We discussed next month's meeting, and what would be helpful to talk about at next month's meeting.  We are starting with asking them to educate us, think about what challenges they are facing.  How can we add value to that process?   

Our goal is to : understanding current practices in hiring; we surfaced wonderings or questions that this group might have; what have you noticed for challenges or obstacles to hiring a more diverse staff.  

We talked about facilitating in rounds so that all voices are heard. 

 

We reviewed the presentation to the Board of Trustees, and M. Mestre-Price gave feedback about the presentation from a new perspective. 

We briefly looked at the Toolkit for Charter School Leaders and thought about dividing up the reading into sections for our December meeting so that we could review some best practices.  This was not a decision, but we will re-discuss in November.  There is also a webinar available for viewing.  

L. Warner had shared the survey that Parker faculty would be taking on the 18th.  This is not a climate survey, as J. Corazzini had described during our last meeting, but instead, an educational tool and place to start our conversation about our own biases and understandings.  We discussed having professionals who work on diversity and equity give us some feedback about this as an educational tool, or as a "climate" survey.  

We talked about the work we did to advocate for staff preference in the lottery and briefly discussed how we might go about advocating for a weighted lottery at Parker.  
T. Sumner will check with other charter school leaders about any work that has been done on the weighted lottery in Massachusetts. 

G. Penna and L. Warner will be writing a blurb/job description to send to Fitchburg State, UMASS Lowell and other local schools (possibly Atlantic Union) to look for a graduate student to engage in some work with us.