001for oh everybody good evening and welcome to the Thursday December 7 2022 SP Board of Education Workshop um Diane can we call the attendance sure Mrs gamon here Mr kaher here miss Leong here Mrs Lindstrom here miss tarpinian here Mr Trini Huff here Mr shamway um he's been excused and Miss leure she's beened thank you right would everybody please join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right agenda item 4.0 is the workshop 4.1 is the diversity equity and inclusion committee charge um so for this I will turn it over to pra and Jil um so I'm in a reference the document that was sent out in
002the materials um titled the Scarboro School Board diversity equity and inclusion committee that's the title of the document says I think in it it says like the uh government's document I'm people are all looking at the same document and I think that's the only one that was sent out that's related to that that I'm awar so um I I propose we just sort of move through it and see where people are at um I would where my particular area of Interest where I would like to focus but obviously um up to everyone is the charge and um uh we we can we can get to that um we can go I think it just makes us to go through an order unless people have a different all right so starting up the top at the
003purpose um I I think we can have a vague purpose statement that's generally supportive um I I think I took I I think I dra to this to sort of trying to be vague but also trying to like explain what do we mean by Dei I think that's helpful for folks in the committee to focus on what we want them to focus on and then also when we're explaining it like I have trouble having been on the commit for three years explaining what the EI means sometimes and I feel like it has a lot of connotations both negative and positive and I really want to avoid that in all possible and move towards what we as this body want that committee which is a creation of this body to do so that that's where this
004purpose statement comes from but um I could read it that makes sense all right so right now what it proposes is to say the committee's purpose is to ensure that Scaro is fulfilling its obligation to meet each each student individually and ensure that they are meeting that they meet their full potential through access to a highquality public education by identifying and reducing systemic and individual barriers which inhibit a students growth so with that any sort of feelings thoughts for me it was um I appreciate what you were saying earlier about it it feels really broad yeah and so like how do we narrow that in so it actually fits within Dei because this feels like something that you know Jeff or Diane might be it's like that higher level as opposed to focused on Dei
005what the solution is to that I'm not sure what the right wording would be but I I'd like to narrow that in a little bit because then sometimes you can get off what is Dei yeah so like that's my first like query and that is a that's a loaded question and I I want to avoid that like I'm not interested in the political nature of that debate I want to avoid that because that's not what this committee is focused on what I think about Dei is different students who have different needs I think race is the one everyone reaches to it's easy it's visually appealing it's a big topic has been for my entire life for everyone's en life in this room um for the history of probably our country in a lot of ways
006um but I don't want this committee to be focused on Race because I don't think that encapsulates the diversity that we see in scarber I want it to encapsulate everything that people who have uh disabilities people who have different abilities you you know people who are neurod Divergent people who have physical impairments um and people who speak different languages um any sort of thing that makes it hard for a student to be successful you know and whether that's the big big topics you know the natural debate topics or really just for that individual student being bullied on the school bus is one that it's really close to my heart I hear a lot about that and that really concerns me because I I don't want any child I don't care what ISM they have or
007have not I don't want them to feel stressed going I I want to help make their experience in Scarboro positive and I want to eliminate things that make it hard for them to be successful at their education because that's what we're here for education so I don't know how to encapsulate that it is vague yeah but I don't want this committee to be like we're just focused on pick anism pick any ISM right well and I guess my my Wonder is like usually the overall mission statement for something is really vague and then it hones down so you know as we move down and look at the charge like is that where we get that definition that you're wondering about yeah yeah and I do Wonder too I don't know if this would help um
008FR and I went back and forth on including the um categories that we had because when we when the board initially um formed this committee it was to F's Point not to focus on just one ISM or one category but to really look at everything happening in Scarboro so another big one in Scarboro is the socioeconomic status of of individuals who live here and how it could be wildly different right and so um what we had what we did at that point was include we said I.E race gender age sexual orientation gender identity religion disability or socioeconomic status so if we included that back in because we we had pulled it out and yeah but does that kind of that feels tighter yeah that feels I wonder would it make sense to break it down
009by just taking d e and I and defining each one so we'll you know we'll start with diversity first and then let's let's define what diversity means then move on what does equity mean what is how how is that going to be implemented and then inclusion how do we make people feel in if we break it down to like at least those three things which is the title of this whole committee the the name of the committee I feel like that might it might land better just because you're getting more specific to what all of that means instead of this vague umbrella term mean to scar yeah to scar scar to scar y I like that very much okay I'm just making suggestions and this I'm just G to oh perfect yeah okay so if
010we so let me back up if we are going to do that do we keep the main the same first sentence and then underneath is that what you're okay so make sure I have it it'll kind of present like diversity right and then can be defined as this but not limited to X because like you said encompasses every ISM that you can think of and it's not about focusing on the differences I think between people it's quite the opposite it's really kind of like trying to eliminate the impact that differences can have on folks so like there are people who have advantages you know and that can be it can be just natural intelligence yeah although that's not always an advant but it but it can be right and so like how do we make
011sure that each student gets what they need to be successful and like I know Jeff keeps saying meet meet students where they are like I've heard that like that refrain this year particularly I think of training over and over and I've heard teachers say it and like I love that like I think that that really pushes on what we want to do which is meet every student and make sure that we help that student be successful as they can be which takes their cooperation and participation you know it helps to have their family support and all that stuff but like from the school's perspective we can't control we can't control everything we can't control any can't control anything um we have like a finite Universe what to do and I just want to like think
012about that but I don't want to limit it like that's why I didn't like the categories because that comes from Main human rights definition very familiar with it's a legal definition of protective categories I don't want to limit us to protecting categories this isn't about suing people for discrimination it's about you know if your student is I'm I'm trying to think of of like it's hard to talk about these topics it's really hard to single it out a group of people um and talk about dis Spirit impact without making them feel bad so like and you single at any category that's problematic um and it makes people it can hurt people's feelings and I care about that yeah so like if you pick any group that is not treated well I think we said socio
013economics so let's go with that one if you have if you know there's lots of advantages that can come if you don't have to worry about the cost of things if your family can just support whatever it is that you need um and that ranges from athletic participation and Club participation all the way down to whether you're getting meals outside of school like right that that is the range we're talking about and um that's not in that yes human rights definition and I like what you said earlier too about you meeting kids where they're at some kids you like you're were saying higher intelligence do we make sure we have the programs so can that meet their needs as well so it's not just maybe those who are disadvantaged but everybody so it's about forging
014Connections in a sense of belonging really right so and we've got a more diverse um student body we have a more a growing Community we you know and and so how do we build those how do we build that culture where people feel connected and people feel like they belong right I that's ultimately what we're talking about here too respected and a sense of belonging and and Equity defined as um meeting students you know where they are how they are right so when I hear the word Equity this is where I I sometimes my mind gets jumbled up a bit so I've heard it spoken about in terms of equality of outcome but like is that is that what that means to to you folks okay good that's like Utopia right but that's we can't
015get there um yeah it's almost like a Stepford Wives type situation where you have robots like right because how could you ever get all the kids up to the same I'm all about equality of opportunity everybody gets the right gets the chance yeah I opposite and I I don't I struggle with Equity as because it's a meaning in my head that it's hard for me to move over to the kind of new meeting that's emerged with it and um like I don't I don't believe highlighting people's differences and then hitting them against each other I think it when you start categorizing people and choking people in boxes and separating them out yes that's a very dangerous and uncomfortable place to be and I there's got to be a really legitimate purpose for that it it's
016really more about that individual like what does this student need you know what what are their strengths what are their weaknesses and how do we serve them so that they can reach their potential you know again their participation in the process matter the student who's engaged and eager to learn versus a student who is disengaged and not eager to learn that student shows up differently and we still have to educate every one of them um but it's going to look different yeah you know and it's it's not one there's no one thing that defines somebody nobody is defined by one single category right doesn't matter what box station or do jop yeah I appreciate you saying that because I think you based on a lot of other things that I hear and I read like
017oh my goodness it's all about putting people in boxes and not we're just all together we're in this like thing called life and I I don't think that you're you're alone in thinking that I think that that is a broad kind of thinking but I mean to me I think of and I just pulled it up too this image of kids looking over the fence and they're all different heights so equality they all get the same height of a step stool to step on to look over the fence but Equity they all have differ sized um right steps like it's just that's how I would define equity so making sure that everyone has access to the same thing so you're meeting exactly what you're saying you're meeting them where they're at and giving them the
018tools to right might need additional tools some right but not each other that is not I don't attribute that to me I heard that at school they didn't I didn't create that I heard it and I liked it and I got G you don't that was not my bra child I wish it was it was not so if we're going to Define diversity for Scarboro what what diversity means for Scarboro celebrating all the things that make us unique I hate the words Dei because they are so loaded and I don't want to be fall involved in a debate about yeah the value of different boxes yeah I yeah and that's like not what we intended either right and nor I don't think anybody here I mean I feel comfortable saying I don't think anybody here
019wants that and de is evolved right that term is evolving yeah yeah on the ground in the last few years in ways that I don't think when it's even this was created in one un right so diversity can be defined as but not diversity should we say diversity for scarber um um I celebrating everybody's own unique individuality I celebrating every individual student that's the diversity is what makes you know what makes this difference but it's not it's not in a way to get put us in boxes it's a way to bring us together yeah that's what makes interesting people yeah like varieties SP of life right right right because if we were all exactly the same how boring would that be well yeah all me life would be so much better if we were all
020like you John so much better be more efficient so do um do you think we should start like before we Define it do you think we should say specific to Scarboro does it feel like it's that's understood because this is our document well the first sentence references that specifically I was really trying to conscientiously take it away from d Yeahs I was trying to make it what is Dei well I like having that in there Dei and Scaro because just because there is such a variety of definitions for it everywhere else right with connotations that we don't want to import into our exactly exactly so we all feel good with diversity diversity can be defined as not limited to celebrating every individual [Music] student unique I you can say unique attributes or something I don't
021know every student's individuality yeah jannon do you have a shared running do H do you have a shared do yeah yeah all right you want me to send it back to you yes please I I need to see it so I can I mean we could say we could say instead the board recognizes the definitions as follows I don't know it's not quite how it why don't we just put bullets in like diversity me diversity means this Equity means this you know and that is I think clear in the make it clear to the structure of how it's written yeah instead of being like we don't want to be involved in other people's debates we don't have to like clearly signal that as clearly as we are and I think from just the past month
022I've learned from talking to community members and hearing feedback chunking that information is a lot easier to digest than here's everything written for you to figure out all right okay so where we're at right now diversity can be defined as but not limited to celebrating every student's individuality let's keep GL and come back to it yeah Equity is next Equity can I'm going to use the same thing across the defined as but notlimited to for now every student what they need to be successful yeah or ensuring uh students have the every student the tools they need to be successful let's keep going yeah okay and then inclusion that's a belonging piece for like making sure everybody feels like they belong and a lot of De are Equity exclusion belonging Justice invol they threw in the
023J too yeah the J belonging yeah belonging or justice as that last did I'm sorry did you say v like Victor or like okay sorry victory yeah I thought that's what I I heard we're winning so inclusion can be defined as but not limited to make um what did we what did some I thought someone said something said belong ensuring that all students feel have a sense of belonging have a sense of belonging where would feel like they belong and do we want to bring it Beyond students that all everybody in our community feels like they going the scar School Community we want our staff feel like belong yeah yeah we want everyone to feel like this is like we want to make this a good place to be when you're not where your other
024places are to be I think so and you know and not just staff but you know they parents and Guardians so they're exactly yeah so every student so just back up to diversity um every student comma staff member comma family every I mean how do we want to how do we want to the mean students Community M students staff and families yeah that works that's in other like gu student giving every student St of [Music] family the tools they need to be successful okay is this document on for voting later um it is on for voting later but um does it make sense to wait a month so we can digest it after we draft it yeah that's what I was going to um offer a table end so that the Dei committee has an
025opportunity to look through it the community has an opportunity to look through it everyone here an opportunity then we can make any changes between now and a month feels good so that gives you time to hold a Dei meeting after Christmas yeah and people can get in and after after vacation yeah I would love to move to the charge because that's where I think we we have a lot of work to do I say one thing on the on the inclusion part so this is just something I was listening to this morning I'm was trying to be prepared and educated for today um um so it was um talking about and it's funny because I found I found this happening to myself as well um just for an example I was down at a a
026football thing with my son and there were there were two um gentlemen of color that were standing there working working away on coming up with some football play and you know I was I was I said something and then after I said it I'm like oh no did that sound wrong so I just the one hesitancy I have is on the inclusion part or I don't even know which part of fits in but sometimes we can make people so aware of different things that can be taken wrong you know what I mean that it makes you question everything you say or overthink everything you say and then sometimes like you you know what I don't want to say the wrong things I'm just not going to say anything yeah well we all live there I
027think that's social yeah yeah and so I guess I'm trying to make sure whatever we do we're trying to avoid that to try to over we all want to do I guess everybody should have the intentions that people are coming and talking with you with good intentions and so for me like if you were to say something mean to me uh never can happen but you know I need to be resilient enough to know as presuming no ill intent yes right yes presuming no ill intent correct like some groups we some group when you set rules the begin of group meeting sometimes that's one that I hear often which is you presume no ill ATT 10 yeah yeah yeah you still have to deal with the impact yeah but you don't you you start from
028the outset presuming all and it's hard to do it's it's takes practice it takes work but I I guess I want to make sure that that kind of permeates things as well just presum presuming no ill intent well yeah and I think to your point like when you think about the charge like one of the things that um I think is important is that everybody's voice is invited to the table Yeah so diversity of thought yeah so that you're not um while there is benefit in a like-minded group there's also benefit in having dissenting opinion right and that's the case with anything not you know anything you do and so um maybe that's one of our charge part of the charge yes seeking out yeah yeah also seeking out diversity of thought yeah so maybe
029that's the charge of the committee is to um maybe that could be one of our items I agree yeah no I think that's important I think we should be well I think that's part of belonging like everybody needs to belong and if you were not able to express yourself freely with the understanding that you're not having ill intent and trying to hurt people yeah right um then you know and we should have room for mistakes which is something that I think right now really right really important I think we're seeing that play out in the board yeah yeah exactly there has to be room people to make mistakes be accountable for their mistakes and then move on yeah I didn't think about that that's 100% yeah that's a really that's a great example yeah I
030whole partly heartedly agree all right so um I I I find personally the work with the board finance committee to assess budgetary needs irrelevant at this point yes I mean yeah there's no mechanism for us right I mean we can they can certainly make recommendations to the board and the board decide whether that needs to be part of the budget process as really like the way the budget is constructed there's no mechanism for this it's completely irrelevant there's such a disconnect it doesn't even make sense yeah which I tried to explain to them but they didn't that well the good news is you're on the finance commit so I know we can talk like let me tell you how it really works you're not in um the well what is now would be the third
031one because I added that seekout diversity thought on the committee um the review data collector from the climate survey School Equity Audits and listening tours um that's already done but I don't know if that I mean you can continue reviewing the data but at this point it's I want to take a step back from the charge before we go through these individually because like I hate this entire chart every about it yeah I hated it from day one but like like it was I was committee M I wasn't like in Char I charge was handed to us um and then amended to given to us um and I'm not trying to critique PP I think there was good intention like I'm not I'm not being but like having lived with this charge for three years
032I don't know what to do with it when people on the committee ask me now as a board member what do we do with this I essentially make stuff up because it's it's it's if you really like they are trying to draft a strategic plan based on this charge which is appropriate that's exactly what we want them to do is focus on the charge it is not feasible it's just not we really yeah we have to decide what exactly it is we want want them to do because right now they feel I mean and rightfully so having sat on it now is just sort of like well this stuff I mean it's not it's not um very direct all I saw in the in the minutes um it's reading through the minutes the other day
033and I saw that it looked like some of these surveys were being looked at but it looked like they need whoever was going to look at it needed some Direction so so there were surveys three years ago that data was was a very facilitative process we looked at that data it was evaluated we did that that's done yeah and now with this charge they're trying to figure out where to find data and so there's all sorts of ideas about where we can buy data we're trying to maybe the other school districts will share their data with us we can see what their data looks like maybe there'll be more data coming from the school that they'll let us have access to um listening TOS what is what does that even mean you who are we
034listening to these things I so I don't I don't think going through this charge is all that useful what I my question to each one of you is looking at the purpose we just drafted and thought about in our children about the tweaking yeah what in a very specific feasible like a possible like like something you can achieve Direction can we give this what do we want them to do do we want them like we don't want them to stray into territory where they get into trouble when they talk about specific incidents at schools and identify people we know that like we we we we we've learned a lot of lessons about what not to do as a commit that's not particularly helpful what would be very helpful is what do we want them to
035do do we want them to evaluate data if so what data and how are we going to get it to them do we want them to issue a report card this is what this is the feedback from the community these are issues in the school here's a report card here's a report here's a what do you want them to do to to do the purpose like if we want them to Foster Dei okay they are strain into territory that rightfully belongs into in equity team work work process it belongs in inner school work process with the protections of confidentiality that students receive and so instead of and we don't want them doing that no no so we need to tell them in a very specific achievable goal- directed way what to do can I give
036some examples of what they've done or what I one the thing that they did do and did see through that I thought was really good is that they and maybe like your report card idea is is about almost there they were able to identify that the students didn't have an accurate understanding of how to report incidents that happened yeah and so from that um came a recommendation to the board that we update the um we update the student handbook and we update we we we make the process more available to students so that they they can understand whom they report to where they go so that was something that came directly from the Dei committee that was an amazing recommendation and I think they should like there's a lot of rumor conjecture speculation conversation about
037things I think I said it I was very pejorative once when I said like I don't I'm sick of hearing about SC of the news um it's a few years ago about mistakes that have been made there's a Le for that information but that we need to be very careful and directive with how they use it like I think writing an annual report would be good I report card I feel like I said that and I want to take it back a little bit because I don't want it to be a judgment I don't want it to be like you get an F or like like I like and in the committee honestly wouldn't do that they're not if if you're Len one of their meeting you understand what I mean I don't think they're
038capable of that um like they're they're judgmental but I don't think they would be like you're going to fail and I don't that's not what it's about but like I think highlighting issues in a very anonymized way yeah is appropriate bringing issues to the board's attention so that we can refer to refer to where it goes It goes the one thing I would want uh and again this is bigger than this document but maintaining confidentiality making sure that they understand they're not the disciplinary arm of this district is highly important in this because what I don't want them doing is is thinking okay we're going to write this essentially State of the Union report for the board and they go out and start asking questions start almost to your point inserting themselves in procedures and
039processes that they should be a part of do you see I mean they're not inst investigators right they're not investigators they're not disciplinarians this is not their purview can they connect with the school's social workers um so that they can get feedback on them on you know what what kinds of Trends are they seeing that they need to address and that's in that data collection listening tour like a listening tour like doesn't quite fit um but I think that would be you know again I think we have to be very specific in an anonymized fashion highlight issues that the district should work on you know one of the other things was and this was done inside the district it was discussed at a couple meetings um but like making sure that kids' names were pronounced
040correctly at the beginning of the year I think that was a really good initiative yeah that was fantastic initiative and that that I don't know that it came from there but it was discussed in there but we want to make sure that like we these good ideas that are great for our school we want to Foster those nurture them and and bring them to the surface um in a way that's controlled so that people are appropriate because commun owners don't know fura I had no idea about fur I mean I did have idea about fura I the boy because I'm a lawyer but not I didn't know for but I hadn't read it I wasn't familiar with that as I am now but per but it's you you can't see students name role you can't
041see students or staff's names role you can't identify people yeah just like hipop student information's PR you can't say this student did identify information in this form or any other form related to the school that would be a violation of their PS gotcha right um I didn't understand that to that extent like I knew fura existed I heard the term I wasn't able to say that yeah when I started there's many people on that committee who are the same position and then there are staff members who like live should really be well versed in fura and it's a weird discordant Jos of people who have VAR degrees of knowledge right and we want to make sure that we that they follow the rules but we don't want to get them into trouble for not following
042the rules because we haven't told them right right yeah okay so I have down um keeping in mind that the committee is not the investigatory nor disciplinary arm of the district and while maintaining confidentiality of students and staff of students and staff when I I want to be granular very specific okay so we want them to collect data and issue an annual report is that what you want it instead I don't want to say that I want to say like I want to be more specific than that because they're GNA ask me where to get the data and I don't know I don't know the answer to that question but to highlight issues touching based with soci well and maybe you a little bit for this like what's appropriate and building I mean possibly you
043know thinking about uh recommendations and perspective sharing you know we have um all of our staff really focused onal but also Dei as well in in the sense of like for example you know our instructional coaches um and our leadership team read culturally responsive teaching um s Hammond's book and and that talks a lot about how you know how can we best meet kids where they are um in our classrooms and and really ground ground that in kind of what we're doing as professionals to to build that culture of belonging right and so how can how can this committee which essentially is providing recommendations or or perspective to the board and ultimately to to us as Educators to to help Implement right how do how how do those two work hand in hand because now
044we've also functioned for two years running uh with you know a leadership team Dei professional learning team and then there's there's been a lot of offshoots um from that as well you know we don't want to duplicate I'm sure there's some yeah right well and there's yeah I mean there's establishing kind of like a a charge and a vision for for what Dei looks like in Scarboro or how it plays out in our schools and then there is us as Educators and and leaders who are who are um implementing and and setting up and developing that that culture in schools and in classrooms where does this committee fit into that process like can we can we solicit information from other districts from other from other entities to provide information to we highlight the positive things
045we wanted to is because I don't think the report should be negative like that's the report anyone wants to read what are the Highlight the positives and the work to be yeah right so there was there was like a subcommittee of the Dei committee that was looking at teams for example and researching how does this happen in schools in different districts um you know some of which are a lot more culturally diverse at least than than Scaro is um and has done some really great work or I mean the the example of student names at being that's a perfect example of being able to highlight something that that maybe wouldn't come to mind immediately um and and be able to kind of highlight you know know like the hotpots right and not either disciplinary wearing
046or focusing on a specific incident that may have happened but being able to identify okay well if if you feel like you don't belong or don't like what what was it that that flipped the switch for you right and that's why the students I think on the committee are so can be so powerful and important but yeah and I think that the the thing is that like this isn't a oneoff like this event happened at the high school so we're going to go report to the board this is more of a highlight for the yeah for the year school bus so like the school bus comes up all the time like people are mean on the school bus I don't I try not to like get really FOC on the Facebook page about that but
047it comes up more than often than not it does person post and then everyone sharing they're the posts that go crazy I don't want anyone student to be bullied on scho nobody but like if that's an issue that can be highlighted you know that's something that like the school bus is a hot spot the p is not going to draft a plan to fix it they're not going to figure out a solution what they can say is look this is something in the community that's concerning so this is an area that maybe the district wants to focus on but I think there should be some annual report to give them a Cadence give them a goal to directed something again specific achievable like when we set up goals for people in work and life they
048should be specific and achievable and I think that was my thing with the Chargers I was like I don't know how to achieve any of these things and I'm I I care I'm interested I work hard I've read it a lot I've tried to figure out what these mean I can't do this yeah I also wonder if there's an opportunity um you know because as as I'm listening to you talk about you know how can this committee get more information you know is there the opportunity I I you know I really do like the idea of listening tours I think we need to be careful though when we talk to any one group that we don't overgeneralize those statements and so like how are we able to get information around to what extent right because
049you know I think you mentioned a couple minutes ago if somebody hears about a particular thing that happens yeah that that might there might be an incident that happens that is problematic but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's a day-to-day occurrence cont so how do we frame that and you know what types of things do we have that we could lean to to assess more about what people's perceptions are and how those might change over time so for example like does our Panorama data um you know the that's an annual survey that we provide um to students does that give us any information in terms of you know how our students sense of belonging changing over time are we staying at you know this stagnant place um are we making some inroads and improvements Etc
050you know is there an opportunity to take the perception survey that the Dei committee gave you know I guess it's almost four years ago now um to reassess those groups to get a look around okay this is what we got for feedback from you know student staff and families at that time what are people's feelings at this time right because so much of this work really is around perception I mean there are some things that are incident related so you know we could take a look and say um how how many um substantiated incidents of bullying do we have those types of things right so those are more concrete numbers but there's much of this work that is about what is your perception of how things compare now as to before right to what degree
051right like think about the surveys when you say you know not at all a little you know somewhat you know most of the time all of the time those types of questions and how do we make sure that there's a flow of that data to the committee so that they can because one of the things they've spent weeks trying to figure out is what data and how do we get our hands on it like this committee shouldn't be this committee can't figure that question right that's just not a question that's appropriate we need to have a a a method to say you're GNA get this data Every Spring this is what you want you to do with it and so that like that's because if you're changing right like you can't keep changing your source
052of information because every time you look at a unique source of information you're like interrupting that through line well a snapshot of that moment in time those questions so you need to keep looking at the same kind of information to help you know what your progress looks or doesn't look like so and would it be helpful to get like some report outs about what other like research from other districts like is that would that be helpful like I don't want to wait I don't want to give this commy busy work nobody has time for that but what would be helpful like what what does this board need this committee to do why does it exist go ahead no no you go ahead you know I don't I I think if we make it too specific
053I mean it would I think it should be up to the the Dei like maybe there is an issue that really like what are other districts doing and maybe it's s sourcing another type of information like maybe it's uh talking to parents and teachers and you know I don't you know I don't know how you do that though but I mean I I having a hard time finding what I'm trying to say but is it maybe like examining other districts um best practices is I mean I just think that if if that's I don't want to be too too specific there because that might be that might be something that the district the um the committee would do I don't I don't want to nail them down to that um you know what I mean
054like I that might be something that's an option for them but that's only if other districts are willing to give up that information and is that like I don't know maybe maybe do you must talk about some of that stuff within superintendent groups right like if you maybe that I don't know um go ahead I was just wondering does issues per do issues percolate up to you or Diane or that need addressing that you that maybe not a not one-offs but maybe you hear similar things over over the course of time that you feel would be helpful for the committee to addresse would the principles be more of a school principal right yeah I I really think the um what I was saying before just around the charge of the Dei Committee just could be
055really valuable in terms of setting that that vision and then making sure we have ways to address whether or not like like I'm just thinking of of you know the professional development that we're already doing that are like is it having the desired impact um are we you know are there you know like the bus is a great example or the lunchroom or these other places where you know kids are are it's less structured it's not just like in the classroom right like teachers you know a lot a lot of times will have that um um defined structure to their classrooms but then there's a there's a bigger culture in the school as well so how are we addressing those things as a community and that's not just you know within the within the purview
056of just the classroom teacher or or the rest of the staff and yeah so it almost sounds to me like what I'm hearing from your part your part your part it's like this idea of the annual report like we have it in there how they are going to collect the data might be like we we're still as the board the big 40,000 foot view right right so perhaps their their um work is to take this chart and figure out how they're going to do this annual report and I also wonder if you know and I I don't know that it's particularly outlined here but could be potentially quite Val valuable is what is the you know Jeff spoke about the professional development that we've been doing with our staff what is the opportunity for us
057um to provide education to the larger Community to our families right like you're using the example of um you know of of the bus as an example right and so if a parent is posting information on a social media page about their experience on the bus is that the most efficient way to resolve that issue Rob right and so right and so right so how do we do that how do we help our families understand that motto of um you know meeting kids where they are as they are and what that means right and we do the same thing with staff yeah or even other routine things like registering and enrolling I mean there's there's a lot of things that that feed into um feeling like you belong that that that go be could this
058committee promote that sense of belonging for All Families by doing some of those kinds of things so would that be like creating I like the inw report because it gives them it gives them a goal it gives us the information it a big thing let's focus on that so how do like support the whatever the purpose statement ends up being how to support that within the district and then ask for um I think directions on maintaining confidentiality not investigating and not being disciplinary I think that's good as part of that but also then you know talking about the study the vision that piece of sort of like making recommend ation about how to Foster this of belonging and then I think you can't see this committee does do good work when its own devices with
059like these little projects they've spun out that they've actually been really cool to watch develop so like this committee is like it does good work I just think with the more F that loose tight right being able to be kind of tight on what you want what the charge is and that's why I was bothering you so much right but then allow for that flexibility and what actually you know how that's going to play out what might get done so what did you say make recommendations I have related to fostering belongings Caro I don't think that's what you said well me think I made that up no I said all those words I'm not sure I mean I'll leave it there for us to like think about for now is that write an annual report
060yes I have that regarding the purpose to highlight the positives and work to be done in the district yes do like a state of the union that's what I mean it's like a state of scarber that's what okay and reviewing the data can we save from the Panorama study is that too specific and can we make sure we get that data like like reviewing data that that is given to the committee by the district can we say the prescribed data set because it like evaluating the data provided to the committee and and I think they are competent enough to figure out how to make that pipeline like I do trust them to do that um it's not a trust issue I trust everyone in that committee they're hardworking I just Direction dire yes maybe that
061do the Panorama survey also or just the students so there have be a way to make sure like there's just aggregated data I'm assuming we would just be reporting out high level data we wouldn't be reporting It Out by student or by you know even by school because you know I think that if the committee wanted to look at that data it would be you know what a Scaro public school is looking like you can do that we have the ability to do that you can do that yeah but you can give them data that that is appropriate for them to evaluate so they have something to use to to look at this and when does that data come out usually uh the Panorama survey is generally February or March perfect so maybe we want
062to say like you know in you know after it comes out like I think year I think they should follow the school year I it should be a report that comes out in June okay yes that's what their their annual report is going to come out in June yeah May or June and then that gives them the summer to think about what what they want how to fix it gives us time to give them feedback on the report if we have any okay so hold on one second hold on so they're going to highlight that they're going to write this annual report they're going to report on their annual report to the board in June in June yeah okay so that gives them a timeline their annual report is due in June in the summer
063months they'll evaluate the process and make any recommendations to the board about changes to that process say that again I'm sorry so in the summer during the summer they should evaluate the report process and make recommendations to the board for any changes necessary to accomplish the report for next year so gear rest Gear Up for the next year start in September okay so evaluate the interal report through the summer and make recommendations to the school board about any support needed to draft the report for the next year a reflection it's to reflect on what worked what didn't work where they want to go next um yeah I mean we can there's three pieces right there's the students the the staff and and the families I mean we maybe want to make sure that somehow it's
064worded in there so that there's a like you know Diane brought up like a focus on the how things impact each group yeah the report should report out on student experience staff experience and a wider Community experience and may include research from other districts sort of to your point they want to look out word great if they don't want to look out word no pressure again this is competent people like these are these are good hardworking people who are actually capable language in there achievable yeah yeah okay okay so we have let me let me just because I have two recommendations so we have reflect and evaluate on the annal reports findings throughout the summer and make recommendations make any recommendations to the school board and then I have evaluate data provided to the committee
065and then I have another make recommendations related to fostering belongings so I don't know if we need that one if they're going to those all should be part of the report this committee writes a report every year that's let me put that in like that like Sub Sub of the report yeah okay one other thing that the committee did that was um I I I think they started it and I was really excited and then it completely fell by the wayside and that was related to the celebration of holiday party policy and what they found and started with was that teachers were struggling to interpret the policy they didn't know how to celebrate holidays with their kids they were unsure and then as we were looking at this this policy was last revised in 2002
066and so sure I'm sure that they're very confused as to how to celebrate right but then this whole process like fell by the wayside and the committee never picked it back up again so one of the things I think would be um I would like to see them do personally is take a look at our policies with an eye towards our defition Dei and yeah it's it's a part of and then they can pick our recommendations projects to work on anyone wants to look at policies I'm I'm a girl I love it policy review policy yeah I mean look at the policies yeah make it that could be part of the annual report is like reviewing the policies the more eyes on our policies the better our policies are at the end of the day
067the they're supposed to report to the board and I was like I've here a year and they haven't they hav't had any recommendations to make so but you you get reports out for yeah but mean the finance committee there's no place for them to report about Finance right the review tour and data they have none for the last four they had data four years ago the raising awareness of work happening within the district they sort of grappled with and I think that was the sort of the spin-off projects the making recommendations to the board they did that the first year and then they don't even like we've talked a lot about when do we make those how do we make those what are we going to make how do we decide what we're going to
068make it's taking us a year to figure out a decision-making process to make even to vote on the recommendations to make to the board um and like I wanted I can be critical we all know that the board did not give them a lot of structure to at first that's why this document comes into effect and they've spent a lot of time spinning their wheels trying to create process for themselves um which I think one my one lesson I've taken away from this is sometimes a little more structure is helpful can I throw in one thing I know we're running short on time but just something to to think about just hearing all the conversation tonight and Diane something you said triggered this in my mind because it's been kind of mulling around in my
069brain is is it worth um or is it something to think about having a a a community Forum on what efforts are is the school taking towards Dei seal um you between all the different things that we have going on just informing that might beate that I was gonna say they could put on a fall Community Forum about about issues highlighting doing and then look for Fe absolutely or they could do it this committee could do that for us what if they did it in the spring and that was included in perect timings are like I don't care about the Tim okay yes but like that that is a perfect task for this this committee would kill that Forum yeah like they would run with that yeah yeah so from professional development to what we're
070doing in everywhere yeah and I think with that organization they would know exactly what to do yeah okay okay so host a spring Community Forum um tell me again I'm sorry uh it's almost like another state of the union here's here's where Dei fits in whether it's professional development or in what the Dei efforts in the in the within the district district got it yeah so we haven't teased out the details of having a joint Community Forum with Town Council but maybe like you were saying Jo could be coupled with some of those discussions yeah too yeah and I would be surprised if they would like specialize like we did a whole ml MML Deep dive to hear about it during my committee report um but it was fascinating it was fascinating was so interesting
071it was so good it was so good so the efforts that they've made to really meet families who don't who English is not their first language and who are struggling with languages for all the different efforts that they've employed to get children registered and into the district and then I mean like it's our staff are amazing our staff yeah like seriously it's so and we should be cting uniforms we did know that but I do um it's 7 o'clock and so I need to pause because we probably only but I do want to say one thing um well and we'll pick this back up after people have had time to read and digest we'll pick it back up at a fut meeting in a month I think you said but the other thing I still
072want to go back to talking about the voting The Forum and voting and I also want to look at the composition because right now we don't have 21 members and so do we need to take that number down are they still soliciting membership so those are the two I see outstanding seems yeah and they're just not there so if they're not there like why don't we pull that number down to a more manageable number yeah I agree we're gonna move over all right go ahead and take um oh let me um adjourn agenda item 5.0 is adjournment do I have a motion to adjourn second any discussion all in favor all right so we take about just few minutes to run to the ladies room or men's room