that take place once you give that service to the classroom um so it was really phenomenal to see some of our students already enrolled at A T take part and really engage so shout out to our students uh who joined us um and upcoming we have on April 20th we're headed back to Greensboro um this time we're going to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and they're going to host our girls who are interested in Health Sciences for an immersive and informational tour of their newly built state-of-the-art nursing school both of these events were in collaboration with CTE so shout out to CTE of
049these trips would not have been possible without Miss Futrell Mr Nixon and a whole entire CTE team so I'll look forward to just the continued work um with them and I also want to shout out our guidance counselors for getting this information about both these trips and in front of our students um and I'm looking forward to this continued continued exposure for our Scholars um and that concludes my EDI committee report [Applause] all right so they only nominated World 20. well not not now they only sponsored 20 slots so only 12 students um from New Hampshire school across the district who initiated it as far as nominations no there was no nomination so we uh it was through collaboration with the guidance counselors pushed it all out for any student who was a male had
050a minimum the minimum GPA fight was a unweighted 2.5 so we really just wanted to open it up to anything it was unweighted so any student who can go um of the 16 that we had applied only 12 a solid trip through and um it's just high school students it was just it was geared towards a senior these two trips are geared towards our uh Juniors and seniors because we want to focus on growing our own we should probably start looking towards middle school so that sounds like another experience we just have to create yeah absolutely so by the time they get to be juniors it seems they've kind of already decided what they want to do education or teacher may not be it but if you're trying to grow our own and groom them
051then we can start you know exposing this to that you know what I'm saying yeah absolutely just like what Miss baby said you know how those two experiences came to my desk was someone sharing that and bringing the resources and merging that communication between the institutions that it happened so if anybody has those resources that want to be in support and experience for our Scholars please connect with me and we can make it happen at a hospitalist but they were saying that they had me um Juniors and seniors because we didn't choose that yeah no I mean didn't know early in the game so that was Auntie's requirements for that experience so yeah that was so yeah we just really made it through their target audience was so yeah pursue uh I mean that's a
052great point you lift it up I mean that's something we just have to investigate so I appreciate you bringing that to the table um as well um a lot of our community um schools they don't unfortunately Platformers or they're not really available to talk unless you are doing here and historically speaking in our past schools have nothing else we at least have rocking me that dividends for our students to prepare for college so I have to say again we have to look at what we have already in place and take those that bring everybody into the poll because historical speaking stats are one way or another I would love to hear the numbers between 23. I just at the end of the day there's kids graduating in this year that year and so forth we
053have got to do and I know Dr follow sister and himself we've got to do a better job and even cause your information to the Keys disability is Elementary School so my office is a traditional conduit you know to those experiences so as they come like I said we'll push them out um I push them out on all platforms that I know of um so please feel free to connect with me um and I'll push them out to you and you just get them out to the community a quick question and um I mean I think that's really well said and and it's just maybe this is more for the announcements but we we at GE every year we put on the girls in technology Summit every year and we We Gather Middle School girls
054like for the pipeline it's exactly for the pipeline so that they are aware of like what careers in stem could look like um and it's April 27th this year I would love to get with you I know we've already sent emails out to principles okay I would love to get with you and supplement that perhaps so and one thing I do have to um just go back and talk to my colleagues especially curriculum instructions because I'm not sure right now the heart cut off for some of our because the Summers approaching for some of my field trips sure so I just wanted 20 seconds I want to clarify yeah usually is right in the past it's been science teachers for example so I'll get what we have done and to you just so we can
055connect before and see if there's anything absolutely and then the only other thing I was going to ask and this was more on like a pipeline thing and I love the work you're doing with the AIG I think that's great and super valuable um are we having and this is kind of a very early identification I know they do nurturing for young children and I think I want to say k through three before the official AIG is that done everywhere like in every school consistently like how are we doing the nurturing program okay so yeah the more we did see some data two years ago right where we saw that Freeman did not have an AIG teacher so the nurturing couldn't take place but we don't have any current data to look at okay because
056that could be something we could look at just to make sure that we're doing it wherever great thank you exactly to get people working out there are some and because I taught in high schools and we had to go through this process to see if it was worth bringing pleasure people in or like hyping jobs or very particular jobs during the time where we had I think it was you know I'm hiring a lot of people from other countries in but trying to find um more visiting science in their jobs so they were trying to make a push within the schools to um to make kids more aware of different jobs that they can have so maybe just like bringing in different companies that might want to expose some of these kids to those things
057as early as you know Elementary Middle School it's just an interest instead of it always being like almost so this is another perfect flow for CTE who just recently hosted their career fair that had over a hundred businesses come out in front of Legion stadiums it was awesome um so opportunities like that just to keep you know push to keep pushing them and keep pushing them absolutely and one thing I do I love that point and it's also we balance it because recognizing our students especially inner city Women's that exposure to what other places look like is just as key as just as vital for them to see what that life looks like so absolutely just that that marriage of both so and I think the other really that just happened not that long ago
058was that we had a principal for the day so we had lots of community leaders in our schools who saw what's going on and gave them perspective and so reaching out to them they want to they want to help they want to support our kids um so reaching out to those Business Leaders um I think is going to be a powerful asset too who can do that so I would like to put a plug-in we're getting ready to form a community task force which is going to address systems in ways that we can reach Community better and that's in the works right now about my second meeting with um our academic officer on that and then the next couple months we're going to have a meeting with business various people in the community connect with
059businesses and how we create the pipeline for that sort of because there's a lot of interest out there like Miss Mason said for for visit especially after our principal shadowing day we got to come back here and we got to talk about what we learned and what what and there was a lot of energy behind companies getting involved now GE does a lot already but I know there's a lot of people out there that really want to do more and and so what we're trying to do is just figure out how we can make those connections stronger and they have a lot of the last year oh yeah how to start their own their own well yeah so I mean I I would push Genesis Club because they are technically already they helped apply some
060people in them in businesses small businesses already in the schools I've already done that especially at C-Tech so I mean I'm going to push that so we have on our task force we're going to have the chamber president so that's going to be very helpful so we're trying to add people to the task force that we'll be able to bring their unique kind of ideas whether it's from health care whether it's from business and there that's these this small group is going to be able to come up with the pillars that we need in the plan and so we're in the beginning stages of discussion on it and hopefully you know as it plays out we'll be able to make all those connections so the good name dropping because they're they're out there I know
061there are and they all want a lot of businesses want to help because they want to make you know our district stronger well can I make a comment when we are looking at and so this is across the board and an educational institution when you're looking at making business connections you look at the purpose than what you're making a business connection if you're making it for curriculum to happen enhancement make sure that whatever businesses you're bringing in is connected to the curriculum that you are trying to address and so does to promote student understanding and so I understand that everyone in business cannot talk to Children right and so you need to be careful about yes you can have a chamber of commerce you have a Junior's class and so this is nothing against anyone
062but everyone cannot come in the classroom and talk to children and engage them in the time frame and keep them in case this is community so we want business and Community but we're doing it with our chief academic officer Dr Faison and with the superintendent as well so she's very aware of curriculum she's very aware how to fit it in so I I think it sounds like oh we're just going to get business to come in and do it's going to be a lot more structured and it's going to be tailored to what students see and the individual need of each school it's not going to be like whatever you were just saying I mean well no I'm saying because one one of the things because key elements to business and bringing in business is
063getting students aware of career development at younger agents because that's where their conversation initiated from so that's where I'm going back to the initial conversation and Malcolm brought up the great job that CTE did with the career fair and so that is something that if we're talking about Career Development so that's where I thought this conversation was because that's where it started am I correct no it's Community Partners ships in general we're not talking about what it looks like you still waiting to the conversation yeah all right so I do want to um yes ma'am and you know I agree with the diversity of careers and everything but I also want us to remember that we um priority goal for recruiting and retaining Educators they are leaving the field rapidly and so we need to
064put a high priority focus on um the interests of students who are you know thinking that they might want to go into education and maybe groom their thoughts you know kind of lean them in that direction um and it might mean having something separate from the the normal career day it might just be educational careers day or something just focused on education itself just to see what the interest is for our students here you know if they're really interested in education and how we can work with that group of students whether we grow them here or whether they go out somewhere else but you know maybe the counselors you know from the schools can work with them or whatever but we we need to find out who in our student body is interested in education
065do we even have students here out about 25 to 30 000 students who's interested you know not all of them because we know some of well let's just say uh 10 000 high school students just throwing that out which about 10 000 high school students are interested in going into education and maybe start you know grooming them working with them letting them know what types of disciplines they could go into what's the disciplines that have deficits where people are really needed math science where special education whatever and not to throw out all the other careers but we started out realizing that we really needed to recruit and retain Educators I have a friend that is retiring you're going to see Charlotte in June she's already retired from teaching so she went back because they couldn't
066even hardly find anybody to work with teachers and when she started doing this after her first retirement she had like 20 and 25 students now she's getting like six at UNC Charlotte you know and it's really sad you know and then when you think about what's going on in in the country you know with the violence in the schools that's really going to push people out I volunteered elementary school and I got like sick to my stomach last week and was having a challenging time making myself go to the school to volunteer so you know we got to do something to you know turn this spin this around to make it put a positive spin on it I just want to throw that in okay thank you um so we do have about 10 minutes
067left for the community we got about 10 yeah we do have about 10 minutes left actually um [Music] wonderful opportunity and there were connections that were made to various opportunities to live in the community for tutoring folks from ncsl and different countries as well if we have any such clubs in our high schools and could we start there or in our middle schools and because it was very student Legacy centers and opportunity for a lot of up to get our feet wet and explore so that was one thing I haven't heard anybody mentioned the easy kids and how we're bringing that into desktop I just wanted to put that out there as well when we're talking about all these opportunities how are our easy teachers and staff been informed about oh there's things that are
068going on of the opportunities for the churches so um be very clear because I got you yes ma'am um there have been conversations about what those experiences look like um they hadn't been brought to the Forefront because just logistically uh with the partners I have been encountered as you can there's a trend here I've been in conversation with UNCG um and they're beyond academics program uh and the newly renamed um the program is the office of comprehensive transition and post-secondary education um and during my time at UNCG it was a program where you have those students um with different abilities and they will come and assimilate to campus life they will go through the same course schedule so those are opportunities we are in talks of um I would never want to prematurely you know
069say these things are going to happen on set for this time until I can get it solidified so just because not mentioned it is not forgotten um we're just looking for that that perfect you know opportunity to really give them what they deserve absolutely absolutely um I I believe there were teachers and Dad classes going back to that um teachers they do recruitment retention I do know it's in the they have CPE classes that do teach your program yeah I don't know that they exist in every High School I don't know um Dr Faye um who is is it not Dr Faison um who um CTA director miss you Terrell yeah she brought it up doing our um joined the color of the line during calling the landscape service that they are CTE they have
070teacher part one and teacher prep two currently right now high schools however there are other counties that do have like um student Affinity groups to the teacher Cadet programs and various things like that so that is one question that I was going to ask um like how do you expand on what is already happening with CTE just to make sure you target it more because there are children in elementary and middle school that already know they want to be teachers now and what realm they don't know but if we can promote education within I mean because I mean teachers are charged to promote every occupation and self-season yeah so like that's the most craziest thing in the world like we're we're supposed to be doing stuff we're supposed to get a mixed up but we're
071not promoting so really quick I do want to give Miss Black her due diligence because she she has one last update before we end um this is a great conversation I know we can talk about it but I definitely want to give her a Time thank you so much that is so kind of you I want to thank Miss Mason and Mr Johnson as our chair and our chief diversity equity and inclusion officer that report was amazing that report was amazing I want to thank our former chairs Ms Walker and Mr McManus that report was amazing I'd love to see it blasted throughout the county that was absolutely amazing and all I'm here to say is that we've got an ongoing conversation you must have been to the C rack committee community relations and advisory
072committee for the city and the county because there is a conversation underway to connect SEPTA with the school district and begin to Foster conversations for parents to help them to understand the system and so Mr Johnson has said he's got that torch he's carrying it forward it will happen and you can count on us to help out how does that sound absolutely okay thank you member and then announcement I just have a question and well I have a comment and when we start looking at policies and procedures and we started looking at legislation Acts like such as Hospital 187 how does that affect the work of EDI and school systems and everything else because I'm I'm bringing it back to questions um it's not political it's not argumentative just like I when I sent it
073out but when we start looking at policies and practices that individuals or groups want to enact or not in that who is it promoting what are the pros and cons of it how do we look at how do we have honest enduring conversations about it because we can talk about it in silos but if we're on a committee together we need to have open discussions about it um and who are they adding to systems that have negatively impacted others or is it promoting the growth of Student Success because that's all we're here for it is all about the children it is all about how they're going to be successful so when we start looking at policies that whether they're in the news whether I don't care what your political party is or who you vote
074for like it doesn't matter but when we have policies that some can seem you know like we need to have a time frame and these meetings to have conversations about them or outside of the means or whatever else and so that's just my comment because I know it's almost time for us to go and I'm home but but I didn't want to say it like that but I just know that it's it's just there it is there the conversations are taking place the newspaper is waiting for somebody to say something new media is waiting for somebody to say something but if we don't have open honest conversations and it's okay to have alternative points of view yeah like we we don't have to believe the same thing but let's have a conversation about why we
075don't believe the same thing and what reason we don't believe in these things and why do you feel like this should be dismissed or why we should feel like this should be accepted because this all these shadows and all this side talks about what is going on like it's it's not helping our children it's not helping the children and you know thank you yes any other board committee members yeah this would be really quick but I would I would too if possible [Music] know what changes are going to be made to the EC programs at different schools I've heard from some of my parents that um that their programs were removed or different programs were added and that that is causing children to have to like move at fifth grade and do a whole new
076school and a new social network and so that you know that can be challenges so if we have like an updated Matrix or something I would love that information so we can help communicate that to families um because yeah people have the misconception that us board members know everything all the time yeah sure yeah this is not our role but when we do know then we can ask the appropriate questions and it definitely can help with communication because it's just it can be disruptive to families and I understand in complexities and all of that but whatever I can do to help support those families for all kids but particularly for EC kids that's right you know and having that in structure it throws it all up right I get that absolutely okay absolutely thank you
077Sean can you just announce again what that announcement was okay oh yeah yeah okay I'm sorry she wasn't okay okay I just want to say thank you so much for your report you've been really busy and we can see that um not just here but other places as well but I'm wondering if we have priority goals that we can take your report and put some of your action items up under so we can see where we're going with our priority goals [Music] you have access to it um but what we can do um you guys can with any proposed things you want to bring to committee email the committee for ask for proposed like for like which proposed agenda items um I always I'll compile them as they come uh Miss back with emails and
078things and I will shoot it to uh Miss uh Melissa Mason the chair and you get the okay and that's what I did but you can bring whatever needs to be discussed [Music] um to us and told you we want us to do that through email no through email no email with all of us so we all see yeah I mean so that's the so you know like how we did last week or basically that how we just reply to an email chain last week is that what you want us to do or how do you I mean I'm just asking I mean there hasn't been a formalized portion of it I mean that's how uh C rack got onto the agenda um so if you explicitly say hey uh can we propose a such
079conversation all right right okay I think I understand what Miss sidbury is saying because it's really clear you got to make an announcement here but you're saying can we have some space on the agenda to have the conversation not just to mention that you want to have it or is there another place to have the conversation I don't know the answer though I mean so that student voice I mean as community members I mean I mean Phil as community members feel free to engage in those discussions with me I mean how we see fit but as far as how the EDI board committee is going to function I think that's just uh that's a different conver a different conversation once we end this meeting and we yeah we can finalize that so yeah so anything
080you want on the agenda send it to me or to Mr Johnson and we will make sure it's on there and also we we're having a town hall as a full board coming up soon so if there's any questions that you want to ask yeah I would I would look for that because I think I don't know what was it the 18th I believe it's the 18th yeah we're having it in town hall so yeah that's the approach that is one of the appropriate places to ask you have more Town Hall yes yes I don't know what format it's going to be in yet yeah I don't know if it's in public or yes absolutely yes five policy has to have three year and this will be our first yeah okay and they'll probably announce
081it tomorrow night you said that's a pathway for those questions to be asked yeah she said sure I mean what I'm just saying is a border I mean we can do it here in EDI committee but we can also do it to the full board I mean that's the reason we have these somehow that was a reason to set them up because the challenge is when we have our board meetings we have a call to audience and um we don't get to respond yeah right we don't get to do this so the formats that we're hoping to have with our three a year that we have is that there is a back and forth or there's a q a and it just depends on the format at the time I think we're exploring different kinds
082of formats yeah we've had a question and answer um I can't remember what we had last year anybody can go look at them then they're online wasn't widely participated in because it was a summer yeah and I mean we've had some that nobody really kind of came to but we're providing the opportunity and it's in policy that we have three years so first one is this month no this is where we get to and there's an announcements last but not least the details for the um program you were talking about yes the girls in technology I I will be happy to send that out absolutely absolutely and you said that was the 27th um that is uh yes April 27th perfect um if there is nothing else thank you guys for coming thank you for
083the discussion thank you for being here and participating and caring about our kids thank you yeah [Music] okay I don't think so I think we've seen each other yeah yeah