001and I look forward for you to still be engaged in the in the school I know even before you being on the board you were very much engaged with us um in terms of trying to rate fundraise and sponsor and do other things and so I look forward to see you continuing that engagement um because it is it it has been so valuable and will continue to be valuable so just again thank you so much for the for your serving on the school board thank you I I'll go next I just want to thank you Jerry for your service and your dedication to the students and the staff at a USD and I wish you all the luck and God bless you and your new Endeavors whatever they may be I'm sure we'll see you
002around town thank you Gabby we can't hear you can you guys hear me now can you guys hear me yeah okay so let me start again one more time I would like to thank and congratulate board member Jerry bies Bogle for her service on the soua Unified School Board I appreciate your sacrifice your perseverance to always want what's best for all of the students the staff the teachers and parents it took your high energy your Compassionate Heart learning curves for you to flourish into the president of the school board you found your North Star and you brought your light forward I see your growth I am glad that I've had the opportunity to serve with you on the board I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors adalanta Jerry good luck thank
003you president Bibles Vogal I believe that was the four board member so the floor is yours well um I'd like to thank you all for having the opportunity to serve and um all that I've learned because I have do only have a business background so I've never been in the education field and you all just threw in jumped in and helped me because that was huge I have learned so much about education and every single board member on here has got such a special ability you know addition everybody has their own own Niche and it's and just watching the growth from when I first started and how everything is going now even though we've hit harder times financially but I'm looking at our school district just flourishing just flourishing and all of the new additions
004and the old editions and everybody who's come and gone I just appreciate everybody our students our parents our staff our community just everybody who's involved holding up our children children our children are very lucky to have us underneath them all of you so that's pretty much it it was great working with all of you thank you and now we will move on to ah get the tears out of my eyes uh item 4.0 items from the floor public comment on agenda or non-agenda items 4.1 this is the opportunity for the public to address the board agenda on non-agenda I on agenda or non-agenda items no action can be taken on non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on any agenda or non-agenda items to address the board
005please raise your hand while in Zoom attendance Jerry you need to do approval of agenda oh thank you no problem 3.0 approval of agenda so do I have a motion on the floor so moved second moved by board member Greer seconded by board member paa any discussions okay seeing done we'll go ahead and vote ah I need to join the meeting just a second I'm sorry excuse me all righty hey are we having technical difficulties um I can't seem to join I'm just waiting for Yolanda and Gabriella you can't join uh try backing out and then coming back in not the meeting but the and I'm having trouble with my oh never mind I'm not I'm just being hey are you all having any problem not we'll just do hands it's not like there's a
006whole lot of voting in this meeting [Laughter] [Music] and okay it's five uh Gabrielle is the on okay let's do a hand uh board member Cruz Gonzalez yes board member Rodriguez Pena I think you have to unmute Yolanda oh I didn't even see her that's why I raised my hand oh okay I'm sorry I didn't have alrighty fantastic uh board member Greer yes and board member arianis yes alrighty there we go that's all the voting we have today so we'll just go ahead and we'll move straight into 5.1 study session diversify our narrative ethnic studies and systematic systemic racism thank you good evening board uh we are uh very excited uh to bring the study session to you tonight um tonight you're going to hear from a variety of voices um you're going to participate
007in a variety of activities and have various opportunities to engage in dialogue and to ask questions uh before I turn it over to Dana I want to publicly acknowledge our high school students and our ed services team that worked really hard to create a virtual experience that's interacting that's that's interactive and engaging uh for you uh so with that being said I'd like to turn it over to Dana Mitchell good evening I'm going to share my screen that's not what I wanted about present there we go all right good evening um tonight we are very excited to um facilitate this board study session we have three topics of study uh there are three sections and first you are going to hear from five of our Zo and Gladstone High School students who are part of
008a national movement called diversify our narrative you'll learn more about their work and its impact next we will um uh provide an opportunity for you to review the topic of ethnic studies and then finally our last topic tonight is around systemic racism um just to give a little context uh before we get started with that on July 7th uh the board of education agendize a discussion on systemic racism to really begin the steps that the district can uh take to address support build capacity among staff students and our community and all of these topics these three topics tonight provide a thematic framework um that not only provide um educational equity for our students but also in addressing systemic racism so I'm going to stop sharing the screen and I'm going to introduce um our students
009so we're very very excited um uh that they are here tonight to talk about uh diversifier our narrative and I'm going to introduce uh Elena Haro and I'll can I interrupt for just one second you can I'm sorry due to my confusion we skipped public comment oh oh we need to go back to public comment and then we will go forward no no worries okay okay I am so sorry I I guess this is my last meeting isn't it okay and so I'll read the words uh this is a opportunity for the public to address a board on agenda or non-agenda items no action can be taken on non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on any agenda or non-agenda item to address the board please raise
010your hand while in Zoom attendance so if anybody would like to speak please raise your hand okay with that done we'll go back to where we were thank you thank you um so right now I would like to introduce uh Elena Haro and Elena I'm gonna go ahead and have you unmute and then introduce uh your team this evening and I'll go ahead and share the screen and bring up your slides okay can I introduce myself now yes please thank you um good evening everyone before we introduce ourselves uh on behalf of diversify narrative ausd we would like to acknowledge that we are all gathered on the unseated land of the tongva or k peoples I ask you to join us in acknowledging the Tonga Community their Elders both past and present as well as
011future Generations we knowled that auso and many um settlements throughout the United States have been founded upon exclusions and erasures of many indigenous people including those on Whose land this um on land we each are on this acknowledgement demonstrates a commitment to beginning the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism now to introduce myself my name is Elena Haro my pronouns are she her and hers I'm one of the co-district leads of of diversifier narrative a USD and I go to Gladstone High School good afternoon board my name is Yara Chavez my pronouns are she her and hers I am Elena's co-lead for diversifier narrative a USD and I'm a junior attending Gladstone High School good evening everyone my name is Alia Ido and my pronouns are she hers and hers
012and I am the teacher student um out Outreach director here for diversifier our narrative a USD and I am currently a sophomore at Gladstone High School good evening everyone my name is em Ruiz I'm a ninth grader at azuza high school my pronouns are she her and hers and I'm diversifier our narrative hello my name is my pron are he him is I'm a junior at Glon high school and I a member of diversifier Naran so what is fire narrative is a campaign that was founded for students by students for students to provide pathway for high schoolers to organize a student-led movement that advocates for anti-racist and depressive and diverse reading materials by black indigen and people of classroom and now at this point you might be asking how do we diversify our narrative the
013main point of diversify our narrative is to pass a mandate at our school in our school district that would require at least one book written by a black indigenous or other person of color within every English literature High School class this includes higher level courses such as AP and IB classes an important note is that at least one of these mandated books must be about the black experience this is due to overwhelming amounts of anti-blackness that we've seen throughout our own communities all fictional books adopted by diversifier narrative should be published post Civil Rights Movement which is any time after the 1960s this is to ensure sensitivity and relativity so that our students aren't bored reading fictional books my favorite piece of literature written by a black indigenous or other person of color is inside
014out and Back Again inside out and Back Again talks about a 10-year-old girl's story with immigration she had to immigrate from South Vietnam to the United States because of the Vietnamese War in the story she's about 10 years old and I was about 10 when I read the story it meant a lot to me because up until this point I had only heard my own family's immigration story and my family's from Mexico and I guess as a kid it had never dawned on me that people of other races and ethnicities also had immigration stories that were so similar to my family's things with language barrier and her struggling to assimilate in American culture so this book really meant a lot to me um my personal uh book favorite book written by a black indigenous or
015person of color was the syp the sympathize the sympathizer by vetting W it talks about this communist spy whose political beliefs clash with his individual loyalties um it gives the a voice to the previously voiceless as it points out a new perspective or narrative about the events of the Vietnam War the book creates a morally gray setting um which investigates and critiques um into the contradictions of many social constructs um ultimately it cemented my purpose to fight the good fight and just really bring out the importance of how the narrative and how history is perceived and the connotations that follow after uh this book really means a lot to me because as an Asian we never really see or here about um Asian history or Asian literature and this was my first like real experience
016with Asian representation now this question is actually for the board do any of you have a favorite piece of literature by a black indigenous or other person of color well I do love the color purple I have read that I read that book a long time ago I think when I was in high school I think that's a really amazing book um um let me think a little bit more about my colleagues answer about a more book more recent that I've that I've read oh I know I know so I read a lot of Science Fiction so I don't know if any of you read science fiction um but there's a really great series I always forget names I'm going to look it up right now but there's a series that I love written by
017a black author who's just really amazing just give me a couple seconds I'll look it up NK if you've ever read NK gemson she writes really amazing science fic ition fantasy more fantasy it's more fantasy than science fiction but she's a really amazing writer and I think it's the earthbreaker series or something like that I forget what it's called but it's it's a it's a Trilogy and it's it's just it's really wonderful yeah I I'll I'll also hop on and say uh for me uh the color purple um was just is another powerful uh book and and and one that that I've I've read and actually I actually reread the reread this more recently um in in the past couple years or so I I can say I'm an Avid Reader but I cannot say
018whether all of the books that I've written that I all love whether or not so I I can't tell you I'm sorry but I have to admit that but it's because I don't pay attention I just want to see a good story great well thank you guys so much for sharing now we know some of your favorites and now you guys know some of our favorites okay so we would not have been here for the 137 current and former students alumni School faculty uh parents and Guardians who have signed our petition and supported our cause and our fight to expand the narrative upon black indigenous and people of color otherwise known as bip um ever since this summer we have reached out and tirelessly campaigned uh via email social media and whatever we can we
019even reached out to different channels and got a hold um with diversifier diversify our narrative officials to really push our mission for forward so why is it important to implem ify our narrative well students may feel brace the Heritage I feel like they will become more proud of it honestly students will likely be more empathetic knowing the hardships Others May face because of their race slth ethnicity opportunities for students to have about race identity and the need to be anti-racist and I think to truly we have to listen and learn from each other's experiences um and students may feel more inclined to take advantage of the opportunities they are given after reading what others had to face whether it be educational or not so let's say for instance a student was very scared to enroll
020into that AP class well maybe after reading these encouraging books they'll be like hey maybe I should you know not everyone gets this opportunity to take these higher classes or maybe I should learn another language like French or ASL you know they will their whole mind will be open to this whole new world of culture and beautiful um this is an um this is another question for you guys um going back to your guys' high school experience do you feel that there was diversity within the classrooms can I ask a clarifying question do you mean um diversity within the classroom in terms of like the students you're talking about the curricul like the the um what we learned what what what kind of diversity or is it open yeah it's open okay I I'll I'll
021answer this one since I went to high school back in the 70s and so a lot of the books that that and what we were taught in classes where there was discussion I did actually have a decent amount because I had some really really wonderful AP um English lit and American lit teachers who open doors for many wonderful books but as far as say in regular English class you had the classics you know the um raising in the sun um To Kill a Mocking Bird so you we had that 1950s reading thing so to me it seemed rather diverse because that that was something it wasn't about a white kid in a white classroom it was the experiences of the civil rights movement and what I led up to it so it was kind of
022Interest yeah well on my behalf I went to high school in the 60s so I was there when we had the Cho movement and the walkouts and um no there was no diversity this is the reason why students were walking out of high school in LA and um I I don't feel that we even today as a board member you know I'm so proud of these students because I I I don't I don't think that they treated us or I don't feel that I was educated like I should have been because they would push us aside you know if you didn't speak English or if you were um we you say poor or or a slow reader they would not they would push push you to the back you know so diversity was not in
023my in my school at all and and that's I'm so proud of you students were speaking up and I'll go next so I I went to school high school in the '90s we're all we're all let you know how old we are so went to high school in the 9s um and actually so in my I would say in my English classes there was probably like one maybe one book every year that we read that was from a person of color um so so they did my school was pretty good about including at least like one book obviously we read a lot of the books like that that Jerry just mentioned um um catcher and the Ry a lot of these books that we call Classics but you know so um we' read mostly those
024books but we did have books of color and then my senior year um we were able bble to um for um our social studies like for one semester they gave us like different options and so one of the options was to read um was to was to to I forget what the title of the class was but it was around like diverse narratives and so that was a class for the whole semester all we read were um books by people of color or from other countries and that was a really great experience yeah I I can say uh so grow also being a student of the schools here um and so I you know went to Gladstone High School and slen and all that and part part of our our history within our community like
025the reality of our history within our community and I say this as a as a black male is that um there's there was was certainly a time and a period um when being black in the city of isusa was uh brought about an an added set of challenges and dangers um and I definitely grew up in the midst of uh you know when it was at the height of things um and so you know when I think about some of those educational experiences I had within that context of of feeling isolated or at times underrepresented just in general um I I think back on um no I don't think that there was a tremendous amount of of diversity um within the classroom as far as what what was studied and and the content um and
026that's why I remember being turned onto poetry when I was in high school because that was a time when I was introduced to the likes of langsten Hughes or and or Maya Angelo and and and those were some of the first times that that I I you know read um uh things that were written by people who look like me or who I can identify in a way and just remembering the power of that um is it still sticks with me to this day um a our mission for diversify our narrative is to bring a voluntary task force composed of teachers to issue guidelines about racial awareness and racial sensitivity as as board member Vogel previously mentioned um To Kill a Mocking Bird is one of is a literary classic here and it is taught
027within our our educational system I'm reading tequilla Mockingbird in my English class class right now um but I do believe that we as a generation and we as the youth need to be educated and taught that um that this book has some pretty bad connotations that associate by I with it um it's frankly a bit problematic just um objectifying a bipo to just a mission and having this savior complex and thinking you're bigger than what it actually is mind you there's also classism and elitis elitism in that book that does need to be recognized we want to teach our students that no matter how different we are culturally um our heritage racially um we are still United as a people we are all human beings and we have this Universal set of morals and racism
028and hate is top but so is love and acceptance and we really want to push that in our system uh we want to have a clear line of communication with teachers parents as well as as the students because we too are going through this learning process to better um educate ourselves on how much we can improve and progress as a organization and that is composed through the Dei and the resources are linked so yeah so as a chapter we definitely wanted to focus on other chapters specifically because it's one thing to think about ideas and implementation but it's hard not to see other people if they haven't done it yet but there are chapters who've done it and implemented it so one what we call an exemplary chapter would be Kono Valley Unified School District
029specifically they passed a racial Equity resolution within their school district along with the dawn resolution that implemented changes to their curriculum including important events in history relating to Black indigenous and people of color which is important because usually this narrative is marginalized so including this within their curriculum is extremely important and I thought was extremely impressive on their part they also created reliable channels to report race-based incidences and ways to take appropriate action when they occur because most definitely they do occur and when they do need to have solutions to be sure that it doesn't happen again within our school district another chapter would be Sonoma Valley Unified School District they actually passed the dawn resolution for all of their grade levels so K through 12 as a chapter we didn't we haven't specifically focused
030on that or done that right now it's just for high schoolers because all of us are high schoolers right now all of us are all in high school so we focused on High School curriculum um and organized for ourselves because we didn't want to take away the voices of middle schoolers or even the parents of younger children who can be a part of this process and sort of use their voices to be in involved in diversifier our narrative as well so that's something we can definitely Implement in the future with their help and with their voices they also created their own equity and inclusion task force that specifically helped ensure their district is equitably serving their students it was run by pretty much everyone in their Community anyone who anyone who wanted to be involved
031teachers Educators parents alumni community members all wanted to ensure diversity within their school district to equitably serve each and every student and actually below is a link it's actually a full document of who was involved in their task force as well as different um different surveys and other steps that they took to um include this task force within their District this is another question for the school board what do you personally hope results from the implementation of diversifier narrative within a su Unified School District I may add I think that we um should bu this task force we spoke about and include um two board members also uh you know and community and students and staff that's my input um I personally hope that this opens up a a great conversation with everybody because living
032my younger years in Hawaii there was um a lot more diversity and so I grew up being the only white kid in an entire Chinese neighborhood or you know it it was it was interesting and so I was open and um experienced a lot of diversity culturally that many people my age didn't and with words and books it conveys ideas thoughts and culture and I think that that would just hopefully get an understanding let everybody understand and and get a little Peak into everybody else's culture and I I'll say um my hope I think I think in a perfect world we none of us you know we as individuals and we as a district don't have any blind spots like that that would be ideal but but the reality is each of us individually and
033and certainly us as as a as a collective community and district there are blind spots that we have and I think that we we rely on on each other um to cover some of those blind spots and let us know and and you you all taking um the time to speak up several weeks back and bringing some of these conversations for uh this conversation forward to me was was an indicator of of saying we see blind spots and or potential blind spots and we want to be proactive to make sure that that um it's covered and that these um don't don't remain and so that's what I'm I'm excited about is is the continued intentionality to make sure that um perspectives are included that we don't have voices that are that are um kind of
034marginalized and kept out you know when we when we think through what are the classics you know the quote unquote Classics a lot of times the reason why the classics are the classics is because they've just always been the classics and that's not to say that there are not um others other works of literature that are not worthy of being those classics but they've but they've not been given an opportunity to to you know be placed on the table and so that's that's what I'm excited about here is it it's it's um causing you all are causing us to to look Inward and and consider you know again where those blind spots may exist and and how we can what we can do about it and so for that I thank you so much for
035your for your leadership can you guys hear me can you guys hear yeah we can hear you yep oh okay finally I was able to to call I I want to kind of back up a little bit and I I want to share um uh back when I was uh 1980 to back when I was in high school in 80s and the 90s um there wasn't much uh diversity when I first moved um to auza we were about one um we're about five families in our block that were you know of color and going to school it it was it was very very different and high school as well I I I felt like yes we did you know uh read um catching the Ry killing a mocking bird but it was um it was
036things that I as a Latina you know an immigrant was not um I I didn't connect to as as much because it was not um the the culture and what what I was living and so um not until I went to uh Cal State LA and I took ethnic studies and I I took you know African-American studies Asian studies uh uh Native American studies and I had that diversity introduced to me it was like a just a whole new world for me I was able to to um relate I was able to um to actually feel included and it was me who they were talking about and I was able to learn about you know um other you know um people as well and so um what I think personally that you guys would would
037bring the results of the implementation I think it's inclusion uh inclusion um being able to be uh to like with um board member Greer said uh the blind spots that people normally you know don't don't see um being able to to recognize and being able to learn I think it's really important that we learn about others um the diversity I think is so important um because when we learn about others we're able to understand um other people and not just um oh they're just that way or you know um have assumptions about others and so I think I'm I don't think I know I'm really excited um you know speaking about all this because it brings joy to my heart that my kids to school here in Asuza and they I I can't wait for
038them to to to start you know engaging in all of this um I like I said I didn't start until I was in college and I thought it just opened up a whole new world for me and I really can't wait to to see what what we can collaborate and bring forth so thank you guys so much for for um this presentation and for these questions I mean I sat here and I was trying to speak and I couldn't and I finally found a way but than thank you guys so much and then I'll go next um so I think um I agree 100% with everything that all of you presented um just thinking about next steps I I think that the recommendation to have a some kind of task for force or working group
039that has a broad representation of all of our community stakeholders is a good step um I think that I would probably um I'm okay with calling it diversity inclusion and Equity but or the whatever order but I mean to me really in my heart I I feel like this really needs to be anti-racism work right so I'm H I'm happy to call it what it is right if people are comfortable with that to really call that out so that that's part of what we're talking about so people know what it is um I would say in terms of the pieces moving forward one of the things that I asked aruro between last meeting and this meeting is to if if they could find out like how how many books are we already reading of of
040people of color because I I'm thinking that in some of our grades and it probably is not the high school and you think about the classes you guys are taking but in some of our elementary middle schools they are incorporating a lot of books and so like we don't want to start with an ass that people are already doing right we want to grow so if people are already reading books like um then we want to make sure that we want to increase that um because I think it's more the ultimate goal is to really have a comprehensive system in in ausa that's really grounded in anti-racism that's grounded in cultural culturally what's called culturally responsive pedagogy right so it's really not only just about the books that we're getting or the what what's being
041taught but it's all it's even about the relationships and how we interact with each other so I I think think that's what I would like to see as the outcome of the of the task force I would say that um I see this as ongoing work and not just like a one time one and done we're going to make recommendations um I I want to point out to all of you um I mean those of you that went to school in isusa are too young for this right but um ausa did have ethnic studies in the 70s right ausa had these courses in the 70s and so at some point they just went away poof right um and for those those whove been who've been sort of activists over the generations and have seen different
042different um um cycles of like people getting upset and in the streets and then some things happen and then it sort of drifts away like I really want to make sure this is the time where that doesn't happen right that we build we start something and we continue and we don't just like okay once it sort of once it's sort of stop being presentent in everyone's Minds we just sort of go away from it so I I'm excited I think this is the best way to build it out is to really build a commitment across the district across our community so that the work is really deep and long lasting thank you all so much for sharing touching on something that board member Arana has brought up she talks about how when she first started
043learning about ethnic studies when she went to college it felt like a whole new world most of our team would agree that that's basically what we want for our students we want them to to be able to experience that new world at a younger age so thank you all for sharing and of course we don't don't want to stop from here of course we're talking about implementation of diverse for narrative aosd but we want to make sure to ensure diversity within the classroom in multiple different ways that can be long lasting within our district so some of our future ideas was ethnic studies we were so glad to hear from you board members we didn't even mention it ourselves the first time you were the ones who introduced ethnic studies and wanted to have a
044study session so that was also one of our ideas because we all know how important ethnic studies is and the opportunities that it can provide for students another um idea of implementation would be black lives matter at school they are actually a National Coalition organizing for racial Justice and education specifically it's focused on an annual week of action during black history month for the first Fe week of February each year that specifically focuses on implementing anti-racist curriculum throughout the week in black history throughout the week but also eventually integrating it within regular curriculum and of course we want to celebrate indigenous people's day and more cultural holidays this November is Native American heritage month so just celebrating indigenous people's day and more cultural holidays to spread awareness is beneficial for our students and we should
045be educating our students about other cultures we ALS sure to get feedback from other students to see what books they would personally like to see in their libraries because we have a whole list of books that our students can read but we want to make sure that they want to read these books and they can even give us options for what they would like to see so either we can create like a Google form or something and put it on the district website something like that to make sure that students have the option to choose what books they would personally like to read by black indigenous and people of color and like previously we we talked about the diversity equity and inclusion task force that is just what it was called by diversify a narrative
046the original organization but I I think we can all agree that calling it what it is is definitely important it is an antiracist task force and it should be called an anti-racist task force so creating a task force of of Schoolboard members pretty much everyone who would like to be involved school board members parents uh alumni uh T students anyone within the community to ensure diversity and inclusion and Equity within our school district would be extremely beneficial you know I just wanted to add something uh board member arianis brought to my attention regarding and it's true you know we walked out in high school that you kind to walk out I don't think students really realize why they're walking out other other than they didn't have to be in class right they just wanted to
047walk out a class that they don't have to study and um and I actually probably really understood more when I did go to PCC and I joined mea and I was in in the in in meta where we would go go there and this is where I probably learned more than in high school and and and I think that you know High School I think it should go as as far as Elementary I I know you talked about you didn't want to started there but because you know it's what you grow up with it's what you know and I think it's should start of the younger the better and and I also just want to thank you students for all your your uh research you did extensive research great research and I mean I I
048didn't even educated myself and and I really appreciate all this hard work that you students are doing it's you know right on well thank you so much Bor for listening to our presentation and I truly do hope that you consider to implement diversifier narrative here thank you thank you all so much you guys did such a good job I'm so proud of you I was proud of you when you guys called in so alrighty um does anybody have any comments other than outstanding job um ju one one final thought um I'm again thankful not only not only am I thankful for um you student students and and and I can't I can't overstate that how how grateful I am and thankful for again the leadership that you're bringing forward but I do also want to
049say that I'm thankful to um also in addition to that to to my colleagues to to the staff and to to the um cabinet and all all the you know folks who are working here within this District because when when you as students uh when you as young leaders are bringing is bringing us forward I um I I'm able to recognize that you're not met with um host um I think that there are there are previous you know Generations where when when these kinds of conversations are brought up and and those who sit in certain seats you know push back and and are not willing to hear and not willing to to to listen but but truly seeing an opportunity for like a true partnership and and and and ways that um the you know
050quote unquote decision makers and as as well as those who are affected by those decisions working together for a common purpose and a common goal is just is just a beautiful thing and and I just and and I think it you know that goes to you know looking at the the the work that was done by you know in decades past by people that came came before us um and just it's it's um incredible to see you all carrying that the torch and I say that to you know especially you young leaders but also to to my colleagues and the staff at the district as well thank you uh Miss Mitchell uh we're going to move on to uh part two thank you students um for uh we've had the pleasure of meeting with you
051uh once a week and uh just uh very grateful for what you have brought to uh to the table uh so turn it over back to uh Miss Mitchell thank you very much and thank you again students um for your just your wonderful presentation and uh to say we're proud of you is definitely an understatement so um just congratulations on um on your on your leadership and uh we look forward to continuing to work with you all right we are going to uh move on to our next topic of discussion uh this evening and we will be uh talking about ethnic studies and so I would like to um I would like to have a turned over to Frank Chang who will start us off sorry that was my fault uh Frank is just becoming
052a panelist now good evening everyone I'm sorry for a little technical mixup um thank you for this opportunity board members as well as cabinet and thank you to the students who just presented um great transition to our discussion this evening about um ethnic studies um you see before you a slide um it's called defining ethnic studies and I wanted to start off the presentation today as well as with my partners later with Norma and Jenny in discussing ethic studies and the impact on education um and the first slide here that you see is essentially a definition um based on the assembly bill that was recently passed assembly Bill 1460 and this definition essentially provides a framework for our discussion tonight and it's the accepted definition based on um California educational law next slide but I
053do want to remind you that um a recently adopted history and social science framework um which was revised in 2016 and adopted by the California Department of Education and also accepted of course in our district that there is mention of ethnic studies and you see the definition there mentioned in the history social science framework um this uh definition was actually given as part of the um course courses that are possible elective courses that districts can choose to implement and again like a ab1 1460 it focuses on the interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity right now I'm going to turn it over to Norma and Jenny okay so now you will have an opportunity to examine some research that has identified some of the benefits of ethnic studies for students so if you can turn to
054the handout um caus well effects of cultural relevance I will be walking you through an activity with that you are going to have eight minutes to individually review pages one and two of those handouts and you also have an organizer that has a circle a square and a triangle on there on page three of your handouts in the Square you will note what's squared with you or maybe something that you already knew about the benefits of ethnic studies in the circle you're going to to jot down a new learning um and in the circle something that maybe you're seeing from a new angle or a different perspective does everybody have that those handouts okay great so I am actually going to set a timer for us to keep us on track um for eight minutes
055I will let you know when we are at about the halfway mark and then the a two-minute Mark and then a one minute Mark and then um a direct Lee will be walking or will be facilitating um a share out of of some of your um takeaways from the research okay I will go ahead and set our timer now and you may begin your reading for [Music] for [Music] for for [Music] four minutes for for for two more minutes e and one more minute for and that's our time I am now going to turn you over to director Lee to facilitate this share out thank you good evening everyone uh board members now that you've had a chance to review um the uh reading and organize your thought around the benefit of ethnic studies we
056would like for each of you to take about a minute to a minute and a half to share an idea from your organizer whether it's something that you read that square with what you already um new or what you learned that was new or close a circle of knowledge for you or if it's something that is let you made you see things from a new angle or A New Perspective we can begin the discussion with a volunteer and then we can go around so that each board member will have a chance to share uh who would like to begin I guess I'll go ahead and begin thank you uhuh um pretty much it it squared with me what what I already know already knew and I've had this is going to sounds silly I've told
057several people have heard the story I did the DNA and I found out that what I was told which was German English no I mean German Irish ended up being totally Scandinavian and it matched personality traits and um family uh Traditions that we didn't know about now now I understand my background and I'm like oh a whole lot of things make sense and once I had that I immediately thought of ethnic studies because that's how many students feel that they don't be I got taught my history all the way through but just to see you know knowing what it is there you go and and that's I can see where it would encourage students and give them the the the self um confidence and knowledge and understanding and to reach out and learn more about
058I'll go next um and actually if you don't mind I can do all three in a minute so um what's squared with me um is that culturally relevant curriculum improves student outcomes I think it actually shows that it improves outcomes for all students not only students of color so that's important to highlight um uh the circle for me Circle of Knowledge um I think that I think we all suspect but it's good to see it in writing is that you can see that high school students can describe what they say describe euroamerican bias and not only not only understand it but can describe it and say it leads to their disengagement so I think that's Circle for me and then finally what squared for me or was a new angle um is it was you
059know I didn't realize that the National Council of teachers of English right we don't always think of that or teachers of English have a position on ethnic studies so I think to me that says a lot and and you know should feed into our thinking about where does ethnic studies belong in our curriculum so those are the three things and and I I I can go next so what sored with me was things that I already knew but of course I'm always learning something new just like with the students that just left right and um mine is the student outcome um because I I feel that and this not helps with ethnic studies I mean even in Chinese um or or africanamerican is thinking you you're you're you feel more more um positive about yourself
060you have a better self-esteem about yourself because you know about more about yourself you know you learn about things even you're bringing why things happen the way they are you begin to understand it and I think it also helpful for the staff you know I mean even consors even administrators I mean anyone anyone in education people in general I feel if you know you took a class in in anything that you will understand that person better and and it does bring self-con uh confidence in my grandson has e studies at uh glone High School I I did feel with Dr Sanchez I did feel that he had a different outlook on life I I I even seen that he kind of stood up for himself more I think because again we go back with the
061self-esteem and the you know uh knowing yourself and and knowing where you come from I think you know before you know where you're going you need to know where you come from I think that's why it's so important that we do have ethenic studies and um you know work together and and whatever race it is so so we can like this young ladies were saying you know we'll be more loving we'll have a better school we'll understand each other better um yeah I'll go next I feel like sheilan was was cheating and looking at my paper um because of the things that that she shared are so in line with what I have written down um I'll I'll go ahead and add like in in the with the squared um area it's it's it's interesting
062I suppose I can understand I I I suppose I can fathom how this is relatively or can be a relatively controversial topic um but at the same time there's overwhelming like re research that supports the the impact of outcomes uh and and like achievement gaps and and and and just a number of things that are so clearly um evident that um that that just I I'll list that as what what kind of squares with what I've already known and what I've already seen um it it it makes me wish that this wasn't as so controversial of a of a topic can you guys hear me yes okay um so one thing that um was that uh one of the things from the uh report was the Black and Hispanic students also they're over represented in
063the special education um arena with you know learning disabilities and one of the things you know being a a student um with that with u a learning disability going to college and being able to connect and being able to connect to my roots being able to learn about others it was um it was very empowering it was very empowering because it gave me a voice and so I I truly believe like that right there was um you know um that right there is an empowerment and so that I know that it does bring empowerment and I'm I'm I'm really excited about that um one of the things I I did want to share um just one [Music] second um let's see here um the the results that um ethnic study can result in higher test
064scores and greater self-esteem um I that's something that I I already knew you know that I had knowledge of one of the things that I also um um agree with my colleagues is that um the national hold on let see here hold on here we go again um the National Council of teachers of English I think um it's it's really exciting to see you know to to be able to to bring this um it with with English because um of the fact that with that you can act with English you could do anything you know you you can express yourself you can create the creativity and along with ethnic studies just the creativity that can come from there um and so one thing that I I uh let's see here that um I see from
065a new angle is that I uh not until this last year I was i w I did not really know that we as a district um could take that um you know T take uh the approach of being able to address this and as I see other uh school districts other school board uh boards um addressing this and starting this um it's it's really exciting to see so I'm looking that from a from a new angle and I'm looking forward to you know to to having a conversation it's really um it's very exciting to hear um how how much work um our students have put into this movement and and your thoughts on this topic on on the benefits um I would like at this time to hand the mic over to Frank chain to
066continue thank you director Lee and um director kamacho um so um appreciate um you giving us a little background and understanding our purpose um in this discussion of ethnic studies um the next slide um is related to um ethnic studies at the University level um California legislature and ethic studies um recent recently approved in August of um this year um ab1 1460 stating that at the Cal State schools Cal State University starting with the Academic Year of 2021 and 2022 um Cal State universities must offer courses in ethnic studies and that ethnic studies courses um have already been um offered at the universities but now they are also expecting that the graduating class of 2025 um those students must take a um ethnic studies course um which is at least three units that is for
067the University level the next slide shows that there is impact going on right now in the K12 World um AB 331 would have required students take an ethnic studies course as part of their High School graduation requirement um and it's at least one semester course that is the Mandate that was the Mandate but Governor Nome vetoed AB 331 um and he stated um that he wanted to make sure that we had a balanced and inclusive model Curriculum by which schools and districts can follow so he's asking for a model curriculum to be developed and this model curriculum um would allow us um some sort of guidance as to how to implement and what to actually cover um as part of the curriculum I want to maybe bring up in case you um um didn't know
068um ausi unified has in fact been offering a latinx studies course U we've offered this since 2015 um it's offered at the three high schools um it is a through G approved as a g elective course and it has been taught by Dr Irene Sanchez since 2017 and she is very familiar with the model um curriculum um she continues to advocate for ethnic studies not only in our district but throughout the state in fact and she is um a colleague too and has knows current and former members of the State Assembly um who have actually help write the bill um so we are very lucky to have Dr Irene Sanchez as part of our district so if you go back to one more slide um Dr Mitchell um this ethnic studies model curriculum is U
069being developed right now by the instructional quality commission and they have gathered um K12 faculty as well as University faculty and representatives and this model curriculum is actually up for review um by the iqc um in fact it's going to up be up for review tomorrow and Thursday it's on their agenda and they might possibly recommend it to the State Board of Education for approval next slide um so with this discussion of ethic studies there are three key terms and I just wanted to take a break in regards to all this dense um legislature and bills to bring us together of understanding these three key terms and I first want to apologize for the misalignment um there are three bullets and three terms and the first bullet is the definition for race the second bullet
070is a definition for racism and the third bullet is a definition for ethnicity these definitions are actually taken from the draft version of the K12 model curriculum and the reason why I bring this to you is I wanted to make sure at least we assimilate our understanding and come to a common understanding of how the state is going to be defining these three key terms um I think board members during tonight's discussion when students presented as well we use these three terms and we want to make sure that we all have the same understanding of what these three terms mean okay okay um next slide so there is a focus whether at the University level or what is currently at the K12 uh model curriculum draft for foundational disciplines and what we mean by the
071four foundational disciplines are four core um groups and that is the African-American the chonic or latinx group the Native American group and the Asian-American group all of these groups in regards to race Elations in regards to um their economics um status all of these aspects are part of ethnic studies next slide so um in the draft model curriculum again up for current currently up for review um on Thursday I'm sorry tomorrow and Thursday um they also give District implementation guidance and there are some key considerations I just listed five of many of the bullets that they have and the first bullet is to develop shared understanding and definition of ethnic studies and that's what we really try to do is just give you a little taste of some of the definitions that are currently in
072the state level for universities as well as what is currently out there for the K12 world so I now pass this over to Dr Mitchell thank you so much uh Mr Chang we appreciate that so um you've had an opportunity board now to hear about what ethnic studies is the benefits to students and where we are currently in the state um I'd like to uh take a minute to thank board member uh Cruz Gonzalez for connecting with us with some other superintendant uh in California who have been uh developing implementation plans for ethnic studies in their districts and we have been doing a little research on our end as well and so um uh one of the things we've done is we've on if you go back to your handouts that we attached uh in
073the board presentation on page four and five we have a handout called ethnic studies School District implementation examples and there are several just some uh some summary uh bullets uh bullet point on um what some of the districts uh have been doing so I'd like to just give you about four minutes I'll I'll set the timer for you to take a look at those um the summaries and and just kind of get an idea of uh some of that work that's been done so go ahead and review it's page four and five uh in the handouts ethnic studies School District implementation examples for for we're at the twom minute mark about one more more minute all right well bring you back um as you can see from some of these uh examples there are several
074different approaches uh there are some tk8 school districts that are integrating uh content using anti-bias framework and social justice standards um we actually had a conversation with one of the uh superintendents of uh these districts um who talked to us about how they were incorporating um anti-bias framework and and social justice social justice standards into their work you also have uh secondary schools uh some high schools that have created single a through G ethnic studies course that uh all students would take some time between 9th and 12th grade um Can it could be in the English Department we've mentioned or could be social studies you have some schools who have done a dual enrollment approach some high schools have multiple courses uh some of the high schools take an integrated approach into existing uh courses
075so um there are lots of different approaches and districts have been doing different things but one of the things that we have seen consistently um is that these districts have started with a committee and so that would be something uh for us to consider would be starting uh by launching an advisory committee that we would have staff and students and uh parents to have an opportunity to study the models uh look at the different approaches and really think about um that strategic planning part of that would also be to um talk about shared understanding common language um and then this uh this committee would um would do this work and then provide updates so um that was uh that was something that we had as an idea so I'd like to now go ahead and
076open it up uh to the board for uh questions I'll go first um I um uh just just one question uh well a question and then a comment um well first by comment I think I think what you just said makes sense to me in terms of let's put together a committee that can and maybe it's the committee we just talked about earlier right that that starts with this and thinks about what is what's the best way to to develop this I I appreciate that a lot of the examples start TK to 12 right so you have the gamut so that I think that in my mind that would be the the approach um really you or you know all of our grades that we have um even preschool um um my question is U
077and is so I looked I saw in um San Francisco they have a nth grade yearlong course is that is that a social studies course is that English course do you know what kind of course that is you know what offhand I do not know but I can I can look it up and find out for you so you said San Francisco yeah yeah I mean I mean those are details that that the committee would look at I was just very curious um because I think to gav's point earlier about like you know why do I don't want to wait till College before I find this stuff like right now we it's wonderful that we have the the Latin latinx studies course right but kids wait till their senior year to be able to take
078it right or upper grades um and so I I you know I think so I just wanted to put that out there okay anybody else have any comments yeah um look looking at the list there's I mean there are there are a number of things um that look like incredible incredible next steps I agree that going back to the to the committee and our task force how you know how rephrase that we that we referred to in the last um kind of segment of our conversation uh it looks like that might be you know steps one two and three for some of some of these things um um yeah I I would I I'd also be interested in looking at you know um this idea of um you know the courses that that we offer
079and and how and how do we how do we ensure that that ethnic studies is indeed integrated into and in a way to review that it's integrated into what we are already doing as well as um you know what does it look like for for requirements and or you know not waiting for um legislation to come down if if if this is something that that we're communicating is value you I I I I'd love to explore what what is what would be needed to consider um ethnic studies as a requirement um within within the district for graduation you what I would like to see is or like to know I should say on ethnic studies at ausd I know we've been we've had them since 2015 but um I know at the beginning not that
080many students registered um how do we advertise it you know how are parents knowing what is ethnic studies about and and also students um you know give them an option or or let them know I mean are the counselors um offering it to the students or letting know that we do have ethnic studies at ausd I just um like to know how that and parents too you know sure absolutely um so one of the one of the things that um the high schools do when they get ready to um do registration and that actually starts as early as February um the counselors uh do presentations and they go into the classrooms and then they talk about the different offerings of um you know all the different classes and electives especially and actually they they do
081that as well um when they go into the uh to the middle schools to eighth grade classrooms as well and they talk about all different offerings that that we have danis I'm sorry the reason I was saying that because what you just mentioned that when I have seen the eighth graders going into the high school I've gone to their career day at the two high schools and ethnic studies and teacher or Booth there's no booth there there's no teacher there there's I just want to know why because how do parents know just like when they know there's a plant club or the gardening club or the seminar you know I think that ethic should have a booth there so people can speak to the teacher and um see see what is it about and and
082students yeah I Expo right I have not seen it okay and then anecdotally and I I mean I think maybe other bir members can can attest to this I this is anecdotally and I've only and i' but and I don't think I'm the only one who heard it like I I mean I've heard examples of our students being counseled out of you know they want to go to ethnic studies and they've been canceled out of it and saying no you don't want to do that do this do this do don't you know and so I just wanted to put down the table right cuz we just need to have friend conversations and so if we think that we're doing something but something else is happening we need to make sure that that um that everyone
083is being educated yeah and I can second that I've you know anecdotally I've heard some of that as well um and it you know it just reminds me of some of those things where we're looking inwardly and and trying to understand what some of those uh systems Andor barriers that that that could exist um there there is you know there could be something to look at there because I I have heard uh similar stories as uh shielding [Music] described thank you so much um okay yes go ahead oh okay I think you know the more that uh we explore this um we can go ahead and look at those blind spots that you guys uh that my fellow uh you know board members are are are sharing is uh it's really important that you know
084if if it's not once say you know for example if it becomes a requirement um it won't be so much of a blind spot you know looking at those um at those uh key issues on how students can have have access um to this uh to ethnic studies and we're we're looking you know when we look at ethnic studies it's just not one you know onesided it's not it's not just uh you know African-American studies it's not just Latino studies it's it's it's all right and so I I think um you know moving forward and you know speaking about this and uh one of the things that um was just shared that this is a a for some it's a very uncomfortable uh you know a conversation but I think right now for the board
085um because we are not uncomfortable talking about this and we see the reality and how this will help our students and it's so beneficial that um the the thing is you know that the um being able to ahead and move forward in in a positive direction right um with this and and it's it's going to take it's going to take a lot of of uh input and it's going to take a lot of brainstorming and being able to make sure that the dominoes if we move this you know when it comes to scheduling at the high school I know for a fact that sometimes for example a student was not able to even though they wanted to take ethnic studies they were not um able to because they were on a track of um let's
086just say they were in the you know the Citrus College um the um the dual enrollment with citus college so therefore they were not able to take um you know the Latino uh studies um so we need to look at all those blind spots all those little factors that will um will not allow a student if um if if they wanted to um and provide maybe other options for those students because we do have a lot of programs and a lot of uh different courses that our students take so I think it's important to include um our High School uh counselors um and teachers um to be able to you know share in that aspect because of the planning that it takes to be able to to get these kids to get their e you
087know geds and stuff um just takes a lot of time and planning so just putting it out there um you know to to be able to to correlate all of this so yeah thank you so thank you all so very much for uh the dialogue the questions and the discussion would like to uh transition now to our uh final topic of the evening around systemic racism and we have uh again a variety of voices that are going to um present to you uh this evening um I want to start um with um something from the um center for the study of hate and extremism that's out of California State University San Bernardino they have researchers there um that have done studies and they've recently concluded that the total number of hate crimes in the 10
088largest cities in America um it has increased annually for the past four years and um as Educators we are uniquely positioned to address hate and racism and intolerance and violence uh by teaching and modeling empathy and understanding and um and coming up with a systematic um multi-pronged approach um and and that's that is our approach in Aus unified and one of these approaches um as we heard tonight um is including and listening to student voice um definitely is eviden by our our students tonight another prong that was mentioned was um the importance of providing culturally responsive pedagogy and curriculum um one of the board's strategic goals is providing Innovative rigorous and relevant instruction and that's really been the foundation of our professional learning um especially around the three Student Success drivers when we're talking about
089academic discourse and cognitive rigor and collaboration all of that along with the belief that all students can learn at high levels and are given equal opportunity to receive high quality standards aligned instruction and also the importance of our our curriculum as well all of our textbook adoptions were reviewed using rubrics adopted by the Los Angeles County Office of Education and those rubrics include uh rubric scores that do address equity and diversity uh in your um in your in your handouts that we attached we also provided you with a couple of examples of our English language arts curriculum uh wonders and collections um and in the ways in which it does support culturally relevant pedagogy I don't want to give the impression uh that it is um a curriculum that addresses systemic racism it doesn't but
090I do want to point out that I I believe that we do have um a foundational start but definitely have room for additional work in this area regarding professional learning um our certificated staff uh tomorrow our secondary uh certificated staff will be attending trauma and resilience informed care foundations for educators and this is facilitated by the Department of Mental Health and UCLA's prevention center of excellence um and and this uh particular professional learning tomorrow is all around um what is trauma how does it impact our brain and overall health and the principles of trauma and resilience in formed care and the Imp what are the implications for educators as well trauma and resilience in formare there's a lot of uh literature and research around this uh as an effective strategy to address institutional racism and
091to advance social justice so as we continue to uh to thoughtfully plan out our professional learning um this is something that we will continue to focus on uh and continue to to um plan out how we will address culturally responsive curriculum instruction and P pedagogy as well so we're going to dig a little deeper into some of these approaches around uh Staffing advancing social justice through PE mediation and restorative practices we have uh some we have guests from the Western Justice Center who are going to talk to you about uh the work that they are doing with us and then we will talk a little bit about using Equity focused data as well so we're going to I'm going to hand it over to Mr ronu thank you Dr Mitchell um good evening Board of
092Education Community um I'm here to talk about eliminating systemtic racism through the hiring process um HR Works to recruit and hire employees that uh share the values and beliefs of the Board of Education and the district one of the most important functions of the human resources department is the hiring process and my belief is that we um make offers of employment to candidates that will only enhance our District's mission and vision while we do not have a formal process right now that incorporates eliminates systemic racism through our hiring Pro process um I want the board to know that I do meet with each teacher candidate uh for our uh teaching positions individually for their final interview um and in that interview uh we we discuss the professional um goals that are stated in um board
093policy um our side administrators um and department leaders also meet with classified employees uh prior to when we make an offer of employment as we look ahead um to putting together a formal process uh for addressing systemic racism we will ask specific questions and that we will ask um all candidates at our panel interviews that speak directly to the issue of systemic racism uh one of the questions we recently used um includes um that we recently used at a at a recent interview reads uh we are working on confronting uh systemic R racism in Aza how will you build positive relationships uh with staff and our community uh we will continue to deepen our practice around this uh around our hiring process with our administrators um and make sure that all of our administrators can
094engage with candidates um in subsequent rounds of interviews to address this important topic of systemic racism thank you thank you Mr ronio uh now we would like to I will turn it over to Mr Gary creel who will introduce uh the staff that's here to talk to us of from the Western Justice Center and the uh work that they are doing with our students and our staff Mr cre good evening thank you Dr Mitchell um yes I'm I'm very happy to be able to introduce you to the Western Justice Center today uh I first uh became I guess even aware of the wjc almost two years ago um when uh Claudia Brown couter brought to me the idea of working with the western western Justice Center to address some of the issues that Dr Mitchell
095talked to to um in a previous slide so it's here that um she went through a a training and and Oscar oama and I also went through a training called uh the ABCs of conflict and there I met um Alisa Barrett and Alisa is the executive director of the western Justice Center and she and I have met many many times talking about what we would like this program to look like um in isusa but not just isusa you know in Southern California the the state of California and the country and with that I would like to turn it over to Alissa hi everyone um my name is Alisa Barrett I'm the executive director of the western Justice Center uh the Western Justice Center has a mission to empower people to strengthen their own communities um
096by building their conflict resolution capacity we focus on work with youth Educators schools and Community Partners um I'm here tonight with my colleagues uh Sean Gatlin and aruro mag you're going to hear from the two of them in just a moment um I also want to thank Gary um Gary you're just a Visionary and the best partner we could hope to have uh but there's so many other people that we've been enjoying um developing relationship with an ausa and uh we are grateful to all of you we're really honored to be part of ausa's ongoing effort to build a more just Equitable and inclusive inclusive environment for all of its students and I really appreciate the discussion tonight um and acknowledging that that work has to be grounded in anti-racism education uh and that it
097is a multi-year effort that involves so many different elements you know ausa was really outfront among the school districts who abandon the zero tolerance policy you've invested in PB yes and anti-bullying now you're investing in trauma informed approaches to education um we uh really feel that we can play a part in your ongoing efforts and we're we're deeply honored to be a part of that um I also want to thank the students who started off their presentation by acknowledging indigenous peoples and the land that we stand on and I I think it's important when we're talking about peer mediation restorative practices and and conflict resolution education that we acknowledge the ground that we're standing on the past of school discipline um the Traditional School discipline policies that many districts have followed over the years has
098had a lasting disperate and disproportionate impact on students of color um these policies have played a strong part in the construction of what we all now know as the school to prison pipeline uh and we are deeply gratified to be in partnership with a school district that's been actively working to disrupt and dismantle that pipeline um what does Western Justice Center do uh in short we put students in the driver seat uh by giving them the tools that they need to become conflict Adept Community leaders and Community Builders uh we partner with school districts on a multi-year basis to help them develop an integrated and SU sustainable capacity to use the transformative power of conflict resolution education uh and this is a work that we do that builds on what we've seen does and does
099not work out in the field our work is designed to provide inclusive and restorative alternatives to that Traditional School discipline structure but that's really just the beginning of the work ultimately our aim is to challenge students to connect their work as peer mediators to larger movements for social change to encourage them to initiate Civic and social justice engagement projects on their school campuses and also to connect students to careers in mediation um at the Western Justice Center we Embrace conflict as a natural part of the human existence our curriculum is designed to help students and Educators delve into the roots of conf conflict internal conflict interpersonal conflict Intergroup conflict and systemic conflict um so we're learning skills that help us on uh uh the onetoone level but also help us start to look at how
100to use these tools to transform the culture and climate at a school or in a larger Community um I also want to call out the uniqueness of our partnership with isusa um as Gary we've been going through a very extensive strategic planning process we took 15 months and we looked at similar efforts all around the United States and we found that there was often a a two or threeyear effort uh with perhaps one or two schools at a time we have not been able to find any instances of a longer multi-year effort that involved every single School in a district so so uh through our mou with with you all uh we are uh launching on a fiveyear journey with each other and at our end we will have brought this curriculum and these programs
101to all uh all of the schools in the district um even within this school year it looks like we may reach possibly a third of the schools in the district already um our team is going to talk in a moment about our range of programs uh Gary's already mentioned the ABCs of conflict that's our training for adults um our focus is on empowering youth but that doesn't happen without adults being there to support our young people um we have a number of training programs for youth our mediation boot camp uh is something we just started this week uh with two middle schools and a high school in ausa um we also are starting something new next summer um called careers and mediation and this will be an opportunity for a select group of student mediators
102to receive paid work uh in companies that use mediation and to be part of a leadership cohort that will plan a regional youth mediator summit we're very excited to offer those uh positions in that program first to isusa students um I want to mention uh two more things and I'm going to pass it to my colleagues uh one Gary uded to the fact that the work that the Western Justice Center does is not only in isusa although that is certainly um a big anchor part of our work right now we are also the lead Community Schools initiative Agency for the LA versus hate campaign that is being led by the LA human relations commission um and so what this means is that we'll be taking the work that we do in ausa and we'll be
103using that to cat Iz change in other school districts in LA county uh our partners that are already on board this year include the districts of Lynwood montabello and Norwalk La marada we also have interest from uh Baldwin Park and Little Rock so we're very excited uh for those efforts and the last thing I'll mention is that I think a critical component of what we're going to do in ausa is to collect quantitative and qualitative data about the outcomes and impacts of our work together I believe that this work could be adopted not just regionally but Statewide and nationally and that ausa will serve as a best practices model for that expansion so with no further Ado I want to turn it over to my colleagues Sean and Arturo good evening everyone thank you guys
104so very much for um giving us the opportunity to um have a conversation with you about the work that we do um with with um within the Western Justice Center my name is Sean Gatlin I am the program director um the conflict resolution education program director and um my role basically is to um bring conflict resolution education um to our Educators and to our um students and as Alisa mentioned we have started our um what we call mediation boot camp we are working with Center Middle School and Foothill Middle School and also Gladstone um providing um the beginnings of our peer mediation training um with the students who have taken the responsibility to um be a part of change uh within azuza um to tell you a little bit about um the curriculum itself um
105so um things that we touch upon um uh subjects like implicit bias uh conflict and culture self-awareness and understanding empathy um begins to strengthen those current skills um that students have and learned but then also opens the opportunity for other skills to be taught um like those kind of like dialogues around uh implicit bias um learning how to understand um culture and conflict and talking about their own values and their perspectives and their environment and what some people bring with their values and beliefs to conflict and why that makes up um conflict so difficult sometimes um so we begin those conversations um with not only the students but also with their um Educators as and supporting them um the idea uh Alisa mentioned is about sustainability and through building and training and the Western Justice
106Center support uh the students and the Educators through ausd um we hopefully plan on that will be our goal through our um multi-year um experience with each other um I do want to let you guys hear firsthand um I think um Mr oyama is with us and he can tell you a little bit very very quickly about what his experience so far has been um with Foothill Middle School which was the beginning program of peer mediation Oscar are you with us yes I am yeah you're welcome go ahead um good evening more members um my name is oscarama I'm the assistant principal at Gladstone High School right now but last year I was the assistant principal at Foothill Middle School and I had the pleasure of actually starting the peer mediation program there um our
107students took to it uh very easily and they were very willing to be participants because they understood that their voices needed to be heard in order to uh be able to solve minor problems not not major problems where Administration should get involved in but you know minor spats uh rumors or you know uh boy girl drama items like that that they were able to just talk it through um and the feedback from the students after the peer mediation uh had happened was very positive and everything was pretty much squashed right after that um there were no issues out in the playground during lunchtime uh there were very little issues after school um and in general a lot of the students that were my peer mediators also happened to be kind of the patrol group that
108was kind of just spreading the positivity and the and the good culture uh around with the students and and when they thought or they felt that there was a a about to be some drama or an issue they took it upon themselves even though we told them not to uh to actually kind of just be the people that would just reach out to the students and make sure that they understood that there were other individuals that were their age uh that they could talk to to uh to get some sort of advice and that was really powerful because it it was essentially students helping other students and they took ownership of it and and that was basically the best part of this particular program um and I'm looking forward to starting this particular program at
109the high school level uh it's a little bit different this year because I can't do the in-person recruiting and I still have to get to know a lot of the students from Gladstone High School but I'm looking forward to this process great thank you so much uh Oscar for um um sharing your experience with us thus far um I'm to actually turn it over to our program coordinator Arturo mag so he can tell you a little bit about the um one of our um projects we're also doing kind of like hand inand with the peer mediation training um and we're calling it reflection through the Arts uro thank you uh my name is aruro mag I go by Heim his uh and I am the program coordinator for the conflict resolution education programs team at
110the Western Justice Center um thank you board members for allowing us this space to be able to uh provide you this information and um and go on this journey together um so along with the programming that we're doing with uh with isua unified as far as the content with uh com uh with conflict resolution education we also have an intern from USC who has built a curriculum around um what's called reflection through the Arts so what she's done is she's taken cont contents from our curriculum and created an Arts component for students to engage in and be able to analyze conflict from an artistic perspective she's taken it upon herself to really um look at the different aspects of art uh everything from um you know graphic art to um all the way down to
111poetry um even to like Pottery even to um like housing design housing design things like that and it's it's just a really immersive process it's a really immersive uh curriculum and it really um gets the kids in a in a driver seat of more creativity if uh the CR the conflict resolution education content isn't already You Know Rich and and um and and very immersive this just kind of takes it to a whole another level uh we're really excited we're really grateful to have her in our team um and and um and go through this process with us so um that's that's a big piece of why we're really looking at it from a culturally like culturally competent uh perspective really when we think of conflict resolution education or really restorative practices this just goes
112hand inand with uh culturally competent and culturally Rel uh relative um uh practices uh making sure that the students aren't disproportionately marginalized aren't disproportionately uh suspended uh expelled punished things of that nature especially students of you know bipac um and really puts them in a position where they can make decisions for themselves much more informed decisions whether it be through a community Circle or pyram mediation or any other sort of practice that uh the school can inhibit for them so um we're really excited um I think Alisa and Sean really hit the target on a lot of the things that we got to um that we bring to the table but the one thing that I do want to um really really emphasize upon is that Western Justice Center really does create uh really gives
113really provides the framework for the Educators and the students um it's more so the school and the Educators and the students that put forth the meat inside this that their um we're a big believer that people believe what they build and what we're doing is really um giving them the tools and allowing them to build what they believe in um and we're going to be with them every step of the process and helping them guiding them coaching them building it with them um so that they are happy in um they're they're happy you know with their program and happy to go to school and go to work thank you thank you aruro um Alisa I'm G to hand it over uh back over to you to uh close us out and maybe have some uh
114get receive some questions from um the board great thank you Sean thank you aruro and uh Oscar and Gary um I mentioned earlier collection of data and I know this is something that is very important to you as Schoolboard members is for us to be able to present outcomes and impacts uh that can demonstrate the effectiveness of this work uh and so we've been working with um Mr creel and IET Valdez at his office to begin looking at the Aries system and determining how can we insert um elements into intervention strategies and other parts of your data collection so that we can be collecting that data and analyzing it one of the reasons I think this is so important and we had uh did some partnering with Columbia Law School that looked at the regulatory
115infrastructure in California and all of the elements of discipline that are listed in the school accountabil accountability report cards are all these older Traditional School discipline elements um number of physical incidents uh number of incidents involing uh police on campus suspensions expulsions removal to continuation schools there isn't anything in the regulatory infrastructure that has to do with more inclusive or restorative Alternatives um and so part of what we're Happ hoping to do um partnering with you all is introduce those outcomes and study them uh both on the quantitative side um number of mediations that occur number of students are involved in the disputes but also looking at what happens to the grade performance academic performance for those students do we see a reduction in absenteeism do we see a reduction in um students who may
116feel bullied who previously might have had five or more days out of school now they're rning to school um earlier in the process but looking at all of that and then also looking on the qualitative side um for the school culture and climate um questionnaire to explore ways to introduce elements um into that process that would give us some outcomes um we are right now talking with potential academic Partners uh at UC Irvine School of Education and at Cal State domingus hills's um master's program in peace building negotiation and conflict resolution uh so we this is one of those go slow to go fast elements of this project um we want to make sure that we're doing the data design very intentionally um as with everything else we've done with this project we'll be working
117hand inhand with the district uh and so we're very excited um and Hope on an annual basis to be able to report to you as a school board on our progress um and I want to close with one thing um today is uh the release date for a book that some of us have been looking forward to reading it's called the promised land it's by a fellow named Barack Obama and uh he said uh in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg and in the Atlantic America is the first real experiment in building a large multiethnic Multicultural democracy time and the critical efforts of this next generation will tell us whether we succeed in that experiment so uh it is clear that this school district is moving forward in a progressive way with that experiment and we
118are truly grateful to be a part of what you are doing and any if we have time for questions we're happy to answer anything we can I have a question um so all this um you know everything you're you're you're bringing forth to to our students to our staff um I as a school board member would would would like to also be involved I mean h how do we right because we we set we set the tone right we're we're leading this district and how can we learn as well that is a wonderful question um one of the things that we did early on when we were working with with Gary and his team is look at the wider set of stakeholders and leaders in the community that we want to integrate into this effort
119so we would love for the school board members to join us um for ABCs of conflict we could do a special mini ABCs for school board members uh eventually we're hoping to include other people from the community uh we would welcome staff from the mayor's office staff from the police department uh I know we've looked at involving the Community Schools initiative person from Leo um our hope is really to expand the concentric circles of um engagement until we really have a wide capacity to do this work because what we've seen in the field is that there will be a champion or a couple of champions of this work and then those people are promoted or they transfer and the efforts um away and we want to make sure that this investment pays off for a
120very long time and that this work is part of attracting students to the ausa Unified School District that this will affirmatively be something that parents will say this is where I want to send my students to school so they can be a part of this great thank you welcome I have several questions um how are students selected to um be in the med mediation program and and can they be recommended by a staff member of a USD absolutely Oscar I know you're still with us um would you mind talking a little bit about how you went about this process last year when you were recruiting your first cohort of peer mediators absolutely um students were selected um by myself Mr pero and Mr Scott our counselor at Foothill Middle School uh because we knew that
121we needed some students that would be able to provide advice to other students um and we wanted to make sure that these students weren't particularly shy or quiet uh we could not have a peer mediation group uh with students that would say just yes or no or maybe or I don't know um we purposefully asked several teachers hey which particular students that you remember from last year or this particular year do you think have the capacity to reach out um and engage with other students in a meaning in a meaningful conversation at their level um so that you know that so they we be able to open up and and just be cognizant that there are issues that need to be resolved um luckily we had several students with a checkered past uh that were
122very willing to uh actually impart their wisdom at as eighth graders to the middle schoolers and that carried a lot of weight with our particular group of students our sixth and seventh and eighth graders um so excuse me so can you tell me what what you mean by Checker pass um we had a couple of students that were sent to sore um in the middle schools um so we knew that they had a past where they weren't necessarily a straight A student but they were usually getting into fights um and those are the type of students that that are listened to by other students because either they have a very tough reputation or they they really want to stay away from that situation where they were in so well I also think that you should
123select your average student also and not just categorize certain students um and we did to give other students a chance and maybe they may be shy but if they feel that they're people are looking up to them or want to speak to them you know this shyness or or withdraw or what have you can can drink them forward and not just select people that you feel that you know have a bad past and they're going to come out and all of a sudden you know they're going to save the world I I just yeah oh and and we absolutely did um we did have a couple of students that were basically straight A students who are who were more than willing to take on this particular responsibility um and every time we had a peer
124uh mediation that would come up during the the middle of the school day or the middle of the school week uh we would give the student the option hey these are a couple of students that we have that are peer mediators who would you think you would feel more comfortable talking with so we wouldn't just put a like uh an individual student to take all the peer mediations the students and the peer mediators had to feel comfortable with each other in order to uh facilitate a meeting um but yeah you're you're right like we're not just going to be targeting an a a type of student uh we do open it up to everybody um and last year we were able to uh recruit during the year uh because once students went through peer mediation
125programs they started asking Mr Scott or myself hey um this particular premediation really worked for me I've never experienced something like this how can I be part of it and that's how we started adding on to our to our group of students that's what I like to hear that you know in of a teacher or a staff member I should say want to recommend someone that feel it would be helpful for them I think we should look at those students also absolutely and I think as Oscar was saying that there were students that there was just a dramatic turnaround you know academically um just they they did a 180 and to Yolanda's point it was because you know people started looking up to them that that they were you know problem solvers and they were
126doing this kind of work so it was really extraordinary to see you know the growth in some of these kids yeah and what we find is that in the early years of a program getting anchored in a school there needs to be a lot of active recruitment but as the program builds momentum it begins to be its own source of attraction action um and there are even some schools that we've worked with at the high school level where the prior Year's class of peer mediators are actually involved in the recruitment process so they recruit and interview the next class of P mediators um and getting that right mix is really critical I think part of what was really effective about what Oscar did at Foothill last year is that he had students who had a
127range of academic performance and a range of discipline issues um and we do find though uh that students who have had discipline issues tend to be non-traditional Learners they may have a lived experience that gives them a great sense of empathy they also often have high emotional intelligence so we were very glad to see the full range of students recruited um we don't believe that um there are like problem children there are students who live with uh trauma and many different challenges including systemic racism some of those students are our most effective peer mediators yeah I I just don't want to see students labeled as sore continuation bad problem kids yeah that label that's that's not that's not right yes agreed um do we have time for any other questions or are there any other
128questions yeah I I have a couple questions um oh hello jelan hi hi Alisa how are you um so um good to see you yeah so actually I randomly not randomly but I met Alisa when they were getting an award at the um human relations commission for LA County um so a just a couple things um and Gary and I had met them independently so she was already working with Gary um uh a just a question you spent a lot of time talking about the the student component um I think circling back to something that gav said earlier around like we need we need to make sure that we're building Comfort level with everybody and not everyone is the place right um where do you see um the staff and staff learning um built into
129this and I'm thinking really specifically I mean I know we're we're we're sort of pushing out there in terms of talking about anti-racism all these things we have people that are probably not even comfortable talking about biases right or and so thinking about like how do how do we how are we going to make sure that we're and this is probably something that the the work the group that's going to meet it's going to talk about like but how are we how are we making sure that we are bringing everyone along with us and not making feel people feel like they're feeling that they're forced to do something right yeah um so yeah that's my first question oh good do you want to lay out no no no that's that no they're they're not related
130at all they're okay um that's an excellent question um so U our ABCs of conflict program is geared specifically toward the adults that are going to be supporting Youth and um what we have learned over time is that um it's best to build build a team at each School site and you we're more likely to succeed when we start with what's called a early adopters so people who are naturally drawn to the work uh people like Oscar people like Scott um uh Adrian over at slaon there's a whole team of folks who have already begun to be trained um next June when we're able to do ABCs again in person we'll begin building out larger sets of teams at each of the school schools that we're working in this year that Center Foothill gladston High
131School ausa High School uh I know we're looking also Ellington the k through eight and Sierra High School are also interested um and so we're going to build more and more uh teachers at that at those School sites trained um we've also identified that there are I believe 13 counselors in the district we'd also like to have all 13 counselors trained next summer um and then I think it will be an iterative process of going back and forth with the district and saying okay what's the next wave of educating that we want to do with adults do we want to break off the implicit bias training and do sessions on that with larger groups of people do we want to do sessions on the social emotional learning basics of conflict resolution education um our Theory
132as as Arturo and Sean mentioned is you know your Compu your community best we're here to partner with you and support you so we really see this as a partnership that we're going to be learning from each other and taking we're going to take our Le from you all that's that's really great um I think that's that's that's a great approach um you know part of my part of part of coming my from my side is a little impatience in terms of like some of these Basics um like you talk about implicit bias right like thinking about like that's really basic like if people it's really hard to change culture mindset if you don't have so so I I look forward to having conversations about like what's the right what's the appropriate speed and how
133some of this is rolled out um so that's number one number two um and I don't want to answer tonight but I'm really interested in learning more about what what kind of data are we looking about in terms of in terms of tracking School climate in a more positive frame um just um just it's kind of interesting last week I was having a conversation with somebody about like you know when you look at this this the data dashboard right and you talk about school climate you're talking about school suspensions that is not school climate that is not school climate right so I think that I'm I I you know I think this is going to position isusa sort of as a Trailblazer right because I think I think in my mind the state needs to
134needs to move move away from those very um uh negative um deficit oriented approaches like let's call School climate suspension rates right so I I'm excited so I'm happy to learn like probably maybe Maro maybe you guys can share Dana and in our in our weekly update like what are some of these data points that you're think about um so that that that's just my second um comment question or request I guess um and then the third the third piece is actually just more like more um just just a comment and that is um I appreciate you identifying that there's there's just structures that we have that are focused on Intervention remediation that sort of just that just embed this deficit approach and so I just want us as a district and now right now
135I'm speaking to us as a board and the staff to think about how do we undo those pieces right like we I just think about the last couple years we got additional dollars um to invest in um um and we decided to to invest more in more in more interventions right that was what we decided to double down on right and so if we really want to talk about reframing how we approach things and really having that positive approach um this is a great opportunity we've had this pandemic things have broken apart right let's have a conversation about what are those pieces that are going to help kids accelerate um and I mean my my personal opinion is I'm not sure more inter should work right but giving kids experiences like and you know talking
136about um what did you talk mediation through ART I forget what you called it but using art right these are the kind reflection through the Arts right right so so let's let's have conversations about how can we capitalize on that and reframe a lot of the work that the structures that we have created so that was more that's more for us internally I think I hope moving forward so those are my three questions comments thank you yeah I I I mean which we talked about the first one I I think um on the on the element of data um you know just being familiar with your work in the field um if appropriate um we love whatever involvement you would like to have in that process um we're always uh very open to additional reflection
137and guidance um in terms of setting the data points um I think right now we're very focused on um locking in who our academic partners are going to be um and then once those folks are on board will be going into the design phase for data collection and we would welcome involvement by any member of the School Board um who is interested in that uh and I I really appreciate your comment about um reframing into a positive approach and I I think that's the hope for us is by deconstructing what the sarc requires and building in new data points that push into more of a positive framework that we eventually want to take that to the state level and share what we've learned from that and hope that um event eventually that will be part
138of the mandatory reporting structure um even if it starts initially on a more voluntary basis I would like to uh thank uh the Western Justice Center um uh along with Gary creel uh for presenting uh this information tonight giving us a a deeper understanding of the work that you're doing um we have a a deep appreciation of this partnership for the next five years that um that we believe will help to um create transformative practices in our district so just want to thank each one of you again for um for this work and uh we definitely look forward to um continuing the work and and really rolling up our sleeves uh together so thank you so much thank you Dana all right so um what great what a great segue talking about data so now
139we are going to talk um a little bit uh around uh Equity focused data um and using that to allow us to examine and to analyze our system for inequities and so I am now going to turn it over to uh Aaron Kramer who is going to talk to us a little bit about data Aron I am partnering with Dr Dr EDI Bryant to talk a little bit about data and um you set the stage the conversation was perfect into what we're about to dive into from those who have contributed to the the discussion here in the last few minutes um so I'm going to just do a little bridge over into um Dr EDI Bryant's activity here this evening we've heard important information and perspectives um that have been provided to deepen deepen our
140understanding and our communication around really important topics as we consider next steps around our work to address equity and diversity and inclusion data points are an important component that support and inform our focus and our decisions they is often used as both evaluative and formative and as we work to establish our objectives along these um topics and these areas that we want to um dig into we want to think about qualita qualitative measures such as perspectives like the stories that have been shared this evening um people's experiences people's feelings about how we um interact as a community this um quantitative and also quantitative data from things like surveys and um information we store in our student information systems like Aries um information um on achievement these are things that can be utilized to evaluate our
141Pro progress and help um ensure that our eort efforts are in line with the plans that we put in place along the way information is also utilized in a formative way to guide progress and help keep us on track it serves to improve our practices and help adjust to areas that maybe we didn't see at the beginning of our efforts and so I'd like to turn it over to Dr um EDI Bryant as she goes through some Equity activities here around data good evening board members uh yes you know we as we look at the data we we will be collecting through multiple multiple sources that will really allow us to triangulate and get deep understanding in our progress um a couple of ways you see on the slide projected now is uh we will
142be collecting data the first being as you see our district youth truth survey um this is part of our survey for all stakeholders and as part of that survey and our partnership with youth truth um we will have questions aligned specifically to diversity equity and inclusion um furthermore because youth Truth uh administers surveys across the state and the nation not only will we be able to look at our own data and and look at our different schools but we'll also be able to have comparative data to to districts outside of uh of us um I in fact I want to take some time to share a few examples of some of the diversity and Equity questions that are going to be administered to our middle and high school students and to our parents and families
143and staff um some of the things that we'll be asking will be uh asking students to tell their views of how uh the school values people of diverse groups and categories we'll ask our our ask them if students value different groups and categories we'll ask if adults at the school value people of different diverse and categories we'll also ask them to look at their schools uh and see how often they see people of diverse backgrounds represented for example in art and posters or in in Publications or textbooks and class materials as we we talk about some of the the books that we want to um make sure our students are accessing we're going to ask them to to Really rate how often they see that during their their school events um two questions address student
144learning and really focus and asking students how they learn about how how they and how often they learn about students or people from diverse groups and whether that includes um how people may have been treated unfairly a final uh sample question that I can share with you tonight is asking students to really State their level of agreement when they're asked if uh they are encouraged to speak out Against Racism our family surveys are are going to ask similar questions uh they're going to ask uh similar to those that I just described in the the students survey um but we're also going to continue to make sure that we're asking about uh resources being available in multiple languages so that parents are comfortable accessing our resources our meetings uh and being engaged uh Contin in in
145the process of educating their students our staff surveys also will align with the student and the family surveys but then there are specific teacher questions that will focus on culturally relevant teaching which will include questions around opportunities for professional learning uh curriculum and materials and teachers Comfort levels with implementing culturally relevant teaching practices so all of that can help guide us in understanding how we we are implementing our initiatives around diversity Equity inclusion and anti-racism um so we are really excited to be gathering this Baseline data on diversity and equity and inclusion uh through our district Daniel surveys and through this partnership with youth truth um beyond the surveys we continue as Aon uh Miss Kramer was mentioning to look at qualitative data that also really provides us a deep understanding of some of the
146responses that we often see in in those qualitative surveys so we have our student listening circles we have our lcap student advisory committee that will continue to to be a source of of good data for us and in addition to all of those metrics I just mentioned we also have our lcap metrics which can also be a source of measurement for us we have historically shared metrics with the board and with the public um in our previous lcap that have been broken down by student group and by our school sites but we have an opportunity with our new 2021 2024 lcap to really include metrics that can address the diversity and Equity measures um and to capture those in the lcap itself and do more than just informal updates with the board uh but to
147have them captured in the met in the lcap and so um to kind of finalize our time uh with you I wanted to focus on these lcap metrics and let you view and provide some input on possibilities that me we may want to include as you know the elcap is a collaboratively developed document through all stakeholders um providing input in an ongoing process uh throughout this year um so this is an opportunity for you as a board to start that process with us um I'm going to go ahead and uh transition to the next slide and I'd like you to hand I'm sorry I have a question I I I'm not quite sure if I heard correctly um the grade levels that uh you're going to be collecting this data on I I heard uh
148teachers I heard parents um but I don't know if I heard what grade levels you were going to um have these uh surveys yeah the district annual survey the diversity equity and inclusion questions will go to our middle and high school students okay thank you so uh if you will go to your board hand out your packet and you go to the very last page you are going to see h a beginning a list of metrics um and so what I want to do is just give you a minute to find that last page and just kind of respond yes when you found it or give me a thumbs up that works too thank you [Music] yes and again if you're you're still looking I believe it is the very final page of board uh
149packet or handout that you've been using this evening so I want to make sure everybody has it because as we move forward with our activity you're going to use this as a base from which to um capture some ideas individually and and share so is there anyone that uh still needs help finding that okay so um this list is uh made up of required metrics the lcap does have some required metrics but in addition uh there are ideas listed here that we could use uh to develop um lcap metrics related to uh diversity equity and inclusion and so I want to give you a few moments to read through this list and think about the metrics um kind of reading through picking a one or two that catch your attention and thinking about why they
150catch your attention um you may also uh in reading this list come up with uh ideas beyond what is listed here and um after I give you this time to look through the list we will we'll share this in um in a document um but I want to again give you this think time for about a minute and a half to kind of select one or two metrics including any that you think of uh Beyond this list to share out as potential metrics for our lcap and and why they speak to you so let's take that minute and a half for you to do that thinking and then I'll take you to our next steps in our activity okay Marez is going to place in the chat of our uh our Zoom call a link
151to something called A padlet and A padlet is going to be the place where we will capture your thoughts as a board and I'll have a record of that uh as I begin to develop and share out and gather ideas from all of our other stakeholders as well and so um what I would like you to do is when you see that link in the chat go ahead and click on that link and it will open up a a green background document and again it's called a padlet and and by the way padlet is one of the applications that has been used in distance learning with our students and teachers and it's a great way to have multiple people gather thoughts and engage in in um sharing ideas and so you're getting a little taste
152of what our students and our teachers are doing uh during their distance learning as well tonight so what I would like you to do is open up the padlet and when you see uh the document open and there's a green background um would you again indicate to me that you have successfully accessed that by saying yes or giving me a hands up and if you have a question uh you can also obviously ask and I can support you in accessing the padlet so Jerry I see your thumb thank you and I see uh we see uh okay Miss Cruz Gonzalez has access because I see she's already typing on it so let me just get a a thumbs up or affirmative okay thank you Mr Greer okay so let me share a little bit about
153how you use the padlet uh the the the the um it's almost like a Post-It note that I put on this padlet gives you instructions you double click on a green so I'd like everybody to double click on the green and a box white box will pop up and a cursor will be at the top and you can begin typing so I'd like everybody to double click on the green open a box and type uh one of the ideas that you had for a metric and then Midway down the box is where you can type in your reasoning or what you were thinking about why you were um captured by this metric as an idea for our lcap and if you're having any um problems accessing please let me know I'll be happy to support
154you in accessing the padlet I do see some other uh entries good I see three stud I see uh some board members interested in using our survey data regarding um some of the questions the diversity and Equity survey as a actual metric in our lcap that is something we can do I see a n9th grade DN F rate by student group really breaking it down by the student group okay looking at uh maybe gaps and differences within our our groups uh I'm going to give you a little time to fill in and again please don't hesitate to ask for if needed and to start a new um post it just double click outside the green and if you want to go back in you can edit also student perceptions great I see some metrics around
155implicit bias and the ideas of how students are accessing advanced level classes student perceptions of adults valuing diversity students uh encouragement to speak out Against Racism Comfort levels with talking about different diverse groups and uh see some of you share similar um interests in in ideas for metrics that's good information for us as we continue to develop our our lcap metrics I'm going to give everyone another minute but the good news is you can still access this even if you after the meeting or tomorrow I sent you a link in your emails and if you have other ideas that you'd like to add to our padlet um feel free to do that it's great so as you come to the end of the the entry you're making now again I encourage you to come back
156to this later if if you so desire and continue to share your um ideas uh at this point I I want to turn the presentation over to Mr Ortega who's going to continue this discussion about measuring our progress in uh how we are implementing our our diversity equity and inclusion uh initiatives thank you Jennifer I appreciate it um as uh most of us uh know uh isua Unified School District has a relationship with California Ed Partners um that um started off with a Cali initiative uh several years ago um that resulted in our three Student Success drivers uh that we have been working on uh we just launched a uh initiative uh for PE preschool to third grade uh around uh numeracy and Counting collections uh and then there are other offsprings of that to
157T I want to share uh something that um as we think about data um and we think about uh systemic racism one of the things is that how are we looking at data how can we look at it in different manners through through different viewpoints so that it uncovers things that uh might be uh there but are hard to see if we're looking at the the typical way of looking at data right all e sped um which are important and and we need we need to to to look at but there are other ways of doing that um in the padlet um I do see a um one of the stickies or or one of the post uh talk about ninth grade uh dnf rates and so I'm going to share my screen uh right
158now and I want to show you uh something that uh we are working on in conjunction with California Ed Partners uh everybody see my screen yeah all right this is uh called uh they they call it the MTG uh or make it went away it went away it it flashed and then it went away there we go it's there now okay uh this is a tool uh that has been developed by California Ed Partners uh it it they refer to it as MTG uh which stands for making the grade this is an offspring of another partnership uh that uh they currently uh work with other districts um again because of our partnership and our relationship with California Ed Partners this was brought to our attention and we are currently working with them uh to bring
159this tool to isua Unified School District um and this would be this is a a a product that would not cost the district uh any money but that begins to to give us an opportunity or a vision uh of how we how we can interact with data to make important decisions uh around things like student achievement course access course offerings um a lot of different lot of different ways so this dashboard right here it's first of all it's fake so all the data here is not real um but I just want to walk through this so this is uh the dnf uh dashboard and as you can see really quickly we are looking at the dnf rate through a variety of lenses lens number one by class so ninth graders versus 10th graders versus 11th
160graders versus 12th graders we're looking at it through the lens of ethnicity we're looking at it through the lens of uh uh Ela status we're looking at it through the lens of uh S free red uh reduced and paid uh we're looking at it through um the percentage uh ranked by ethnicity we're looking at it by grading period we're looking at it by teacher we're looking at it by counselor we're looking at it by uh Department uh and we're looking at it by subject area in one shot in one area you're getting multiple looks to try to uncover study analyze patterns that might not have been there when we look at this in in the most traditional of of manners this dashboard is interactive meaning that a board member might want to say okay well
161this is all good and dandy but I just want to see how students who get free lunch what what is their experience in terms of dnf so just by coming here and clicking on free the dashboard resets and now I'm looking at free I'm looking at this dashboard still through the same lenses and the categories that we talked about before but through the filter of free and I can do multiple I can do free and uh Hispanic Latino I can do free and uh semester one or free and ninth graders or whatever that may be uh and then I just unclick it and then it just resets it itself back to to its original format I don't have to interact with it through the dashboard I can also do it uh here on the left
162hand side through the navigation system uh that's another another way of doing that currently Jennifer EDI Bryant uh is leading uh the charge on on getting us up and running uh with this tool I'm very excited we we we were able to meet with the staff of California Ed Partners uh to talk about this and so um we are working uh Jennifer is working with their staff uh to to have this tool available uh to us uh today we showed it to a couple of uh folks just as a a quick uh snapshot and uh some of the some of the comments were to do this in the past would have taken hours and Excel spreadsheets and and try try to figure out and what a dream to have it you know at at at
163our finger trips I also want to say that isua Unified School District is going to be on the Forefront because the the preschool to math uh collaborative that we are currently partnering with California Ed Partners is going to take this concept of making the grade and they're starting to wrestle with and think about how does a dashboard like this look like for preschool K1 2 and three and what is that what is that data right now we're looking at dnfs we know that uh 9th grade 8th grade typically are are big uh grades to look at so when we're looking about when we're thinking about this dashboard through through another application and another way of of of doing it we're very excited to to know that azuza Unified School District uh along with some other
164districts are going to have um quite a bit of input uh on what a tool like this would look like at the at the preschool kindergarten first and second grade this is only one thing uh that we are currently working on uh to make uh data um try to uh uncover uh different patterns uh and different sets and different data points that again in the past might have been a little bit more difficult uh to rise to the surface um and as we start to um become successful in uh these other uh uh areas that we're looking at um we will definitely be bringing those uh forward as well we just wanted to give you a snapshot of something that we are very close to uh right now again this is only centered around dnfs
165uh but uh our very first question to California aded Partners is uh what is the possibility of of growing this to other areas or other data points uh but right now this is the focus for that and so we're just very grateful for for our partnership with them uh because it's really netted a lot of positive a lot of positive things uh so with that I'd like to turn it back over to Dana just quick question aruro quick question um so um you answered my first question which was going to be what other data points do they track but I guess you answered that um then the other question is um what's just estimated timeline around when we see get a first look at our our data I just asked that question uh to Jennifer
166EDI Bryant uh Jen you want to give us an update I know it was very it was right around the corner but I'd rather her answer that question hi oh I'm having I think you can hear me I think my vide there we go I like to turn my camera on yeah I reached out today and we are finalizing getting our data the data is pulled from our student information system and we we are put put it in a a shared Drive where it it's then pulled into the um into the spreadsheet that is pre-made by our our Ed Ed part California Ed partners and um so we are in the process of having that data put into that spreadsheet so I can't give you an exact deadline but as soon as the data is
167there the the dashboard turns on because it is already pre-built we're not having it built so um I'm hoping and again this is not a for sure but I'm hoping that within the next week or two that everything will be clear and clean and we'll be able to have that running with our data I think it's also important to note uh that what you saw right now is their sandbox right it's the it's the it's the one that they use just to show uh we have students in there like with the names of 50 Cent and Donald Duck uh and so uh but what what you don't see in that uh sandbox is uh our other data sets it's still around d& FS but other data sets that we can also import into the dashboard
168um that that might be helpful it might be useful so again we're exploring kind of those Avenues uh as well I really like the consors The Beetles yes Paul McCartney and Ringo yes uhhuh there were some groups that stumped me but I looked them up and I'm like okay these are all directors got it thank you Miss Mitchell thank you so um want to um close uh with uh a couple of comments you've had an opportunity tonight to hear from uh our students from staff we've had a discussion around ethnic studies and the work that we are doing to address systemic racism and and begin that work uh I want to thank the board for the opportunity to engage in these um very important discussions I want to thank our students uh for Lending their
169voice and their perspective um the Western Justice Center for uh your participation your commitment in in doing this work with us and uh to our ed services team also for uh for preparing and and presenting this uh this this work uh this evening so at this time I'd like to invite the board to provide any further comments or questions as we engage in this work together thank you very much for all the great work students staff board everyone um it was a great presentation great Workshop thank you I learned a lot yeah I I agree with that and um you know this is this is continuing work you know grateful for this this kind kind of a snapshot in time where we can share what has been done and and and what's kind of on
170the schedule to to be done um and and so look forward to more work look forward to yeah uh engaging you know I'm I I definitely saw ways where we as a a board can be engaged in in the process here um have seen how how staff and students um have have been engaged Partners um so just yeah looking forward looking forward to to more and um you know considering and executing on next steps and I'd like to thank everybody for all the hard work you did this was an excellent presentation it full of information I really appreciate it I just want to Echo what what all of my colleagues have said um and and I guess my question is um and I don't know if it's for the board or just you know what
171what should be next steps is it's something that we discussed at the next board meeting is that's something that right now we just talk about and let's say let's move forward with with the task force I you know want to put on the table I want to make sure that we're walking away with something you know what's going to what's happening next any thoughts yeah so I'll say I think you know we talked about things today but we there were there were no action steps um attached to them I think that that we you know U it would be good to have some conversations with some based on what was discussed here and and where there might have been some general consensus um having some U action items coming to us at at uh subsequent
172board meeting to to actually you know um make movements on some of these items that we discussed um one of the things that I'd like to point out in case uh Miss Bo did not have a chance to watch this can we make sure that she has the video so that when those discussions move forward she'll be up to date thank you I I want to share that this was wow it was it was an amazing meeting these are conversations that you know we're having a as a board um with students and um you know just all of the information that we received today I I need some time to process all of this and it's exciting I I'm so excited um I'm excited to continue this conversation and just like my colleague said um
173you know it's not just temporarily seasonal how can we um you know keep and it's a momentum right now that you know that we're we're we're we're feeling or U the excitement of hey we're we're finally doing this but how can we create the sustainability to to continue this um you know in the next five years 10 years I mean looking at it from you know with the changes to that are are our our district um will will be taking in consideration I mean it it's really important that we we continue the conversation and I can't wait to to see you know what um the surveys when you guys collect the surveys what uh parents and students and the commun you know the school Community has to say so um definitely really excited I I
174I can't wait um I did want to go ahead and introduce some uh well before I do that I wanted to thank everybody who take the time the students um staff for you guys to um put this all together I'm really excited to see the the data that's going to come uh forth um with um our student data um the next couple weeks um and thank you to the students to the staff and for the wjc um remember can I ask a clarifying question yes um just just so I'm just so we're clear on uh next steps um we talked about uh I think there was about nine if I'm not mistaken nine districts uh that we took a deep dive in some of them we were able to speak to uh personally um you
175heard from the students um and I think that what I heard as we were kind of going through this um is at least an agreement we don't have to agree tonight but if if we can then that that can get the the the work moving forward about getting a group together uh there was was a suggestion that uh this might be called um an anti- racist uh task force or an anti- uh uh study group or work group or whatever uh that might be able to not be onedimensional but can actually bring bring the the conversations that were H that have that happen today um I just want to get clarity uh because that was recommendation that U that was made from uh Dr Mitchell today uh do we do we do we have consensus
176that we can start working on that and putting that group together or am I hearing that we need to come back and talk about uh you know should that be a recommendation I just want to get clarity on that uh so that we know how to proceed well one of one of the things that like uh that was mentioned today was that you know it' be great to have Schoolboard uh members also be part of this um I know I would like to be part of this um I I I'm sure my other colleagues would would like to be part of this too so so how do we move forward um when perhaps we we we all want to be part of this um I I think we should we should talk about this um
177I I'm I'm okay with um talking about it now I mean is is that something that you um you guys want to do right now so I want oh go I just want to say yes I agree with you uh board member regarding I think because I know that um my colleagues you know all want to be involved in it and I know we could only have two but I would like to see something as a um taking turns or or or all of us to be involved maybe you know hold a special um board meeting that we need to do if all five or you know just all us to rolve and take turns and get involved and and I like to see some of these topics in in our board agendas in our
178future board agendas periodically and not just let them go away just for today but I I think it's good that we we just take turns or or I don't know however but I know that we all are interested this is new to us and it's very exciting can I can I also suggest because yeah that that makes sense um uh Yolanda what you're what you're suggesting I I agree with that um I think also I I would I would hate to see like um like our bureaucratic kind of system stop you know prevent forward progress and forward movement and so C could I suggest that maybe a hybrid of the two where yeah let's figure that out as a board but in the meantime um let's still allow staff to move forward um and and
179gather folks and get the work started and and when we figure things out as a board and who and how and who joins on then we can join in um I think that there there's just is a lot of a lot of work to be done and and I'd hate to see us um hinder that um especially going into the holidays and whatnot that we we could get in the way um so so that yeah that would be my recommendation and um and and so yes I would say yes to that and then I think there are some things that we had conversations about like you know with with um you know diversifi diversify our narrative where they're talking about um you know books at at different levels and I know we talked about high
180school Sheil you mentioned at previous meeting why why High School why why why limiting some of that to just High School why not also extend and look into to Junior High so I'm not sure if the best course of action is to say let's have that group gather and then bring recommendations to the board or if it makes more sense if there's things that we already discussed now to already bring some of those things to the board like to have a conversation with some the potential for Action around um ethnic studies as a as a um a graduation requirement so so again I think that there are a couple courses of of action and and and I don't think we're limited to one um at a time I just want to Echo Adrian I think
181I I I what I would like to see is is to to for us to say okay staff go ahead and go think about what what does this committee look like um um you know what's the best thing to name it I'm not wetted to what I said so I'm okay if we call it diversity and inclusion or something it what matters to me is the work that they do so I mean I think you know I I would be happy if we gave the staff say let's start organizing it putting it together um and to Adrian's point you know we can figure out you know who is represented um because obviously there's different of opinions like I personally I feel like and I know we all want to be part of it right I
182think if we wanted to be a a strong functional committee and with with with with um valuable board input then we probably need to appoint to two board members and we don't all get to be on it right even though we all want to be um and and my suggestion would be then let's think about how do we make sure that the board is engaged in these conversations on an ongoing basis um whether it's reporting back whether it's you know I enjoy tonight's board meeting right I'd rather have these conversations and some of the other conversations we have like let's focus on the work and find ways to build more of that into our board meetings so that we're all part of that conversation but again I agree with Adrian I think that's something that
183we can talk about further um you know Hammer those out we are going to have a change we're going to have Sabrina Bo come in so good to have the the the five moving forward come together and decide you know how who's going to be what doing what um um so I so I think I guess I'm I'm saying a lot but I'm I agree with Adrien I probably should have just said that do we have consents we have consensus on that we just uh so it's a two prog approach uh for now it's probably going to be a multi-program approach but for now uh number one uh we we will begin to launch and create and and construct and structure um I want to remind us all that on December 15th we are have
184a we are uh on the board agenda have already a board agenda item where we're going to be talking about uh committees uh so we can very very well uh add uh this uh to that conversation that that would be good I would agree with my colleagues um but at the same time I think um it's important that um we continue as a board uh you know uh processing this I I I feel like I I still want to talk about this I still want to be able to process there was a lot of information thrown at us um yes and I I would love for staff to get started but at the same time I think that I would like to see this on uh uh in the next uh Schoolboard meeting agenda or
185so to be able to go ahead and continue uh you know um bringing uh the new uh board member elect uh Miss Bo you know to kind of like introduce you know together so I would like to see this in the next um board agenda we can very well do that uh not a problem whatsoever I do want to just give you a preview that December 15th meeting um has uh quite a bit of stuff on it uh which again is perfectly fine for us as staff I just want to uh maybe suggest that we um uh do it in in January but if it's the pleasure of the board we can definitely bring it but we do have quite it's a big night uh that night uh from oath to reorganization to budget um
186quite quite a bit quite a bit of uh items on that meeting um so that that might be helpful but again I will I will default back to to uh your guys's recommendation I would agree January would would probably um would be would be okay I on my part I don't know what um the others think you know I agree with that and and you know that only continues to communicate the point to you know don't don't let the board stop the work so so there's still stuff that can happen um in the intern thank you okay before we um we move on um I think we had some here on um that would like to say a few words before we close tonight we have um Mr Taylor Val Morris just go ahead and
187please introduce yourself hi everyone uh most of you should hopefully remember me I'm Taylor on here on behalf of member Blanc Rubio it's so nice to see you all again um I just really won't take up too much your time I just want to say on behalf of the Su member in the state of California and the lucky people of theza uh thank you so much Jerry for your service and your time with us we're so proud to have you here and um wish you the best I guess and have a good evening everyone well thank you very much and uh thank uh Blanca for me and I'm gonna hold everybody here for just one second because for the next micr seconds I have the last moments of my lame duck presidency so as soon
188as we click out I'm done so y'all have a good night we'll end the day at 8:37 and enjoy goodbye everyone good night good night