001okay fantastic uh well welcome everybody to the first equity committee meeting of uh 2021 recall this is a a brand new committee of the board that is beginning this year born from a lot of work that's been done by dr akbar and mr alexander over the last year um really spearheading a lot of our equity work um so today what i wanted to do we have a very packed agenda for today um and so what i'd like to do is just jump right in um by making a couple of introductory remarks about where i hope we can go as a as as a committee uh and then pivoting to um talking about some of our foundational documents um so first you know that was as i was thinking about uh this this work and uh
002what we were going to be doing over the next year together uh within the context of this committee i kept thinking about you know all the conversations i've had with people um on this uh on this committee uh and folks i've met in conferences as well and and you know i have a inclined to have more of a science background um you know but i kept thinking about equity we keep talking about equity you know uh that that equity done right you know um doesn't require the uh calling it out all the time right becomes because it becomes a part of who you are uh it becomes a part of your dna and i kept thinking about two words um genotype and phenotype anybody that's taking a basic genetics class you know sort of knows
003these two knows these terms you know and you think about genotype is being defined as the genetic constitution of an individual organism so i kept thinking about what is the j what is the genetic composition or makeup of of of of our organization um and how and how is equity intertwined you know in that you know uh you know within that organism within that dna and then thinking about phenotype and phenotype is defined as the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype that is to say its dna uh with the with the environment so so i know that many of us on the call and i mentioned it sort of this metaphor if you will um because many of us on this call you know have experience uh
004with equity and equity i think i think most of us would say that arguably already in our dna and already something that is in the dna of this organization um you know so it's already part of the genetic composition if you will um i think one of the things i look forward to being working with you all over the course of this year is really thinking about how we showed equity to being our uh our phenotype you know that is to say that the work that we're doing where we convert you know what's in our dna to things that are working fruits of labor that are observable characteristics you know to those within the organization and also within our community uh you know and beyond um you know the other thought i had was that
005you know we have in the army we have there are many things we have in the army but one of which is present is a mission you know and so so i i hope that as we move this work forward that equity that equity becomes a greater presence uh in you know in the front of our mind and that we begin to be able to view uh everything that we're doing through the lens uh of equity so uh having said that again i want to welcome you to uh this first equity committee of 2021 and um so i like the pivot then having said that i'd like to pivot um to um just a a quick sort of review of the foundational documents that um that our work everything that we should do should be
006tied back to and supported by um you know so for example i asked miss ferguson to attach those documents to the agenda so for example you'll see uh there's the there's the the advanced aps agenda um which we which we've presented to the greater iraq and chamber and uh and worked with you all to to to complete there's the equity policy that mr alexander uh you know really spearheaded back in you know 2017 and then there's racial equity policy that dr akbar mr alexander did a lot of work on uh and getting ready uh in in in 2020 and so um so so so we're not going to read through all of those documents my hope uh and thought is is that is that you all have had the time to review those documents prior
007to this meeting today so i want to pause there before i go any further and just ask a question does anybody have any questions or comments or concerns is there any confusion about anything that you saw any in any of those foundational documents that you'd like to bring up um for resolution or for discussion um at this moment in time okay um so so moving beyond that so i want to call your attention to the aps um the aps agenda document well first i'm sorry let me show you uh caution to the the racial equity and policy um document so in that within that doc document there on page three it talks somebody that partners with the district to review equity plans recommendations and receive regular reports of the district's progress this meeting will work
008directly with the superintendent and chief diversity officer so i want to keep that in mind and then pivot with me to the aps agenda document um do and look at the second pillar which is on equity uh specifically the establish an equity committee of the board so those bullet points i think are important right so empower relevant departments and or staff to create strategies and targets that this committee will monitor uh work to make these strategies more about transforming the way departments operate instead of just maintaining compliance and create actionable bullet points that include metrics in order to in order to achieve successful implementation so the reason why i asked you to to to couple those two particular comments uh together is because you know from from my viewpoint as you know is co-chairing this
009with on with mr alexander um you know um you know really one of the frames of this committee is is i believe you know to work with you know you all to establish um what the plans are going to be as this document lays out in relevant departments um you know and really you know really empowering you all uh you know to work within those departments instead you know to create strategies around um that target is uh you know and targets that this week you know can in fact monitor um you know and so when you look at so when you pivot sort of back to the meaning that this committee is not going to you know in these meetings is not going to be in the weeds per se um of of of of
010you know how you operationalize and draft those plan strategies but but but that this is the body that you will bring those things those items back to um for discussion so so i really envision this committee really being the parent of a number of subgroups uh and some of those subgroups and again we could talk through some of this today as well uh but but some of those subgroups uh can include items like you know so if you look back at um uh the uh racial equity policy so some of those some groups can be so you could have a supplier diversity subgroup you could have a recruitment screening hiring a retention subgroup you know you could have uh you know an equity and student discipline subgroup an equity and finance subgroup right so so
011so these are all um so for example finance resources finance as a resource allocation that's something for example that mr pendleton you know ideally would be uh sort of that sub group uh leader as well right so so those are just some of the the introductory thoughts that i had um and one and so so and went to paul's here to kind of get this group's thoughts around organization um uh and and and accountability dr hall i um i think that you may have it i don't have the agenda in front of me i think that you have one agenda where we're going to talk about um uh some things that we've done i think it's important to understand to know that how old birthed uh through the equity uh policy which we already know
012we we vetted that and we kind of work with the district to get the policy but even more so uh the work that dr james and carla chapman has done working together so we have a know where the foundation has kind of been built and what they have been doing thus far so we can build upon them and we can add and include in what we have on our agenda as far as when we go to the racial equity policy uh the racial equity policy so i think it's important maybe even to hear a little bit from them as because i know dr james and carla and even myself a couple of times have met and talked about equity and where should we go and how do we get all these things so just so
013we don't do the same things or repeat i think it'll be good to hear from them so they we have an idea what has already been started uh even for example the foundation of the uh finances when we first came out with the equity policy uh mr pendleton start diving into looking at finances and looking at our system that we have and how can we break it down look at the the uh are there any inequities in the in the process and where could he if we we could be more equitable so i think we should talk about we should please have a little bit of uh input from dr james and this this is chapman uh in reference to that and then move forward yeah i think that sounds fair um you know obviously
014one of the things that that that that we don't want to do to your point mr alexander is we don't want to reinvent the wheel right so so insofar as there's already work that's been done um definitely want to make sure that that we're in the loop on that as well and want to really tie that to um hearing from dr james and miss chapman um about sort of what their initial thoughts are around sort of um an equity framework for the organization so for example the policy talks about the relevant departments kind of owning if you will their respective pieces um you know at least early on as far as drafting strategies within their respective departments and then bringing that back to the board a board committee right um so so let me sort
015of start there and ask dr james miss chapman so so what are your thoughts first off you know other thoughts that you have from mr alexander's point about things that we've already begun to do there probably is quite a lot honestly uh and then number two um you know what are your thoughts around um organizational framework for uh that this committee sort of you know could could adopt or undertake an ensuring uh an an an efficient process in in evaluating sort of what is being done and what needs to be done so the um the one thing the major thing that i've been working on is with hr and developing a draft of a job description that can be shared with the board because i don't need to be approved so we can get an
016executive who's going to handle uh these issues for the district and then the other one is you know how we're going to structure that position you know in terms of uh responsibilities and i'm really looking more at you know like the metrics that are listed in the advanced aps plan you know in terms of where that jumping off point is and then how they tie back to the policies and i think you know carla might have some more uh to say you know about some of that because we have been thinking about how are we going to you know uh embed these issues and and and get those metrics and making sure that the departments are feeding that information up and it really it really begs the question of getting a um better defined equity
017strategic plan what have you uh in place with all the things that the board wants to see you know get done and accomplished yeah i would agree so there are many layers to equity work right and what we have is our three and three which are those broad goals that the superintendent is referencing but then we have to talk about how those goals translate to each department and division and how they even trickle down to the building level and so um those are the types of conversations and there may actually be work that is happening within each of our divisions that relate to the three and three goal tied back to the three and three go but then may support it indirectly as well and so um i shared just the brief snapshot of some
018of the work that's going on what i didn't share was the massive what i call the dei uh tracking spreadsheet that dr mcwilliams woods is always kind of like carla you got to put that in the system somehow that's what i didn't share because if you um were to see all of the things that each department right is doing some of them directly touch the three and three and others support the work indirectly so the way that i have started to settle on how each department can own this work is to think about it through three areas training data analysis and then action planning because all of us no matter the department function have that responsibility to engage in training is loosely used here because i'm talking about raising understanding and awareness and common language
019self-reflective practice and examination and all of that in training we all have a responsibility for that and then there's how we use our data the type of information we gather from our departmental lenses and then how we use that information to create the type of actionable plans that result in outcomes that help further the advanced aps goals so i don't know if that makes sense but that's kind of how i'm thinking about it in my head and and i think about it i think um one other thing um is you know on that whole data piece i know i've talked to staff about you know the need i believe or i would recommend that we look at a series of equity audits and bring some outside expertise in here so like human resources will probably
020be the first place i would want to start because we do have some metrics that are outlined um in the advanced aps model regarding you know um increasing the diversity you know our diversity uh recruitment and hiring of teachers that is a big part of you know i think our whole diversity equity inclusion work you know which impacts student achievement you know having students who look more like the kids who attend our district so you know we have to start somewhere and i was thinking that might be a good place to start it's just finding the you know looking at putting together probably more like a request for qualifications to look at who's out there and then engage someone to do kind of that want that review of you know our hr department and practices
021and then identify data points and and help us you know learn what some of those metrics are and what some of the you know not necessarily best practices but i would say next practices um that we can undertake and then we would move on to some other departments after that and my thing is i'm not sure the same consultant like for instance when we go to um like our purchasing practices if that's actually the same consultant or that someone else who maybe has more experience with you know that particular area of our organization yeah dr hall can i make one more comment uh please yeah yeah dr james is correct in mississippi but i also want to make sure because we're talking we're getting more into uh what the administration does and so forth but
022all this the main thing and the most important thing that we cannot forget is how this needs to tie back into the classroom in in in in attacking the uh closing the achievement gap as well as the opportunity gap for our students if we don't do any of that work and we do it with any other mat other way we're not doing the work right we're going in moving backwards so we have to make sure how all this ties into the academics of the kids because that's the most important aspect of equity in education is what are we doing to move the kids to a higher level than they currently are uh so we won't we don't want to lose sight of that as well thank you yeah yeah yeah yeah i agree with that
023and i you know and the one thing i wanted to point out and ms chapman i'll go back to you um is you know i think we have to um you can do things consecutively or you can do things in parallel uh and there are certain things that have to happen so sometimes you know i have to have an a and then b and then c and other times i can be doing things you know again in parallel and so so you know i'd like to challenge us to think about you know there are certain about what things we have to do in parallel what things we have to do consider what things we can do in parallel what things we have to do consecutively so so i so my thought would be i think
024we can be doing four or five things at once you know so i think for i think you could have multiple departments that are engaged in various aspects of this you know you know in parallel with one another um i definitely agree with dr james that hr is obviously a big place to start and and also would echo mr alexander's comments that uh and i had i had this brought it down as well that you know that that you know how was the work of this committee um going to directly impact students in the classrooms um and not in a year from now you know much sooner than that right i mean so um you know you know because again as they say time waits for nobody and so i was compiling a list of
025concerns for example and again i'm not going to go through all the now but just as an example of some things that that percolated you know from i've gotten from parents and or teachers over the last six months um you know you know so things like equity and student discipline right so for example i know we have mr rambler on the line so that's an area that obviously a sub group that mr rambler you know hypothetically could own right um you know they're of course i just mentioned the hrp so i don't know that's kathy you know katherine miss mcveigh that would sort of head up that in concert with that consultant dr james talked about as well um you know so so those are just a couple of examples of things that we could
026be doing in parallel uh there's again uh there's the equity and grading i think i've brought up before that nsba's talked quite a bit about enemies astrology internet guy bart were president for them mr kitrick as well uh also we're in that session uh and thinking about sort of equity and grading right so so again so there are multiple things that can that could that could be happening in parallel i see mr pendleton so mrs chapman i'll go back to you first and then mr pendleton i see ray's hand i'll go back to him after miss chapman okay do you have a specific question for me dr hall or do you want me to just no i thought you were going to say something so okay so yeah you know i will say that what
027is happening as you say in parallel right now is the team working on an equity audit for human resources business affairs and community relations family and community engagement because of the goals related to advanced aps so deborah folk is kind of heading up that team and her people along with kathy mcveigh erica glover and myself to follow the superintendent's recommendations for the response to qualifications i think is what it's called um and so um that is underway i linked to the draft language of that work on slide number three um in the progress box there uh we are also considering how teaching and learning curriculum and instruction and where the rubber meets the road where students and teacher relationships are concerned with the new posting of the learning specialist in dei who's going to take
028a leadership role in that work um superintendent james just committed to our participation in an equity audit dan can talk more about that around discipline disparity so that is underway if that funding uh should come about within the next six months we're told um so yeah there there are a number of things that are already in place and underway that we can be doing um as we're developing right kind of our own monitoring progress with this yeah sort of that point i mean i think again this goes back you know to re that's what i'm saying earlier about understanding what's in place already uh and listen i think again this is you know this is a new committee obviously right with a bunch of folks on it you know who are you know who may
029work together but haven't worked together in this context before and so i think one of the challenges that we're going to have is you know i obviously don't want to boil the ocean i think learning how to work efficiently and effectively together uh and prioritizing the work that i think that is you know going to be kind of the immediate challenge um you know and so that so that's why again you think of today's meeting as more of an organizational meeting right so kind of having a kind of a uh you know a round-robin or brainstorming session about sort of about what ideas people people bring and then and then we can massage some of that you know into a more uh cohesive framework as we move forward mr pendleton i saw that you had
030your hand raised thanks dr hall um a few years ago senior staff we had a um a retreat in august and it's been um superintendent it's been what three years or so and one of the things that sticks with me and kind of guides my work on equity is a podcast by malcolm gladwell uh it's titled revisionist history and it's a constant reminder and so i just wanted to add to your brainstorming and outcomes that the outcomes aren't just a factor that we deal with we're responsible for changing the pipeline so i think that's the dna of what you mentioned in the beginning so changing the pipeline and partnering with university of akron which we are doing uh to change that pipeline for now and forever uh it's and so i've kind of incorporated i
031need to go back and listen to it's been a couple years since i listened to it but uh an outcome could be that we're responsible for changing the pipeline whether it be hiring practices whether it be purchasing practices or corporate partners or vendors or what have you um that's something that i want to mention i'll i'll drop that revisionist history podcast into the chat if you have a chance to to listen i think it's really powerful great thank you i appreciate it um dr akbar did you uh want to comment as well um i i think that um we probably i think it's just time maybe we just we take a step back and the way we organize i think is more so around uh one dissecting uh one what are all the areas that
032we want to identify and then to how planning a path around uh one maybe when we request reports or how we might go about getting the data for each area and then also um how we plan a path before right so the administration's uh has already done um some significant work so uh part of it i think we have to get get a education around what are already the things that we've identified as a district that we need to work on and start there and move kind of in a more senquential way um i think along the lines of what dr james said is okay we know we want to do reviews of different departments we know we wanted to do reviews of our discipline data data and closing those gaps we know we want
033to close gaps in the classroom uh as well so um we can't do it all in one meeting so i think we just have to be a little bit more without methodical about it that first place is we have to learn what has been happening and what has already been identified as issues so so so thank you for that and and you know to reply um you know so somebody asked somebody you know the group this question um and this is just me tossing on an idea i i agree i you know and after you know some people have really echoed understanding sort of what's been done and what the current state is does it make sense to try to organize again i'm just asking this question reflectively does it make sense to try to
034organize some sort of uh equity summit if you will you know where we ask different departments to kind of bring to the summit kind of what they've what they're already working on what they've already done what their and what they're currently working on that that they believe would you know constitute equity work i mean um again i would love to hear you know this group's thoughts on something like that whether whether that would be an efficient use of time or you see it as being a a an inefficient use of time just just what are your thoughts dreams i'll start with you first who was that for oh oh i was i was uh going to dr james first you know i want to get his thoughts on something like that yeah so you know
035um senior staff is currently going through um some training with the diversity center of northeast ohio around some of these issues and then what i did is try to you know based on all the conversations i heard particularly when we were putting together the racial equity policy and looking at you know what i heard as priorities were the hiring practices and some of our hr practices and also some of the student discipline issues and so with student discipline and which i didn't plan this but i got a call from um one of the regional uh you know educational research uh people related to uh air and they have um some grant funding that could help dive into those things and so i also have to look at our staff and we have some staff or
036in this meeting who are on multiple committees doing multiple work when i looked at the discipline thing i said well you know dan's not on some of those other committees so look that's an issue let's get started you know in that area let's get started with the hr you know when it gets down to some of the other ones i think we just have to figure out how we're going to parse it out and then you know if maybe if we look at the areas that the board is interested in at least capture that and then we can come back with some of the work that's being done in those specific areas to address a certain you know item and then you know start going from there i think we can do multiple we can
037run things parallel it's just in which areas are we going to do that and make sure that those resources aren't being tied up because they're also doing a couple of other you know a couple of other things and i would say you know why not start you know at the macro level with our advanced uh aps three and three and looking at the the equity column and just going there and looking at okay we have some of these things outline you know what some of the data that you know we think we need to bring back and get a better understanding of you know around those issues because even today like on pipelines you know i talked about some of the things that we're doing at brookdale and north you know regarding our educator pipelines
038and we have had conversations with our university partners about how we can strengthen those pipelines and some of the changes have already been put into play at some of the post-secondary institutions primarily uh you know that i'm aware of is at university of akron in terms of some of the experiences i think they want their uh you know candidates in education to get and how we can change some of the things that you know um that we're doing along those lines gotcha gotcha thank you for that um uh so so so dr james so so if following that frame of thought that line of thought um it sounds like um you know trying to do an equity summit if you will to get currency is probably not the best way to start as far as
039trying to understand current state i mean it can be i mean we can have that you know if whether you know a meeting summit we can do that we just need you know some clarity on you know like you said you can't boil the ocean but we can take maybe the parts that the board feels are really important i think at a macro level and start there and then as we get information and understand you know what some of the needs are then we can take deeper dives you know into that similar to what we were doing you know our the process we use with uh ryan's group this our cfo in terms of looking at getting a system that speaks with our data system that you know our educators use primarily and having that
040forecast fine be able to take those different pieces of information and put out reports where we can actually understand you know what we're looking at from different points of view okay thank you i appreciate that um mr pendleton i thought your hand was up and got my wings with your hands up as well i didn't see who was first um i took mine down okay okay thanks okay daddy williams um i just wanted to clarify dr james um because i think i understood where you were headed and i liked linking back i pulled up the what's linked on the document around that whole equity strategies and the three and three plan and are you saying that the priorities for our committee would be to make sure the first two areas the minority business enterprise and
041the recruitment piece kind of gets the first priority and the greatest footing right now and then in the meantime we also do some of the data pieces that you're talking about we can figure out how a reporting mechanism on the other strategies that are like the department strategies beyond the minority business and the diversity recruitment that we could do some periodic reporting on other strategies a lot of that is like in our czi grant and our hewlett grant right now that already has funding and support that we could figure a way to report that out was that is that what you were is that where you were headed with the three and three i wasn't i just wanted to make sure i understood so you know my thing was we have some metrics listed in
042three and three and you're right there's some work that's actively going on with that so my thing was to understand at a high level what the board wants to focus on and to me it made sense you know like the hr piece um and and like even our discipline piece because i think we can get some traction there because like in discipline that you know dan and his team aren't necessarily involved in some of the other pieces they gave their input you know with legal and policy you know with the discipline piece in the racial equity policy but we have to move that part of that work forward and we have an opportunity to maybe get some funding for that and you know with some research help to actually do a deep dive in it
043and i'd say yeah let's turn them loose and let's you know move that piece forward and then with our um if you know getting in a consultant to do some equity and equity audit for instance with hr to look at the practices that's a that's going to impact everything we do because we're a people business and so i thought you know those were two areas that i think we could really get a jump start on and then you know the hard thing for me is going to be how we're going to reorganize ourselves so that all of this diversity equity inclusion work gets done across the board i mean we do have to you know get our um our executive who will be over that work and then figure out how some of the pieces
044have to be reorganized so that work flows in the right way and that it all gets done and we have some accountability i would love to have that disciplined piece added in you know that whole student behavior is not it doesn't have to be just focused on discipline because it's all it should be also about all the prevention ahead of that which i know is dan's mindset always but i think that would be wonderful to have that raised up as a priority and we do have some funding in the cvi grant around that to support that and there's other grant opportunities too that we could look at through the ohio department of ed that would be great yes dr mc williams would i i agree what you're saying uh we said one thing that jumped
045out to me one word preventative and how do we prevent some of these things so it doesn't have to go out of the building so it doesn't have to come out well it may come out of the classroom but it doesn't have to come out of building it can be addressed there can be stopped there so it doesn't have to come down to student service and they have to deal with it yes preventative is the best measure when it comes to that especially uh with student discipline so it may be again carla mentioned training training around preventative ways to prevent some things from happening in the classroom or teachers may be having other ways to deal with the kids while in the classroom so they don't have to go to the office they don't have
046to put more pressure on the principal it doesn't have to be sent down to dan so those are some things i think is very very important preventative thanks mr alexander um so so i i'm very mindful the time i know that we're at 5 10 you know and so i intend to have us be done on time um you know so so so so there's some there's at this point you know i want to pivot uh and ask a couple what may sound like housekeeping questions but i think our i think are integral to sort of how we chart this course forward uh one of which is uh is is is me is is who is who is not here on this call um today that we think should be here um so again you
047know this was again this meeting was really meant to be more of an organizational you know meeting you know as far as we started but i really wanted to get the thought of this for other people that i think should be represented so i see mr kendrick scott um just just just chatted in uh the aea um you know so so which i would agree with as well are there other folks so so are there other folks that are not here that should be represented so for example and i'm spitballing here but does it make sense to invite a student board member to this meeting does it make sense to have a classroom teacher and or principal representative on this uh on this meeting so again you know you know again i don't want to
048have 50 people on here um you know but but do want to make sure that we strike the right balance uh and have the right you know constituents on here to kind of share what their thoughts are about about what we're doing so i'll pause there to get additional thoughts dr all i think you're going in the right direction but i think when we start adding these people it has to be a specific time so they're being involved with the areas that they need to be involved with and not spend all their time in the entire uh with the entire committee they need to be brought into specific times to to address these issues or areas of concern i'm sorry yeah gotcha mr rambler yeah i would i kind of like bruce's point too i
049think um i i'm hopeful that we create a disciplined subcommittee and i would think within that subcommittee it would be appropriate to have some teacher administrator i would also school student board member would be great i would also like to see parent involvement community involvement which is some of the stuff we've done in the past going back to um well a few people have said i know dr james and and dr mcwilliams woods and also mr alexander said it too that we've done a lot with student discipline i mean well before me and then with me we've done a lot we've changed the code over times and we've made incremental movement so i think it would be good to look at that that history of it too which was kind of mentioned was looking at
050what has been done too so but i think you know going to your question about um kind of like involving more people i think that maybe you do that through the subcommittee work and that would be to get them actively involved in making some in some bringing some information and bringing some potential decisions and then that could be reshared with this larger or this more central committee gotcha okay other other thoughts i would say um you know possibly looking at someone from juvenile court um and then also um our own alternative you know programs that we run in the district and certain summit administrators um you know we have our akron alternative academy um you know and have some of those folks also on the committee and also to make sure it's diverse so it's
051representing you know multiple perspectives gotcha mr chapman we may want to add university partners to subcommittees as well thinking about post-secondary and pipeline and teacher training so so let me ask this question um so let me bifurcate my earlier question uh and say and ask it this way um so so i i get that there are thoughts around folks that we that we want that we want to include through the subcommittees um let me ask are there folks that we think should be added to this main committee um as we move forward so so so bifurcating it as in there are folks that would fall in we're going to add you to the subcommittee but other folks that we feel like should should be on this this committee as well um you know so so
052um so if you were going to think about who should be and again and and out and i'll pull some of you offline to get other thoughts around folks who can involve through subcommittees let me go back and ask the question again and just say are there folks that you think should be added to this particular company that aren't here um now and welcome dr glover hello i had called in uh earlier initially i apologize oh okay gotcha gotcha okay um so are there folks that you all think should be added to this committee that we haven't added i'm assuming uh aea would be somebody that we would add to this committee miss mckittrick is as uh is i'm thinking that that was your the the thrust of your uh chat comment um why i'm
053sorry go ahead dr hall no no i was gonna ask you who else who are you thinking that that would be added to this committee well it may be worth considering uh the administrators association or representative if there is you know teacher representation i don't know dr james how you feel about that but it seems that that would be a good balance to strike yeah we have you know something a building administrator or you know central office administrator yeah that that would be fun do we still have the asa yeah yeah okay um the other question i want to ask so okay sorry so other thoughts on other folks that we should have included i mean so for example i i don't know that was uh and this may have been an oversight on my
054part uh was was was miss mcveigh on this invite uh let me check and if she and if she wasn't is she should we be adding should we be adding definitely when you know when there's a hr type topic yes because i you know we have to look at what's going to be manageable now some of these people will be interchangeable so they might you know when there's a topic related to their area they definitely uh you know should be at the at the uh meeting okay gotcha gotcha gotcha okay um so so far i've heard as far as other folks we add here uh would be um an aea representative and then someone from the um i think you said central office administrator dr james yes okay okay uh anybody else that that we're
055uh uh omitting that anyone can think of so for example would we add someone from the akron alternative academy to a subcommittee or again or is that or to this committee so again we're just talking about subcommittees for the rest of these folks that i have listed on here right for some of them i you know they could serve on both you know it just depends on the you know they for a while they may not serve on a subcommittee if they're on the bigger committee but then depending on the topic we discuss they may have to also jump onto a subcommittee as well i think if you leave it as flexible as it is because we're you know we're getting to a point when um you know as we get people back in school
056some of those folks you know like if you look at some of the principles they're gonna be trying to run their buildings i mean they are now but with in person it'll be a little bit more challenging but um you know i think we can make it is as long as we keep it flexible and some of those folks might serve that dual capacity gotcha gotcha okay your counselor i see dr glover mentioned you know a counselor okay gotcha okay all right so i've been taking copious notes as you while we're talking um um so um one of pivot to to kind of the the last topic i had queued up for today which was uh meeting cadence um so i want to get this this group's thoughts on meeting cadence um you know i
057i'll just to be transparent uh with this being a brand new committee and kind of with the depth and breadth of of of things that we want to sort of talk through and sort of research and maybe you know putting other action plans around um you know um i know for a while on finance this apparently we were we were doing uh meeting every other week um and so so you know my thought is what i'd like to do is start us with meeting every other week uh and then once we've got subcommittees in place then we would go back to meeting once a month and that's and then so you know where the subgroups are are actually the ones who are doing a lot of the in the weeds work many on a monthly
058basis and we could provide some some oversight and direction and whatnot so but again so those are just sort of my thoughts i want to kind of get the thoughts of you all as it relates to meeting cadence this is quiet i'll speak up i'm gonna say silence is acquiescence i i i i think maybe still just going once a month because i think we always want to be sensitive to the needs of everybody's time in different committees because i know for myself i'm on a lot of committees and different different things going on in the city just like mrs chapman dr akbar and i think you know we got to be sensitive to a lot of that those needs because we can't stretch everybody too thin uh i think if we start like we're
059starting now as we continue to wrap up but we need to rev it up a little bit more let's rev it up but uh i think we go slow just to start that's just my own personal opinion i can't speak for everyone else okay other thoughts okay um so how so so so mr alexander how about this let me propose a compromise how about we do the next meeting for equity in two weeks and then we go to monthly from that point forward yeah yeah i'm okay with that again i just want to make sure that we don't over tax and like uh dr james was saying that a lot of these individuals are on a lot of other committees and doing a lot of work as well so we got to be careful with
060that because we will start losing people gotcha yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i definitely understand and agree with you i i just wanna make sure that i get us on the right glide path first exactly i think we i think we need one more meeting to kind of get our um you know our our priorities sort of in order um to move you know i mean to move this forward and there'll be a number of you that i'm gonna ping offline uh via email and phone um you know to get some things clarified and kind of get your thoughts on some other things as well so that way we have that in place when we made it again in hopefully two weeks um and then and my hope is that at the next meeting move
061forward with a with a w with a with a committee action plan uh of how we're going to sort of prioritize and move forward so i know you know so so last but not least to kind of recap what i've got today um you know dr james talked about starting with really the hr piece and student discipline is kind of being you know kind of the main you know kind of the main two items of where we would start um you know and um you talked about bringing in an a a an equity consultant to work with our hr folks uh and then uh mr rambler would start and then mr rambler would start to put together kind of a student discipline subcommittee uh is what i've got jotted down here as well um in
062order to work around you know some of the data as what you've already done and kind of your thoughts as to sort of what you'd like to do moving forward um i've also got uh you know here as well um you know to think about a series of equity audits that the doctor didn't talk about as well so so doctors i fought with you as well to get some more details as to um how you'd like to proceed with that as well you know and um and then also um dr james i had another quote attributed to you uh you know that we again want to continue thinking about how do we reorganize ourselves to sort of get this work flowing um i think that's kind of the key main if i could crystallize today's
063meaning in one sentence that would be it um you know how do we reorganize ourselves to get this work flowing um so so dr john i'll get with you offline again and kind of give some more thoughts um from you as a sort of you know what you what what you think we ought to kind of be doing you know to really get that off the ground and enrolling um and then also um as a you know there are also some some some materials that i think uh folks brought up today that might be great for some additional background reading and we haven't already had a chance to read some of those so i know mr pendleton was kind of to drop that podcast link in the in the chat um on on revisions history
064i'm a big fan of malcolm gladwell um as well i think dr akbar i think also mentioned the 1619 project and i think black minds matter so so those so those might be some other things that um in our you know you know insofar as we could manufacture some free time i know that's difficult um where we would start to you know you know add that to sort of our mental equity repertoire um and then um and then last but not least um you know i think the other thing i had here was that we were gonna uh at least as we get started try to um follow the three for three and kind of you know follow the outline occupy that's laid out in the equity i'm sorry within the equity um box of
065uh the aps um uh agenda for the next three years so so that's so that's what i've got as far as uh kind of main bullet points um is there anything that i am missing um that i should have added to this list at least in the short term thanks miss thanks chapman um and then and then last one is meeting cadence uh oh so by the way as we move forward um i just let me apologize in advance because this is how this is how i facilitate meetings i like i like to get everyone's feedback on a call um and so so i i i may call on you um that's not me being funny or trying to be um uh unprofessional it's it's just me wanting to make sure that everyone is you
066know it has a chance to kind of give their opinion i know some people are not as um uh vociferous or loquacious as i am um and and are are more resident to share their thoughts so miss jesus i'm talking about you um you know so so gonna be coming back to you well uh as others um you know so i won't i won't put you in a spot right now because i know right time but as you move forward uh you know you both have have a ton of experience with the district and um you know and and so wanna definitely wanna uh you know really kind of rely on and kind of leverage uh your additional institutional knowledge of how of sort of where we've been in you know where we uh and
067your thoughts and where you'd like to see us go as well um and then last but not least what i've got on here is uh meeting kaden so mr alexander i think i think we're in sync around doing a meeting again in two weeks and then we would move to a monthly meeting um there afterward and try to have our and by then hopefully have some sub up and running um you know so so again i'll be doing some behind the scenes work uh with you all to kind of think about how we move that forward so i know we're at 5 27 again you know i believe in military precision i'd like to start on time and end on time um so uh we're at 5 27 um and we want to ask are
068there any in the remaining three minutes are there any additional sort of parting thoughts or comments that anybody's got um dr hall if i could just this is such a minor thing but i just i i don't want to miss it um when we look at the subcommittee we should focus on not the idea of student discipline but kind of what mr alexander had mentioned too but i i like to think of it more as student expectations and student behavior because discipline is the after effect so it's a really cool point it well i like to focus that other direction a little bit more proactive support right okay no thank you for that i appreciate that yes carla yeah i agree i think that's a great thought thank you mr rambler i appreciate it okay
069all right are there other other thoughts mr agbar i'm out there dr akbar yes um i think uh i agree with uh uh mr rambler but i also would just add a caveat around um the way in which we create systems of inequity that create um i don't want to say poor expectations but expectations that um are one way instead of a whole community of expectations so um i think that that's part of the whole looking at our discipline disparities it's also looking at um the way in which we create systems that over discipline certain individuals over others and part of that happens with expectations and the presumption of criminality or guilt and so those things are also things we have to look at so it's really about systems as well perfect perfect thank you
070dr akbar appreciate that as well um so i see that we're at 5 29 um so again um just you know in the last 60 seconds are there any any any more ideas or thoughts i'm sorry go ahead i think we have real opportunity here um to do some good work okay great i agree i agree um so let me in closing uh it's 5 30. so let me thank you for your time today i appreciate your contributions um i'll be following with a number of you offline uh i would encourage you if you have any uh follow-up thoughts or questions or comments or concerns i'm very interested in hearing that you've got feedback even on how this meeting was run today good bad and indifferent uh good bad and ugly please send it my
071way um you know and so having said that um again we're at time uh i bid you all a good rest or evening and uh we'll talk and we'll be talking to you again soon thank you for your time thank you [Music] good bad and indifferent uh good bad and ugly please send it my way you know and so having said that again we're at time