F.W. Parker Charter Essential School
Minutes
DEI Committee Meeting
This meeting is hosted online. http://parker.school/deicommittee
Committee Members Present
C. Beasley (remote), K. Grabarek (remote), K. Kintzing (remote), T. Testa (remote)
Committee Members Absent
B. Harrigan, E. Moura, L. Hayner, M. Silva-Rosa
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
T. Testa called a meeting of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of F.W. Parker Charter Essential School to order on Tuesday Apr 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
T. Testa made a motion to approve the minutes from DEI Committee Meeting on 01-06-26.
K. Kintzing seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
II. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
A.
Opening Connections
B.
Update on Goal Work and Board Survey Data
C.
Generating Questions to Guide Our Work
III. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
T. Testa
DEI Committee
QFT
Focus Topic: Identifying Systemic Barriers at Parker
What are our next steps in supporting PD to this end?
How do students get to Parker without buses?
Is it the board’s duty to identify systemic barriers or is it their role to provide resources, so the community can do that work?
Do BIPOC parents feel like they have a sense of community at Parker?
What is the board’s responsibility in supporting Parker in their commitment to this value?
What resources are out there to support board DEI, specific to ed. boards, PD?
How impact does the board have on what the faculty does?
What’s percolating from the ground up - what are the issues that students, family, and faculty are facing?
How does the faculty feel about DEI when it comes to Parker? If they did a survey, how would the responses differ or not?
Given the survey results, particularly under question 1, what are the systemic barriers on the board preventing it from having a regular equity mindset?
What part of this work can we, as a subcommittee, facilitate for the board, and where do we need to get some expertise?
How can we normalize the equity conversation? What’s our role in that?
What is my role in conveying the situation as I see it at school currently? What is the board for?
Where does the board lie relative to the faculty?
What does the data say our students are feeling or doing, disaggregated by race?
What does the board want out of this committee? What is it that the board needs from us?
Where does our line start and stop?
When undergoing DEI training, is it one and done, or do they carry out DEI practices in their own lives, and not just the board?
What IS Parker’s goal with DEI, and therefore what is the board’s responsibility in supporting that goal?
Does the board need to be made aware of the demographic generalizations that we might be making about specific profiles of students? Does the board want to know about how it’s really going?