001young lady how's everything oh now oh thank you good evening welcome everybody um please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for the national anthem and then we will take a moment of silence for the people of ukraine thank you [Music] we [Music] who's brought stripes and bright stars [Music] streaming [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay thank you please be seated tonight is a special board meeting it's not a general meeting but a special meeting and we it's a presentation on the culturally responsive education and equity advisory board in israel advisory council dr harrington and mrs preveto yes thank you mr mulhorn first i do want to let the audience know that the reason the board is flanked by two camels has to do with the
002fact that we are preparing for our school five upcoming production of aladdin uh it's going to be fabulous um but i just wanted to make that very very clear it has nothing to do with the presentation um but i really am so very excited um about this about this topic this is something our school district um has been addressing for um a little over a year and you'll you'll understand the specifics behind that in just a little while uh there have been actually people that have been working well beyond that uh including um a high school committee that sort of started spearheading some of the attention on this and of course we all know that our state education department has made it a focus and it actually has boards of education to develop policies around
003this topic as well we in oceanside um always pride ourselves in doing the research and doing the work and being slow and steady and very intentional about the way we approach things and certainly this will be no exception and i hope by the end of this presentation you'll understand that fully i know mr vito will it will announce um the the advisory board that has been working now for a little over a year despite the craziness of what we've been addressing at least the year past um it didn't stop us from from continuing to do the important work but i do i know she will acknowledge but i do feel incredibly obligated to thank and acknowledging uh acknowledge all the members of that advisory board many of whom have joined us this evening they were
004here for a meeting this afternoon and came back tonight for this presentation so i thank them for that and certainly for all the work they have done and all the work they will do i at this point again um acknowledge and thank the board for giving us these opportunities at these special meetings i think the community knows that we like to keep our community as informed as possible about the ongoings and happenings in our schools it's not always possible to do justice to that at a regular board meeting we try to be sensitive to people's time so the board has graciously given us these special meetings to do just that focus on one particular topic which is the only topic for conversation for the evening without further ado it is my tremendous pleasure and honor
005to turn over uh the presentation to the leader of this work um who um is just been extraordinary uh in her efforts in in in making this first and forefront first and forth most in on her agenda and work working with a great team of people it's my pleasure to um turn the mic over to ms provito assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction thank you thank you dr harrington thank you to the board for allowing us the opportunity to present our work in the area of culturally responsive and education and equity these are long-standing positive aspects of what educators do day in and day out to support our students tonight's presentation will provide an overview of what the work is and what it is not we define the terms we share our mission and purpose
006and we give a lens to the goals and actions we have taken as a school district it is important to begin with a common understanding of culturally responsive education and equity i would like to invite miss carla stillwell our director of high school special education and my co-leader of the oceanside school district advisory to join me in unpacking these terms let's start with the term equity equity recognizes that students have different circumstances and needs and provides resources to ensure they have access to all the opportunities before them take a look at this illustration behind me the students are of differing heights making the access to the books possible for the student on your left the student on the right is unable to access the books until the right size stool is provided by meeting the
007students where they are and provided providing what they need to access school opportunity and learning we promote achievement for all an example of a policy put into place to ensure equity and accessibility is the american with disabilities act in 1990 congress passed a land this landmark act the law addressed the issue of equity and accessibility by requiring equitable access to programs services and supports for people with disabilities for example sidewalk ramps allow people with physical and visual disabilities to navigate their neighborhoods independently so here's another visual this one helps to illustrate the difference between equality and equity these two terms are often used interchangeably but are yet are very different the top image shows all students getting the exact same bike obviously for some the bike works just fine for others the bike just does
008not meet them where they are to get moving the bottom image illustrates what happens when we give students the resources they need each child is now able to access the opportunity to ride the bike to get moving to get ahead for educators our job is to identify and remove barriers to find ways to help all our students your children the youth of oceanside will be the most successful when we allow them to access all the opportunities before them we want them to be able to realize whatever dream they have for themselves perhaps that barrier can be poverty or a student who does not yet know the english language or a student who is struggling with a learning disability this is the work of equity now let's look at culturally responsive education ms stilwell good evening
009culturally responsive education in many ways is nothing new to oceanside supporting our students looking at data to make informed decisions that dictate resources and always thinking about fostering logical thinkers is a core value before we go into what culturally responsive education is let's say what it is not it is not taking away from a group of students to give to another this is not another name for affirmative action it is not liberal versus conservative conservative this is not political it is not critical race theory this is not about shaming any group in our community this is not about divisiveness culturally responsive teaching is a research-based approach that makes meaningful connections between what students learn in school and their cultures languages and life experiences these connections help students access rigorous curriculum develop higher level academic skills
010and see the relevance between what they learn at school and their own lives our brains are wired to make connections it's easier for our brains to learn and store information when we have a hook to hang it on that hook is background knowledge students bring this knowledge to the classroom every day including their culture language and life experiences when we acknowledge this background knowledge as assets and tap into it we create an optimal environment for learning but for students of different cultures learning abilities languages and other underserved student populations those assets are often overlooked and under utilized as a result we miss the chance to use them to support rigorous learning the new york state education department provides all school districts across new york state with the framework for culturally responsive sustaining education the framework
011is a robust guidance document that contains recommended strategies for educational stakeholders including teachers school administrators and high and other faculty and community members and students that's this supports cultivating student-centered learning environments that affirm cultural identities foster positive academic outcomes develop students abilities to connect across lines of differences and leverage differences as assets by lifting up each individual student we are ultimately lifting up our whole community thank you miss stillwell so at the foundation of culturally responsive education and equity is the reminder that our students are human beings who need to feel a sense of belonging and connectedness belonging is at the very heart and soul of teaching and learning it is also as revered psychologist abraham maslow states the step before achievement a successful school community promotes and sustains a sense of belonging is it
012is inclusive and affirms the talents backgrounds and cultures of all its students and all its members when students are anchored in a sense of belonging they feel honored they feel seen they feel dignified and they feel worthy when students feel a sense of belonging they achieve now that we have a common understanding of the terms and our philosophy we can progress to show how these elements lead us to the purpose of our work which is simply to promote the success of all students and by all we mean all as a means to realize this vision we have established an advisory that encompasses members from each school building and with varying stakeholders this includes our board of education trustees administrators teachers and parents together these individuals participate in research and learning they provide feedback and perspective
013and help establish and propel forward district and building goals they also serve as ambassadors for the work it gives me great pleasure this evening to share with you the names of the 44 members of this advisory some who are here with us this evening these individuals give up their time and are dedicated to serving in this role at this time i'd like to ask any members of the advisory who are here this evening to stand so we may acknowledge your work thank you as an advisory we recognize that to achieve our purpose of promoting the success of all students we must know who we are as a district the makeup of our student body together we reviewed the percentage of students in various categories used by the state education department to report demographic data this
014critical information this is critical information as we work to advance our students achievement so this school year we are educating five thousand 435 incredible and diverse young people and this is across our kindergarten through grade 12. 49 of our population are female and 51 percent male four percent of our students are english language learners they are our students who speak or understand a language other than english and need support to develop proficiency in english of our students identify as students with disabilities which may include those having an intellectual disability hearing speech speech and language or visual impairment autism developmental delays or other health impairments point four percent of our students are homeless meaning they lack a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residency the data behind me also details the percentage of students who identify in
015a particular race or ethnicity specifically we educate two percent black 22 percent hispanic 69 percent white 4 percent asian or pacific islander and 3 percent multi-racial students another important category to make note of is the percentage of students who identify as economically disadvantaged this number is determined by the free and reduced lunch forms submitted yearly while you may note a decline in that percentage since the 1920 school year we do believe that the decline is not quite representative of what is truly occurring in this area specifically we believe this is a result of the fact that the new york state department deemed free lunch for oil during covid and as such families saw no need to submit the free and reduced free and reduced lunch application we are prepared to see an increase in this
016category as you can see we have a beautifully diverse student population all of whom deserve our best efforts to ensure that they may access any and all opportunities available in our district as they journey through their schooling they deserve our relentless commitment to fostering school climates that are welcoming and affirming and give them a sense of belonging hence our 5435 students your children are the all when we speak of our purpose knowing who we are what our student body comprises of leads to monitoring how we are doing which takes on multiple means from observational aspects what we see and what we feel to using concrete data for example the advisory will delve into a variety of data points with an eye towards access and opportunity for students this may include the percentage of students achieving
017an advanced region's diploma enrollment in advanced placement and dual enrollment courses dual enrollment courses or courses where students can earn credit at the high school but as well at a college university college credit summer school gifted and talented and other alternative prague programs in our district and interscholastic sports and extracurricular activities it is important to recognize that access and opportunity does not in any way mean lowering standards but rather increasing successful practices and removing barriers that may hinder students from participating in that rigorous coursework by putting all the pieces together we set goals to further our purpose building level teams have been working diligently all year long on their goals they report back on their progress at the advisory meetings elementary schools have focused on culturally responsive education and ensuring that students see represented representations
018of themselves and others and to learn about diverse cultures the concept is often represented in the phrase windows and mirrors at the middle school under dr glickman's leadership her building team is reflecting on the middle school advisory model and finding new actions that can maximize promoting peer-to-peer and peer-to-adult relationships while fostering a sense of community and belonging our high schools are looking at policies that may serve as a barrier to student success and taking action to increase student empowerment they are implementing implementing trauma-informed practices to strengthen school community and as a means to prevent and reduce negative behaviors all schools were given the charge to provide faculty with professional development on culturally responsive education and equity and to share out the advisory work and their building goals the sharing out takes place to the faculty
019meeting shared decision-making teams and to parent-teacher associations all our schools have done incredible work and have so much to be proud of while i would love to have each one of them elaborate on their goals and present in depth time simply does not allow however i did not want to lose the chance to give a more elaborate lens of the work being done so to that end i have invited elementary school 2 and 3 and oceanside high school to do just that at this time please welcome principal of school 2 miss aaron marone [Applause] thank you at school number two we focused on building a welcoming and affirming environment because we wanted to celebrate who we are as a community to do this we put together a team called legacy lean which started on the
020process of analyzing our school's walls and thinking what does this say about our values how do we create living useful walls that support student learning we wanted to make sure students saw themselves regardless of ability age race income and family makeup as we educate everyone we need to belong in order to achieve our self-worth rises when we are grounded in community the team at school number two highlighted trailblazers led by stephanie agna benny and michelle gomash who are here today trailblazers are those who pave the way for others by making a difference as they created a shared interest and conversation among students and staff students were encouraged to make connections with trailblazers as they were unveiled and introduced at the monthly morning meetings classroom teachers even helped celebrate their students who were trailblazers in progress
021these students helped create a welcoming environment such as by including others furthermore as we extended the work of achievement occurring in the context of our relationships we did this by celebrating through diversity and inclusivity through literature using culturally responsive texts students were encouraged to make text-to-self connections regarding their family traditions and their community one student a shared that like the main character in the book amy wu and the perfect bow her family cooks together and they make turkish rice balls a staff member then connected to her sharing her family makes easter bread yearly a leaf and the staff member's connection was exactly what we were looking for we have differences but we are also alike in addition through some of the questions posed during the legacy lane meeting students designed their own bulletin board showcasing
022what makes them proud leaving their mark contributing to our school 2 community at this time i would like to introduce mrs castiello principal of school 3 to share the work from her building [Applause] school 3's culturally responsive education ecwid and equity building based advisory was thrilled to collaborate to identify goals based on the needs of our students staff and families after some in-depth conversations with both our small group and whole staff we established the following goal oak school 3 will expand our usage of inclusive literature and explore more intentional ways to involve all families actively in their child's education first our teachers quickly realize that we welcome family involvement and encourage all parents to take an active role in their child's education but finding additional ways to support the homeschool connection would only benefit our
023students together we identified some simple but effective ways to foster this part of our goal some of the highlights this year included all flyers letters important school information in multiple languages training and consistent usage of proprio a district supported translation service designed to effectively communicate with all families and collaboration and support with our amazing pta to infuse activities that support and include our students and their families cultures one prized beloved pta sponsored event this year included our annual family reading night for students and their families with for students in grades one two and our incoming first graders next year all communication about this event was shared in multiple languages and we were thrilled to include an english spanish and chinese readers to expose students to stories in multiple languages as families were leaving it was
024evident that they all had a wonderful evening fostering our universal book love and celebration of different cultures another part of our goal included expanding our classroom libraries to support our book love and be as inclusive as possible students should have the opportunity to see themselves and others in the books that they choose in their classrooms we recognized seeking assistance from an expert would be vital so we reached out to dr zirianos through some extremely well-planned and delivered professional development by dr zirianos at our faculty meetings our teachers were provided with the tools to choose literature that provides windows mirrors and sliding glass doors for all students they were given excellent book choices to choose from and each and every teacher built a wish list of books with the support from mrs previto's budget from funds
025from dr rose's title 3 grant and a little portion of school 3's budget we were able to purchase over 300 brand new books for the school three classroom libraries to hear the criteria that we used in identifying the 300 books that were purchased for school three i'm going to turn it over to dr zirianos [Applause] hi everyone i had the pleasure of partnering with ms castillo to address her building goal to expand the usage of more inclusive literature she shared a little bit of the why with you and i'm going to share the how we did it part children need stories that reflect their experiences as well as the experiences of others in order to build their identity to feel affirmed and to build empathy and acceptance for others mirrors allow us to see ourselves
026when students read books where they see characters like themselves being valued in the world they feel a greater sense of belonging they feel empowered understood and more connected to the world around them windows offer you a view into someone else's experience windows help students develop an understanding about the wider world windows promote acceptance and of course compassion books can also be sliding glass doors i know these are a lot of metaphors but they can be sliding glass doors actually in two different ways first a book that allows the reader to enter into an imaginary world a world that is unknown think of harry potter that is considered a sliding glass door text but a sliding glass door can also be a book that inspires a reader to take action for example a student reading a
027book about climate change and making changes in their daily habits to reduce their carbon footprint that would also be a sliding glass door by having these types of books in our school and classroom libraries we foster a more positive school community and by that extension a more positive community at large it is extremely important when selecting the right books for our school libraries and classroom libraries that we of course rely on trusted professionals like school librarians and credible sources and that we select texts that accomplish our goals through a variety of lenses we seek to represent and these are just some examples the list is exhaustive but we seek to represent diverse family structures characters who are typically abled and differently abled diverse ethnicities and nationalities a balance and gender representation and we always ask
028ourselves what voices and perspectives are under-represented or over-represented to always ensure balance for example the books highlighted on the screen these are three wonderful books the first which is happens to be called my first day is about the very challenging commute to the first day of school for a young vietnamese boy who despite the danger of his daily travel he can't wait to meet his teacher and start a new school year i love that book it's probably my favorite new book that came out this year the second book hair love is the story of how a father and a daughter bond when he has to handle trying to style his daughter's hair for the very first time a task that mom has always handled and some of you might recognize that book was adapted last
029year into an oscar-winning short film and the third book i talk like a river is the story of a young boy struggling to fit in because of a stutter that makes him self-conscious and the book talks about how he overcomes it what's really special too about hair love and i talk like a river is it really focuses on the father child relationship which for a long time books traditionally focused on the mom and child relationship so we're wanting to represent that strength as well most importantly we always want to choose authentic high quality literature to accomplish our goals nothing beats a good story to of course nurture the joy of reading but these powerful books also help to create a culturally responsive classroom where all kids thrive next up is my colleague dr brendan mitchell
030from oceanside high school thank you good night good evening oceanside high school has focused our equity work in the 2021-2022 school year in the area of two critical components creating a welcome welcoming and affirming environment and fostering high expectations and rigorous instruction through our work with the district-wide equity committee as well as our building-based committee we have further developed these areas of focus into two categories policies and procedures and student empowerment in regard to policies and procedures a building-based group of teachers administrators and support staff identified the need to review policies such as attendance deficient learning time the dlt and the dress code to ensure that these policies were consistent with state guidelines and procedures in the area of equity by taking a close look at these policies we have been able to make recommendations
031that will speak to increased advocacy for all students a more comprehensive review of the context by which these students may violate these policies and in some cases making changes that would ensure a more welcoming environment for all further we have started and will continue to complete a thorough review of all student extracurricular clubs to ensure that all students can be positively represented and that all students will have opportunities to pursue their passions and celebrate who they are additionally in the area of a welcoming and affirming environment we have started and will continue to hold a serio a series of several programs in which we complete important work to hear the voices of our students this started with a series of grade level town hall meetings in late january in which all members of the student
032body were given the opportunity and the space to talk openly with administration about the ohs experience covering topics from student workload homework attendance dlt and mental health among other areas we are now taking the next step in this work in which we will complete a more targeted process to ensure that we hear from all from students who may not always embrace those whole group opportunities but whose voices are equally important this will be completed through both teacher and program outreach as well as calling upon the leaders of our student clubs to assist in hearing more about the student experience i'm equally proud to speak to the work in the area of fostering high expectations and rigorous instruction which is at the heart of our equity work again i have to get give credit to our
033original building-based equity committee chaired by ken dwyer bonnie hennessey and carla stillwell as we first focused on looking at the data and identifying trends in our higher level courses as well as attendance and discipline through the lens of certain subgroups at ohs from this work not only did we review our attendance policy as i previously mentioned but also we were able to reevaluate some of our prerequisites in advanced courses to ensure access to higher level courses for our students as well as creating some shifts in the structure of our geometry class to provide more resource and support in one of the gateway courses of our math curriculum finally we were able to facilitate structures to allow for more collaboration across content areas for our enl students by creating these opportunities for enhanced discussion and evaluation
034of our program we were able to identify an early intervention this year in our biology course work to pave the way for what we hope will be increased credit opportunities and better regions results for these students at ohs this is a true true collaborative effort with administrators teachers support staff and as i just mentioned our students i do want to acknowledge our current building-based group ken dwyer bonnie hennessy helen dixon josephine presta giacomo and carla stillwell for their guidance and support as we take on this important work together thank you [Applause] thank you dr mitchell thank you dr zarianis miss castiello and miss marone um i do feel so fortunate to work with such wonderful and intelligent individuals and dedicated as well um as you can see as my colleagues so clearly articulated there is
035so much good happening in each of our buildings and the goals that we have are so positive for our students and they're driven by our wonderful faculty our administration and the dedicated dedicated members of the district advisory which of course includes our board of education trustees and our parents so what's next building level teams will continue to progress their goals and the advisory will continue to meet currently the advisory is participating in more professional development specifically on school climate and culture and to further foster a sense of belonging and dignity we have started to look at climate surveys that we hope to administer to parents students and staff in the future of course we will continue to monitor data and determine barriers that impede achievement as well as the actions that we currently are taking
036that are successfully promoting the growth of our learners i hope this evening we successfully provided you with an overview and understanding of our work in the area of culturally responsive education and equity and that we have communicated our passion drive and relentless pursuit towards creating school cultures of dignity belonging and access for all our students simply put our students deserve absolutely nothing less from us thank you dr harrington if there are any questions mrs mcgrath thank you that was an excellent presentation by everybody i know how hard you've worked on this all of you um at this time are there any questions from the board regarding the presentation no questions from the board the audience can ask questions but it's limited strict oh i'm sorry bob i just want to reiterate that was a tremendously
037informative presentation i have broad stroke understanding of what you're doing but i can see that you're delving into some of the problems that might uh be created at the elementary level and at the high school particularly at the high school i was impressed thank you thank you thank you any other board members okay any members of the audience can ask questions it's strictly limited to the presentation and the topic at hand any other questions in the audience on any other topic can be addressed at our general meeting on wednesday april the 6th are there any questions from the audience okay yep oh excuse me yes thank you yes that's a great question and we do hope to look at all of those aspects and certainly that is an element that we should be addressing as
038well thank you for the question i'm just going to ask you to repeat what the question was just because the microphone that's fine now unless this is previewed and the microphone provides that thing that the audience at home who's watching can hear the question certainly let me know and your name excuse me i'm sorry thank you and just for the audience at home because they heard the answer but maybe not the question certainly miss kelly was referring to the aspects that we shared about gender and the categories on gender and as we move forward in the climate surveys would we be looking to broaden those categories thank you okay there not being any other questions for the audience i need a motion to adjourn oh excuse me you know i missed it okay we're adjourned
039thank you so much everybody for coming and thank you again to the the committee it was amazing i don't see it thank you