Additional guests present:
Jodi Counci
Danielle Kelsick
KC Villoria
Marcela Pak
Robert Gloria
Christiana Usenza
Beth Bernstein-Yamashiro
Daniel Marillo
Anthony Jowid
 

Agenda changes:  
Move Danielle's report above.
Table math placement policy - item 11 on the Consent agenda

Mr. Deemer opened the floor for public comment.  Many commented on the election and its impact on the school sites and instruction. Ms. Kelsick, Director of Curriculum and Instruction shared that she worked with school sites to provide teachers guidance on how to teach about the election. Ms. Taylor thanked Danielle for ensuring the teachers had the tools to deal with a very current event.  Mr. Greenspon noted that change is often difficult and the current change in the federal administration should not impinge on our directive -- that our schools are places for our students to feel safe and learn. Ms. Bernstein-Yamashiro shared that it was difficult for  some teachers as well as students. Ms. Wyche noted that the day after the election was a hard day, and ECHS has the right people to support its community. All agreed that its important that we lead with our mission and best practices at the heart of our work.  
Mr. Deemer directed ECS team to develop an organization statement to ensure our communities we will continue to lead to our mission.  

Ms. Usenza, the community liason for the ECMS Gardena was introduced and shared that ECMS G is continuing to work on improving the safety of the community and to build relationships.  

Alison Diaz share about events that had occurred and upcoming events as well.  Links to the exciting things happening follow:  

• Career Day (LINK TO PICTURES https://ecsonline.box.com/s/l2wwhkgesqiho3vu0wlvxd01cno6earf)
• Dia de los Muertos (LINK TO PICTURES https://ecsonline.box.com/s/l2wwhkgesqiho3vu0wlvxd01cno6earf) 
• Mural at Gardena (LINK TO PICTURES https://ecsonline.box.com/s/l2wwhkgesqiho3vu0wlvxd01cno6earf)
• Build at Inglewood (http://ecsonline.org/grow-with-us/capital-campaign-updates/?)Academic Program

Alison re-shared the CAASP Data report out at the last board meeting. 
Alison shared that one of the strategies identified in the LCAPs and implemented this year was to hire a math coach to support instruction at both middle schools. That coach has been showcasing the many best practices she sees happening in the classrooms. 
The middle schools have also started to invite stakeholder engagement through using Student Led Conferences - where students share their progress with their parents directly.    

Other LCAP priorities
As mentioned during public comment, ECMS G is working on community engagement given the safety issues and data collected last year. 


 

Alison shared that the finance committee met and reviewed the year to date financials.  They reported that there was no significant change in the budgets.   A copy of the budgets and financial report was included in the board packet.  No questions were raised. 

Alison shared that the finance committee met and reviewed the year to date financials.  They reported that there was no significant change in the budgets.   A copy of the budgets and financial report was included in the board packet.  No questions were raised. 

Ms. Diaz reported out on the facilities committee update. The portables have been delivered at the ECMS Inglewood site. With regard to ECHS, Alison and Randy Keen met with LESD superintendent and agreed on next steps.  The missing plans were found and ECHS will submit to DSA for the portable project pending LESD's approval.  

Ms. Vo shared next steps for the development committee and asked for support on an upcoming grant.  She also invited everyone to a Harvest Festival in Inglewood.  

Ms. Berger presented the Governance Committee report. Board on Track is being implemented. And the committee is working on recruiting new members. 
 

See study session

January 31, 2017

The next meeting will be on Monday, January 30 instead of January 31. 

New dates for the upcoming meetings were shared

• Finance Committee - January 20, 2017  (NEW DATE) 
• Facilities Committee - January 20 2017 (NEW DATE)) 

Alison reminded the team about upcoming future meetings. 

• Development Committee - January 13, 2017
• Governance Committee - January 13, 2017

Mr. Deemer noted that he preferred committee meetings to be in months that did not have a Board meeting and asked Alison to work on the schedule.  

• Thurs, Nov 17th @ 2PM
• Tues, Nov 29th @ 10AM
• Thurs, Dec 15th at 2PM 

December 8, 2016


Ms. Vo noted that students will be creating a publication and performing. Ms. Diaz expects it to be as moving as the Story Slam.

 Ms. Kelsick presented an updated on the Equity and Diversity Task Force. She shared an excerpt from the charter that stated, "We acknowledge that ECS, as an educational institution, is situated within a historical context is not immune to the biases and structural inequities that have disenfranchised the communities we serve." Some of this work comes from work done with Arlene Ford / EPC at ECHS. It is an open group that members from other campuses can attend if they like. It is also inspired by work that Mr. Tyrone Howard did at ECMS Inglewood.

Ms. Kelsick shared the Task Force goals. They want to collect a lot of data and then try to determine what the data says about biases or unfair structures / processes. They also want to measure the committee's effectiveness. The task force will have a sub-group of representatives from each campus (teacher, student, parent, staff and admin). And then one of those members (the site Leader) will be on the task force, which will be comprised of that leader, a CMO rep, and a board rep. Ms. Johnson asked whether that leader could be representing different constituent types - so it's not all administrators for example. Ms. Kelsick said that it is good to continue talking about that, but the reason it doesn't look like that at this moment is because it has been difficult to get folks to commit to involvement. The calendar will be set soon, and the leaders were appointed to conduct the elections. Those elections happened today.

Ms. Kelsick turned over the floor to Beth Bernstein-Yamashiro to share the types of outcomes that might be realized. Ms. Bernstein-Yamashiro shared a case study from ECMSI. A teacher noticed that only boys had referrals in the 8th grade. As administration took a deeper dive into the data, they saw a disproportionate number of African American males in the discipline pipeline. Though African American students were only 18% of they student population, 82% of them received a referral. This made ECMSI question its discipline policy. She talked about theories that school itself is not dismantling class society but reinforcing it.

Mr. Robertson noted that it is a complicated issue because it might have to do with forces outside of school. Ms. Johnson asked if there was some validity to the disciplining. Ms. Kelscik noted that these students did break rules and act inappropriately. However, they are still keen to break the "school to prison pipeline."

The school did data analysis to identify patterns in students being disciplined. Teachers were happy to talk about patterns in time of day, gender, class. It was not comfortable for them to discuss race. Ms. Kelsick, AP at the time, processed the disciplinary referrals with a restorative justice lens, and then worked with the Counselor to revise discipline documents and procedure to make a commitment to restorative justice more distinct. The school trained on the new procedure and brought in Tyrone Howard to work with them on restorative justice. They were very difficult conversations. He said that the campus needed to be a place where all cultures are celebrated frequently. 

The school also started "relationship repairs." It's a weekly meeting at lunch where student talks about behavior goals but they also have to get to know each other. The teacher and student must ask questions about one another. The parents appreciated it - when a parent complained of racism in a teacher, they were always eager for a relationship repair. The teachers were also on board. And these were successful. There was context from everything else that was being done. 

A focus group was run with the African American parents, as they noticed a decline in enrollment. A workshop was arranged with parents and Tyrone Howard as a result. 

They learned that parents got sick of slow meetings where a translator said everything in Spanish right after the English words. Also, the front office did not have anyone that made African American parents feel represented. They also found that there were very different opinions in the focus group - there were very few common opinions in the group. 

Between 14/15 and 15/16, the total number of referrals decreased, as well as the number of referrals by group. 82% of African Americans got referrals in 14/15 vs. 44% in 15/16. Latino / Hispanic referrals cut in half as well. The number of students with 1+ referrals decreased as well. in 14/15, 55% of African Americans had multiple referrals vs. 24% in 15/16. 11% of Hispanic / Latino students had multiple referrals in 14/15 vs. 2% in 15/16. The Board was impressed with these results. Ms. Johnson agreed, and also pointed out that there is still a pretty significant difference between African American and Hispanic / Latino. Ms. Kelsick shared further data that showed that the number of incidents per year decreased significantly and also flipped with regard to which ethnic group had the most incidents. They found that when they worked to reduce incidents with African American boys, all their population benefitted, and standards were not lowered.

The school still has concerns - enrollment of African American students continues to be an issue, as does hiring demographics / teachers (i.e., the school would like to have more core teachers who are African American). 

This case study was presented to the site teachers as an example of what they would like the task force to do. They want them to think of an urgent equity issue on their campus. The next steps are to hold stakeholder elections, identify issues and examine data for each school site. 

Mr. Deemer asked what other resources or help were needed from the Board aside from participation on the committee. Ms. Kelsick suggested policies, procedures, etc. from non-education sector organizations with regard to how they deal with equity and diversity in hiring would be helpful. Mr. Deemer asked what they need to keep in mind - the Board is not very diverse at this time and want to know how they can be more aware. 

 

Mr. Deemer presented to the Board regarding the Roles and Responsibilities of Great Boards. He asked the Board and cabinet what the vision is for the next 5 years. The group first discussed their vision of ECS for the next 5 years. Mr. Deemer then discussed the various roles of the Board:
1. setting mission and vision
2. hiring and evaluating the ED
3. actively participating with the staff in the planning process and goal setting
4. determining which programs are most consistent with the organization's mission and monitoring their effectiveness
5. Ensuring adequate resources
6. Enhancing public standing
7. Ensuring legal and ethical integrity & maintain accountability
8. Assessing and continually improve Board effectiveness

Next, the Board and cabinet gave a rating from 1-10 on effectiveness of the Board. The BOD gave themselves a 7.2, versus a cabinet score of 6.6. He next asked them to say "how effective does the Board need to be?" The BOD gave themselves an 8.8 versus a cabinet score of 9.4. He next asked, "what can we do differently to move these scores up?" 

Board members and cabinet members provided many suggestions, such as providing Board binders, making the Board larger and more diverse, and visiting the sites more.

Approve Consent Agenda: 

1. Approve Discipline Committee Members (FILE NAME: 161114 ECS Discipline Committee 2016-17)
2. Approve Advisory Committee members (FILE NAME: 161114 ECS Advisory Council 2016-2017)
3. Accept School Site Council Minutes (FILE NAME: 161028 ECHS School Site Council Minutes_DRAFT, 161021 ECMSG School Site Council Minutes_DRAFT, and 161013 ECMSI School Site Council Minutes_DRAFT ) 
4. Accept Governance Committee Minutes on October 28, 2016 (FILE NAME: 161028 Governance Committee Minutes_DRAFT)
5. Accept Finance Committee Minutes on November 4, 2016 (FILE NAME: 1611104 Finance Committee Minutes_DRAFT)
6. Accept Facilities Committee on Minutes on November 4, 2016  (FILE NAME: 1611104 Facilities Committee Minutes_DRAFT)
7. Approve September and October 2016 Check Register  (FILE NAME: 161114 ECS Check Register September 2016 and 161114 ECS Check Register October 2016)
8. Approve Private Donations (FILE NAME: 161114 ECS Private Donations)
9. Approve Single Plan for Student Achievement for each school site (FILE NAME: 161114 ECMS-G SPSA 2016-17 and 161114 ECMS-I SPSA 2016-17)
10. Approve YMCA MOU (FILE NAME: 161114 ECMS-G YMCA MOU 2016-17 and 161114 Explanation of MOU Changes)
11. Approve Math Placement Policy (FILE NAME: 161117 ECHS 9th Grade Mathematics Course Placement 2016-17_DRAFT.docx)

Motion to adjourn to Closed Session: Bruce Greenspon
Seconded by Farnaz Golshani-Flechner
Vote: All present voted in favor (Jenni Owen Absent)

The board discussed their evaluation of the Executive Director. ≈

The board approved recommended goals and areas of development for the Executive Director as well as a salary increase. Ken Deemer and Denise Berger will communicate these to her.