001good evening and welcome to tonight's virtual blended meeting of the southwestern city school district board of education the ohio legislature approved emergency legislation to allow school district boards of education to conduct their meetings by teleconference or video conference providing the meeting can also be observed by the general public in order to comply with this requirement tonight's meeting is being broadcast live via zoom and also on the district's youtube channel having received confirmation that the video is streaming correctly the southwestern city school district board of education president mrs kathy johnson will now call the meeting to order thank you for attending tonight's virtual blended meeting of the southwestern city school district board of education while the agenda will be visible during the meeting for those watching online you may also follow along using the agenda posted
002on our website at www.swcsd.us under the board of education tab please note that tonight's meeting may not run perfectly but we are doing our best to keep things running smoothly the february 22 2021 meeting of the southwestern city school district board of education is now called to order roll call caldwell here should not go here mr ragland here mr schreiner here ms johnson here next we need a motion to adopt tonight's agenda second shriner okay any changes to this seeing none roll call caldwell yes mr schreiner yes mr donafrio yes mr ragland yes ms johnson yes next we move to a motion to approve the minutes from the february february 8th 2021 regular meeting so moved on for you okay and we need a second second okay are there any corrections to those seeing yes
003mr ragland yes mr caldwell yes mr schreiner yes ms johnson yes we have a couple of presentations this evening we'll begin with dr wise doing the dei update thank you president johnson vice president ranglin members of the board it's my privilege tonight to update you on our work that's happened this year with diversity equity and inclusion if you remember back to june of last year the board president the board passed a resolution in regard to diversity equity inclusion and making this a more supportive and nurturing place for our students on behalf of the community let me start with thanking all of our folks that have engaged with us so significantly we've had four groups that have actively been working in this area over the past year three of which did not exist prior to the
004board resolution and there we again want to just take this time to thank them for embracing the work and engaging in the work it is difficult work but it's also rewarding as we go through that um so let me kind of kick off with a couple things that i hope you walk away from before i really get into the slides first of all throughout our conversations it's very clear that diversity makes us better and it enriches the district and so that's one of those things that i want to highlight right off the bat and the other thing that that we've talked about that's kind of an overarching theme for all of this work is our work has really become about focused on the what and how of creating a more accepting culture that nurtures a
005sense of belonging for our students while demanding high expectations for all and so that you'll see that go through you're on the right side meredith we're good and so let's start with a few assumptions and core beliefs that we've come together with as the groups have done their work um after this i'll go through a little bit of each of the groups work after some definitions but the first one is where i already highlighted it's that idea that diversity enriches our work a second assumption or core belief is that there is historical bias and discrimination that has that we need to work to counteract our third bullet is we want to make sure that folks understand it's there's a variety of discrimination and inequities that have happened over time not just the traditional ones we
006think of with racing color it comes in multiple ways in multiple forms some subtle num some not so subtle from a historical standpoint but the end result is there they exist and they're unacceptable from a district-wide perspective this is not an administration or a board initiative we actually hold all staff accountable to build this culture and develop it and hold them responsible to act accordingly to make this make this happen on behalf of our students in the community we serve the last point i'll ask you to remember as we move through this over time we want this to be aspirational in our goals even if we never achieve our goals we think that it's important that we make our goals aspirational and bold and that we strive to make a difference we don't want to
007just tinker with the system we want to make sure that we make a substantial difference so with that said our groups as we started on america's next slide started to look at definitions ohio state and you will talk about them in a later slide actually have a has a three-page glossary that they do with their work and so we took a look at their definitions we took a look at our definitions um at several other districts and tried to put some working definitions so that folks understood what we're talking about because diversity equity and inclusion are not the same thing in this area of diversity it's the representation it goes back to those inequities as i described on the first assumption slide and it's varied from that perspective equity is really about fair and fair
008treatment um this is that concept about what is equity versus what is equal and sometimes equal isn't always fair and so um the example most commonly given is if we're all standing behind a fence and i'm six foot one and somebody else is four foot seven and they can't see over the fence the idea is we provide the box or whatever they need to stand on it so they can see over the fence as well that's an equitable solution um not an equal solution and so we talk about that from that perspective in this third definition i really want to highlight the term this the term belonging or a sense of belonging we want folks to feel like they belong that they're loved that they're nurtured and supported when they're with us and what at
009all times but especially when they're with us and that we want to actively invite their contributions not just a passive you're welcome here but it's deeper than that and so that inclusion piece is the other one that we want to highlight the definitions from the perspective of we don't see these as the same they are interrelated but they are distinct as well so that's the working definitions from a i mentioned the four groups the first is the inclusion institute we had staff members participate in an inclusion institute hosted by the educational service center of central ohio where they used outside facilitators to bring in these are the four themes in the four areas that our group studied while they were with them and were facilitated they looked at it from a variety of perspectives but
010it was to develop the skill sets of those individuals who were involved and also broaden their knowledge base as well as provide some frameworks that they can come back and work with our own people on and so that's really the exploration they have completed all four of those themes at this point and completed the equity institute uh brian bowser is with us tonight if there's specific questions that i can't answer in regards to the equity institute but this group now will disband as a group and we will use the talents and expertise that they've gained and redistribute their membership through other committees on the district so that we can actually broaden our perspectives and our understandings as we try to continue to further that work so the first group is the inclusion institute here's their
011four themes again we had staff members participate they thought the themes were very powerful especially the first theme and so we're looking forward to having their work brought back and included with the rest of our work the second group is the ohio state university task force this is done with the kerwin institute the ohio state work is really focused much more on what we do with the adults in our organization than students they they are a resource creator and developer uh they have several trainings whether it be on implicit bias or institutional bias um we actually have five different modules that our trainers have been sent or have been trained on we have 18 staff members now who have been trained to deliver that training back to our back to our employee base and so
012you'll see that come up this is the ohio state task force um there are several districts throughout central ohio i believe there are 14 districts throughout central ohio that have engaged in this work with ohio state university as well and so we're excited about having some folks who have been trained and can deliver those modules to other groups throughout the district and other groups throughout the community and so we will probably well i know more of the problem we will use this these folks and the training that we've gained here and we'll start that in the fall with our entire administrative team we'll be using the panorama data from a later slide the target which specific area of their training will use in the modules but we see this as an ongoing multi-year roll-out where
013we will continue to train we become more aware in order to make a difference so that's the ohio state task force the celsic group technically this one was in existence prior to the board resolution it's a result of the social emotional learning standards that were created by the office the state of ohio as well as our collective bargaining agreement to look at the social emotional standards for implementation if you remember back to our collective bargaining agreement there is a specific report that's due from the celsic group to both myself and the union president and so when they've committed or completed that work we will then transition the celsic group just become more focused on students and what we do with students perhaps the most important part of the celsic work that i can share with
014you at this point is a pam panorama survey it's done with students and then there's a separate survey that's done with staff in order to gauge and create a baseline for where we are from from their perspectives in regard to diversity equity inclusion more specifically cultural competence and that sense of belonging those are things that are highlighted very clearly in the panorama survey and we'll get data on we believe that survey which then which actually wraps up this week this month for all of our buildings we'll then guide our work with which we do first and what are the biggest priorities as we move forward with the students and staff to provide the training and to help create additional understandings to make a difference in the areas of diversity equity inclusion and to create that
015better sense of belonging so really i want you to think of this group as it will evolve into more of a focus along with the district staff development committee that was already in existence to focus more on the training than what we do with students what's done throughout building professional development and student programs so that's the celsic group the fourth group is the district-wide work group mr ragland represents the board on that group there are 13 individuals it's a cross-section there are students parents community members teachers classified staff as well as two administrators and one of which is myself on that committee we've spent significant time in fact we've met probably close to every month since the start of school i've done a deep dive within our data sets looked for discrepancies looked at some
016of the district policies tried to evaluate areas of concern as well as opportunities to make the biggest difference we've looked at mobility rates we've looked at student discipline we've looked at academic achievement we've looked at college credit plus we've looked at ap courses we've looked at some of the mentoring programs we've had reports from some of our third party vendors such as i know i can in addition we've met with and listen to counselors in their perspective as well so we've tried to do that based on where we're at at this point we believe this group will transition to more of a oversight and monitoring group um to to monitor and make sure that there's accountability for the work moving forward that this group will meet three four times a year type of thing two
017three times a year whatever it takes in order to make sure there are goals that we're implementing what we say we will implement and then we're following through and making a difference and if we need to adjust course this would be the group that recommends that adjustment in in the direction for the district so that's kind of a how we got to this point and so now let's talk about really where where we are at this point where there were really four themes that that emerged and as we talked to districts uh throughout the state and other states that have been engaged in this work these are the themes that came forward this goes back to this idea of focusing on the what and the how and by creating a accepting culture that with a
018sense of belonging the first bullet is really about high expectations for all and making sure that we are aware of and understand what's in our courses of study and that we represent our students well within what we teach to them a great example here is our work with columbia university the teachers college where they've taken a look at what's exactly in all the reading rooms for students when you look at literature that's often included if it's included in school libraries many times it doesn't represent uh black authors very well or the main character in many of the selections were individuals that had been oppressed and so trying to find diverse reading materials diverse materials in general um written from a wide variety of perspectives is really what this one's about the second bullet gets to
019this point of there's not one path for all we need to make sure there's multiple paths to achieve the outcome and have students and parents have ownership and buy-in over the path they choose this third bullet a little bit more the culturally relevant and responsive curricula as we take a look at especially within the social sciences what we provide and and how we teach making sure there's multiple perspectives that are shared and things don't come from just one point of view and then the last piece is as well policies and structures practices that that perpetuate inequity and this isn't one for me this is one where and when you look historically it's easy to determine those policies like the red linings or or the jim crow laws or those things it's much harder to see
020these things when they're in context and when you see them applied because you just don't recognize them it's kind of like the fish in water fish doesn't know he's in water because he doesn't know anything else and so sometimes we have to ask these questions or as one of our community members very clearly said is we need to continue to look at everything that we do in an ongoing basis and look at it from that lens and specifically ask the question does this meet the criteria is this a policy that is perpetuates an equity in some way and so it's as much not about finding those areas even though we are looking for those this is about making sure as we develop and implement policy practice that it is not um or that it's equitable
021and that it's fair and represents our our population as well the other piece then the last slide that i have for you tonight is really about these actionable themes i've talked already about panorama tonight and that will guide our work moving forward it was targeted and consistent support systems beginning an early age the board's done a phenomenal job of investing in that through a through our oh i'd be small system um community in schools individuals as well as social workers and our other components um that's the type of thing we're looking at here but the real question becomes are we doing it in a systemic way and can parents count on and understand where their contacts are at over a long period of time it's about those connections and once i know the organization and
022know who to go to are they there for long periods so whether it be a boy's club or girls club how do we create a vertical articulation of students move through the system in order to support and nurture families and again you've invested heavily in community and schools social workers counselors and those types of things but do we need to look at that differently is there a way to put an advocacy program in place that's really where this is headed we don't have it defined at this point but we believe we will over the next 14 months and have a better sense of a strategic way to go about this staff training those are the areas for cultural competence implicit and institutional bias where we think we'll start but we're still waiting on the panorama
023data and again i believe we'll train all administrators in the fall we'll see buildings start to engage in this work in the spring to a specific point here and to make this even more concrete each building is will be asked to include into their continuous improvement plan a goal to promote inclusion and or equity a specific outlying goal that's in part of their continuous improvement and so let me go through first of all diversity is not listed our our human resources per department our personnel department they will go through and they will continue to search out for candidates that will help us reflect our student population much better but to be very candid that is extremely difficult when the pool is just so limited and so for next year we will be um recruiting at
024six additional historically black colleges that we have not recruited from in the past but when you take a look the candidate pool for hispanic black is not huge in our area there's a limited number of individuals there we will continue to do that but we didn't write a specific action item towards that from the standpoint of we are limited based on certifications and civil service on the entrance passed into the district we will continue to recruit expand those efforts when it's not specifically listed the other piece when we look at this from a district perspective is we are going to put a first priority on inclusion and start our work there we believe that we are better positioned with the sub with the social emotional learning standards and the other infrastructure in place to put
025together comprehensive initiatives to to improve and make a difference in inclusion and then we will build into our equity if buildings think that they're in a different place and would like to start with more of an equity focus they're welcome to do so but we think that sense of belonging is something that we worked on for quite a while and that we can continue to leverage and accelerate much more quickly so i wanted to take this opportunity again to thank all those individuals when you add it up in totality there's hundreds of hours spent here by individuals over those various committees and thank them for their work we also wanted to make sure that the board was very clear and there's been action since the since the resolution last june and we continue to try
026to make a difference in this area and we are making progress and uh we think that we will start to see that even take more shape and more form over the 21-22 school year so with that i know carl's on and and perhaps brian and we'd be glad to answer any questions that you have or if i fumbled or or beat it up too badly if carl or brian will save me that's appreciated adam president yes mr schreiner yes thank you i i i don't have any questions i just having served on a number of diversity and equity and inclusion committees over the last few years i just want to say thank you the appreciation that we have for this deep dive it's obvious that a lot of work was done and it's greatly appreciated
027so thank you to all of those folks please and i just have to say just being part of one of the committees it's an honor and a privilege and i just had one question and i probably answered in the last meeting but i don't remember and i apologize as far as the continuous improvement plan would that be incorporated with the site steering committees or let's not be separate the site steering committee is actually the group that approves the continuous improvement plan for the building so they're the ones that do the work to help development so yes the ssc is involved in creation of their continues so that's engagement again from parents classified certain certificate staff and administrative staff on that as well thank you very much hey any other questions thank you dr wise seeing
028no more questions we can move on to our next presentation which is student graduation with dr shewey thank you president johnson vice president ragland members of the board dr wise mr garside um happy to be with you tonight to talk a little bit about how we are working to develop pass for future success for our students and really before we get into the graduation plans um itself we should probably take a step back to see how did we get to this point of even having the conversation of graduation plans uh you can go to the next slide it really started off with the ohio revised code where you the board adopted the policy for students at risk of not qualifying for a high school diploma and within that um orc it stipulates that we have
029to develop each district has to develop criteria for identifying at-risk students developing procedures for identifying at-risk students developing notification process in which the district or school shall notify an at-risk student's parents guardians that the student has been identified as uh as a student at risk and then assists these students with instructional supports or other support services that will help them um graduate and qualify for a high school diploma so within this policy and here's where you see the embedded develop a graduation plan for each student enrolled in grades 9 through 12 in the district or school so that is it says one but that should be the fifth um bullet point there is that the graduation plan is embedded within this larger context so in order to really identify students that may be considered at
030risk we have for several years now worked with the tableau dashboard that allows us to make some identifications of students that may not be on track to graduate on time so each grade level this is broken down by grade level will have certain things like attendance uh tenants measure um suspensions discipline data cumulative gpas are they credit current are they passing their end of course exams that are required for graduation have they taken any college career readiness or ap uh courses or exams um are they currently enrolled in any career technical program that leads to industry recognized credentials so based on criteria in those areas we can identify students who may be at risk not meeting each of those criteria starting with 9th grade moving on through 12th grade so that's really how we are
031identifying these students along with anecdotal information from obviously staff that work with students every single year because obviously sometimes students may be at risk um due to non-academic factors and and that is taken into consideration as well so as far as assisting at-risk students we do have a really robust set of instructional or support services and just to name a few zello which is our replacement for naviance zello is coming in and we are using it in the same vein that we use naviance it just happens to be a more engaging platform to really help students explore and plan around college and career readiness and obviously part of that planning is when you're planning your future outside of high school you actually have to get through high school so it also includes that plan um
032obviously we have supports like i know i can we've talked a lot about i know i can and and the value they have with working with our staff to help advise students around their options post high school communities in school career technical programs we have credit flexibility we have mentoring tutoring we have social emotional learning services and i've just listed several which you've heard in dr wise's presentation earlier and then family engagement support services which is a large part of assisting at-risk students sometimes we also have to assist the families where those students are coming from obviously we talked a little bit about the scope and sequence and really in order to get to a graduation plan we have developed out a scope and sequence that goes seven through 12 about how to utilize the
033tools in zello and we did something similar with naviance but this one the the big difference here is uh this platform allows us to actually provide students embedded lessons that have these assessments interest surveys um certain aptitude qualities around career explorations and really that's all embedded in this platform so that we can really start getting the students thinking about where they are and where they want to be ultimately so that takes us to developing a graduation plan for each student nine through 12. and here's the trick we have a college career readiness advising policy that we're supposed to function under we also have the student success plan we have the at-risk notification and then we have the graduation plan so the trick here was how do we combine all of these different plans into a
034meaningful process and procedure that can be found in each of these buildings that we are not doing four different things that are siloed but we are bridging each of those silos to make a cohesive systematic approach to graduation planning and i have been working with and pulled a team of administrators and teachers and administration teachers and counselors to work on this task and for i guess we are in our second year of meetings at this point and what we're looking to do is address the students academic pathway that are going to meet the curriculum requirements and satisfy graduation conditions and as you know satisfying graduation conditions is a little tricky when we've had four different conditions in four different years with each cohort being different so i t department has also been brought in and
035they have been an invaluable partner in this process as well trying to automate some of these plans as much as possible um that takes a little bit of the work off of the clerical side of things and transactional side and leaves more of the work for our staff around the relational side with the students um so we're really grateful that we have that opportunity we also have to make sure that these graduation plans are developed jointly by the student and the representative of the school and we have to have the parent or guardian assisting in the development of the plan it is the student's plan and we're helping them facilitate the plan by monitoring and exposing them to opportunities that they may or may not have known uh that we have available to them we
036also have to take a look at a plan that has what are we going to do if there's a lack of progress in meeting the terms of the plan and um so the plan has to incorporate that as well and ultimately if a student does have an iep that can be used in place of the graduation plan if it's an appropriate replacement so that will depend on the students identified disability and how their iep is written including those the transitions into post-secondary life which is embedded within the iep as well so i guess at this point a little bit about the components of the actual plan obviously demographic information we have to have post high school goals we have to have some place where we can really document credit that is earned at the high
037school what are about their assessments are they meeting the end of course requirement graduation requirements um if if the new requirements also um include the demonstration of competency or the competency alternatives we have to have a place to go that that also takes that in consideration also demonstration of college and career readiness that includes the graduation skills which we've discussed at previous board meetings as well and then actionable steps to support or intervene if students are not on track to graduate so as you can see this isn't this is a very heavy lift and here's the thing these graduation plans are as good as the work that happens with them so within the graduation plan the other thing the team has been really working hard on is how do we take the systematic approach within
038school to make sure that we are advising and guiding and intervening with students around these graduation plans and it cannot just fall on counselors in the building so how are we going to have this plan as a practice community of practice amongst administrators counselors and the students teachers along with our communities in school and i know i can and other supports that that come along with that so what we did is after many many different meetings and we looked at many many different templates and we came up with the components that we believe and this is a draft right now that we believe would take bits of information that are currently found in multiple different places and try to put them in one document and so you know the question will be who owns this
039document where's the document going to live is this going to be something that is done manually and the reality is right now that is what we're working on with it how do we turn this document into something that can pull from infinite campus and pull from zello and pull from tableau and live in infinite campus like so many other things do so can be a part of our student information system and that's what we're these are the things that we're really grappling with right now so the graduation plan in itself um has those components which i mentioned it does give us information um about their post-secondary plans are they going to be going directly to into the workforce are they going into the military do they have apprenticeships or internships do they want to do
040two-year four-year degrees is there are they undecided do they have current 504 plans are they students that are ell do they have an iep all of these things are part of a larger advising process that we're developing out in each of our buildings we are really going to get down to the granular level of knowing our students understanding who they are what they're about what they're interested in what they're capable of and then encouraging them in their path forward and this is going to be you know one of our other forays into really um deliberate scheduling you know sometimes we find students are taking a course load that does not match at all their interest or what they want to do out of high school so if we could substitute three of their four courses
041for things that actually interest them they would most likely be more apt to pay attention and do well in school so again this is a heavy lift you can see the document for yourself um i actually am meeting with the team we just met yesterday around this document we beat it up a little bit um we're making some edits and some revisions we're taking some things out and then we're going to be meeting with it to see how we can best automate this as much as possible because a lot of this information already does exist in infinite campus and tableau so it looks a little overwhelming and the last section here that is being scrolled through now is a student's um what they can do is they can take some control themselves and um help
042also monitor their own successes as well as us monitoring them they're going to monitor their own understanding of their plans and here's the part that you can see right now about the interventions what are plans for those students if they're not on track and here's where we're going to document that so that is really all i have at this moment i will tell you that this is work that we are not completed with and we won't be finished with it because we're always going to come back and make some adjustments and make it better and more meaningful okay thank you what questions do you have for dr shewey adam president yes doctor shea i i just want to thank you and your team for the focus you put on this um i've i've watched this
043firsthand of of the intervention and uh attention that the staff spend trying to make sure that every student who has a desire to graduate uh achieves that goal or at least gives it their best effort everyone from the school bus driver to the cafeteria worker uh to the to the folks that are are you know working inside our classrooms as aids and helpers and and tutors and everything else the coaches uh of course our teachers and administrators and guidance counselors um and it was so awesome at graduation last year in the modified version that we had uh just to see the the joy on students faces who knew it was that last paper or that last assignment that they turned in that really helped them achieve that goal and the sense of pride uh an
044accomplishment that came with that and so uh to to the whole team that works on this uh in all of our schools you know just huge kudos to them uh because you were making a considerable difference in the future of those students lives and i just want to say thank you thank you mr caldwell any other questions seeing none thank you again dr shewey thank you moving now we have items for action facilities development mr donna frio thank you president johnson and good evening everyone on tonight's agenda for facilities development we have one item a resolution authorizing and approving the construction documents phase submission notebooks for the four new middle schools having reviewed this item for all four projects i recommend its passage and move to do so at this time happy to second shriner
045thank you any questions seeing none roll call mr donafrio yes mr schreiner yes mr caldwell yes mr ragland yes ms johnson yes next board items none of those moving on now to executive session it's recommended board of education adjourned to executive session according to policy 0166 to consider the appointment or employment of a public employee i'll make that motion we need a second second caldwell thank you mr caldwell roll call mr caldwell yes mr donafrio yes mr ragland yes mr shriner yes ms johnson yes and as we come out of executive session i foresee no further action by this board thank you all for attending tonight's meeting foreign okay um we are officially back in session or do we need to do that vote over again i'm gonna revoke here we go on just a
046minute let me see if they're all okay all right we're gonna call roll call again and this is the roll call to come out of executive session no action has been taken mr caldwell yes mr donafrio yes mr ragland yes mr schreiner yes ms johnson here now i'll entertain you to adjourn so moved thank you mr caldwell we need a second mr schneiner okay roll call mr caldwell yes mr greiner yes mr donafrio yes mr ragland yes ms johnson thank you everyone enjoy the rest of your evening