001yeah but you never know what yeah sure it happens good afternoon everyone it is Tuesday March 14th and this is the equity committee meeting and I'm just gonna hand it over to Carla and let her take us away all right thank you Mrs McKittrick um we do have minutes that I think our board members would need to review and approve I would move to accept the minutes from February 14th second that so I'm going to start with an overview of the work that we've been doing thus far in the district and I and I want to start with what is actually going to take place tomorrow you heard me mention yesterday that our team would be meeting tomorrow and so this is number six of our meeting and just wanted to run through for about
002five minutes what we're going to focus on and tomorrow's focus is going to be on the culturally responsive sustaining educator framework and starting to pull all of the pieces together on the portrait of a culturally responsive educator staff and District so we're moving in the right direction in that way and in just a little bit you're you're going to hear from Adam Mater about the work he is doing in social studies as it relates to our CR SE framework and he is a front runner in this work he's an early adopter he's an ally he has been in the trenches with me from day one really working to understand how to improve his practices so that being said I just want to shout out Adam some let's not leave it out let's not leave out
003there he's lead process that's taken place for our dedication on the Statue so I just wanted to add that yes he's a rock star in this work this is the link that you couldn't see yesterday or I think Mr Perry could see it yeah it did it work okay yeah it was the weirdest thing so this isn't what it will look like in its final form but if you had a chance to look at it it's in draft it won't say the sessions by the dates that you see there it may say something like uh round level one resources and it will give them a number of options that they can then use to support work in their buildings so it will go to a final designer type person to I guess make it pretty
004like it is it is did too but I guess there's some functionality issues when it goes to a live website but when you think about the curation of all of the resources that are here and the work that Wilma's doing behind the scenes with our facilitators to ensure that everything gets into the portal in the right places under the right titles and topics and that it's evidence-based and research based and all of those things so we're proud of it and happy to have some help did you want to say something else about this resource I just think that it's a nice addition to what we've been working on all year and that I think it's user friendly so that people can click on and see the headings and go to the topics that they want
005that they're interested in and I think it's I think that um it's going to be a huge resource for us yes question Carla yeah I didn't get a chance to click on all the links that I saw on the page but if I do click does it take me to a page and it has a news okay well it'll either have a resource that is editable that you can use something you can copy or something you can read okay yeah I'll definitely click it yeah for sure yeah yeah play around with that just don't share it with anyone yet because the person that shared it with me made me promise that you know I wouldn't tell anybody yet because it's not right it goes live until it goes live it is definitely interesting type of
006setup but I saw the different clickable links I didn't click anything though yeah it is definitely going to be user friendly in its final form and we're well on our way but a lot of work goes into pulling putting something like that together so I want to shout out Wilma for her help in that space um I mentioned yesterday that I am a member of a national network of Chief Equity officers folks who are diversity officers in public school districts around the country and it has proven to be a very valuable Network in fact most of what I get there I bring back to Akron or I am sharing what we're doing in Akron for them to take where they are in their districts as well and so I just gave you a one pager
007on what they are most recently two weeks ago they shared some talking points that districts can use as they encounter individuals in the community and so I wanted to share this with you as an information resource for you to share or to use in your travels throughout the community Mark Williamson Communications also has his eyes on this to ensure that we have a comprehensive way way of addressing any questions that we might have about the equity work that we're doing but I thought this was a really really helpful piece to have with some really strong talking points about just doing the work in our districts around improving Equitable outcomes for students which folks sometimes confuse with critical race Theory which it is not but yeah I wanted to show you that and anytime anytime yeah
008stop me I'll keep rolling along the other piece which I share with you and you see it here in front on the screen is the teacher quality and diversity resource guide book which is chocked full of great information that is a QR code that you can use or you can reach it by that website would love for you to you know just couldn't put your eyes on that and get a feel for the types of resources that we're bringing back to our district and then um wanted to report out on I guess what was two weeks ago Wilma some phenomenal and Adam employee Resource Group events and so you have them there um Akron Educators for social justice which Adam is a part of as one of our leaders of that Network group had an
009awesome networking event at Marcus's restaurant we're about 15 folks turned out very nice Adam you want to say some more about that well their food is fantastic I've never been there oh you got to go never been you got to go right on yeah yeah like Goodyear yes yeah it's really good yeah I've passed that a thousand times uh but just uh there it was it was a uh an opportunity we've we the group has invited uh APS employees to various functions for about a year now one of our first ones was last June at the Historical Society Juneteenth celebration this one was a meet and greet so people came we Carla was able to get us you know we got some chicken and uh it was fantastic um small group we got just time
010to share discuss there were Community some community members there as well so it's another way for our um our our employees all of us as Educators to connect with people in the community you know in a fun and exciting space so it was really cool so so we're we're actually quite honored to to grow this group and and be a part of it and uh and and and be around others that want to share experiences and growth around social justice I'm really I'm really proud of the work that the ergs are doing in the leaders of the two groups that are moving along APS pride has been around for a few years now and really kind of rocking and rolling and very strong and then these two are forming and storming so coming along the
011other ERG is called the new and existing employees unite it and they're all about helping new APS employees find a social network and these are employees between one and three years of service keep forgetting I attended that one and we had a nice turnout I think we had close to 20 people that showed up for that one and um played a few games to icebreakers to get to know one another and it was amazing how they welcomed learning more about our district learning more about what each other did in their buildings and you know just coming together and and having that safe space to talk about things that that are working well for them and things that they may need to have some support in but I think it worked the message was working together
012and I think that message was thoroughly throughout that that room that day that's good to hear because Saturday we talked about our highest turnover rates are are our folks from one between one and five years so the better connections we can make with them and the more connected they feel to the district then hopefully the better the chance that they'll stick around yeah employee research Source groups are a solid Recruitment and Retention strategy I mean that just a solid solid strategy creating that sense of belonging and connectedness among staff so I'm hoping that these take hold and and really grow and help us with our inclusion work there isn't anything that I do that isn't connected to d e i a b I'm adding the a b I'm trying to remember to say that but
013yeah I'm really proud of the work that folks who are taking ownership of this that they're doing I'm just a supporter it is their work I step out of it and and let it be and find ways to help as they see fit so thanks for the upcoming events on these two please Adam I haven't talked to you guys lately about what's next but I do have some feedback there for you about some suggestions that were were made a couple weeks ago I know for the social justice group there are some events coming up um they were trying to try to better connect with this owner Sojourner Truth project Akron um and uh there's a couple other ones too that are in the pipeline but uh yes the idea is to have an event ever
014you know to invite people to monthly as we get as we get going oh nice I'll look forward to that then for sure yeah we'll be sure to get the invites out yeah I know what was exciting about um new the n-e-e-u Wilma um I was told that eight eight to ten people I think said they they want to be a part of the steering committee on that ERG to help move that work forward so that was exciting that they didn't just hold a social but they also recruited supporters so that that was good kind of introduced Adam already anything you want to say to lead into Adam's presentation sorry what he's about to speak about he he really put his all into it and then and had the right people at the tables you
015know produce the meetings monthly sometimes weekly if he had to you know but making sure that he died at every eye crossed every T spoke with Educators thoroughly making sure that they were because they're the ones that's going to be working with our students with it and I know he put his all into this in um just being there at the meetings with him and watching them take the lead on that was just it was a tremendous uh taking you know he he did a lot with this and I think that he deserves the credit for all of that that he's done and continues to do so yes thanks Wilma Wilma's a member of our adoption steering team so this is the oversight team that takes the teacher recommendations and then advances those recommendations uh
016to the superintendent then it will come to you as a board and that's actually coming up pretty quick um so I wanted to speak to a few things but first I wanted to uh thank you for having me today um Mrs McKittrick and Mr Perry I believe I last spoke to you with Dr caver over the summer and to refresh your memory it was in the realm of hey you've got this social studies adoption coming up what are the parameters and the systems you're putting in place to move uh this curriculum forward based on the board policies around culturally responsive curriculum and instruction and so we got a chance to overview that together and today is an opportunity to update you on our progress and we're going to look at it through two different ways
017Carlo told me I have 20 minutes so and when Carla whatever Carla says is what I do um and um much time looking at the clock here okay and uh so we're going to look at it two different ways one way is the graphic on the screen that you see where you're going to see four different blocks looking at cultural responsive curriculum through an environmental lens an instructional lens actual curriculum lens and professional development and support lens and then we'll also look at it again through the lens of organizing it to buy board policy okay and my hope is that you'll see examples of progress through both of those lenses the first one uh Carla if you could click on the goals of social studies and uh in the in the environment box and if
018you will indulge with indulge me for a moment I shared this with you last time with Dr caver when we spoke in maybe July or August and up on the screen you see the definition of social studies through our Ohio Department of Education as well as the National Council for the social studies and I know I sound like a broken record Wilma's heard this now like five times and the teachers tell me I sound like a broken record but we've gotten away from our North Star and this is our North Star and uh in this new Adoption and with our new culturally responsive curriculum and practices we want every teacher to have an elevator speech on what is the goal of social studies my elevator speech is that students are independent thinkers we don't teach
019students what to think we teach them how to think about a challenge or an issue in our community or our world today to gather vetted resources vetted information from multiple perspectives come up with their own conclusions be able to defend those conclusions using civil discourse and we need our students to do this because we want them to be successful citizens in our community and in our modern democracy that is what is absolutely required so I call this our North Star and we start our trainings with this we also start our trainings with our Equity our commitment to Excellence and Equity we also start our trainings with our board policy as well but as you look at this and as I gave you that elevator speech as we align our work to [Music] culturally relevant curriculum
020and instruction what that means is ensuring that the Dei focus in our board policy inquiry learning teaching through multiple perspectives another way of saying that is not is we don't just teach history we teach histories and that's sort of a new term for old social studies dogs like myself and and also to to be able to engage in having our students have the space to learn about controversial issues sometimes called unsettled issues sometimes they're just current events so those with this with what we know as the vision of social studies and with those four priorities since I last met you our steering team for our adoption came together reviewed this Mission reviewed those priorities and reviewed an evaluation instrument that our teachers used that reflect those four priorities [Laughter] uh so a highly aligned uh
021evaluation instrument for our teachers to analyze and review our new curriculum Carla if you could go back to the slideshow uh that is an update and that is a part of the environment and and climate and culture that that we are changing in social studies the next one well how are we teaching it there are a number of things uh that um are new that we are embedding directly in the curriculum and I I listed a few examples for you and we're going to pick one from this from this list and this is audience participation time so Mrs McKittrick would you like to look at the qft Dr Judy Pace's controversial issues framework or Dr King's framework on historical examination of historical practices look at Contra virtual issues okay so Carla if you'll click on
022Judy Pace's uh overview what you see in front of you is a brand new framework Dr Judy Pace out of the University of San Francisco is our country's leading expert on teaching controversial issues she also calls them issues in society that are unsettled and in in recent memory think about mask mandates think about vaccines think about a school classroom a social studies classroom as an incubator where students can learn about and have a safe voice to understand and communicate these challenges in our society she has eight Focus areas in her framework we won't go through the whole thing but I would want to take you to one of them and the the one is think through the teachers uh her in her framework she says the number one job of the teacher is to do
023no harm for any student so the student need the teacher themselves they need to think think through where am I at how comfortable am I what kind of relationship do I have with my students what is the culture and environment of the classroom and the school that I teach in and take all those things into account before guiding students through multiple perspectives in an unsettled or controversial issue these are things for example in this in our new curriculum that we are now doing intentionally and the work is complex it's hard we've just started the work teachers we've had some PD on it we did some summer work after I talked to you we brought teachers together teacher leaders we started we got more teachers understanding and connecting with the work on our adoption teams and
024then further as we roll out the new Adoption teachers will get more training and more support around it the work is adaptive work not everybody's on the same page at the same day at the same time as you know I think I think Miss Carlos said it last night when she said it's not always a straight line it's sometimes you Zig and sometimes you zag and that's very true for this type of work so thank you for that that that's an example in uh in the how we're delivering instruction differently in social studies and going to be building that type of capacity to deliver instruction differently if you go back to the slideshow we'll go to the third one and um see I didn't really pick one out for this I really think we should
025continue with our audience participation theme and ask Mr Perry if he'd like to pick one out from the curriculum well I am passionate about sojournal truth so I'm going to go with that oh good one good one so May 30th 1851 one block from where we're sitting truth gave her famous speech colloquially known as and ain't I a woman 2 Speech which by the way she the version that we most of us an old dog like me Learned was actually not the correct version of the of the speech but she was a trendsetter far ahead of her time and made history right here in our own community and frankly there's a tremendous renewed interest not just because of the statue in the plaza but because of truth's message and how it's resonating in the times
026we are in this is going to be a National Monument this is an example of our our participation in the larger project and uh Tawanda Mullins also A Garfield graduate and Margaret Maurer spoke to this board maybe a couple months ago about the project as our participation in the project helps support their educational efforts this is for everyone in Summit County but for our teachers curated uh detailed um instructional plans and resources to help support the teaching of the message itself but wait there's a lot more Beyond this that's not included in this link and I'll I'll Circle back to Sojourner Truth in a minute when we get to your board document so if you could go to the fourth column the last one is professional development support which is in this highly adaptive work
027is really important it's ongoing our teachers by the way our social studies staff they've heard me say this for a long time that we are the tip of the spear and we are honored to do so we want to be first with innovative ideas that help support kids learn and um uh this is no different um just this Friday before last we had a group out of Chicago uh they're they're no they're called the Mikvah Challenge and you may be familiar with them because you may have participated in your other life in uh the Akron communities city-wide uh event called on the table a few years ago make the challenge is the actual author they're the they're the designer and creator of that Community event and um uh they do lots of things like that
028we had them in with all six through 12 social studies teachers the Friday before last and uh it was around having courageous conversations around race with your students they helped walk our teachers through basic ideas it was only a two-hour orientation so there's a lot more work to be done however these are the types of professional development that we're we're leaning into and engaging with to support their capacity [Music] develop and build relationships with kids and have those meaningful conversations that don't go sideways so hard adaptive stuff but our our teachers are leaning into it and as a department as a social science department we're organizing the structures and systems in place to make sure that all our teachers are successful um so that's kind of an overview of the different sort of types of
029ways you might see culturally responsive social studies but there is a little link down there at the bottom and this is actually for um uh for our in our planning purposes how are we ensuring that the board policy is being addressed and I'm just going to pause for a moment and pass over this document for Dr Hall [Music] and on the left you actually get to see the the actual board policy and on the right you kind of see a running list of things that we're doing um Mrs McKittrick and Mr Perry since we last talked obviously we're much further along in the adoption when I had the opportunity and honor to speak to you in August we were just getting teams together we were just starting that process since then we've used uh the
030aforementioned evaluation instrument that's aligned to our district goals um and teachers have selected the steering committee has approved so you'll be seeing this soon further uh some further updates for you uh one of the things that didn't show up on the slideshow real well is what kind of tasks are the students doing we should see evidence of the types of tasks that support cultural relevancy cultural growth or in the curriculum right so Carla if you can scroll down on this document I think it's maybe the last box it's able to start adding uh yeah maybe keep going yeah maybe they're yeah that's probably good you'll get to see some additional pieces and Mr Perry there is where you'll see in addition to resources and so forth for teachers on the Sojourner Truth project we actually
031last spring did a field test at nif stem for an inquiry project the student's task was to let the committee know what what people should see and what the statue should look like and so forth if as the designers were building it of course that's all done now so the it's moved to from a sort of a pilot 22 to a field test this year our Middle School teachers are taking you know the ones that are taking to sign in eighth grade are field testing an actual inquiry with uh with their students this spring are there's our students are becoming truth tellers and um you know what does truth's message mean to you how does it impact our your community today be become a truth teller and um and then of course full implementation will
032come next year in the spring hopefully by the way the statue will be up later this year in 2023 but it it most likely will not be up before the kids leave for the summer but that's a great example of actual task actual supports where we're building equity in our curriculum I should also tell you and I hope I hope this isn't the first time but if it is I can't wait to see the smile on your face we are actually part of the pilot program for the AP African-American history course next year we will be piloting it at Firestone and at bookdoll sure you've heard about it it's in the news all the time this is a outstanding course that allows for students to learn African-American history on a highly sophisticated academic level and
033one of the things I'm most excited about is we have our students that will be able to be in this course and see themselves taking academically rigorous college level work and see themselves in college it's very exciting yeah what schools will that be at again Firestone and booked all and booked okay and awesome [Music] please um do we have um uh Insight yet into what the curriculum is going to be for that AP African-American course College Board just just last week gave us a 7 P.M webinar in which they did provide an overview of and as you may know there's been some recent changes to the curriculum so we got an overview look at nothing yet in hard copy but it is as described and one of the more amazing pieces about the curriculum is
034it doesn't it doesn't roll the way the traditional way and the traditional way pre-colonial slavery reconstruction uh Civil Rights Movement that's it apparently everything was fixed in 1965 and and that's it's all good it could it goes all the way through with with leading Scholars and it really does get back to the goal and vision I know I sound like a broken record the goal and vision of social studies is to look at challenges and issues in our world look at vet multiple sources from multiple perspectives analyze those sources develop a conclusion be able to understand and defend that conclusion and then exchange and communicate with civil with civil discourse and so it's an exciting opportunity no I think that's fantastic I think the other question I had is when we when we when it
035when we do have some more insight I'd love to see the what amounts to sort of the course bibliography if you will right because one of the things that does get attention is the degree to which we teach utilizing original sources you know especially in African-American types of courses right and so um you know because I know that I think I guess I'm an old person now but um but I know what I learned in school you know and I was in the upper bound program right which is very Afrocentric right um you know I had a chance to read James well and Johnson and W.E.B Du Bois and things like that those are things that when I learned history and Akron public schools during that same time period those were those were Source materials
036that I was not exposed to you know and so and there are other things that were that really gave more um really drove home in a more graphic way um you know just exactly what um happened as a part of our history in this country um and so that's where I know that there someone would argue um that some of that should not it's not high school appropriate it's sort of the argument that I've heard it made before and that's why I kind of wonder um you know as we as we continue to evolve forward uh in education period right but but especially as we're teaching something that's an AP African-American course right you know um are are we in your opinions right I mean are we are we being courageous in the things that
037we're teaching right are we seeking to expose folks to original sources that um that can't quite quite frankly are heartbreaking um but I think that but they're but those are the kinds of lessons that our young people need to be made aware of that this is these are things that actually happened because you know and again I don't want to take too much time to earn a meeting but um but I I remember being disappointed um in how we talked about African-American history when I was a kid going through APS for example right um the things that got glossed over um you know and again I I credit being in a program like Upward Bound that was very Afrocentric that that was the only time I had ever had any exposure to what was that
038being taught what I thought was actually Afro-American literature and Afro-American history right so so I'm excited about this course and so and I'm very interested again when we get what amounts to be a course big biography I'd love to see that as well and I want one of the actual textbooks I want to read it now from start to finish yeah well that's a challenge though right Mr Perry I mean like you know I think that's gonna be in a textbook it's probably not going to be yeah you know the kind of source material that we're looking for because again it has to be and you know no pun intended but but but vanilla enough uh and it's you know and it's uh in the writing of it so that way it's something that you
039know is not um controversial but it's also a college level course so I think some of that's to be expected that there going to be more controversial things in there well to your point more difficult more difficult subject matter right yeah for an adult mind basically rather than a child yeah what's that point well and so this is where we kind of get into like the distinctions right I mean it's a course that you can earn college credit but that's not the same thing as saying that it's a college level course right I mean I mean there's there's that distinction there right because you know meaning that like the college level and I'm sorry I'm I'm sidetracked right and I don't mean to do that really the point I'm just trying to make is that
040I just hope that like we have Source material like original Source material that really drives home poignant lessons that are not tertiary textbook driven right and so um and I know that Hudson had some issues with this when they've offered College Court because because you know Hudson under because because they offered college courses at the high school level they weren't AP and they were actual college courses and there were issues with the graphic nature in quotation or the graphic nature of some things that were taught in in a course right that parents had signed off on right so so we're offering an AP average American course that we believe is going to sort of do that that deeper dive um I mean you don't typically need parent permission slips to do an AP African-American course
041kids can schedule it right um so that's so Supreme those are some of the things I'm interested in learning more about um and again I mean as a student of it myself I mean like again I would love to see the bibliography you know once once we get that in place but but to that point I mean I think the Mr Perry's point you know are we um is this of course that that they have a textbook for yeah uh college board alerted us to two approved textbooks uh one is McGraw-Hill and the uh it might be Savas but we will order them uh we'll review both of them and the teachers will help select which one we want to uh have a ready for our students yeah but if I could answer yeah you
042asked a lot of questions and I'm not going to answer all of them Dr Hall but I will tell you this um and I think we would want everybody to know this um we are not going to shy away in our department and and it's made been made clear from our Board of Education and from our previous superintendent and from our current superintendent that we are committed to honest education and we are going to provide instead of the history that we've known in the past we're going to provide histories plural and we're going to learn how to do it we're going to do it better we and the goal is that we are not going to teach our students what to think but how to think for themselves and this is this course is a
043is a great opportunity to further that aim we have further we have the systems in place that we're building we're we're not there yet it's going to take time but we have the systems and structures in place to support our teachers to ensure that conversations are done in an affirmative way and not in a in a way that would do harm to any student that would be a affirmation of the scholarship an affirmation of our histories and actually a sense of pride in our country and Community as we learn to Make a Better Community you know that's their job they're going to be taking care of us so I feel very strong and confident that we have the structures and systems that we're moving forward in place to assure that this is a positive support
044and it meets the board policies it's aligned with our board policies as well well said Adam and like I said I actually want both textbooks now so okay we'll get more looking forward we'll ask him politely and kindly and they'll give us a few extra and I'll make sure that you it's available for you yeah thank you thank you appreciate that uh Carl unless there's something I'm missing or something else I think that is kind of a big overview of our efforts right now I think you've got an update on the big picture lots of little things still going on but we'll be very excited to actually see you again hopefully in the future soon to give you a better handle on our teacher evaluation process for our new curriculum adoption and how these fit
045the needs and and where they fall short what our plans are to ensure that we're not doing the same thing and having the same conversations with our students now around the experiences that you went through Dr Hall yeah and and I think the other thing that was super encouraging was and Nicole we talk about this on Saturday um you know but um but the process that you've gone through and working with our partners in the aea I think I think that was I think Pat was a very effusive Enterprise in social studies process and so just want to say thank you I guess because you weren't there Saturday so Nicole was I said Thank you to her then but again I want to thank you for that as well well yeah thank you thank you
046Dr Hall but honestly and every chance we get so the teachers on our adoption team this year this is my third one and it's absolutely been the hardest uh teachers have had so much on their plate life family job everything it is they've had so much and on top of that we asked teachers to evaluate curriculum in a way that they needed new learning in a new way that's never been done before so our teachers deserve a huge amount of praise and Wilma got to meet some of them with on the steering team they really came through our social studies staff really came through in a big way to help support this effort as as it should be you know we are a family and and that's as it should be so but I'd be
047remiss if I didn't say that okay I just want to add that there was a reason why we brought Adam to talk about this work today and it was related to the work we are trying to do in being more culturally responsive in our district right and so um Nicole's Division and her leadership Adam is a front-runner right so this has not been done here this extent and so I am excited about the opportunity that this is now modeled yep for other curriculum Specialists right and that the process actually started we were in shutdown I think we were virtual when you first started pulling teachers together for this series of Learning and Development that occurred um and it took courage I don't want to gloss over that he stepped into this space and was courageous
048enough to pull it Forward linking arms with others myself and others Dr Glover and now Wilma to bring this forward because you have to name what you're doing you can't just say we're teaching African American studies or Advanced African-American advanced placement African-American history you have to say we're being culturally relevant right like it has to be named as a thing we are doing and so um the goal would be that everybody has a framework that supports cultural relevance and not just curriculum but every division right that that's my dream goal right every division and well you know what if it absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah but it takes this adaptive work and it starts with that level of self-awareness that's where it starts going deep with people so they understand what [Laughter] I'm so thankful
049for Adam I'm telling you I I needed a what do you call the first person guinea pig [Laughter] not a front runner though not a front runner we gotta do something different because because Pioneer because I'm like front runner that was that we know I called you a front runner when we were kids that was a problem your front runner you can't you can't like you know do anything when you get behind like you're only good oh okay yeah he's pioneering but I need something even stronger than that right like I need a Visionaries an agitator is a good thing so yeah yeah accomplice yeah so yeah that that's what was necessary we needed a model and he stepped into that great work yeah and so now everybody's calling I'm going to be doing this
050I wanted you to come to this meeting because we want to work on our culturally responsive framework where and so that's what we needed and thank you Adam yeah yeah good work good job I think thank you for uh listening and just uh just connecting with this work I I would also wish one other thing to tell you which is uh and we you know I have this elevator speech um about our four priorities and um in the end and the goal and vision of social studies and one of the things I like to share with the teachers and we'll continue to share is we are not doing this just because it's board policy you were kind of waiting for the board policy right no no well you've been doing it all along but now
051you have the board policy to sort of that's true but we're not doing it just because of the board policy and we're doing it because it's the right thing to do I was thinking that yeah and we're going to grow we're going to get better at it it's going to take time like Carla said it's it's going to be a straight line all the time but we're committed to it and I I I'm telling you you can count on our our social studies teachers in the district to grow evolve and and make it happen it will happen yep and it should happen yep he says McKittrick gave me questions thoughts takeaways I look forward to presenting at the board meeting I mean this is good good information so looking forward to it absolutely thank you
052for all your work thanks thank you I only have one question do you have a sibling I do Alan Mater who is a lawyer okay I just wonder because there's a guy works for sand here I think his name is toivo I think his last name is not related okay although we are close friends okay because we've done a lot of stuff together okay okay is actually Swedish okay and his name m-o-t-t-e-r is that's actually Swedish okay my grandfather got tired of the US Army in World War One Calling in Private Matter like a lot of other German immigrant people oh change to the spelling of his name to m-o-t-t-e-r the because that's how they pronounce so the town is from Pennsylvania there's a half of them half of the clan is m-a-t-t-e-r and half
053of the clan is gotcha gotcha that's real interesting yeah but I do have a brother who's a lawyer and I thought that's what you're referring to First all right well thank you everyone if there's nothing else class dismissed