• Amy Davis
• Kim Iles
• De’Wana Smith
• Julie Daniels
• Lisa Pope
• Betsy Martin
• Anne Kenyon
• Angela Ceja-Reyes
• Nicole Ware
• Meagan Kimbrough
• Elizabeth Millan (minutes)

CONSULTANT INTERVIEW UPDATES - Amy Davis
Contacts:  Emailed top-tier consultant candidates (Hustle University, Jen Cort, and Dr. Lanier) on 8 January 2021.  Proposed panel interview to be scheduled weeks of 18 January or 25 January.  
Scheduling: In order to accommodate administration/teachers/student availability, optimal scheduling will be M-Th after 3 pm, or Fridays after 12:30 pm.  Betsy Martin will assist with Doodle Poll if needed for setting up exact timing after we hear back from each candidate.
Timeline:  Completion of interviews by end of Jan 2021.  Present findings to D&I Committee at the next meeting, scheduled for 9 February.  Present recommendation as well as funding request to Board of Directors at meeting tentatively scheduled for 17 February 2021.  Secure contract with consultant by end of Feb 2021.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT - Dianne Gonzalez
Dianne has spearheaded this effort to draft a statement regarding ERA’s stance on matters of Diversity & Inclusion.  This statement requires approval by the Board with the intention to publish on the school webpage (linked under navigation tab entitled “Why ERA?”), with eventual links to a calendar of the committee's meeting dates as well as the Strategic Plan.

Researched webpages of local peer schools, and reviewed main findings from four schools - The Expedition School (Hillsborough charter), Durham Academy (private), Raleigh Charter High School, and Woods Charter School (Chapel Hill).  These schools varied in the development stage of their D&I programs, and each held specific value for ERA as a peer cohort.

Discussed value of including links for further reading, as well as the timeline for hiring of a consultant.  In order to allow some flexibility, changed timeline from “February 2021” to “Spring 2021”.  In addition, decided to await consultant recommendations on links for further reading so as to be consistent with their philosophy.

Proposed Language - to be submitted for approval at upcoming Board of Directors meeting on 20 January 2021:
“The ERA Board of Directors formed a Diversity and Inclusion Task Force to collaborate on issues of equity at ERA. The Task Force has identified four pillars of focus: Staff Development Opportunities; Staff Recruitment and Support; Student Body Recruitment and Support; and Curriculum & Culture. 
To address these and related issues, the Board, the Task Force, and Administration have agreed to employ a professional consultant, and are actively interviewing diversity, inclusion, and equity professionals. The goal is to have a professional consultant on board, and measurable updates to our transformation by Spring 2021.  If you are interested in being part of this work and conversation, please get involved with our D&I Task Force by contacting us at (need dedicated email for D&I) or attend our upcoming meetings (D&I schedule link. We have BOD meetings on the main calendar, but not the D&I meetings, need to add that so we can direct people to the meeting schedule accordingly).”

Notes from Dianne Gonzalez follow:

Diversity and Inclusion Public Collateral Examples from Sister Schools:
Durham Academy:
https://www.da.org/about/diversity
The Expedition School:
https://www.theexpeditionschool.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1948673&type=d&pREC_ID=2073248
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iRjW5tfuqBuGS49iccmxDMGbdN6xrNjj2_BFPX3LMC8/edit
Raleigh Charter School:
https://www.raleighcharterhs.org/aboutus/diversity.asp
Woods Charter:
https://www.woodscharter.org/Content2/diversityinclusion

Add Resource language and links. This is optional, we can add these as recommended by the consultant:

Parents seeking resources on how to talk about diversity, inclusion, and equity with their children can find recommendations at:
          Mindful Schools: Healing Our Hearts
          Talking Race With Young Children
          My Role in a Social Change Ecosystem
          My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant (The New York Times Magazine)
          The Intersectionality Wars (Vox)
          Teaching Tolerance
          20 Picture Books for 2020: Readings to Embrace Race, Provide Solace & Do Good

Recommend the following addition as well, but also can be added at a later date:

Several of the schools I looked at had direct links to their strategic plans, and called out the D&I relevant sections of the plan as part of the collateral online. Do we have our strategic plan online? Do we want to do this as well?

STAFF RECRUITMENT - Amy Davis
College/University contacts for interns & student-teachers - Contact has been made with local colleges & universities to establish a pipeline and create partnerships for student-teachers.  These partnerships may also be utilized to recruit for a new position for interns for a student counselor and for school administration, as well as for future recruitment as teaching positions become open.  Several HBCUs were included in this effort.  Specific contacts included the following:  UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, NC State University, NC Central University, NC A & T University, UNC-Greensboro, Elon University, Shaw University, St. Augustine’s University, Meredith College, William Peace University, High Point University
Current Teacher openings - None at present, with no current plans to add new positions (dependent upon funding from NC General Assembly). Discussion regarding value of participation in recruitment fairs if no job openings currently exist.
Recruitment Fairs - Discussion regarding ERA presence at recruitment fairs for educators of color.  Many committee members voiced strong support of our presence both in terms of its internal (ie, current members of school community) and external (ie, larger community, including potential students and educators of color) value.  In addition to the “Teacher of Color recruitment fair” listed below, Betsy Martin will propose other option(s) in the local area which may have free registration, and be applicable to our D&I goals.

CALENDAR OF OPPORTUNITIES - Betsy Martin, Lisa Pope, Anne Kenyon
A multi-pronged calendar was thoroughly researched and developed by a break-out committee.  Opportunities were categorized by audience, date, and cost.  Details captured in in the link below.See Table under January 11th, 2021 meeting.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LAQ-1nY2oVygPd_uIfgWzu7cvOXeXtXT6EuC4AyU65I/edit?usp=sharing

• Finalize consultant group interviews times
• Review D&I website copy and vote at 1/20/21 Board Meeting 
• If there are any additions to the Calendar of Opportunities, please also feel free to add them into the table on the shared Google doc.
• The Next D&I Task Force Meeting will be Tuesday, February 9th at 5pm. Invite to be sent early next week.