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F.W. Parker Charter Essential School

Minutes

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Tuesday February 9, 2021 at 5:45 PM

This meeting will be held virtually via Teams and can be accessed by committee members and the public using the following link: http://parker.school/deicommittee

Committee Members Present

M. Silva-Rosa (remote), T. Testa (remote)

Committee Members Absent

R. Whalen Crockett, T. Sumner, Z. Basma

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

M. Silva-Rosa called a meeting of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of F.W. Parker Charter Essential School to order on Tuesday Feb 9, 2021 at 5:52 PM.

C.

Approve Minutes

M. Silva-Rosa made a motion to approve the minutes from Diversity and Enrollment Committee Meeting on 07-29-20.
T. Testa seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.

II. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A.

Discuss Parker Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Goals for 2021

  • Our Goals dropped in the teams chat: [5:53 PM] Silva-Rosa, Mario
    • 1. Collaborate with staff to develop structure to recruit and subsequently support under-represented populations into Parker community.
    • 2. Create an educational experience for the Board to attain a better understanding of what the Parker staff has created for a roadmap for Parker to become an anti-racist school.
    • 3. Create funding to support the work that the Parker community is working on.
    • Mario: Retreat- discussed condensing goals we had- pair down to reasonable number, but focus needed to be narrowed down
    • These goals we came up with
    • Clean up the goals
    • Collaborating- will need creativity in terms of events we talked briefly about
      • Spread word about Parker and creating some sort of collateral material that can tell in a nutshell can speak to the Parker experience
      • Important for people to get a snapshot outside of the community in terms of articulating what goe son at Parker in an elevator pitch type of format
      • To explain the Parker experience- encapsulate into some sort of document- can be turned into a flyer- that people can take with them in terms of contact information
    • Tiff:
      • Parker reputation- Parker it is skewed, it is definitely particular families that come to Parker
      • We have a profile- of it didn’t work elsewhere
      • We are seen as a LGBTQ friendly environment, we are seen as an open community
      • Want the board work- let’s be envisioned as an equity school
        • A school who takes equity serious
        • Getting that word out there, draws in those minority communities
        • We cant change the lottery- but the only way we can change the pop- is skewing the lottery AND making it more inviting
      • More diverse younger grades- and not a reputation
    • Board could do some work with that-
      • Communicate and teach the board more about what we are doing at the school and our efforts
      • 1 and 2 are linked in our mind
    • Mario:
      • Maybe a page on our website- a dedicated place about what Parker stands for
        • How to navigate about what Parker is about
        • A landing page- to focus on the individuals- and talk about DEI about this narrative we want to create
        • This could be a great opportunity for COVID- with tangible examples
          • What did you experience in your local school
          • E.g. remote plus- and what that meant for our students
      • Capture some stories- and go out and point to what makes Parker unique
        • Then the goal is to enhance the pool of students going through the lottery system and increase probabilities
        • Educate ourselves- on the board
  • Anti-racist Task Force of Teachers:
    • Open to the teachers- anyone could put their names into Todd
    • Tiffany and Ruth chaired it
    • Let’s make it represent all aspects of the school- everyone had interest in doing the work
    • Make sure all corners were represented
    • Not about doing anti-racist work, but thinking about our schools as a system and making sure all of our corners were covered
    • Basic ground work- was on the common principal of Democracy and Equity
  • Broken up in 2 ways:
    • Work this year
    • Work in future and years to come
  • Work for individuals- competencies of teachers
  • Board can come in here: In community:
    • Taking risks with colleagues/systems and community members
  • Representation from different sections of parker- all over the school- all divisions represented
  • 2 main columns:
    • Proposed work to do- it’s a lot of work
    • A difficult and tough conversations
  • Summarize:
    • Whole school stuff:
      • Had summer readings: white fragility & how to be an antiracist
      • Whole faculty work around that
        • Goal #1: create a purpose statement about addressing race and equity- why is it imp. To do DEI at Parker
        • Ground work in the 2 texts
    • Framework of share leadership:
      • We don’t have a DEI role for someone
      • Also Parker has always done grassroots spread leadership
  • Spring goals:
    • Led by the critical friends professional learning group that focuses on race and equity
    • Group has done personal work
    • Faculty time will be spent to that
  • Domain level:
    • MST, AH, wellness, etc.: wouldn't do this work yet
  • Small group:
    • Library can put out resources
    • No intention of deep work with students
    • Work with students happens in advisory- and there is a real variance about how much there is - all depends on the experience and comfort of advisors
  • Next year goals:
    • Contracting out a consultant- many people want DEI person representing
    • But where we can find value- consultants who can teach us about this work
    • Looking at advisory and its role
    • Proposing new language to advisory
  • New Domain initiative:
    • Each domain can take on it’s own focus
    • Math and equity one year
    • Next year-every single domain will look at equity - equity practice in MST
  • Really look at data in terms of equity
  • Small groups:
    • Todd brings groups of advisors together
    • These people would be people in the school- who have the beat on equity- who know the ins and outs what is going on
  • Student body:
    • There is a DEI community block supporting that of students
    • With Sheila, creating a sort of doc. - a safe person that people can go and talk to about racial inequity
      • Do students feel there is space and place for this to be known
      • Idea of having some sort of document
  • Create- Atlanta, GA- org. Working within the schools
    • Have all kinds of training
    • Equity leadership training- have worked with Ruth and Colleen previously
Tif:
  • Would love for the board to be introduced to the work, and knowing the nuances of what the faculty board, etc. are doing
  • Tif. timeline:
    • Ruth would come to that meeting, and share as co-chairs as the task force- and present
    • We already sent it out to the faculty
  • Some part of the Board meeting doing the work
  • Here is what faculty is doing-
    • What does it mean for the board work
    • Does the board need to do any learning
  • School- define the purpose or the why of the work- because that is what the team was stuck on for a bit
  • Through many convos- the why was so clear
  • Making it very clear- faculty making it clear themselves and owning that is the first step- and takes personal work
  • Tiff:
    • Would like the board to dive into this document- and think about the work

B.

Update

C.

Next steps, next meeting, next agenda

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 6:38 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
M. Silva-Rosa