Jessica gave an overview of planned agenda items: Open Meeting Law, skill-building, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work. She will meet with BoT representative (Sam) this week to iron out what BoT can offer us. We may need to bifurcate the agenda for new Board members and older Board members.
New Board members are interested in learning OML, basics, role of board members, responsibilities of committee chairs, etc. Conversations about how to improve as a board will involve the full board.

The Board will also take the BoT self-assessment to provide a framework for self-reflection.

Constance has shared a number of good suggestions for DEI specialists who might be able to support the Board looking forward. Constance further proposed that the Board could use the PD Day to get an introduction to what DEI work looks like. DEI work is more than one single session/box checking. Rather, it will be an ongoing process and the PD Day can start us off.  

Because the Committee did not have time to review the document ahead of the meeting, Jessica will email it around and Committee members will share any comments over the next few days. Some preliminary issues that were flagged:

- ED succession planning needs to be clearly distinguished (need approval from DOE?)
- Should we have a Manager of Operations succession plan?
 

Shanta will provide updates next month. 

Aluta's goal is to start committee meetings this month. Jessica will support with start-up.

Ellen has been considering what it looks like to address structural inequities at the school level, in the area of academics. Kurt has a heavy workload right now but Ellen will let him know that the Board is thinking about this topic, and we can perhaps revisit this together as a Board in the summer.

It has become clear over the last months that in order to make more concrete progress on our strategic goals, especially those that directly concern addressing structural inequities, we need to take concrete steps. The field of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work has been developed to help organizations do just that. Constance has stepped forward to offer some preliminary suggestions for the Professional Development Day over the last few months, and she also has some background knowledge of the field, so she has kindly agreed to lead the Board's engagement with this area of work. We will start with the PD Day and go from there.  

A lot of good information that can inform our next steps will be discussed at the PD Day, so we can reassess next month with that in mind.