F.W. Parker Charter Essential School
Minutes
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Date and Time
Monday June 3, 2024 at 7:00 PM
This meeting is hosted online. http://parker.school/deicommittee
Committee Members Present
B. Harrigan (remote), E. Moura (remote), J. Green (remote), K. Grabarek (remote), M. Silva-Rosa (remote), R. Whalen Crockett (remote), S. Razzetti (remote), T. Testa (remote)
Committee Members Absent
L. Hayner, P. Gordon
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
S. Razzetti called a meeting of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of F.W. Parker Charter Essential School to order on Monday Jun 3, 2024 at 7:03 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
R. Whalen Crockett made a motion to approve the minutes from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on 05-06-24.
M. Silva-Rosa seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
A.
Discuss with Ruth, how she stays informed, in the know and such
We need to more consciously take on getting DEI related information. Ruth shared the following:
- Leverage spot on leadership team and teaching new teachers – great position
- Critical friends groups – building equitable classrooms development resources; aligned with national organization Center for leadership and equitable education (CLEE) – fall meeting coming up; great place to build networks; consider sending folks to the CLEE upcoming meeting; https://clee.org/fall-meeting
- New professional standards of teaching coming next year – lots of language around creating equitable spaces, culturally and linguistically relevant; this is an area that may bear fruit
- Continue to partner with the Head of School on areas in student life that may need adjustment; have routine conversations with HoS.
- Continue to do check ins, stay online -> start meetings with joy and levity
- Brian would love for us to do a book study or film study; concept of capacity building; example BIPOC affinity group completely run by Parker faculty.
B.
Update on how the bipoc affinity group is going
- Update on BIPOC affinity group – check in; Sheila is keeping the community informed about what’s going on in this space via bulletin boards in the school; celebrating diverse groups various groups every month. Ex. Caribbean culture celebration; going to take time to build out the group
- Update on Multicultural or Cross-cultural group (aka Anti-antisemitism group) – will meet twice a month; an interfaith, safe space to celebrate everyone’s identity, education and advocacy group; will formalize in the fall. Taking little steps in this work, keep moving forward
C.
Strategic Plan and begin the work of creating goals for next year
Things to focus on next year:
- Enrollment of diverse students
- Recruit and hiring of diverse faculty and staff members
- Student outcomes data; analyze data including race, income, gender
D.
Discuss an orientation event for new students and families of color as part of our kickoff to the school year
- We will welcome 100 kids next year; want kids and families to get to know each other
- Aligned around having various interest groups at the end of summer potluck set up tables so kids and families can explore the various groups- clubs and organizations fair. Send out information ahead of the potluck that families can look at and think about what groups might be
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 8:02 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
S. Razzetti
Documents used during the meeting
- Parker Strategic Plan 5.28.24.pdf
Welcomed and introduced ourselves to Krzysztof Grabarek as a new member of the DEI Subcommittee