001yeah and we approved it good evening everyone and welcome to uh this uh August the 5th 2024 Equity meeting um I will start by has everyone read the minutes any questions or concerns comments with the minutes if there's none we will move on to uh addressing the board I'm s um thank you just a quick question regarding our minutes previous minutes um I know we had talked about in our previous minutes meeting when we um had spoke um Dr Jackson I'm sorry chman chman um we had talked about facilities and things like that far as like funding going to some schools and not to all to my understanding we now have a committee that's looking over contracts before it's signed off before money goes to any of our schools we have a committee that will
002be signing off asking questions and making sure that every dollar that we spend on is Equitable yes okay and it's not just around Athletics yes it's around the school it's all contracts and I would say uh even as of today we're not interested Ed I am not interested in seeing contracts after they have been created I am not interested in seeing contracts that I have not been a part of the process from the beginning through the end prior to board approval and so as of yesterday what's today Monday as of Friday that discussion was had in our senior leadership meeting that no it was had today today in our senior in our senior leadership meeting that was discussed okay that the process itself has to be a part of this contract Review Committee so it
003won't be just to look at contracts that have already been created and ready for board approval we want to be a part of the process from beginning in terms of how vendors are selected why they are selected how did we get to the selection of a particular company for a particular um job and so that that's where we are now is backing that up to ensure that the process is is fair and Equitable but I would also say there is an Athletics update and I've said to our Athletics SL facilities group that we need to come back to equity and give an update after we provided those numbers and a spreadsheet for you guys to look at back in June so we'll be coming back with some updates and some new information around projects taking
004place in facilities across the district thank you and thank you for stepping up on that and helping out and making sure that every child has an opportunity to go to a safe and fair school thank you okay uh any other questions okay I'm sorry thank you Miss Hall and now we'll have our uh speaker come up to the uh Podium thank you Mr Alexander um I I I guess this is the best committee to start um and this conversation probably will get um delivered harder it will be a harder and harder conversation to have when we're talking about Equity we're talking about diversity we're talking about the schools um putting systems in place as Dr Chapman has um stated putting systems in place to ensure that contracts are um looked at with a Dei lens
005from beginning to end is a good thing but we're putting systems in place around people that shouldn't be in place and we can never get away from this okay we can put a lot of systems in place to protect our kids we can continue to say uh that we're going to prove stuff if it's in the best interest of the kids but we have to acknowledge that some people are in places in business Affairs that should not be there we can talk about an a recreation budget we can talk about the Athletics budget you know what Firestone is already built ellot is already built they don't need to do anything um they don't need to participate in anything else because their stuff is already built and when we come to and we start talking about
006the upkeep that's where the dollars are now the upkeep um I have sat in the back and I've listened to money go across this table and they can always explain it afterwards and I think the the point was lost on the superintend at the last meeting that it was improper to talk to a contractor when you have an open RFP okay that is the problem and we cannot stop people unless they are fired or terminated or reassigned you cannot stop people from picking up the telephone and talking to contractors so that they can get contracts and that is what has been going on and so if we're really talking about what's in the best interest of the kids again um $318 may not be a lot to somebody in W8 it's a lot to somebody
007in w three it's a lot to somebody in W four $318 people are losing their homes for taxes and so it it it it's frustrating to sit here for the last 12 years say the same thing and the same people are making the same decisions and we get a new super we have three new superintendents and the person is still there can we do something about business Affairs can we can can we all acknowledge that there's a problem and that's where the money is thank you thank you Pastor Harris um well taken all right we will move on to our report diversity officer report Dr Chapman yes thank you um in light of the recent discussions that have been had at board meetings I wanted to bring something that stems from work we did in
0082022 a new a different superintendent different time but in 2022 our akan Public Schools staff across several divisions business Affairs Community Partnerships School climate and human resources at the time now human capital four divisions participated in an equity self assessment where we rated ourselves as teams across those four divisions each division having a team of people walk through this self assessment to rate ourselves I am bringing to you today what was used for responsible sourcing Supplier Diversity especially in light of the conversations we've been having so what you see in front of you was the self assessment done by our business fairs team members in terms of where they stood on diversity equity and inclusion benchmarks in 2022 and you'll see each category laid out for you across the front and the back of this
009document so if you start with reactive our team did not choose any of the Criterion under reactive because they felt that we were doing better work than that so under reactive you'll see a couple of statements engaging in Dei may be a supply proposal Criterion but it is given minimal importance we did not select that as a team I wasn't a part of that team it was a business business Affairs team we did not select there is some attempt to include a few underrepresented suppliers but primarily for small one-time or low fee contracts or because it is required by law again we didn't select that because we thought we were doing better than that when we get to proactive you'll see what's listed there all staff being responsible for sourcing our uh provided Dei education
010we did not check that and we have not yet provided all business Affairs staff with Dei education and we probably don't have the accountability measures in place that we need to achieve responsible sourcing goals and by accountability measures I am talking about the systems that are needed to be put in place to ensure that we are doing what we say we're going to do you'll see yellow highlights as I go through these documents those are the areas that our team felt we were moving in the right direction on so supplier database including information about diversity of owners we have a dat database and about the goods and services that they provide you'll see highlighted in yellow the organization seeks opportunities to engage with and inform underrepresented suppliers that their business is welcome we felt we
011were being proactive in that area if you go to the back you see Progressive as a category and I'll give you a moment to look at what is highlighted there those two things that we felt we were being Progressive in being proactive in seeking and attracting groups by informing both potential and established suppliers about business opportunities we felt we were doing that in a progressive way we also highlighted educational support and coaching provided to underrepresented suppliers when we got to the best practice category you'll see the two highlighted there so I bring this because I've I've watched board meetings and I've watched the conversation listened to the conversation and it's just also important for me to note and to disclose that my positionality is that I also work with in the system and so I
012get to see it from that side as well and we do have work to do and so I bring this to say there was a process for assessing where we should be going and what our goal should be around Supplier Diversity and now it is time to give it the resources systems processes and back by policy which we have have to ensure that we are a best practice in our work and that's really all I have if you look on your board docs you'll see the hyperlink to the actual document that goes through every single division's rating in those categories I told you about Community Partnerships Human Resources business Affairs and and school climate communication any questions I do have one question Dr Chapman what you're talking what you're talking about is what we were
013we talked about years ago and having an equity department so this department can work together to make sure all of this is embedded within everything that we do within Aram public schools uh and now you're saying it's time for us to find some money to put this department together based on our own rating we have identified the areas where we could possibly say we're doing some work and we've identified the areas by not checking them where work needs to be done got it okay any other questions Madam president thank you so just so I'm clear if it was not picked it means they felt they were getting better they felt that they they didn't need to choose Supply proposal criter Ian having minimal importance because it was not true so then you move to the
014next category and you'd identify where you think you have strengths and where you think you don't in the proactive category when it is not checked that means we have work to do where it is highlighted there is an idea that we're moving in the right direction you don't want to be in a proactive category I mean in a reactive category in other words you want to be in best practice or Progressive and so when you say now we need the resources backed up by polic I mean what would be the number one resource that you would say cuz when we say about systems and that's just not a matter of saying okay we have a system now like what would be so back in 2022 I recommended to the then superintendent that we conduct some
015internal audits that would be conducted by external supports and I think we were able to complete an audit on our then human resources department around pay if you recall there was a pay Equity audit conducted at that time there were also other components of human resources that we wanted to audit around um interview practices the questions being asked and some other things but we landed on pay I think we should be in the practice of regularly auditing hour work to ensure that we are meeting the standards of progressive best practice in our equity and inclusion work diversity is a different measure um it often just speaks to representation and you can be diverse and represent various categories of people and they still not feel included or or still feel that they've been treated equit equitably
016and fair so we move Beyond diverse because we're not just interested in representation we're interested in the work around equity which you see represented in part here thank you Miss H so moving forward your plans are to make sure that we're auditing the work that we're doing right I will be bringing that huh it's going to take resources Mrs Hall okay it will take resources because it's not something I can do internally I can support an audit I can ask questions I can disrupt practices I can help put systems in place but when you're talking about real audits it should be an external provider that does that or would we we just say this is a practice that we put in place this is what we want to do who's following up to make sure
017that we're doing it that that would be me as well as everyone else in this District okay because you can't land the work with one person it has to be done right just follow up we're moving along we need an audit of our practices okay and that's going to take resources yeah so Dr Chapman when we're saying this too uh we're saying that we're need an outside edit outside edit audit from individuals but once we get that outside audit that we need to come inside and say where we where we at probably get together with all the department heads within the district to say uh where we falling short at if we're falling short in some areas and then let's make the improvements is that correct well think about what happens with an audit right
018you're going to learn what's working what's not working there will be recommendations for improvement there will be findings and evidence around uh what is found and reported in the audit and so those those become the plan the blueprint what we would follow then to correct those things in order that we become a best practice we are not a best practice ice yet in our work around Supplier Diversity or many other divisions for that for that uh point but I brought this because of the conversations that we've been having you you all can reference the fact that there are standards for this work that exists that this isn't just something that Dr Chapman made up right this has been vetted by some of the best topnotch business entities in the country and the world I can
019show you the list of organizations that use this as a practice to assess where they are M do we have a dollar amount of like how much would be needed if we Outsource this I do not I'd have to go back to the requests for proposals that were submitted almost 3 years ago now which probably wouldn't be valid today so those have never been just like cancelled they're still out we did not conduct audits of any other area other than human resources and it was a pay Equity audit okay okay okay any other questions anything else you have for us Dr Chapman nope that's it well well thank you very much and you know I know years ago when we brought this this to the to the board I know you David James sent you
020to Washington with me and we you said it's a lot of work that we needed to do at that time and we are make we have made some progress but I don't think we made the progress that we thought we should have should be at right now within the district when that was brought into the district so uh I thank you for that and uh thank you for the work that you're doing have a lot of work to do yes I'm interested in best practice MH really right um you know we do some things well and we do some things not so well and as we can hear from our community and members of our community um where there is an issue that people feel strongly enough about to come and fill a boardroom and
021to bring folks to the Podium to have a a a thre minute remark period then it's important enough for us to pay attention to in my opinion true true I just want to say I totally agree with you because we're asking the public their thoughts and their opinions and will you do this for us but when we don't want to hear what they have to say that's a problem and we're contradicting ourselves so um I appreciate the work that you do and I you know I ask residents to come to our Equity meetings not just during the board meeting come to the equity committees and let us know what is going on and what are the issues so that we can work through it then we can go to the actual board meeting and discuss
022it with all the information so thank you yes thank you Mrs Hall anything else if not we will adjourn thank you everyone for [Music] time