001okay we are live streaming and ready to begin awesome thank you mary beth do you want to go ahead yes this is a meeting of the urbandale community school district school board this meeting is being held virtually due to the coven 19 pandemic and this is an open meeting great thank you so we'll call this meeting to order and may we have a roll call mary beth yes stacy anderson here judy downs here mark smith here ashley anderson here rihanna sarah geyser here catherine houser here okay great motion to approve the agenda thank you second awesome um all in favor i i oppose same sign appears unanimous and i had not heard do we have any communication from the public this evening hi sarah no we do not okay great so we'll move into our
002training so i'm going to give this off to ryan to introduce our speaker or our facilitator well good evening i trust that everyone is uh doing your best to stay warm in these frigid temperatures i know my car acted a little sick this afternoon when i tried to start it up it was just so cold so i hope that everyone is is kind of in your homes and got your families in your homes and uh uh keeping everybody safe so again first off i'd like to say thank you and extend this this thank you to our board uh for taking part in this idi training i think that the information that's going to be provided by brother morris is going to be very valuable as we continue to dive into the work that we are
003doing as a board not only as a board but as a school district surrounding diversity equity and inclusion so i think it's going to be very beneficial as we move forward so i don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking um i did ask ken to send me just some tidbits of information on his past jus on his path um so then that way we all know that he has had well over 20 years of experience in this work and leading this work and i feel that i feel i consider it an honor and a privilege to have him join uh this board and the work that we're going to continue to do so i'm just going to take a couple of minutes and read um some information about ken again just to
004kind of provide you with some context on his history and this work and i'll start off by saying kim moore ken morris jr is a graduate of monmouth college and western illinois university university recently he worked at the university of iowa as a diversity resource coordinator where he and his team provided consultation resources and skill building opportunities for university of iowa faculty staff students and guests in order to foster an inclusive respectful and equitable university community prior to that ken was the manager of student equity in the cedar rapids community school district in cedar rapids iowa additionally ken was the director of intercultural life at cornell college in mount vernon iowa for eight years ken buchan began his professional career in student affairs at his alma mater where he was the assistant director of residence
005life director and housing and coordinator of intercultural life currently ken is the director of equity at ankeny community school district where he provides leadership that promotes and creates an equitable school community through planning partnership and training ken has 20 years of experience working in education he has worked in several areas including student activities student leadership civic engagement orientation international student services student advising title ix scvi ace excuse me conduct board diversity training and enrollment management to name a few while at cornell college kim ken co-authored a chapter in the new directions of student services publication called making meaning through multicultural initiatives ken also serves as a commissioner for the iowa commission on the status of african americans which is a division of the iowa department of human rights so needless to say ken is very
006well versed in equity and inclusion and again i consider it an honor and a privilege to call him my friend that we have collaborated um multiple times and and i continue to look forward to the collaboration that we are going to uh continue to dive into so without further ado brother morris you have the floor wow thank you um i'm humbled by this opportunity um i told a future doctor ryan williamson um he didn't need to feel the need to read the whole buy it was kind of um you know uh i don't know i get a little bashful sometimes when you hear about yourself i'm just i just i just see myself as a catalyst for change and transformation um i see myself as a a brother in arms um doing this work of
007diversity equity inclusion um when ryan told me about some of the great work that he was doing in your school district and the eagerness for the school board um you know who wants to become better um at being able to lead uh dei within the school district you know i thought that you know whatever i could do to help you accomplish your goals um i'm here and as such you know uh we we we talked about some of this work that i'm familiar with with intercultural development and i thought that it would it would make a great overlay for the the the tremendous work that that ryan is is is leading um with the support of of the school board and so i'm very humbled and honored um to be with you uh this evening
008um and and engage in some work and um support you in how uh you accomplish your goals or perhaps set new goals um you'll find that this particular framework um i think it has his best utility when it's gold directed so i'm excited to share with you all i'm gonna what i'm gonna do real quick as i begin to share my screen um if if we could just go around and just do some um just brief introductions and i know i see your name on here but um i i don't want to speak at you all i want to talk with you and so we could just um do some some some brief introductions that would be great while i uh begin to share my screen okay um i'm katherine hauser uh i am the
009board president for the third time probably due to uh poor judgment on the rest of the board's part um before this i uh have been a lifelong educator my last 20 years were in urbandale and of course uh i am of a different age demographic than the rest of my friends thank you catherine i appreciate it i'm judy downs i'm vice president this is my third year on the board i um born and raised in des moines graduate from roosevelt high school um and i work in politics and big hawkeye fans so love to pick your brain another time about that work because that's something that's very uh been an interesting year in iowa city for for these issues without a doubt thank you dude so i'll go next but if you can you guys
010hear me i feel like there's a delay okay my name's stacey anderson this is my um third year on the board um i'm also a graduate of urbandale high school and um so it's cool to be back home and um i work as a paralegal and due to the current political climate um i'm starting to venture into some civil rights work which is really awesome and i'd love to pick your brain on that so that's all about me thank you all right thank you hey this is mark smith i'm just finishing up a basketball game and getting in here so i don't know if anybody can see me yet i'm trying to switch my phone over to my computer so here we go i have three kids high school middle school and elementary uh third
011year on the board i am ceo and general counsel of the ag finance company outstanding thank you ashley anderson are you she her pronouns i'm a stay-at-home mom slash activist i guess you could say i've been on the board for about a year all right thank you hi ken i'm brianna sarah geyser i'm uh also first year or year one on the board uh i work for heartland aea i'm an early childhood agency-wide consultant and serve on our social emotional behavior mental health leadership team i have one high school daughter and who's a sophomore nice to meet you nice to meet you thank you sorry i have to direct voices in my house to silence themselves so i can unmute but i'm sarah schmitz um i am this is is my fourth year on the
012board um i am a uh social worker uh well my undergrad and my um graduate degree are both in social work but i am employed as a behavior strategist in des moines um for des moines public schools and um i have five kids um in well i have five children i have four in the district one is uh just um still doing the daycare thing but um and that's it super excited to hear your presentation tonight so thank you thank you is that it did we get everybody in the crew seven all right that's what's up okay so as um ryan mentioned my name is ken morris jr i bring you greetings now from ankeny iowa um i'm originally from peoria illinois so i also bring you greetings from my family um in peoria i
013bring you greetings from my ancestors those that came before me it is on their work and dedication um those that set the foundation upon whose shoulders that i stand some things that you may not have known about me as i mentioned um you know proud resident of peoria illinois um you know growing up in peoria uh we didn't have a a high regard for it you know we often felt like it was the armpit of illinois kind of sandwiched in between chicago and saint louis and our only real big claim to fame was richard pryor so um we will take that a comedic genius um you know right from my hometown um i i also come to you um with the identity um as a father um this is one of my favorite pictures of
014my son avery only had one one child um we won a photo competition with this so i show this but it's very outdated because he's much taller than me now um you know he has significance because he was my preemie he was born two months um early it's two pounds 12 ounces um we got a birthday coming up um february 21st and so that's special to me because um he you know he came into this world so early and so little and now he's healthy and thriving and and much taller than dad but it doesn't take much so um also you know um you know being a father is a significant part of my identity but also being a son and so um i was blessed to come out of a two-parent household unfortunately i
015lost my mother early to cancer she was a registered nurse and my dad i was a laborer a caterpillar tractor um and throughout you know my time um playing lots of uh sports um but i i did football um took that more seriously and ended up going to college and playing football at mammoths and um you know uh coming up in peoria um and you may hear this in my cadence i i come from the black church experience and so um you know coming up in the black church is a lot of call and response communication and and you know my my voice octave me may rise a little bit so just so you know i'm not mad it's just cultural right it's just um you know the way in which uh you know we
016were we were brought up in that tradition um you know it's something that i just i take with me um you know i came up in the african-american african methodist episcopal ame uh church and then also some sailing parts of my identity um in addition to you know being a dad and um being a family man and being a former athlete um i am a big nerd so what you see right there bmp that's black nerd problems so i i am a nerd through it through uh sci-fi fantasy comic books you name it you know that's that's that's just kind of like my my escapism um you know often growing up my teammates would tease me because after games everyone would go to mcdonald's and hang out and a lot of our games were on
017friday nights i wouldn't go to mcdonald's i would hurry home and watch pbs so i could watch doctor who so that was that was my gym so um but you know i was very comfortable very early on in that dichotomy being an athlete and being a nerd and then lastly i'm a i'm a big big hip-hop head so you know as you can see um you know i have quite the uh intersection of identities and that's important for me to share because um as as as dr ryan mentioned you know all of these you know accolades and superlatives with regard to my professionalism i wanted to just you know introduce myself and just go beneath the surface a little bit um so you can learn a little bit more about me that wasn't mentioned in
018the bio and i also do that because i like to find connections with people so um yeah that that's that's who i am why i do this work very early on in my school experience i was one of those i i was a squirrely black boy i had a lot of energy and i loved learning but i hated school i loved learning but i hated school i was a type of kid where um i would be sick because i was never good at math so i would sit in math class and i'd have my book open but i would have like a choose your own adventure book inside my math book or inside my textbook or i have a comic book inside of my textbook and i wish that i had educators that would recognize
019my appetite for literature and reading and could have used that to have made education relevant and fun but instead i got i got penalized for it i got sent to the office i got referrals and no one recognized that you know i i love to learn but it looked differently than some of the other kids in our building and and so i strive to be the type of educator um to be what what um i affectionately know as a fire lighter i want i want to be the educator that likes a fire um and up under um a young person and get them excited um and created an insatiable appetite for learning um as opposed to being a fire lighter um those are the folks that i experienced early on who who just tempt out
020the fire um and and wanted me to focus more on processes and wanted me to focus on conformity instead of really teasing out um you know and really recognizing that hey um this kid loves to read um without being told to so how can um and what do i know about this kid especially what do i know about him after three o'clock that i could take advantage of and perhaps make my curriculum or con you know build my curriculum in a way that's going to pull him and other other children in so that um learning is is fun so that's that's that's a little bit of why about why i do this work so what we're going to spend some time tonight um the first part i'm going to do some level setting um i'm
021going to go over some some terms and some core concepts um just kind of really prime them up and get you all prepared um you know to um hear the interpretation of your idi profile um as i mentioned um you know go over some terms um we're going to um you know do a little uh lesson on the intercultural development continuum and then we'll transition and um go over your um group aggregate idi profile and then um open um um the time up to answer any questions um you may have and so um that's that's that's really it that's that's what i have prepared for you all and so and just so you know um this is not a gotcha this is this is a learning experience right and so i know that the nature
022of a school board we have to make what we do public and so i don't want anyone to jump on without having any context and and um you know uh uh misinterpreting um the purpose for our time together and you know so i just want to make certain that that we're clear on um you know what what we're going to engage in and how this work can support the the great work that you all are already engaging in um so that you know we can move from from good to great to excellent okay so in a cultural development um the intercultural development approach or intercultural competence um the idi assesses intercultural competence along the intercultural development continuum now just out of curiosity how many of you all have heard of the mbti or the myers-briggs
023type indicator show of hands show of hands yeah okay quite a few of you so the the mbti is a personality type indicator and what it does it it measures um um you know your your personality um based on um the theory called hume's theory so the mbti is the instrument that measures the theory eun's theory and and those of you who may not be familiar um the mbti uh the personality type indicator uh measures personality um you take this assessment and then you get these four little letters that's attributed to your personality type that basically tells you how awesome you are uh compared to some people um you know and and and and and so on and so forth and so anyway i'm kidding but it just really just gives you uh some insight
024on um your personalities type and what may be some strengths to your personality type similarly um it's a psychometric instrument so similarly the idi the intercultural development inventory this is the psychometric instrument um that measures the theory which is called the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity this was developed by milton and jan bennett um in the and then later adapted by dr mitch hammer and the idi is the is the assessment that measures the theory uh essentially um it measures individuals or a group's um level of intercultural competence or cultural competence um i like um i those terms are synonymous they're interchangeable um but i prefer intercultural competence because it denotes the interaction across difference okay and so what we're going to do this evening as i mentioned we're going to um uh uh examine
025um your collective um group score along the intercultural development inventory i think that this is going to be um you know significant for you all because you're an intact group and so sometimes you know i may uh go into organizations and and um you know we may have groups that don't work together and while um it may not be as relevant for them because um you know they may not work together and and you know establish you know norms and and so on and so forth and and um you know have community agreements and and uh you know really get to understand each other's you know talents and gifts that they bring to the table that helps the organization uh move and accomplish its set goals um i think that like i said this is
026going to be you know significant and relevant for you all as a as an intact group and and furthermore um you know as you understand what the idi is indicating about your group and where you're at on this development continuum um you also um you know get to uh set up an individual um meeting or a debrief with me to get to learn where you're at individually and and i found that those individual debriefs are um they could be very transformational you know and i only speak for myself i know when i took my first uh idi in 2009 um it really took me to task on some things you know i it really um you know helped me to see um you know where i was and and and helped me to become more
027effective in the work that i was engaging in around the dei space and around culture you know it really uh took me to task on um how i thought back then and where i where i believed that i was and and you know um and and again i'm always reflecting on where i was and where i am now and and you know and that's just you know because i was excited about engaging in this work and and experiencing the the change and the transformation and and um you know i become a zealot of it now and and so i'm always really excited to be able to share this experience with others to help them to grow and move in a way in which um you all want to go that will help you to accomplish
028um the goals that you have set forth as a school board related to dei okay so why intercultural development well i really i i as you heard from me you know i had this really transformational experience and and partially it was because it meets people where they are what i mean by that it meets people where they're at in the developmental process oftentimes when i used to do this work um i made assumptions about groups i made assumptions about where they're at um i had a sort of a a one size fits model or a canned approach to doing um dei work and oftentimes i would go in um you know just talking about very um complex concepts such as uh white privilege anti-racism and and and it's not to say that those aren't effective
029you know um um focus points but what i failed to recognize was that everyone in those groups weren't in that space and so what i found with doing idi guided development was that you know it helps me to understand exactly where a group is so that i can um you know focus uh my efforts on meeting them where they're at building them up so that you know ultimately they can become proficient in understanding some of these concepts that i mentioned without um being you know without fear of um you know uh you know um being called out or or fear of you know being you know labeled a racist or you know um you know it just really supported meeting people where they're at and helping them grow from whatever that starting point it was
030so i kind of think of this work as you know a personal navigation device right and so you don't know where you know if you think about you know your navigation device you have to start at where you're at to get to the destination that you desire and so i kind of see this work um as you know using that metaphor as as a as a personal sort of navigation device and then you heard me talk about earlier it's a value add um i believe that it will innovate on your current work and and the work of intercultural development first starts with self it first starts with building cultural self-awareness which i think is an important starting point oftentimes when um folk engage in dei work um we often um rush to the solutions and
031uh we we rarely ever you know talk about you know root cause or really you know talk about um you know way you know where we're at and and so if you think about if you you know back in the day it feel like when we were riding in airplanes uh you you know if you were to hear the um flight attendant go over the safety protocol they will often say in the case of depressurization um and oxygen mass falls make certain you put on your mass before you put on someone else's right you know put on your mass before you help someone else so let's you know i want to start with focusing focusing on our self work and then build a skill set to develop um other awareness but we'll begin with focus
032on self awareness and i got a nice little um video to demonstrate that this is an awareness test how many passes does the team in white make the answer is 13. but did you see the moonwalking bear what [Music] now now as you all can see i didn't do anything i didn't edit the video i didn't doctor it um what happens especially for those of you who have never seen this video or one like it um you're so focused on counting the number of passes that you completely miss that um moonwalk and bear but when the video replays and now that it's brought to your attention i.e is brought to your awareness you're paying attention to it now so every time you see this video or another video like it you're going to pay attention
033and look for um some videos they have moon walking bears some of them they have moonwalking gorillas but you'll be paying attention to it right so it's like thinking about um if you all have ever experienced um you know if you had your mind set on getting a particular car or a bag or pair of shoes right and you get that car that bag or those shoes and all of a sudden you start seeing them everywhere it's not that um the prevalence of these things have increased you're just paying attention to it it's in your awareness and so that's what you know we're going to really focus on in intercultural development work is building up your self-awareness which i think is an incredible skill set to begin a lot of people poo poo self awareness
034but i think it's a really incredible skill set to build upon um as a foundation okay so as you heard me say you know in talking about intercultural development um idi gotta develop is built around a culture general model that cultural general capability translates into cultural specific competence okay so i.e we're gonna build up our cultural self-awareness um to give us bridging skills um to help us be effective in operating and building up a sense of cultural other awareness culture is to humans as water is to fish we start with culture because you know it's it's it's where it all begins you know it's intercultural development continuum and everything that we're doing is talking about culture you know for a lot of people it's a task to talk about um culture is a concept that
035um is something that only people of color have or some people think that culture is something that immigrant communities have we have to begin to disassociate culture um um from from from seeing it as something that belongs to um um people of color immigrant groups and really beginning to understand that um it's about patterns of difference that show up across groups so how i define culture is the shared patterns of a group of people influenced by history identity or experience right so patterns of difference that show up across groups so would you agree that in the midwest we have a culture of greeting each other right um even in iowa we have a culture of greeting each other that say is different from the culture of greeting how they would greet each other in new
036york for example i would even say even within the midwest you know i think about as you mentioned as i mentioned i'm originally from peoria illinois and the way in which we greet each other in peoria um if i were to greet someone the way i greet uh people in peoria say like in chicago um that could mean fighting words right you know when uh you know in peoria we say what's up to each other but in chicago what's up is a fighting term right and so even within you know our culture of the midwest you know we have you know we have you know cultures within a culture um that you know and if you um you know don't have any familiarity or or understanding you know it could cause some cultural misunderstandings okay
037so this is one of my favorite metaphors um on thinking about cultures is is the iceberg and as i mentioned the idi it measures the degree of subjective um intercultural competence um the degree to which individuals and groups experience subjective culture with greater or lesser degrees of complexity so if you think about objective culture being those things that are above the water line in this example so the things that are above the water line or primarily in awareness are all the things that you see dance food language right these are all the things that you would see and um and in some instances these are um all the things that we sometimes uh this is what what we believe cultural groups um um produce right so if we were to have a cultural festival at
038urbandale community you know community school district uh we probably would you know we could probably be you know probably assured that there's gonna be music there's gonna be food um there's gonna be clothing vendors there you know you'll probably buy clothes that you'll never wear out the house right um you know that's you know what we would say you know some of the artifacts of what some cultural groups produce but what the idi is getting at is going below that water line and exploring those subjective aspects of culture those things are primarily out of awareness um those things that that you don't see that can um create tension those things that can create duress and cultural misunderstanding you know this is this is where we're focusing on um and this is the area that we
039want to begin um to be able to build our our complexity um and build a repertoire of skills to be effective and being able to navigate under these deep layer of culture um that that you know we don't see um above the water line okay and so i have an example of subjective are going wrong [Music] the english believe it's a slur on your hosts food if you don't clear your plate whereas the chinese feel you're questioning their generosity if you do at hsbc we never underestimate the importance of local knowledge which is why we have local banks staffed by local people in over 80 countries across the globe hsbc the world's local bank so here's another example of how cultural difference show up so this example comes from a book by um uh fox
040trumpernares and charles hampton turner um the name of the book is called writing the ways of culture and it explores uh seven cultural dimensions and and these are just a couple of them so i'm going to read the example to you so you're riding in a car driven by a close friend they hit a pedestrian you know your friend was going at least 35 miles per hour in the area of the city where the maximum allowed speed is 20 miles per hour there are no witnesses the lawyer says that if you testify under oath your friend was only driving 20 miles per hour it may save them from serious consequences what would guide your decision protecting the relationship with your friend or applying the law impartially regardless of consequences it's not it's not a right
041or wrong you know but you know it's just asking you what will guide your decision you know for some of you you know you may be thinking you know was this person seriously hurt you know how fast were they going did they die i mean you know you may take a lot of things into communi you know consideration while some may think the law is the law and regardless of relationship um you know i'm you know my friend has to follow the law and again no right or wrong is just this is just an example of two cultural dimensions what we call universalists and particularists now universalism or universalist is where you apply the rules the policies the law across the board regardless of relationship particularism is where you you'll pay attention to the relationship
042and you may change how you plot apply a particular law policy procedure given the relationship in the u.s um we tend to be more universalists we tend to ascribe to universalism in that you know we have uh we tend to um you know see um people and cultures the way that we see ourselves and and the opportunity for us is you know how do we move from seeing people the way that they see themselves and begin to see them the way that they see themselves right and so to break this down some more and you know i don't know if you ever heard of the term in some communities they have this term called snitches get stitches and if you've heard this term um you know this is reflective of particulars culture where the relationship
043is paramount to whatever whatever else is going on so you know in essence i gotta have my friends back that's first and foremost yes i care about the pedestrian yes i care about the law but my relationship with my friends supersedes family me supersedes you know family relationships community law so on and so forth and so again just two examples of cultural dimensions universalism and particularism and i got another example of how underlining cultural values show up differently for certain cultural groups um now there might be some of you on on um our zoom tonight who uh recognize um this first picture what is what is what's what is that what does that stand for anybody can just shout it out that would be the nose to the grindstone got that captain nose to the
044grindstone so this is an example this is very representative of baby boomer culture a generation of folks who were raised with the understanding that work was a place and you go to work during work hours which in some cases were nine to five right um and if you know i don't know some of you i'm revealing my age but some of you may remember the song in the movie by dolly parton about nine to five um this second picture uh generation y this is representative of the millennials who don't believe work is a place work is an activity where which you can do this activity from anywhere um now the thing about it is both of these groups they both value hard work um the ways they show culturally is just very different um work
045is a place work is an activity that you can go through anywhere right so these are just examples of how hard work show up differently between different groups now i must admit i'm a gen xer so i kind of resent these dichotomies because everyone wants to talk about baby boomers everybody wants to talk about millennials but nobody ever wants to talk about millennia gen xers and dog on it we matter so anyway that's my shameless self plug for the gen xers out there so moving on moving on all right so i mentioned to you all that we were going to go over um some terms and this is another one so diversity to me means the fact of human difference that may make a difference the fact of human difference that may make a difference
046okay so oftentimes we're talking about diversity um we're we're just talking about uh difference this is sometimes the organizations the the people count okay and so i'm wondering my question to you all what does diversity creates and feel free to shout out what you think no just just just shout out what you think what does diversity create more ideas more ideas what else compassion and understanding compassion and understanding what else i think understanding and celebrating similarities and differences okay okay i mean y'all y'all came up with some really good answers but unfortunately is wrong oftentimes what i hear very similar to you all i you know people in some of these sessions will say you know all these different answers in addition to what you all said and in fact diversity creates nothing diversity creates
047nothing however the caveat is it's the choices what that what we make with regards to diversity that can create outcomes tension synergy so on and so forth okay and i have some research that that further demonstrates how diversity doesn't create anything in and of itself now this research comes from um joseph's this this stefano and mary meznavesky and so this come out of their research on multicultural teams and what they found is diverse teams or multicultural teams um who don't leverage the difference of their team um can underperform the more monocultural teams um and then you have multicultural teams who have maximized the differences within um their team structure um they can outperform both of these groups and so um you know we've referred to this first group as the destroyer so they they destroy
048creative energy and synergy um there's a lot of mistrust in jealousy and these type of um um uh or groups and then we have the the monocultural team is what we refer to as the equalizers and and they suppress they they they suppress difference and focus more on smooth processes and um suppress difference and ideas and perspectives and and and you know focus more on sameness and then you have these multicultural teams that are outperforming these other teams they're referred to as the creators they create value um and the the key here is that the folks in this team are no different than the folks on the other team except that they have leveraged their difference as an asset um where to help them to um come up with more innovative approaches and solutions uh
049to task so another key concept that i i want to um focus on um with you all is inclusion so inclusion describes the practice of inviting all aspects of human difference and so this first word inviting is an active word it's not just about letting people join it's about actively seeking their membership and contribution um the second word all is important um because being inclusive doesn't mean considering and making you know it it means considering and making space for all people and that has to be an intentional action and lastly the word practice inviting someone wants is not inclusion inclusion is ongoing so you know what i want you to remember most from this is that if your efforts in dei don't hit all these three descriptors active intentional and sustained it's likely that your
050efforts and inclusion won't be effective i wanted to go over these these terms in particular and show them how they fit um in our formula idi so we have diversity right so um this is uh the who the mix of difference uh where we focus on differences um it is sometimes measured by demographic analysis and then we have inclusion so oftentimes in this work um we often you know go from diversity and and then you know we focus on inclusion and inclusion is the what the mix of feelings value people feel value and engage but what we neglect to do is to focus on the most important element of of this formula which is the intercultural competence this is the how you heard me talk about earlier this is the interaction of difference and this
051can be measured by the idi tool um and so you know having all three um you know being very intentional about um the interaction of difference um that can help us to build an environment a school system that um helps people to feel like they belong um engages them um you know help them to feel uh welcome um you know that can really uh uh uh you know take you know our effort and our work and and and go to the next level um by really spending some time some talent um some and and and you know committing resources into really um doing this into building our intercultural competence or our cultural competence and so the link between diversity and inclusion again you heard me say what brings these two concepts is intercultural competence intercultural
052competence um is about making diverse environments um an inclusive environment this is the how okay so there's there's not a lot of even though you know um you know we we have um expectations sometimes of folks coming into our organization um um you know being supportive of of of this work um you know we don't do and spend a lot of you know uh formal time and training um you know helping folks to become more interculturally competent um in fact a lot of people um tend to overestimate you know their own level of capability i think of it like you know so you all heard me talk about back in the day um i played college football and so during that time um you know i was really engaged in in you know uh weight
053training and and you know conditioning and such and after that time um you know my uh health journey has gone up and down right i haven't been as um dedicated as i was when i was playing the sport and and in some of those times you know uh mentally i may think that i can still um you know uh run and and lift weights at the same level that i did when i was training and so mentally i think that i could still do these things um but when i actually go out and and attempt to and i come up short you know i'm i'm reminded that you know i've overestimated my own capability and it's not that i can't get to those levels but i just have to put some work into it right
054and so that's that's what you know i want to focus on is is you know being able to you know commit time and space to really focus on doing um the work because it's you know getting better and and and developing um mastery and proficiency is not going to happen overnight um it's going to take time but it is an achievable capacity um but we have to focus um our time our resources our energy um into building up um you know this muscle in this case this intercultural development muscle and and i mentioned earlier that we was going to um go over the air cultural development continuum and so that's what we have before us and so the intercultural development continuum um it measures levels of cultural competency from least complexity to greater complexity so
055the first stage that you see is what we call denial and so in denial this is where um differences are oblivious and they're missed all together um you know folks in in denial have a very simplistic view um you know uh and and it's very difficult for them to see the complexities in a particular group moving out of that experience is what we call polarization polarization um this can be experienced in two ways it could be polarization defense where someone is defensive of their primary cultural group and then polarization reversal was someone is um overly critical of their primary cultural group um it's this is what we call the the the um us versus them them versus us orientation um both of these represent monocultural mindsets then we move into minimization this is the only
056um orientation that's a transition um in minimization uh we start to build some commonality and we start start to um as we move in this transitional space we begin to recognize uh commonalities across differences what happens in minimization though is that we begin to over emphasize similarities or sameness and we may miss um you know more or key uh aspects of difference right and so the sameness may mask um those deeper areas of difference that um may cause you know um us to you know sometimes have some fear um or or you know we we may sometimes feel like that uh we're gonna say or do the wrong thing and and so we don't engage in those areas of difference that are unfamiliar to us and we focus more on the things that we have
057in common or that we have a life and moving out of minimization we begin to um go into the more intercultural mindsets and so uh moving out of the minimization experiences what we have is called acceptance and acceptance this is where you begin to understand the role and significance of culture um you you begin to develop um you know a a a deep curiosity um but you don't always quite know what to do with it and so in acceptance um this is where um you know folk may find it difficult um uh walking the talk right and so their efforts in operating across difference um may not be consistent right um they they have a healthy um wondering and and um and curiosity about difference but don't quite always know what to do with it
058and then lastly coming out of that experience is what uh we call is adaptation and so adaptation is is what we refer to as the cultural bridge and this is where one begins to shift their perspective and in some cases they begin to shift their behavior um you know depending on the context um developing skill sets to be you know firm in your own cultural identity but developing um a wide repertoire of skills and experiences that can help you to navigate um effectively across um other cultural groups and so this is what um we refer to as uh the idc um and what's important to note is that the the idi the inventory all it pauses to measure is a person's or a group's um level of intercultural competence um and you know moving from
059and then having an understanding of operating from lesser complexity to greater complexity that's all it measures that's all it pauses to measure i know sometimes you know i have colleagues who um they misinterpret or they make an assumption about what the idi is getting at and they often will be like okay ken you know um does this thing tell me how racist that i am i'm like no that's not that's not what it measures um and then they sometimes may ascribe a positive or a negative value to the orientations and that's not what it measures either um i often tell people that some of my um best debriefs and my favorite debriefs are often folks who are in denial because of the opportunity um to be able to ex you know um introduce them to
060a whole world of difference right and you know i think i i enjoy the challenge and i also enjoy seeing you know them start from you know this earliest um you know place of difference and and and being able to um grow and develop from that very early stage um doesn't mean that if your adaptation doesn't make you a good person right i mean you know you just may be able to have a you know a skill set to navigate across differences effectively but that doesn't make you you know um doesn't mean that you know that you're a good person or what have you so i just wanted to kind of dispel that all together um because there are strengths um to every orientation and there are um opportunities um areas for development for every
061including adaptation okay so moving on now what we're going to do is spend a little bit of time and we're going to um debrief around the group's um idi so this first visual frame what you see here is called the po or the perceived orientation and as i mentioned this is um a measurement of how we would as a group how we would rate our own level in intercultural competence this is how we would rate our own level capability and so the idi will indicate that we see ourselves as operating in this intercultural um mindset of acceptance and remember what i said earlier is common for folk to overestimate their own level of capability right and so this is this is the measurement of where we where we think we are the deal with this
062measurement of is where we're actually operating so the idi would indicate that we're we're at in this transitional place of minimization okay and so and as you heard me talk about you know minimization is um this transitional stage that that focuses or puts an over emphasis on commonality okay um it can be experienced um for folk who have non-dominant group identity uh minimization can be experienced as a goal on to get along strategy so what do i mean by that so you know this is where um if you have um say like you have uh you know a person of color in an organization in a predominantly white organization and they may come in and um adopt the values and the norms of the dominant group to flatten out their difference and just be seen
063as just you know you know just as any other person in the organization and you know what happens you know sometimes in those situations is that you know we may miss opportunities to um have a different perspective or live experience um provide some leadership or some insight and or maybe some gaps in the organization that you know you know folks may not see um because there's um this assumption um that everyone is pretty much the same right and and so that you know that's what we call a go along to get along strategy i've also seen this happen when you have um you know uh uh uh say like for an example a woman in a leadership role um you know and and and that's full of um men and you know she may come
064in and say you know just treat me like one of the guys and and i eat you know sort of flattening that difference um you know just to you know come in and conform uh to the norms the already established norms of the group um you know to be able to some cases you know um this is a strategy that that you know few people may feel that um it assists with um having longevity and just being able to um you know treat it equal without feeling like they're going to be judged for the difference that they bring so you know that's another way that minimization can be experienced the the go along uh to get along you know the challenge to minimization is that um you know transitions are very hard and as you
065heard me speak briefly about um it could be hard for a number of reasons you can have um folks within the organization who who value um you know um concepts of diversity inclusion equity um but you know they may be really conscious about you know i don't want to offend or or i don't want to um be labeled as as a racist or i i don't want to be labeled um because i made a mistake or you know i i you know um you know i i you know it could be you know i don't you know it could be um being labeled for a number of things or or um being you know um taking a risk um in terms of you know wanting to experience growth and and saying or do something um
066that you know that that may not have been intentional but you know could have created some harm and sometimes when those things happen um folks are are nervous to ever engage again and so what they do is they tend to focus more on um you know i'll focus on the things that i may have in common with someone else and and i may not you know feel as secure in navigating those um areas of difference because i may have done that before and um and i failed or i don't want to take the risk and so i'll just kind of focus more on the areas that um you know i know that won't cause any disruption or won't unintentionally harm someone and so those are some of the things you know we have to take
067into consideration and understanding that those may be some challenges or barriers that that are impeding us from being able to grow and and again and you heard me talk about i i really love um engaging and using this model um because as you can see as a group you all desire you have aspirations to want to operate in a more with the more complex a little more a higher level of complexity across difference that i think this this represents hope and aspiration this is where you desire to be but where you're currently operating you know there's a gap and i think that's the area um especially with some of the work that um dr williamson is engaging in that that can help you um move from you know this transitional stage uh moving out of
068that transition to to you know um having a higher level of complexity in understanding um difference and so as i mentioned um their strengths to all of the orientations and there are developmental opportunities so the strength to your group is that you've likely found some success interacting with people from diverse communities or cultures that you can draw upon um an opportunity for your group um is to build um you know bridging skills and to begin to explore those deeper um understandings of of culture um first beginning with your own and then building up a skill set moving from cultural self-awareness cultural other awareness so you know building you know your awareness around difference um you know can be a tremendous opportunity to help you experience you know the growth that you all desire and we
069see that from your perceived orientation i'm a big fan of um the far side and so i thought this really represented the minimization worldview and says uh for a fair selection everybody has to take the same exam please climb that tree and so you know again you heard me talking about the minimization world view is that i see people the way that i see myself and the opportunity is to begin to see people the way that they see themselves so some of these animals you know they may have you know um some requisite skills and abilities to climb that tree while others it's going to just be impossible and that's the minimization worldview and so seven points or higher is considered statistically significant and so the the orientation gap just represents where you're currently at
070compared to you know how you how you see yourself and so this is an achievable capacity um and you heard me talk about a personal navigation device you know now that you know where you're at you can begin to you know engage in work that can um meet you where you're at developmentally that can help you to grow um and and and and really move you to these more intercultural mindsets okay so realizing something different needed to be done the cheetah embraced change and took action so the cheetah is still a cheater just a cheater with some sneakers on right and so that's that's the adaptation mindset you know we we make adjustments um you know to get the job done so with that um i'm going to stop sharing and i'm gonna um open
071it up to questions so i know i gave y'all a drink with a fire hose i get that but um you know i i don't know where we're at with time um i just got on the roll and so i'm sorry if i went over but um i want to give you an opportunity to ask any questions that you have um and and if you don't that's fine um um your your dynamic director um ryan um saw too that everyone on the board um can receive an individual feedback session with me so you know we can work together um to find time to be able to you know provide you the individual feedback um and that's that's a confidential process um i'm bound by my licensure to keep what we discussed to to to myself
072but since it's your experience you could do with to share with whoever you want to um i've also found that groups like yours who are engaging in this work um you know i i encourage them to um you know if they want to you know to just maybe share um you know the work that you're dedicating you know um let me take this back along with the debrief session you get a indep individual development plan and if you like you know the individual development plan um you know it asks you to come up with develop one to three intercultural goals um done in a smart gold fashion that you're going to commit to engaging in so it can support you individually but then collectively as a group so say like um you all are engaging
073individually you're gauging collectively as a group um and you really you know with through the ryan's leadership um you know are really um you know you know really going deep and doing this work you can experience the growth from one full orientation level um within a year's time or movement along that continuum even if you say like an early stage of minimization you know you can move to a middle or a later stage um you know it's it's achievable capacity i know sometimes people will talk about this work as being you know a lifelong journey which i i don't disagree with um you can develop you know you can a a proficiency um in a mastery um to be able to develop these skills that that help you to you know just be more effective
074um in operating across you know all areas of different so that that's what gets me really excited and you know it's kind of like um you know again i'm gonna reveal my age but if you remember that the commercial from the 80s the the hair club for me and commercial when the the guy talk about i'm not only you know the president but i'm also a client right and and i know i don't have a you know um the the the the hair to really you know bring that to full life but i think about my own journey um and and you know engaging from where i was the minimization and then years later you know experiencing and working in adaptation and it you know every time i reflect on that i think wow you
075know what was the work that i engaged in that helped me to you know move from where i was and really and like i told you you know just having to come to terms and taking myself to task you know i thought i was further developed than what i really was um but i had some things i needed to work on and i continued to work on that but to see the growth and development um you know is made me a believer and so you know and again uh this is not the only way to experience growth i tell people all the time you know this this is just you know one of um you know uh uh you know many ways in which you know you could experience growth without necessarily doing this work
076but i just feel that um you know coupled with the work that ryan is already leading you all in you know this can give you um you know really kind of center um where you all are at and come up with you know a plan that can help you to grow and and be able to take that growth and to connect it to the leadership that you're providing for the school district and all your babies within the school district ken thank you so much i don't have a question but i just had a huge light bulb during your presentation when it came to um the difference you know diversity itself not being enough i think like as a board and then it sometimes when we have a perspective or i have a perspective that comes
077from um an area where i'm not in the majority whether it's the age of my kids or my experience sometimes like we apologize about that before we give that perspective and i think my mindset just like shifted on that to identifying that perspective as being like the thing that moves us to the next level and like makes the diversity count um so that that was yeah i think that was huge i appreciate that because i i think about it as a society um where we're where we you know i think about during the civil rights era we were moving towards sameness and commonality so as a society you know we have a lot of you know um minimization um principles that we adhere to and even now we're sort of trending backwards to polarization but
078i think about growing up um when you know i remember i would be in a grocery store and now i recognize like i would see someone with down syndrome and as a kid i didn't understand that so i would stare and then my mom would pop me and be like stop staring and so we we often are penalized for um wanting to explore difference because we don't want to be um offensive and and and i think that that's an opportunity to you know lean into the difference into the understanding i remember having um you know one of my friends he um he's a vet and he was at the va hospital and um you know he had to you know have a um he was having another procedure but you know he already he was
079an amputee and i remember my son came into the room and was just staring at his head at his thumb and and i immediately even after doing this work i you know i sort of grabbed my son and was like stop staring and my friend was like nah you know he invited him over he said sit down he said what questions do you have and then you know he got you know his prosthesis he snapped it on he knew his prestigious name was betty and so he snapped betty on and and he's a big time dallas cowboys fan so you know betty had the dallas cowboy star or whatever and so he was just explaining things to my son and i mean you know my son was just like you know just i mean he's
080just molding him and i was just like you know i do this work and didn't recognize that i was you know sort of you know falling into that conformity and not encouraging him to explore the difference in and to gain some understanding so that you know he's he's not operating in fear and so if you know he sees someone that's different the default is to you know shut down or to run away but you know beginning to lean in so that's when you said that that's what triggered that so i appreciate that judy for sure and i think as school board members so many times we either act as like facilitators of information or we work with committees to get feedback and sometimes we ask the question about like what was the representation on the
081committee was the committee representative of the diversity in the district but you know i think shifting my mindset to like that's not the only thing that matters are we structuring the committees and our culture to um to like honor and enhance that diversity and not just say it's almost like moving from tokenism and having just like checking the box of saying like yes we've got two people of color on this committee that's done um to actually like do they matter right yeah are they leading the committee or do we have policies that that really you know allow them to fully express themselves without feeling like that you know their opinions will um come at the cost of like their profession i didn't mean to cut you off but that's what that triggered no for sure
082that's exactly kind of what i was thinking i think you're not right yep i am so um typically when you do this training the next steps typically would be visiting with them i'm so happy that you asked because based on some of um the work that ryan shared with me i think you are already poised um in some capacity so what what i recommend based off of where this group at in minimization so some of the concepts that i believe um that are uh appropriate for where this group at um are concepts around um implicit bias or bias you know um exploring cultural dimensions um even you know we have a term called color blindness but we're now we're moving to color evasiveness um and really exploring these these minimization um you know sort of
083phenomena that that that you know we experience that you know don't fully allow us to um really um experience or see um you know difference outside of our own context and so what i was sharing with ryan when he was telling me about some of the good work that he's doing with you all and your responsiveness to it i said you know i think this can really help zero in so so that again it's not to say that you know you can't you shouldn't engage in you know the anti-racism and all that good work but maybe for you all maybe you need to do some some some you know um um some building or what our teachers say are some scaffolding right and and maybe really focus on you know um um as i mentioned
084uh you know i don't know of any of you all have taken the the implicit bias test at harvard i know the kerwin institute out of ohio state has one of you know i think one of the best you know interactive um online learning modules is for free on implicit bias and and you know how how are you know you are really you know taking um you know the time that you spend with ryan um the time that you all spend at the board and and really commit to kind of like what you're doing tonight you know let's let's really commit to you know as we we spend time doing and taking care of the work of the school district but let's also make certain that we're engaging in doing our own self work and
085connected to the systems work so that you know um if and you may have you know so if if you you know how is is is um you know the work um around diversity equity inclusion represented in our strategic plan and and and you know if if not you know maybe this is a great opportunity you know for us um you know to really be able to you know incorporate um you know goals and priorities within our strategic plan but also what are some goals and priorities that we want to um accomplish um around this work as a board so that you know we're actively engaging um and we're building up you know um our our skill set and we're building up you know our mindset a lot of the work around this work it
086doesn't it doesn't always happen in the workshop a lot of you know what the growth doesn't always have in a workshop setting the growth oftentimes happen outside of the workshop setting so that's what i would those are some um areas that i would encourage you to to to continue to engaging in and and you know and brother ryan is you know like i said he you know i was so impressed with some of his learning modules i was like hey i think i'm going to use use some of these with my school board so it sounds like in some ways you all are already engaging but this maybe can tighten the focus a little thank you i certainly uh appreciate this and look forward to our individual session i'd like to follow to see how
087it can continue i guess pulling ryan into this um right now how does this work to continue with our administration and other staff and teachers maybe i missed that before ryan i think where my focus is is one allowing can to do that individual debrief and then i'm going to continue to pull him and allow him to kind of guide some kind of narrow some of the focus that we've been doing collectively follow that up with some individuals goals because that conversation that miss judy brought which kind of brought this training to the forefront was to make sure we have that capacity to have some some sustainable and achievable goals that we can set forth uh for ourselves to move forward in this and like and like ken said continue to dive into some of
088the learning that we've been doing you know focusing i wrote some of these things down focusing on implicit bias focusing on color blindness and for making sure we provide space for us to continue the growth and continue the work that we have been doing so you know that's kind of the things that are playing out in my head as as i've kind of sat and listened uh to ken and also experiencing the idi myself and the work that i had to commit to with where i were with where i was at um on that continuum so that's that's where my thinking is as of right now okay thanks so at this point we are probably going to work on our individual conferences at this point and then probably in cooperation with ryan we'll move forward
089on where we want to go looking forward to that and and so what i'll do um i'll give you um i'll send ryan um uh the slide deck um that we went through tonight so you all have that i'll also send him the idi group report so you know you all you know have those and and as we um set our individual meetings what i'll do is a couple of days before we actually meet i will send you your profile so you can read it and it also will have the individual development plan um some people will scan it and then after they get the debrief they'll read it fully however you want to do that is up to you but i do encourage you um on page nine of the development plan um it
090has some sample intercultural goals and so you know it'd be helpful if if you can come to the goal come to that meeting with with one or two goals or even some thinking that you may have because again i feel like the best utility of this work is when it's gold directed so you know if you come in um you know with some meeting i mean come in with some goals for for that meeting um and and um yeah and and and and you know we'll spend um no more than an hour go through your your your idi talk about your goals and then you know offer any assistance um that i can um as well as as ryan to not only help you you know um realize and achieve the goals that you have
091individually but it would be nice that you know to come back say like in a year's time as you all are committing to doing this work and to retake the assessment to see where you're at so we have a baseline and we can sort of you know have it a different conversation on you know especially if you see you know if you all have some movement individually as well as a group you know what contributed to that and and what new goals will you create that you know keep that learning going because the other thing that i didn't talk about but it's very real just like someone can move up you could also um tread back you know you could also um if you don't engage and stay engaged and doing the work folks can
092experience regression and so i want to put that out there too because it's you know it's just like anything right it's like um and i talked about like my own you know um health challenges it's like you know you can get on a scale every day but if you're not doing any work you're not going to see any movement in fact you know if you're doing you know enjoying too much of the foods that i enjoy you know you may start to see movement in the wrong way right and so when you put in the work um and you start to see you know the the the success you know i want you all to you know just get excited and to just continue to stay engaged and um as a result um you know
093just be a a even more effective um school board and school district um you know that's defying all the odds and and you know creating some good trends in iowa and i just didn't want to be the only one to to not thank you or you know i think your give you a drink with the fire hose was a really great expression i don't have any any questions for you right now i have a feeling i'm going to be absorbing for a couple of days and um sorry we didn't make contact for our deep breath i absolutely intend on calling you um because i do want my individualized plan and my time to speak with you about um coordinating that thank you so much and thank you ryan for facilitating this for us this is
094great you didn't miss anything stacy i wanted to do this first before we did our individual debriefs okay yes thank you as well sorry i have uh a joiner so i love to join this yes very very much appreciated and i also look forward to our individual rewards don't apologize for having your kid on the screen sarah well i may have had more questions if she wasn't here but i i enjoyed the opportunity yeah largely irrelevant ken but we've had three babies born on this board in the last two years [Laughter] that's a blessing that's a blessing i hope they all went full time too as far as i know i mean i'm i'm i i participate in the the the saint jude wall for babies because you know having a preemie that was an
095experience so i'm all in favor for full-time healthy babies can my my son was in the nicu um but he was nine days late and he was seven pounds and so the nicu nurses the nicu nurses just treated him like a toddler because they were used to all the preemie babies so my heart goes out to you yeah yeah yeah it was an experience but we came through it we we're on the other side of it now like i said that joke is taller than me brother ken first off let me say thank you i i cannot say thank you enough for our continued collaboration and and bringing this um assessment to this board you know we have been engaging in some some good work some good conversations some good dialogue and i think that
096this is just going to continue to strengthen those conversations as we move forward so i so i appreciate you taking time away from your family and taking time away from this evening to to support to support us um as we continue on um in our journey i want to make sure that i honor uh this board's time because they do have a meeting that's going to follow this session so i want to make sure that i recognize that because they all have families that i know that they want to spend some time with too so um i appreciate you more more than you know um uh again i just can't thank you enough uh for the support that you have provided not only me professionally and in our friendship um but just i i appreciate
097it because you wrote it down you said brothers in arms so i definitely appreciate that and i appreciate uh your time in in supporting this group so i'm gonna reach out to you tomorrow brother and we can do some some more talk um and then i can kind of collaborate and facilitate the conversations and setting up uh that individual debrief um with our board members so expect uh a call to me or from me or a call quick email we can jump on a quick meeting and we can kind of process that out so again thank you brother appreciate i definitely appreciate you i'm gonna turn it back over to miss mary beth and miss katherine and you all can continue on um with the business of the board so appreciate it thank you thank
098you thank you for giving us this time thank you thank you appreciate you very much thank you all for having me yep merry beth do we need to read both like the full thing in the motion yes please okay i have it up okay move to go into closed session for iowa code 21.5 i to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment hiring or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual's reputation and that individual requests a closed session and iowa code 21.51 a review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that governmental body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds okay the time time is 804
099pm and uh to go into closed session we'll do a roll call vote ashley anderson judy downs yes stacy anderson yes sarah schmitz yes brianna serger yes catherine houser yes mark smith yes we will leave this meeting um but come back to it to adjourn the other one all right i was looking for a doctor am i supposed to be looking for a document not yet i'll explain it i'll explain it when you enter the zoo that's fine sorry okay thank you okay thank you um motion to return yep second second second okay all in favor aye aye opposed same sign okay thanks you guys for