001i can always hear you director search me okay yes sharon for you and i hear patty and i you know here's susan and yeah and there's director emerson hi john how are you it's good to see you this evening thank you you know you you sound like what was the name of that preschool show that oh wanda wanda i see a proper room romper rim yeah well robert did two yeah that's exactly right sharon was just on she was having technical issues and so she's left and she's coming back in a minute i can use the extra minute so that's okay you only got 40 more seconds maureen and we are live on youtube coming back in a minute yeah we are live on youtube everybody you can use the extra minute so that's okay
002she keeps talking about this minute i don't think she realizes thank you patty and susan for doing a double check so i'm a little concerned about that minute comment because that was a kickback of what i'd already said so we'll see hopefully i'm not echoing oh i think i think someone had theirs off mute and they were watching the stream so i think it's fine oh just delayed okay thanks man yourself over and over again yeah no i just got off tsbc so i was taking a minute to do a reset um and it is five o'clock um welcome everyone is everybody here i'm trying to do a quick um sharon are you able to join us are you there did we lose sharon yeah i think she just got booted she's been having difficulty
003um hearing so i think she's been popping in and out trying to reset her system okay i'm gonna give sharon one more minute and then just out of respective time i hate to do that but um we'll go ahead and get started i'll work with patty to make sure she's on okay thanks susan um okay well i um i guess we'll go ahead and get started and hopefully um sharon will pop back on uh quickly um so welcome everyone to um tiger twalton boards work session uh this evening we are i'm really happy to have john and tara back with this but now i'm looking is tara here john jill emily i'm scanning my columns she should be here in just a moment okay um well i think um what i'd like to do um
004as we try to get um reset this is really important work for us what the process will be with john and tara is to kind of review the framework that john had put together and really talk about what as a board is critical for us prioritizing these next six months maybe through the end of the school year or what really needs to be looked towards the next year as the strategic plan is kind of on a reset so that's what our our hope is so i think what would be good for the board and uh rowan and emily to join us um is to look to art of community as we always do as we start our work and get grounded in which of the um components of art and community that you want to
005focus on this evening and i will let emily and rowan start and i would say well we'd go and reverse age order but that might put me lastly so um i um anyway rowan and emily want you go ahead and get us started with your focus tonight on art of community i'll go first we strive to be in community with one another with care we slow down so we have time to think and reflect um would you like me to pick somebody to go next or i love that emily thank you for that um idea oh okay um director wolf then um i um actually i think what um rowan just said and see i'm trying to find um about uh we slow down so we have time to think and reflect um is i
006think the space that i i need to be with this important work and with that director search meet is right above me so i will hand it off to um and it looks like sharon has joined us so that's great so i would also uh jews we slow down so we have time to think and reflect and that's because this is a work session and that is traditionally when we do have time to slow down and think and reflect and be a little bit more thoughtful than we can be in a regular board meeting where things have to move along i'm going to say next is director emerson tonight i am remembering that conversation is a natural way we learn and think together um yeah because we will be thinking and learning so director bowman
007is ben gone of course i meant director fox oh okay you know i'm not sure why but my sound is kind of coming and going um so bear with me if i don't hear you um yes so i think um slow down um so we have time to think and reflect amidst the technology failures um and also i just want to add um that my one that i really want to do is remember that conversation is a natural way we think together so two things so i want to welcome eddie and eddie i will get that in my routine that you have now joined us from creekside so welcome uh and um i am concerned that ben is um is off the call because i don't see him i see tara hi welcome tara and
008so um so eddie what we do this is the art of community and these are the components of how we work together um as a community so as you read through that list that's been shared by director and is there one that sticks out to you that you'd like to share will be your focus as we do this work session um well for me uh i like the one the last one that says we will listen with intention to learn something new uh i've always never really like in my life i've never really like listened so that's something that i'm actually working on right now is like listening and like because you know i i like learning new things i like knowing more about the world you know and so for me learning new things
009is very important at the moment especially with work and school that's something that really stands out for me well eddie i appreciate your honesty and i think a lot of adults can reflect on their abilities to listen so i appreciate you sharing that um and oh my gosh uh ben's internet just went out but ben said he's back on with his phone um yep i'm here now sorry everyone i'm on my cell phone um well sorry about that ben did you want to share um art of community and then we'll hand it off to john and tara yes uh for me we will listen uh with intention to learn something new perfect and cabinet and dr ricky smith certainly be thinking in your mind i know you are um on where you are with the
010art of community uh but given our time um i'll go ahead and direct uh to john and tara so thank you i think i'll begin on behalf of me and tara so thank you director wolf for uh passing it on to us so what we'd like to do is begin by sharing some of the themes that we heard from our interviews our individual interviews with with board members and uh and and then kind of move towards kind of the you know the big pieces of work some of the goals and and and the work ahead for you in in terms of priorities and then have enough time for you to talk about what really are your priorities you know and and have some discussion and dialogue and and the time will will go so fast
011so tara did you want to add anything before we jump into what we heard in our in our meetings with with individual board members other than to say uh good evening to everyone i will let you go ahead and get started john okay so we we identified several themes and the first one is that when we met with you what we what we heard were actually your stories your your individual and very personal stories of your learning and experiences of oppression and your vulnerability and your growth around equity work and anti-racism and and that was really deep and personal and meaningful and so important in your work and then a second theme is really oh shoot is that me or is it john no it's john hey john if you can hear us maybe try
012turning off your camera while you're talking so i'm going to go ahead and jump in um what what john and i did is we just tried we went through our notes from the interviews and our conversations with each of the board members and excuse me came up with some of those main themes to share and so i'll just read some of them for you um so the themes that emerged as as real focus uh or areas of concern and wanting to dive into more let's see supporting closing the the gaps in academic achievement with more attention to lived experience socio-emotion social emotional belonging and hostility these different things that our students may be facing recognizing that there's a larger and potentially growing i don't want to say divide but definitely difference in tigard and tualatin
013and having to navigate that just with how the population of tualatin is how the populations are changing and just navigating that um there was definitely an interest in and as a board getting on the same page and getting to action in some of the areas that you guys have identified as high priority also just within the board a desire to improve working relationships and build more trust with each other there were a number of you who expressed the need for more data measurements and and evidence overall and for the equity work and along with that there was great appreciation for director eun's leadership and the work that she and other administrators are doing around equity as well as an appreciation for the work in student affinity groups student voice and family voice but along with
014that there was there were questions about wanting to do more in terms of really understanding and being able to define the metrics connected to the benefit and the outcomes of that work so there was definitely an appreciation and recognition of the value but just at a higher level making sure that it can be communicated community wide in terms of measurement and tracking also there was support for work of culturally responsive teaching and questions about how to deepen and sustain and measure the work and concern that the current instructor instruction does not have all aspects or perspective sorry there was clear support for clear goals strategies and measurements there was concern around covet disproportionately harming students families and staff of color and also just the online learning environment and the time of of covid and how
015it it has and may continue to exacerbate inequities and access we also noted an interest in strategies from us from scl mental health resiliency school culture climate ssa and all of these different areas being incorporated into board plans moving forward and of course the ongoing interest in addressing harassment and bullying there were across the board requests for more learning and training specifically we noted definitions and common understanding of terms and concepts and this is specifically related to diversity equity and inclusion frameworks history understanding and dissecting public education privilege anti-racism um and digging deeper and dealing with uncomfortable conversations there was conversation around you know kind of what are the priorities for the board and how do we hold ourselves accountable for these priorities and i'm saying hour but really meaning the board members there was
016also um interest in diversifying the board and and we really were able to talk about it in different details and aspects of that so for example uh recruiting potential board members coaching and then mentoring and also understanding the current culture of the board and the possibility of changing and changing in the sense of just making it more inclusive more inviting and accessible to others um and this wasn't talked about in terms of somebody wanting to do it but just the things that are on the table to to discuss and understand more about in terms of diversifying the board is increasing the number of board members let's see i'm back just so you know i'm back okay so continue on okay um and some of the last few themes that we identified systemically collaborate with families
017and community as a board and support district development of metrics for the work working in collaboration with families of color so i mentioned that before with director un's work there are questions of how do we build community with students and also just dealing with this new environment this new completely virtual environment as a board how do we create the conditions for honest vulnerable and courageous conversations when everything is so public and you know you think about that also in just in terms of team building and working together and building those relationships there was also talk about like especially through this work how to build strategies and prepare for a backlash backlash and push back from those opposed to racial equity work the development of your own tools protocols and frameworks for doing this work some
018a couple of last things that came up addressing policy issues uh including pay to play for fees for student participation and different activities and last but not least you know how do we create that space for learning and honest dialogue particularly around this dei work that you're doing a deeper dive into john is there anything else that you wanted to add no i i think you got it and are there any questions oh sorry john well and unfortunately tara and i are the ones who benefited so much from these um sessions we we learned so much and and so we're trying to capture everything that we learned in about 10 minutes but uh the the what you shared your histories and your issues and your intentions or were very deep and and meaningful in a
019certain sense we wish you could have listened to each other but anyway we we had that privilege so thank you for that yeah and something something else i would add to that too is just the thoughtfulness uh behind these issues because what you don't capture for me just kind of reciting a list of themes is how these things were shared with us um you know i've been in spaces where um you know leaders or directors would would share this information but it's very much from a i perspective their position their perspective but there was an openness to recognizing that this is a community that you're serving there are multiple perspectives and multiple needs and i felt like that was often represented and even how you presented these issues and how you're thinking about them and
020so i just um for me that was a treasure to be able to hear and experience uh and and be able to follow up and ask more questions about with you all to see how you're really considering community in your decision making and and from that we we tried to capture what was most important for you all in terms of moving forward in terms of next steps and so we identified a a draft you know and we call it potential scope of work and and this is the work that you would do as a board but also potentially that tar and i could have a role in in supporting and facilitating some of this work and so we came up with with five different components in this potential scope of work and i think i'll
021speak to the first one tara should we just keep moving forward yes okay so so the first element in the scope of work really is to develop and transform the board culture knowing that your your focus on equity and and uh racial equity and the work of the district and partnering with students and families especially students and families of color and and and students who have been underserved that it requires some shifts and changes in the culture so some of the some of the pieces of that would be to work more on building trust and relationships and improving communication among board members kind of developing those conditions and parameters for honest uncomfortable and courageous conversations knowing that this can be very challenging in public space but finding a way to do that and then strengthening
022the collaboration and partnerships with students families and communities so that there are some systemic ways for students families and community members to engage and participate with the board and then to create a um even more welcoming and inclusive culture just to support new members and and diverse members and board members of color and other underrepresented groups who you want to outreach to and include and and support in joining uh and becoming a part of the board so so that's that's trying to capture that whole piece around board culture and some of this is ongoing work so some of this you can can get started right away but some of this is work that takes you know a year to sometimes three years but we wanted to put it together kind of capturing your words and
023putting putting it into a goal in this scope of work the next aspect of work that we listed was uh board learning focused on diversity equity inclusion and anti-racism and starting off with uh developing a deep and shared understanding of key concepts and moving beyond that really working to increase a contextual knowing and understanding of um dei and anti-racism in the context of you know your schools and communities that you're serving serving so deepening deep in the understanding of the experiences of underserved students and family looking at the historical context of things as well as what we're currently seeing support personal growth and understanding culture identity positionality privilege and responsibility and lastly increase understanding of systemic and structural racism and other forms of oppression um the next area is uh the potential of equity coaching
024so either one-on-one coaching uh with a board member and john and or i or group coaching to respond to emerging issues so this would provide opportunity to process understand and respond through an equity lens as well as support personal growth in terms of learning and unlearning a huge part of this work especially when we're talking about transformational change you know i always say excuse me i always say it's important that you know we read and take advantage of the different media offerings to increase our knowledge but the huge part of this work is processing in community the work happens in community so we can't just go and silo ourselves and and learn everything we need to know and be ready it's a the sharing of perspective and information and challenging ourselves in that way and
025so that's what coaching provides in a more one-on-one or smaller group if that's what's necessary the next section is develop bore goals fake is focused on equity and inclusion these may include diversifying the board review and develop equity-focused policies create systems and structures for partnering with students families and communities especially those who have been marginalized and underrepresented now this this area is it's less you know these are more i guess opportunities based on some of the themes that we shared and ultimately it would be up to you all to decide where exactly you want to focus and we could just put some um specific attention to that going deeper in in whichever of those areas or if there are other areas that aren't listed here that you're particularly interested in as a group and john
026do you want to go ahead and do the last offering the last one and and the board is already doing this but but we talked about gaining even more clarity in identifying board priorities for your involvement and support for the school district goals and strategic plans in terms of your role in terms of your participation in terms of your encouragement and support and so actually prioritizing specific district goals and objectives and initiatives that you really want to be engaged with and clarifying the board's role in in relation to the school district's priorities and the school district's strategic plan and equity work and then you know how how do you as a board in this process provide accountability how can the board be accountable for uh these priorities that the district has set that also then
027become board priorities and and so that's that's what we're kind of moving into is you know in terms of what are your priorities as a board in terms of your work but also what are your priorities in terms of supporting and being engaged with with the work of the school district so we've done a lot of talking mostly tara i disappeared for a few moments there um but we we would like to hear from you and and and communicate with each other uh around what did you hear and and based on what you've heard and where you're headed with your with the work of the board around equity and racial equity what's emerging for you as most important what what are your priorities and this is more of a brainstorm rather than a decision making
028but this becomes the basis for for your continuing work and and your next steps and director wolf should we defer to you to call upon people um you know i was just going to say i i will just open it up on whoever is ready um with your thoughts if you guys want a second and you want me to kick off i'm happy to do that but if somebody's ready to jump in um what they're thinking i know it's a lot so first of all i want to say thank you to john and tara for kind of collecting all our thoughts being with us over this last month or so and then really kind of putting it into a framework for us but it's a lot to process i think and then also think about
029what could we accomplish in six months by the end of the year or what really rolls into strategic thinking um into that next five-year plan um and what muscle are we building along the way so um so i want to honor um the depth of the work but the weight of it um so anybody want to share uh first i'd be happy to um i love the the way you've put this list together it's it's really helpful to sort of see it all in black and white like this um the one of the the real focuses for me um that is is uh letter d um developing board goals that are focused on equity and inclusion and um that includes the policies i mean that's something that that's been near and dear to my heart
030for years um and the structures for students and families and communities the diversifying the board is is absolutely crucial because i've seen what happens when we have board member of color and how that grabs the community and brings them in and we get so much better uh communication to and from uh that community uh and while the mentoring piece seems really important um to get people to run i also think there's got to be an education component to our community about why having a diverse board is so important because i feel like that's the piece that we've missed a couple of times now where we have encouraged uh people of color to run for the board but they haven't gotten elected because this is an elected position it's like we just get to choose board
031members that we like and so while we and the the school system may understand why having a diverse board is important i think it's really important that our community understands why having a board that represents the community is so important and so i think one of the outreaches that we as a board need to do is that education component to our community so that's just my that's my first thought so um i enjoyed our time together i'm tara john and i think you captured everything uh very well very extensive list which it was kind of overwhelming at first like wow there's a lot um i um so i took kind of bullet the the abs csd's from each actually i'm sorry there's capital and small i kind of took one or two from each as
032priorities um but just to piggyback on to jill um i'd like to see us do some kind of i think most people you know the ballots the um voters pamphlet doesn't really provide much information about people it's hard to know who to vote for and so um you know we might want to brainstorm around things we can do in terms of maybe have a little bio or something i don't know what's legal or anything but um you know how we have the quest q a that um broadway rose sponsors maybe we can do something similar virtually but also have a little something write up or something on each person that's different than the voters pamphlet i don't know but um so that's an idea and maybe just have a forum around what maybe a few
033forms on what it takes to be a board member like what do you do and how much time does it take and all that kind of stuff um anyway i probably don't have time to go into each one but um and then policies i'd like to see us make consistent some of the other policies i know we were talking about reviewing the equity policy but also taking the what we are doing with um the anti-bias policy and maybe applying it to some of the other policies as well the ar part um for del develop and transform board culture i would love to see some of this stuff built into our working agreements and also for d create welcoming inclusive i'd like to see us reduce some of the barriers um to entry um for board
034members and then on b um i'd i'd like i know we probably could do this over time but um i really like to focus on a um for us as a starting point and then equity coaching i volunteer i'd love to have that available and then um yes i agree that we should prioritize i'm hoping we can get to that after we do the work tonight and proving the word the goals so that's all that's what i wanted to say but thank you okay well um i a couple of them stood out for me also and that was um for the learning that we developed for a va developing a deep and shared understanding of key concepts um because i do feel that that's important that we're all talking the same language so that when
035we are reviewing and developing the equity focused policies which was also one that i circled um i i feel like that will make that work maybe easier or maybe just smoother um so those were the two that i circled but after listening to sharon i agree that um part of a kind of does hint at the working agreements so maybe that's where that kind of work could end up um and that and that i do think we're doing e or attempting e tonight and yes i will volunteer for coaching as well because uh talking with john and tara was a wonderful experience um i'll go next ben you can um close up and then um students too rowan eddie emily i don't think you participate in the interviews but things that you've observed right you
036guys are really intelligent students so please feel like hey this is what i see and this is where i think would be important um as we move forward um so um the things that i i agree absolutely equity coaching um and the tools tara you said um i think kind of a um a bullet point at some point on the equity work and digging to what is that data that would help us kind of explain what we're trying to do and the tools to get us there and in some of the conversations that we've had with parents something that really stayed with me and i think i'm not going to speak for ben but we have this conversation is this sense that um equity is separate and we've talked to dr sue about that too
037right is that whole communication of why equity is an aspect of academic excellence and that um there is no um wanting to slow any student down from their potential right and and how do you work through the struggle but keep lifting them up and that all these pieces come together and what i want to see as a board that we're really able to articulate that to our communities well and then defend it with the steps and the data that we're using to say this is what we're doing and we're doing that on track and i know that dr su is very passionate about that you're going to see that in her work but as a board we're united in those conversations and why we stand together on why this work is so important um so
038that's just a real focus for me is is just really getting to the core and the the why and the the data that helps us you know really solidify to our communities and and tell that community story on why we're really um finding this as a priority and absolutely the equity coaching i greatly appreciate the time that i had with john and tara and while i am and trying to to read and listen and watch so many things how you apply that and really live your life on a daily basis um always tremendous opportunities for me to learn so um but really appreciate the framework on all aspects so that's it and and ben um and then students too yeah a lot of what um the other directors have said has resonated with me um
039i i was actually thinking very similar to what maureen um just said which is there's almost like two parts of this which is um you know what we want to do as a board in terms of development and professional learning and growth and increased understanding but then also how can we bring the community at large with us and kind of share that education and growth um to broader circles than just the five of us so that that is on my mind is something important um i did just want to um say out loud i guess um some hesitation not with the goal of diversifying the board but wanting to be really careful about um how we do that and avoiding any explicit or implicit um appearance of the district favoring candidates in elections um i
040know that it's just a really tricky subject we wanna we want to diversify the board and for me what that means is each of us as individuals have a responsibility and an ability to act um as private citizens and as elected officials but want to be really careful um that what we do and say as a board and as a district is not in any way um favoring one candidate over another in an election um because i do you know i think we all deeply believe in democracy and and want to respect the processes we have in place um so i did just want to surface that as um something that i'm i'm trying to think through exactly and say out loud um but also i wanted to say thanks to john and tara and
041you know i think i would i would love the opportunity to have some equity coaching along the way as well and um i think i would benefit tremendously from that and i think of the five that we've discussed um those first two resonated as um really important and also really not easy to do but things that we could begin implementing relatively quickly um by working together and talking together and continuing these sessions so um thank you again and i'll open it up to student board members if they want to chime in um for for diversifying the board i think i share some of the hesitation that ben has where um we don't want to step into tokenism and you know only wanting people of color and board members of color there because um of the
042fact that they are people of color and i think that's so important that's something i think i talked about in my interview is the fact that we never want to step into that category where people feel like the only reason that they are there is because of their skin color and that's gonna i'm sure is going to be a delicate topic to be discussed for c um create systems and structures for partnering with students i think you can read it so um it's just super hard to reach out to students during a pandemic and i think it's revealed um an aspect of students that they could hide when they were in school because now we see more of the socio-economic play circumstances played out in the learning from home rather than students coming to school
043and able to shed that part of them away so i think it's going to be hard to do that but it's important and the board do need to put a lot of work into reaching out um i think yes we should definitely clarify the board rule and engagement and oversight i think once you really show the community that equity is your number one priority you're going to see an outpour of student voice and community voice i don't think anyone would hesitate from you know voicing out their opinions if you are showing that this is your priority and this equity and inclusion is tiger hall 10 what we are striving towards and last part i think the word accountability is something super important to us because to students a lot of the issues that we have
044voiced out against so sexual assault racism and sros is really comes down to one word which is accountability um yeah i think we just want to see the data i want think we want to see people held accountable for their actions i know it's going to be hard but it really is like at the core of what students want from adults so i think those are my thoughts thanks emily i totally agree with emily she just took everything that i was about to say but good job yeah i would agree as well and um i definitely agree diversifying the board has to be a huge goal and as both emily and ben talked about there are a lot of things that we have to balance to make sure that we are keeping the idea of
045democracy as well as making sure that we are doing our best to create opportunities for everyone to participate and that will be hard but i definitely think it's completely worth it and necessary to go through all that struggle okay thank you all um and um at this point john tara i mean it's a lot so um how do you suggest that we kind of do a resort prioritize kind of walk forward next steps and then dr sue if you wanted to share anything i want you know to give you that opportunity as well i'm just seeing if i can wait longer than tara we'll see who goes first oh you can go ahead i know that you did you unmuted your mic so i was waiting for you so take it away sir so um
046to move into very clear priorities um especially focusing on the next six months as as chairwolf talked about clearly the culture of the board is something that is foundational so so that needs to be right now and it's not like it's brand new you're you're already doing this but to do that in a very intentional way and and i know tara and i can support you and that in in terms of you know agreements and and questioning and you know having uncomfortable conversations and and and listening and uh accessing the voice finding systems and ways to access you know students and families and staff and community that that's something that is emerging i think is is as an important you know immediate priority for the next six months and and then the learning i think
047coming up with a learning plan for the board so tar and i have have identified several components of a learning plan but we we probably need the board to identify what's most important do you start with key concepts you know do you actually start with you know deep more deeply understanding the experiences of students of color and families of color is that part of the of the learning um do you and again but but that's something that that the board needs to really identify these are the three or four most important things and and we can help come up with a sequence and support you in that learning so i'm so i'm just addressing two two pieces of the priorities kind of immediate and next steps for the next six months tara yeah i would
048absolutely uh agree with everything you said and just add that you know as you are identifying your priorities know that many of these components will be a part of it and i'll give you a key example and talking about diversifying the board and hearing the feedback and the concerns about that one thing that i'm super excited about is the conversations we had with directors around diversifying the board kind of moved away from that tokenistic type of conversation and we were really looking at structure um and those institutional barriers that that keep or make it difficult to recruit a more diverse pool of folks for the board of directors and from them advancing in the process so using that as an example let's say that's an area that you decided to prioritize we absolutely would still
049have to talk about key terms historical context issues of uh tokenism and and how to bring the the community along in this conversation so it isn't just about tokenism or even the perception of that um and that we're in that people understand that it's more than just this upcoming election cycle but really disrupting um and making it a more inclusive process for years to come so that's just one example of how whatever you prioritize all of these components have to be a part of it if it's going to be sustainable in in transformation so don't feel like it's like this tug of war of well if i choose this we'll lose this no they're all integral and yes there are opportunities to do deeper dives in some areas but all of it has to be
050covered to some degree and and it's it's a work in progress because even as you identify your priorities uh depending on what emerges over the next six months we may have to do some pivoting anyway so just you know um identify your priorities but don't feel like you're locked in or you're missing out on something we're going to make sure we have everything that we need to be as successful and pro as possible in this endeavor so you guys just for fellow board members for next steps um what i would like to propose um is i i think that um i'm sure that john and tara were taking notes as i was uh as well as you were listing kind of your areas of you know greatest interest or priority but um board members if
051you could um send that again kind of that focus send it to patty and then i'd like to recommend that vice chair bowman and i uh meet with tara and john to kind of set a framework uh based on that and this could be you know iterative right to like okay this is what we think here's a timeline give it to you guys you know and get feedback right so that we really all agree but just from a process um i think it would be uh most effective and efficient if ben and i do that um direct conversation with john and tara so i just want to look for thumbs ups or you know head nods um and then again it will uh it'll be a continual communication process um so okay so we will
052do that with um dr sue and head that you know forward um as a um a subcommittee i guess or exec committee and and do that um so i mean we have certainly it's it's 547 um so john tara any other ideas board members questions um anything that we should be mindful of uh before we kind of head off and try to figure out what our plan is for this work i i do have a question that i'm curious if john and tara might be able to weigh in putting you on the spot a little bit here but um so this idea of um including the community um in some of the education work that we do or kind of um obvi you know obviously the focus of our work is internal um with the
053board um but curious if you've had experience where you've um sort of uh done i don't know if it would be in tandem or is it a separate thing to sort of uh because some of our goals obviously require community understanding and stakeholder support so i'm just curious if you thought at all or have any thoughts on how that piece of this might be incorporated in our work plan moving forward so i think that's a really important question and i and i actually think the the response to it is complex so i only have i'm just thinking of one piece of it so this is not a comprehensive response but it is about so partnering in the learning with students and families and community is so important and and the the district is already doing
054some of this in in terms of you know listening sessions and in terms of making the board meetings accessible but getting even better at that in terms of outreach so the school district is is you know doing affinity groups with students and listening sessions and partnerships with families so board members can participate in those but board the board can also do some of its own work around outreach and around listening and creating sessions you know where the public and and students you know can testify to the board i i've worked closely with one district for many years and and they're very consistent around you know public testimony and and but but they don't just open the space they actually do some outreach and encourage people to come and speak and share their voice and share
055their experience so so that's just one piece of that that that comes up for me um tara i i also really appreciated that question and honestly it's something i have to think about a little bit more because part of the complexity and the tension in that is in the learning space as board directors there needs to be space for you to do your learning and processing and not have to you know constantly be on call to respond and so there's a space for that and then there's also a space to learn and process together in communities so you know exactly what that could look like i've got to brew on a little bit more um and i mean i think that there's possibilities and i think also to just going along with john said to
056really support the structures that you already have in place and strengthening those that would probably be the best way to move forward in this initially but definitely something to think more about those are just my first thoughts i appreciate that thank you both any other um comments me and from anyone okay zinnia i don't see you now oh there you oh yes um i don't know zinnia i know i just want to thank you for really you know kind of coordinating and organizing this for us and i didn't know if you wanted to share anything or give your perspectives as we move forward um um i i just want to offer one thing um is that you know as as um this is very heavy work and i am very proud of our district to
057know that our board is committing to to this and also i want to make sure that we understand uh the depth of work that's uh needed and i think the time that's going to be necessary to um really build those systems of um uh feedback loop i mean i think about our equity pillars and that was we developed that like five or six years ago and now is the first time we actually are operationalizing the affinity groups for students and for families and that was five years in the five or six years in the making and so i just um want to make sure that um we keep that in mind as as we do this work and rowan and emily and i i want you guys to know as ben and i kind of
058put this together i mean you are tremendous advocates for um the students in your schools and so how we ensure that we are integrating the three of you in this work that that's you know front of mind for me as well as we look at board work but but what are those aspects where you guys need to be really um integrated in what we're doing so um uh dr sue anything you want to add only um how grateful i am to be able to work with a board that is committed to this work um and committed to doing this level of deep learning you know i echo what zinnia said is that um it's it you know it to bring this to fruition in terms of taking the theoretical and making it the way that
059we live is is both impressive and it's daunting at the same time um and you know as i look through the list of the things that you shared with john and tara there were absolutely no surprises excuse me in terms of commitment to children commitment to families commitment to community and understanding that for us to be able to close uh the achievement gap we have to address the lived experiences of all of our children and wrap ourselves around that and what i also appreciate is that in this moment is the way in which you also take on the role of an educator and helping our community to understand um as you are doing the work and i'm hopeful that the community um you comes to see that that as you are grappling and having those
060courageous conversations and difficult conversations is that that is your work that is what you are to do um and then how that plays out in an individual vote that is what you can be held accountable for but the conversation the the thinking together the doing the work together that is your work um and please know that you have my support and the cabinet support as you're doing that in terms of how valuable that is to our entire work and we're hopeful that the community comes to learn more about how boards operate as you do that work and you do it in in the fishbowl that we have have come to know and love over the last many months um but it is it is messy work um and but it is the right work to
061be doing so we stand ready to support you um in this work this year okay well thank you all well then i think um at 5 55 without my classes on um i think we will go ahead and adjourn our work session and short order next steps i'll get going on coordinating a time for the five of us to meet and kind of outline where we're headed and then certainly get that communicated out but i want to thank you all for participating in the work session and see most of you back in about a half an hour so