Environmental Charter Schools

Diversity and Equity Taskforce Meeting

Date and Time

Monday June 12, 2017 at 4:00 PM PDT

Location

16315 Grevillea Ave. Lawndale, CA / Zoom: Join from PC or Mac: https://zoom.us/j/585504537 Or Telephone: Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) Meeting ID: 585 504 537
ECMS-I Members:
  • Tashanda Giles Jones
  • Danny Cristales
ECMS-G Members:
  • Christiana Usenza
  • Samson Pham
ECHS Members:
  • KC Villoria
  • Sara Diaz 
Board Member:
  • Farnaz Golshani-Flechner
TNT Member: 
  • Danielle Kelsick 


Diversity and Equity Taskforce Charter
The Equity & Diversity Taskforce promotes and supports ECS’s work to develop a school culture that fosters equity, inclusion and an appreciation of the diversity within our community.  

Recent events in our nation have drawn attention to structures and processes that have historically disadvantaged people of color and persist today. We acknowledge that ECS, as an educational institution, is situated within a historical context and is not immune to the biases and structural inequities that have disenfranchised the communities we serve. As a public education leader in Los Angeles, we have a powerful responsibility to respond proactively and to embrace opportunities to change the structures and processes within our institution that undermine our efforts to educate and empower ECS students.
We need to critically examine our practices with an eye to continual growth, modeling the lifelong learning and critical thinking that will empower our students to be quality stewards of their communities and our world.

History of this Work
The Taskforce will build upon the work already begun at our three campuses, including Arlene Ford’s Great Minds Inquiry at ECHS in 2011-2014, the ongoing efforts of the ECHS Equity & Pedagogy Coalition and collaborative work of ECMS with Tyrone Howard in 2015-16.

Call to Action
The Equity & Diversity Taskforce will examine data on topics such as student achievement, school discipline, school climate and enrollment trends/retention; address the roots of bias; share insights and suggest possible resources or actions to ECS leadership. The Taskforce membership will include parent, student, teacher, staff, administration and Board representation. Community members may also serve on the Taskforce.

THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the order of consideration of matters on this agenda may be changed without prior notice.
REASONABLE LIMITATIONS MAY BE PLACED ON PUBLIC TESTIMONY
The Governing Board’s presiding officer reserves the right to impose reasonable time limits on public testimony to ensure that the agenda is completed.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS MAY BE MADE
Notice is hereby given that consistent with the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, special presentations not mentioned in the agenda may be made at this meeting.  However, any such presentation will be for information only.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION WILL BE PROVIDED FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY
Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in this meeting of the Governing Board may request assistance by contacting ECS at 812 West 165th Place, Gardena, CA 90247; telephone (310) 214-3400; fax (310) 214-3410.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information concerning this agenda or for materials relating to this meeting, please contact ECS at 812 West 165th Place, Gardena, CA 90247; telephone (310) 214-3400; fax (310) 214-3410.

Agenda

Section Number Topic Number Details
I. Opening Items
 
Opening Items
  A. Record Attendance and Guests
   
Guest include Alison Diaz, Makeisa Gaines, Kami Cotler, ECHS Students Kathy Martinez & Christian Loya and Francisco McCurry
4:40pm Beth Bernstein  & Farnaz joined
4:50 Lacey Harris joined
  B. Call the Meeting to Order
II. Approval of Agenda and Previous Meeting Minutes
  A. Motion to Approve the Agenda
   
Motion by Tashanda Giles and seconed by Sara Diaz.
Motion is unanimously approved
  B. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes
   

There were no minutes to approve

    Approve minutes for Diversity and Equity Task Force Committee Meeting on March 13, 2017
III. Presentation from the Floor
 
Diversity and Equity Task Force
  A. Presentations from the Floor on Non Agenda Items
   
At this time any person wishing to speak to any item not on the agenda will be granted three minutes to make a presentation to the committee. Non-English speakers utilizing translators will be granted six minutes to make a presentation to the taskforce. 

There were no presentations from the floor
  B. Presentation on the Agenda
   
Any person wishing to speak to any item on the agenda will be granted five minutes to make a presentation. Non-English speakers utilizing translators will be granted ten minutes to make a presentation to the taskforce. 

Ms. Diaz asked that we be mindful about our feedback since so much work has gone into these projects. She asked that we establish some norms to ensure no one's feelings are hutn.
IV. Discussion Items / Updates
  A. Opener
   

Site teams worked together on a sheet reflecting on how well their team did on the data cycle.

  B. ECMS-G Update
   
Tasneem and Christiana presented for ECMS-G

ECMS-G team reviewed data and data on discipline and special education students was noticed.
11% of students are SWD, but they represetent more than 30% of referrals for "period 1"  8/22 to 2/15
Further analysis showed 80% of SWD referred were students with ADHD

Their action plan included consulting with Special Ed dept, provide PD on strategies for supporting ADHD, purchased tools  (Fidget, beeswax, break cards) to support ADHD students, asked ECS to create some SZ reports to further analyze data, adjusted discipline procedures for students who spend longer amounts of time in the same classroom to create equity for students who don't change classrooms as much. The plan was imlemented over 3 months and included positive behavior supports.

Second data set was Feb 16-June.  29 referrals in P1 (nearly 40% of total, 14 referrals (17% of total) in P2

Sharing data, including sped team, refining discipline approach.
Inconsistent teachers, not enough collaboration between departments

Takeaways include positive behavior reports
Challenges included finding an issue the whole team was passionate about, completing work in time provided, not having a full year to implement
Recs-- get stakeholders involved beyond EDT, present it during PD, stakeholder reps update progress to their stakeholder groups.
  C. ECMS-I Update
   

Danny Cristales presents.
Focus was nutrition. Data indicated students were skipping breakfast and not eating until lunch.
Reviewed health and wellness survey from previous year, created a "pre" survye
Began serving hot breakfast 2x/week. Distributed left over morning foods at recess. Asked teachers to allow students to eat food in the classroom, so students who arrive late can still eat breakfast.
Tracked who was grabbing snack to determine if high needs kids were eating snack.
Implemented all May
46% of students got snacks at some point
Increased dialog between teachers and students about nutrition and reduced conflicts around "sneaking" food into classroom
Still more than half not eating snacks. What prevents them?
Hot breakfast didn't increase consumption of breakfast
Challenges: Finding people to distribute snack, capturing data was challenging,
Next time: need parent input, promote snacks better,

  D. ECHS Update
   

ECHS did three projects at the same time.
Parent reps rotated, no fixed rep.
Issue 1: Parent Involvement--  17% of parents surveyed didn't feel included in big decisions at school
Data shows students with involved parents have better outcomes.
Surveyed parents-- heard that parents don't get the info they want and want to know students' teachers not just advisor.
Plan- create a video to engage young people and parents. Might also increase access for parents with low literacy.  Able to use an alumni to support.
Metric- youtube views, survey at parent conferences
Conclusion-- it took too long-- Julie had to approve, etc. How to involve Stakeholders in project.

Students identified a different equity issue via a survey. Reached 27%. 9-11 graders leading concern in uniform. 12 graders focus on electives. Decided uniform isn't an equity issue, and pursued the issues of classroom space and electives. Planning monthly survey on satisfaction with electives.

Teachers (EPC)  identified a different equity issue-- shared political understandings of race and power- BSU reports microagression, black males students are lowest performing subgroup, retention of students at predominantly white institutions. Planning vertical alignment of concepts and terms across grades, accountability partners, master content to facilitate integration of enviro and social justice.  Need more time. Want to stipend students. need facilitation
Recommend defining "equity". Develop resources of coordinators to access resources. How to develop our skills to engage in research.
 

  E. Collaboration Activity
   
Group reflected on what was inspiring
Addressing equity issues in grade level team meeting
Students involved at HS, surveying students and valuing their voice
Para educators involved at MS
Attempting to resolve 3 issues,
Challenging the status quo
The use of pre and post data and data driven decision-making
Stakeholders are open to change and striving for continuous improvement
Every site valued people.
Important to re-evaluate policies even those that are "working". It could be better.
Future is to continue the EDT. This summer cabinet will reflect on data to identify issues this summer, so EDT work can be more efficient when it reconvenes in August.
Danielle will be reviewing refinement sheets and compiling feedback.
Need to determine urgency.
Will there be a time for EDT to "retreat"?  To collaboratively determine the best way to move forward/refine the process?


 
  F. Next Steps
V. Closing Items
  A. Adjourn Meeting
   
Ms. Villoria moved to adjourn
Ms. Diaz seconded.
Passed unanimously