Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County School Board Regular Meeting, Thursday, March 27, 2025

Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Place: Albemarle County Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 1h 38m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHC5UOnGKPI

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-14. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] - Good evening. The school board is now back in session. Do we have a motion coming out of closed meeting? - We do. I move that the board certified by recorded vote that to the best of each board member's knowledge, only a public business matter is lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

[00:00:28] - Second. have a motion by Mr. Page and a second by Ms. Lee. Do we have all of those in favor? Oh, do we have a roll call vote on this? We need a roll call. Sorry. Mr. Page? Yes. Chair Acuff? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes.

[00:00:59] Ms. Osborne? Yes. Dr. Berlin? Yes. Ms. Spillman? Yes. Ms. Pryor? Yes. Motion passes. Do we have a motion coming out of closed meeting we do i move that we authorize staff to pursue the purchase of parcels of land a b and c on the terms discussed in closed meeting do we have a second second motion made by miss spillman second in by miss lee all those in favor aye opposed motion passes next order of

[00:01:30] business is a roll call uh dr hayes you want to start sure um dr hayes assistant superintendent of instruction. Musa Ahmed, student representative. Judy Lee, Rivanna district. Allison Spillman, at-large representative. Graham Page, Miller district. Kate Acuff, Jack Jewett district. Rebecca Berlin, Whitehall district. Ellen Osborne, Scottsville district. Leslie Pryor, Rio district.

[00:01:57] Matthew Haas, superintendent. Claire Keiser, assistant superintendent of organizational development. Erin Stone, assistant school division council serving as school board clerk this evening. josiah black school division council thank you next order of business is pledge of allegiance

[00:02:37] and now we'll have a moment of silence next item of business is to approve tonight's agenda do we have a motion i move to approve tonight's agenda second motion made by dr berlin seconded

[00:03:12] by Ms. Lee. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Ms. Osborne, do we have any public comment tonight? We do not have any public comment tonight. Thank you. Next item of business is approval of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? I move we approve the consent agenda. Second.

[00:03:34] Motion moved by Ms. Lee, seconded by Ms. Spillman. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Approval of the consent agenda is had um now we move right into the uh school division work session and i believe who do we have leading that oh we ayana mitchell is here to set us up good evening good evening

[00:04:04] everybody good evening thank you for having us right so we are excited to just make sure yeah share with you today um about the work that we do in the department of instruction uh equity education where we are working to end the predictive value building a system where every student

[00:04:36] succeeds before we get started i do want to ask that we hold to some of the norms for tonight where we assume best intent listen deeply and for understanding remain curious and engage in open dialogue and you will have lots of opportunities to do that today and i hope you take advantage of that do we have the folders thank you so we are all very familiar with our strategic plan

[00:05:12] and as you can see we are rooted in the work in the very beginning of this plan of the mission working together as a team we will end the predictive value of race class gender and special capacities for our children's success through high quality teaching and learning for all and in our department that is our number one and sole purpose in this work in our division is to get to that so when you hear the word culture i want you to share what comes to mind and my slido

[00:05:48] won't work it was going to be a bubble but we're just going to talk about it when you hear the word culture what comes to mind anybody will popcorn anybody can share I can start the beliefs and

[00:06:10] values of an organization wonderful thank you Rebecca it's your work session when you hear the word culture what comes to mind I would say the ideas that shape a society's way of life thank

[00:06:37] you yeah this should be an easy question but it's not I mean I think of my own culture but I think of looking you know at other cultures and understanding the differences yeah thank you

[00:07:03] i'm using my wait time what using my wait time um i i think of um so when i think of like the culture that i want to pass to my son i think of things that are passed through generations when i think of culture like traditions traditions things that survive yeah thank you okay maybe a

[00:07:39] set of values or ideas that's passed along or agreed upon by a certain group of people i don't know someone over here say norms or beliefs thank you you say traditions you may say traditions yeah is that everybody i think diversity diversity thank you did i miss anyone i think you got a little something from everyone

[00:08:18] wonderful good because that's what we're going to be able to anchor that thinking around is your perspective that you're walking into this conversation with of what is culture so tonight we're going to go through a few different things um we're going to talk we're going to we just did our poll but we're going to talk about culture and if you have a folder that has some one-pagers to help you guide through this conversation there is a pre-test because i'm an educator in there it's not a test no evaluation attached but i want you to take a moment as we go through

[00:08:57] get you started to start filling out some of those questions that are there just so that you can be thinking about what you want to hear tonight we're going to talk about what it looks like here in albemarle county public schools to end the predictive value for our students you're going to have an opportunity to hear from students and staff about this work and then we're going to have a little bit of an opportunity to have a place in the shoes of an educator thinking about this work and hopefully we'll be able to give you some time for some questions and this will be interactive

[00:09:35] and you'll be able to hear more and learn more about what we did so take a moment to fill that out and then i will have the team come introduce themselves and then we're going to get rocking and rolling good afternoon everyone i'm dr melissa harrison hey y'all i'm megan washburn my pronouns

[00:10:12] are she her and my name is stephen turner thanks for having us tonight give you a moment to fill

[00:10:21] that out and then we're going to keep moving forward all right so as you finish that hopefully

[00:11:33] you can hear me a little better this time now that i don't have it tilted down so our mission is to operationalize culturally responsive practices as we build educator capacity to close achievement opportunity gaps and access gaps for our students and we really are working to embed culturally responsive systems and structures across the school division so that we can move forward together as culturally responsive educators and leaders.

[00:12:03] So this has been a long journey that some of you have been part of, some of you have watched from afar, and some of you are just entering. This journey started in 2009, believe it or not, where there were some educators in classrooms that were noticing there was this gap happening and they could not figure out what to do.

[00:12:26] And as a result, they started doing some research and found some items, including Soretta Hammond's text, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. Ever since then, our school division has been on a journey to change predictive outcomes for our students.

[00:12:44] We have gone through lots of iterations of what does our culturally responsive teaching program look like. We've even shifted because now we are called culturally responsive educators because it's not just the teachers in the classroom who own this work, it's everybody who's an educator here in the school division.

[00:13:02] By the time 2019 came around, we started to see that this was some of the most important work happening in the school division because of the work that our teachers were showing at our equity conference. By 2021, VDOE passed laws and regulation around cultural competencies that we align our work to now.

[00:13:26] And our program shifted to community engagement with the director. And now we are living in the house of instruction, which is where I think we've always belonged. Because now we can really be rooted in all of the intricacies of what happens with students and how they learn.

[00:13:48] So you had a chance to fill this form out and I hope this gave you an opportunity to start thinking about what you want to hear and what you're hoping to get out of this. With that, I'm going to pass this over to Steven. Thanks again for having us tonight. Dr. Berlin, you gave a definition when you said culture that took me back like several years. Do you remember what you said?

[00:14:12] or is it is the beliefs values and norms that are part of an organization yes when I first was introduced to this work I remember and there are a lot of folks in the room that may have been around way back then but the thing that stuck with me that I remember hearing was the culture eats policy for breakfast and your your definition of that just brought that up in my in my brain I hadn't thought about it in a while but on the left side of the slide there you can see this this image okay? In Albemarle County, a lot of the work that we do around culturally responsive education is

[00:14:50] rooted in the writing of Zaretta Hammond. She has taken a lot of research and a lot of work from other sociologists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, educators, and put it into an understandable framework. This culture tree, if you'll excuse the pun, really roots our understanding of culture that wasn't very funny was it our understanding of culture and it helps us to get an image or to think about what culture is to us right so you've got the three levels of culture there starting at the surface level you've got the leaves on the tree these are the things that we see the

[00:15:28] things that are easily visible a lot of times this is the place where we stop the food the food the music dress style and such as you go deeper down the tree and and get further towards the roots you get into the shallow and the deep culture now we acknowledge and recognize surface culture in a lot of different ways and that does help us to to connect with each other to build relationships but oftentimes as we get down into things if you read some of the descriptors there as you go deeper the way we communicate non-verbally things like eye contact our conceptualization of personal space as you go deeper down

[00:16:04] into that really our worldviews what is our our social construct of what family means what do we think of time do we do we work more collectively or more of collectivist people versus individualistic and these are elements that aren't necessarily right or wrong but these are the places where oftentimes we find cultural incongruencies that can create barriers in our relationships with other people and sometimes keep others from flourishing so this quote from Hammond is the way that we think about culture. Turns out it's the way that

[00:16:41] every brain makes sense of the world. I think she uses the metaphor, if you think of your brain as a computer, culture is more or less the software that drives it. This roots us back into the reality that we all have a culture. You know the sociologists say the fish don't recognize the water that they're swimming in, but it's helpful for us to all step back and recognize that wherever we come from it, whoever we are. We have a culture and that culture has largely been the thing that's helped us make sense out of our world. Oh yeah, a little turn and talk. So thinking about your

[00:17:19] own culture, you've had a few minutes to write and reflect a little bit. We just wanted to take a pause and give you all a chance with someone that you're sitting beside, just to take a little elbow partner and think about that question and take 60 seconds to two minutes and share with one another uh how has your personal culture shaped your learning experiences from the time you were school age up till the present

[00:18:44] we'll take a couple more seconds

[00:18:56] dr hayes you look like you were having a lively conversation over there so would you like to share anything from you and your partner's thoughts yeah she called me out um sure so moose and i have talked about how we both grew up in large families and how the our environment being around siblings and family members shaped uh how we viewed our you know moving through school and maybe the things that we want to do in our future thank you would anybody

[00:19:28] else like to share all right well we're gonna we're gonna move in and dig a little deeper into the education side and think about what is culturally responsive education so you notice that there's one bullet already existing and that is building relationships because we're if we went back to that tree we think about those roots we really need to have strong relationships to make this work be profitable be achievable to make it resonate with both teachers and students and

[00:20:06] families and all of us in albemarle county in addition to that we want to think about assessments part of culturally responsive education, connecting learning to real life experiences. We use the terms rigor, relevance, and relationships, so we want to make sure that it is indeed relevant. Using students prior knowledge, activating their knowledge, using that prior knowledge to start our lessons, to to

[00:20:37] engage with tasks. Recognizing and nurturing strengths. Curriculum development. What kind of inclusive materials are we using? Are we are we using books are we using videos again going back to that relevancy part what what kinds of things are going to resonate with our students when the tasks are put on their tables student-centered approach something that has been a hallmark of Alamark County is that we we take this approach and it's deeply

[00:21:13] embedded in all the things that we do and just like all of the other arms and levers that we use to access and to help students student-centered approach is a part a very embedded part of cultural responsive education classroom environment we talked about imitational learning when we connect that to our framework quality learning so it needs to be linguistically diverse when we think about multicultural education we put things on the board but what makes culture responsive education different is that it students are going to connect to it.

[00:21:51] And so I'm just thinking about how that lives for them in their educational experience. And then we want to think about also, as mentioned just a moment ago, creating those inclusive environments. So I have a question mark here, and you see the different levers of culturally responsive education.

[00:22:13] What would you add? This fall under the relationships piece, but I think about students who see themselves and their teachers their and their school leaders and their administrators thank you so similar languages similar backgrounds similar beliefs thank you i was going to say the same thing i

[00:22:48] totally agree a connector there all right any other thoughts i don't know how to say this in sort of a bullet point but i know that when i've been to the um the equity conferences in the past there was a lot of discussion about uh educators finding their own cultures and understanding their own cultures as a part of it so i know that like the student-centered approach is really important but also like really understanding where you come from too thank you the other thing i think about

[00:23:24] is that students exist within a family um whatever that family looks like for them and that making sure families are welcome as part of the school environment because they're a part of the support that students need and i would thank you i mean i think it's it's more than the relationship between the teachers or the administrators and the students it's also the students recognizing

[00:23:51] the culture of their classmates as as well thank you for that and all of those are the correct answers so far you all have stars gold so um i wanted to talk a little bit about uh code 22.1 298.7 because it does really guide at this point from vdoe what exactly it is that are expected in

[00:24:27] cultural competencies and to clarify to what degree this should be happening so according to the law you the school board were able to make a decision on what exactly that training looked like you chose us you liked what you saw you saw outcomes and you said this is the one that i want to pursue and this is what i want people to be part of so we do have our training set up the competencies and the domains are set up as you see here we have it structured so that you see lenses and those little pencils and the little partnership because we have three different

[00:25:06] characteristics that we meet that through but all of those competencies are what we're teaching through our program and that's the program that's being offered to our staff it really touches on all of the things that they want and it's living in the epa and the apa at this point as one of the things that is being evaluated for teacher in teacher evaluations so we have met the guidelines as far as that's concerned the next part of those guidelines i just want you to keep in the back of your mind is that this is supposed to happen every two years and that within every two years there is

[00:25:42] supposed to be continued training at this point we have the program that exists but there is a next step to that that we'll have to continue and this work is never done so that's a great opportunity for us and so ayana mentioned the icons you see here one of the glasses you have a pencil and you have hands shaking and so if we go in these represent the three major parts of the of our

[00:26:16] culturally responsive educator framework so if we look at the first one is your cultural lens cultural responsive educators acknowledge and incorporate the cultural influence of all students but in addition to that they're also going to reflect on their own how do we do that by thinking about how we our communication styles our expectations um how do they affect the students that that we teach and so they show up in a certain way we show up in a certain way we have We have to make those things merry so that we can have a successful partnership.

[00:26:53] Inclusive classroom environment, again, I mentioned that multicultural. That was one level of culturally responsive education, but we want to take it a little bit deeper and again have those anchor charts, those books in our classroom library that students can go to and see themselves in, those windows and those mirrors.

[00:27:13] And also then focusing on inclusive curriculum resources. So those are just some ways in which educators, division leaders, the way we think about that first arm or that first lever of the framework.

[00:27:29] When we think about the pencil, we're thinking about instruction. Many of you may have heard the term equity audit. And so our educators use those equity audits similar in a way that you might be in a PLC and you're thinking about who's making progress, who's not.

[00:27:47] But an equity audit is going to take it one step deeper. And so what it's going to do is allow you to think for patterns and trends in that data that you're mining, and then think about what are some ways that I can adjust instructionally to meet the needs of the student.

[00:28:02] So that's that disaggregating different forms of data. It may not always be your reading data, your math data, your science data. It could also be academic data. It could be your phone log, when you're thinking about how many contacts have I had with this family, hmm, you know, if I see that that's a little deficient, then I may need to think about some strategies to make contact with families.

[00:28:28] So that data can look a lot of different ways. The more sources you have, the more you can triangulate that data, and then that'll make stronger reliability as you're thinking about strategies that you want to use. different types of assessment not all paper pencil not all computer you know portfolios what are some ways that thinking about that student and how they really show their shine and what they know and what they can do no understand and be able to do and then finally under instruction just thinking about inclusivity and respect thinking about our a bar policy and and how that

[00:29:06] resonates within the classroom having students have those conversations thinking about differences and similarities, and then how can we do that in a respectful way? And then finally, the last lever, or the last part of the framework has to do with partnerships.

[00:29:22] Starting with that student level partnership, being that warm demander, helping them to learn how to do learning partnerships where they can grow themselves and set their own goals and think about how they can make strides in their achievement.

[00:29:38] Developing partnerships with families, and using their cultural wealth and and what they know as their first teachers of their students bring that knowledge into the classroom and how can i help your student based on information i can get from you and then finally broadening that circle and developing those partnerships with our community and using their their wisdom and and their support to help support our school school buildings and our students so i wanted to share a little bit about our current programming

[00:30:15] with you this programming that we've been working on for the last two to three years really is a way to honor and recognize the strong work that the really rich work that folks did back in 2015 16 and beyond when Anna mentioned how like from the grassroots this came up right and it was a real dedicated group of educators that started this program and as we grew it as we expanded especially when we got to the point where the school board itself said that we want to get this into the hands of all teachers we want everybody trained in this. We made some shifts and adjustments so this model really I think honors the past but also gives us a strategic pathway for moving forward to

[00:30:53] to meeting the needs of more teachers and even moving beyond thinking about credentialing itself but embedding this work into into all that we do. The pyramid's a really good representation of how the programming is structured. Every teacher the goal is will start with the Zaretta Hammond book study.

[00:31:11] I've referred to that a few times already tonight, but Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Brain. It actually has a very nice subtitle too, but it's long. It mentions culturally diverse and linguistically diverse learners.

[00:31:26] So this creates a foundational learning for all of our educators. One thing that is really helpful with this is terminology that we use all the time, like warm demander, the learning pit, productive struggle. There's a rich language in this book around being culturally responsive that we can all share and communicate better around the topic.

[00:31:49] Moving on from the book study, micro-credentialing is the standard. That's the goal for everybody to reach. Currently our micro-credentialing is set up through three separate courses that are run through Schoology. Teachers have flexibility in engaging.

[00:32:04] Some of them will engage alone asynchronously. will work in cohorts and groups together who are in their plc teams to work through these products and to work through this learning together once they get to that stage it's about professional learning but there's also evidence of application in their work the submissions that they make demonstrate how they're using these these things in in their day-to-day practice at the top of that pyramid we have certification which really takes us back to the beginning this is still an action research project where teachers that are committed teachers and other educators that are committed

[00:32:41] and willing and ready to go beyond the simple i'm going to back off and not call it simple but beyond the micro credential to something that requires tracking student data making decisions based on what they see and then looking at the outcomes and the results of what they do for a certification product so that's in a short nutshell that's the progress that we see folks going through in the culturally responsive educator program even mentioned

[00:33:17] the book study and it again it was the bottom of the triangle because it's the foundational learning and so I'm going to ask you to do something before I do that I'm going to look at that bottom statement and it says starting this year all novice teachers are receiving that cultural competency training in their cohort so in the novice cohort they are getting the training that you saw from those levers that ms mitchell talked about earlier but then that also brings in parts of the program of our programming including parts from the book study course so i want you to write down a number

[00:33:54] i want you to think about how many albano county employees have completed the book study course so think about our total number and then write down the number either carried in your head how many have already completed the course and that's from inception to now all right anybody want to hold up their number guesses dr acuff what do you think after you take your sip of water

[00:34:32] 500 500 okay for the books 600 600 is the closest without going over is it closest without going over i had 4 000. 4 000. wow i had 5 000. 5 000. these numbers are growing all right what you got dr haas yep well we have 2 800 employees so okay um i think it was 600 and some change i thought it was on the previous slide 600 500 but then everyone who had gone further had already

[00:35:09] done that one and then i was thinking about past years too okay are you ready for the answer all right 1 318. um dr haas would you restate what you said we have employees 28 100 employees so then think about this number and think about the impact 1318 from the beginning of the program till now so some of the school board members have also done the books exactly so give yourself a hand for

[00:35:42] that give yourself a hand on just what you just mentioned so when we continue to mind these numbers and think about impact um 60 currently are registered for the book study so that means that we'll continue to have that number to grow by adding the 60 to this 1318 well the 60 may not look like a big number but when you're thinking about those 2800 the 1318 plus 60 we only have

[00:36:13] about 154 almar county employees that have not started the book study okay so again just think about that and in and we're thinking about that impact also just want to thank you for the support and the encouragement to continue to do this work okay so there are teachers and educators who are licensed who are required that reflects those numbers when we say employees just to

[00:36:47] clarify so who was surprised by 1300 was anybody surprised by that because i heard some fives and 600s did you realize we were making that kind of progress no no that means there's not many people who are new to the only people who are represented who did not do it yet are the people who are in our who just got here about 200 people and then 154 who have not engaged at all with our program

[00:37:24] so what does that mean for us here in a school division so you can see as we look at that chart we started with four people four those are the people who really about this work well five right something like that then they were like okay you know they were the people getting this going

[00:37:54] as you can see over time we have grown and grown and grown we have 488 micro credentialed educators in the school division at this moment that does not include people who engaged in our micro credential and left and i've been promoted and who went to other things that does include a lot of people who have been also certified which is 149 certified employees at this point which means we

[00:38:32] have 800 i mean 637 educators who are required to go through our programming which is a little about 40 percent of the staff who needs to be finished with our programming at this point i'll give you a moment and steven just said 2025 ain't over they're working they're making it happen i was going to have melissa um share this because she put this up here but for the sake of time and

[00:39:11] us bouncing back and forth i realized that gets a little wonky but um the reason why this is here is because i want you to take a look at that student work sample and even glean through what the educator said about it and then i want ellen and leslie to share what stood out about what they

[00:39:45] see and what they read what stood out for me was the fact that the teacher actually used this information and what she learned to make the classroom a more inclusive space for everybody and not just this particular student the bond i heard the bond let's see adjust your mic i was saying that i thought that um as she spoke about how the bond between the families and the students so i thought for me that's that wonderful okay graham tell me what stands out about the

[00:40:23] student work uh second grade great and in a way maybe it might apply in class since she knows what her name means that she might know a little bit about the culture at least up to a certain level of radio does it surprise you that she can that she is engaged in that way to even see her name as such a beautiful name and look at the handwriting and those pictures employees pious

[00:41:02] so this is an opportunity just for you to see before we hear about what happens what this means it's not just numbers of people who completed a credential it's about learning that happens in the classroom. So let's talk data because at some point we had to get to the so what does this mean in the nitty-gritty. Now before I get into all of these data slides some of them you've seen some of you you haven't some of them have been in context of other things but everything we do is about

[00:41:39] moving the culture of a school division and culturally responsive education is about the way in which we do our work. So the better we have great instructional tools and the more we have the depth and understanding of who we are and who our students are and how to apply those tools is the more we can move together as a culturally responsive school division to meet the needs of students. So there's often times conversations that says, "Well what did you do that was culturally responsive that showed up on the students desk so that we know what you did was what the

[00:42:12] student did so they did that. That's what they did so they did that." But it was because a teacher understood the assignment because teachers in a school division understand what we are doing and what we need to do for kids we have data that shows big outcomes right i can't say well i called the parent five times and that's why this student now has this we do many many

[00:42:49] things across the school division together through instruction and all of the supports that go with it to make this happen. But since we've been doing this work, you will see there are trends that are undeniable of how we together collectively have been moving closer and closer as a culturally responsive school division. When I first got here in 2016, almost my 10 year anniversary, I walked into why were they looking at this? Why were you all looking at this? Because we We saw huge deficits consistently.

[00:43:28] We had predictive values. We knew that if you were black, if you were a special education student, if you were an English language learner, you were not going to be seeing the same success as others. We've said that over and over again.

[00:43:45] We were looking at gifted and talented. We were looking at higher level classes and we were saying, they're just not getting, we don't know. What are we doing? This is what we're doing.

[00:44:01] UVA, as you know, did a full analysis of our programming and watches and helps us with the data. Dr. Karlock is one of my closest people. And we can see the positive influence this is having.

[00:44:21] This shows students with a certified teacher versus students without. Notice anything?

[00:44:37] What's happening with that data? There's a pretty clear answer of the teachers that I want in the classroom. Do you notice that everybody went up, not just some?

[00:44:55] That's how research says, that's how we know we're doing this right, because everybody goes up. Notice anything? Go ahead. I was just going to say, and as an education researcher by training, it's very rare that you see this kind of statistical significance across all demographic groups.

[00:45:18] Why is that? Why is that rare? Well, because most things are targeted to our very specific subgroup of people. So then what conclusion would we make based on what you just said?

[00:45:35] culturally responsive education for a specific subgroup it's for all kids and the data shows that clearly all right this is a chart that gives us an opportunity to take a look at what's happened in our program overall compared to Virginia again I can't say the reason why is because I understand my bias and therefore these are why we have these results but I do know these

[00:46:13] are the results since we've been doing this work everyone has been showing growth everyone is impacted over and over and over again and even though on an sol test score to see who's passing now there's lots of students who are passing so you're not going to see an increase in pass rate because they are already passing but we can certainly see how we get closer and closer for

[00:46:41] everyone consistently and at the end of the day all that work is getting kids in classrooms i feel like i belong here i'm coming to school somebody's calling a check on me i'm probably coming to

[00:47:12] school mom can't get me there but somebody had that van and they came to pick me up that's the power of moving together as a culturally responsive school division it's not just the work of the teacher in the classroom I could tell you Jamie who's in charge who is over transportation is a culturally responsive leader fully certified not about what they got on the desk about how she thinks about how we're gonna

[00:47:45] make it happen for kids because that's the power of this work so I believe we're gonna take a short break right and we're gonna relocate but I'm gonna let you go right short break 15 minutes oh good and we're gonna reconvene so I'm gonna pass to see you and i'm going to get my panelists ready and then we're going to hear from students and staff about how this work is really showing up not just in the numbers but in people i think

[00:48:16] this is when we also move to room 241 right thank you maybe a minute before 15 minutes but why don't we go ahead and get started i know everybody telling us to get home before 10 o'clock this session this meeting is back in session and ideal to our presenters and i want to remind people i've I've been told that these microphones are not working, so just project your voice.

[00:48:56] Is that about right? Yeah, project your voice. Project your voice. Okay, I'm going to bring out my best coaching voice. So as my team has shown you, they've talked about what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. And now I have nine reasons to kind of support the reason behind it.

[00:49:15] So we're going to give them opportunities to tell their story, share how the work that we've done with them has impacted them. And then we'll hopefully have some time for you all to ask some questions. So the first thing we're going to do, we're going to have everyone introduce yourself. What's your name and where are you from?

[00:49:33] Which school are you from? Okay. I'm Crystal Beasley. I'm an assistant principal at Henley Middle School. I'm Amy Morris, principal at Broadfoot Elementary. Jen Graham, I'm the 8th grade English teacher at Walton Middle School. I'm Erica Hernandez, the English language teacher at Lakeside Middle School.

[00:49:52] I'm Jack, and I'm Elizabeth Blair County, and I'm the 5th grade student. I'm Jack Schmidt. I'm the Jack Tupole. I'm Elsie Reineke, and I'm an 8th grader at Walton Middle School.

[00:50:10] I'm Blessing Collin, and I'm me. I'm Jack, and I'm an 8th grader at Walton Middle School. So I'm going to sit here so that I don't take the spotlight from you all, but I'm going to start with a question for our students, And if each one of you would take a second to answer, you should have the questions in front of you.

[00:50:28] So the first question is, what helps you feel seen and valued in your school? My teacher and brother was very open, had a lot of faces, and had a lot of books that inspired me.

[00:50:54] One of the books was about a young girl who played piano that was black. I'm black and I play media. She just took time to pick a book that was right for us, and I was always so welcome.

[00:51:13] What makes me feel seen and valued in high school is we have a lot of clubs for a multitude of things, but for LGBTQ and also a lot of cultural things throughout.

[00:51:36] We have this thing called Advisory Plus where we learn about different cultures a lot. That's really nice because other people get to see what some other people in our school lives can be like and a lot of cultures and their feelings, and that definitely makes me feel seen because we do a lot of stuff about Hispanics and Black people, and also our LGBTQ clubs are very nice.

[00:52:08] I would also say the clubs and the activities we do in class. There's a lot of clubs for people to join and like things that you want to do. So when I join like a club that I want, I feel like I'm part of that club and my presence there is like I'm part of the club and I'm important.

[00:52:31] And everyone feels like that and we're all like engaged there. And also with the advisory class, we also get to learn a lot about other people, other cultures, and a lot of the time we get to share our own cultures and like parts of our life that are important to us.

[00:52:48] And that's important, especially for a lot of people. And it's just fun with our universities in essence. So that's very important. And we also have to do the next group called Woka Mocha, which legally sponsors-- it means one of the character, a good character, and it promotes different lessons that we're able to be part of not only culture, but how to be kind to each other and protect each other.

[00:53:17] Who's leading that? Woka Mocha. Woka. I feel seen and valued when we have teachers can talk to openly about diversity and about many different cultures and also how to learn like books and buy presentations about different values. That's great. Thanks y'all. We'll come back to you with the last question. All right, so for our leaders and our teachers and for teaching

[00:53:58] let's start with your role as an educator. How has CRA changed your teaching? How does it support So, you know, equity in education has always been something on my radar, so to speak, but it wasn't until I deeply engaged in this work that I felt that there was like a clear direction and mission around it.

[00:54:38] And for me, it felt like, and it is, like a constant unpacking and uncovering. So one of the things they talked about was, like, the equity audits of classrooms and getting feedback from kids through surveys and other avenues. And when I first engaged in the work, I gave a survey a couple weeks into school and found out that white females predominantly preferred my class.

[00:55:01] I tend to be a teacher that kids connect to over the course of the year, but that was really surprising to me. And some of the feedback I got was that I expected too much silence, that it was a little bit too locked in. And I had to look at the data, honestly, that these were the kids' honest feedback to me a couple weeks into school.

[00:55:23] And it didn't matter that I was, quote-unquote, treating everybody the same. How it was perceived from the kids was very different. And through the year, that first year that I really was kind of going through my certification, I had a student, a young lady who was black, told me through a class discussion around a poem we had read that she didn't feel safe or comfortable around white adults.

[00:55:48] She always felt uncomfortable. And the aha for me in that moment, and I still, this was back in 2020, like the 2019 and 2020, and I still, it made me realize how incumbent it was upon the educators to close that gap because nobody can learn when their brains aren't comfortable, when their body isn't comfortable.

[00:56:09] And so for me, it just was a constant mission every year to make sure kids felt safe in my space in a very directive way because it doesn't matter how I see them. It's how they perceive me in the classroom. And so that's, I know, just one story of many that I could share.

[00:56:26] I won't do that. My daughter is Zylee at the end of the row here. It was when she was talking about her teacher last year, and this is my parent lens. When I walked into her classroom, and I've worked in this district for 20 years. We have a lot of amazing, outstanding teachers.

[00:56:43] Her teacher had black girls on the wall when we like to read. And I knew walking in that room, my kid's going to feel safe. And I teared up because that's who I am. She's like, Mom, stop. But I knew my kid's going to be seen in this room. And it's immediate comfort for parents, right?

[00:57:01] And so that's, I think, all I'll say for now, because I don't want to, you know, but this work is meaningful, it's powerful, and it needs to continue. Yeah, awesome. So I am going to be very honest. I'm kind of sky-eyed Steven, because I'm sure he's spidered right now. Of course you are.

[00:57:20] I loved this question, but we were kind of given these questions, because I will be very honest and tell you, I don't think it has changed much of my work. What it has done, it has, like, validated the importance that I have always felt and put in building a relationship with my students and my families.

[00:57:38] I remember going through the certification process with Stephen and saying, but I do this. I do this all the time. Like, I know that I have this example and this example. And he said, that's what you're doing. You're going to show us. Like, show me what you did. How did you do this? How do you do this?

[00:57:54] So it was just very validating to see that the work that I intrinsically did or that I did year to year was so powerful and so meaningful. I recently made the switch to middle school last year and going from 14 years in elementary and switching to middle school to secondary, I have seen that rigor change completely now.

[00:58:19] As a Hispanic woman, I feel like I am able to connect to my students in very different ways now. I have gone through, you know, avid interviews with my students to showing the importance of getting into college and what we can do next. And it's those kinds of expectations now where I can vividly say, if I can do this, here's how I do this.

[00:58:41] These are the steps that I took, and you have so many more opportunities. So I think it is just opening doors for educators to be able to have better relationships, more open conversations with their students, with families. I can tell you my family partnerships are very strong.

[00:58:56] I have parents who will text me and email me and ask for all kinds of support, whether it be can you put me in the direction of some legal services that we might need for any kind of immigration statuses or things like that to, hey, I got an email from their science teacher.

[00:59:13] They're really struggling here. What can we do? How can we, you know, partner together? Because they clearly don't speak the same language and we're, you know, having some struggles. So it has just bridged these gaps for us to be able to interact with it. for our school leaders if you would speak to it from your leadership lens so um as an assistant principal i'm not in the classroom anymore and i miss it i really miss having the close connections with the students having the opportunity to have those conversations that

[00:59:46] i don't get to have so i really um try to spend time with in the classrooms as much as possible and i try to connect with my students right always trying to connect with the families because I feel like that is the most important thing I can do as an administrator to connect with my students.

[01:00:06] It is very important for me to show the children that although we can be very different, culturally different, we are still very much the same. And it is so fun for me to have conversations with the students.

[01:00:24] I'd love to find out what, tell me all about yourself. Like, I want to know so much about you. who's at home with you who do you care about what holidays do you celebrate what food what music all of that good stuff and and talking to the children and sharing we found out oh you do that I celebrate that oh you do that we do too oh my children do this my children you're here I had a very nice comment from a young man that spent ate lunch with me the other day on Fridays I listened to music, and I was listening to Earth, Wind, and Fiber.

[01:00:56] And he said, and it's fairly low, so you can't hear it if you're having a conversation. And he said, no, wait. And I stopped, and I said, what's wrong, what is it? And he said, oh, my grandma listens to that. But I'm deep in connecting with the students and finding more out, more about them.

[01:01:18] It breeds familiarity, it breeds comfort. And I think it's that comfort and that connection that we definitely want to make. We strive very hard to create an inclusive environment so everyone is heard, everyone is recognized, diversity as well.

[01:01:34] And it definitely benefits everyone, the administrators, the teachers, the students, the families, and we welcome it and foster it as much as possible. So this is my 25th year in the county, and I was actually one of the first diversity resource teachers, like the first year that the county had diversity resource teachers.

[01:02:00] I was one of them when Dr. Pearson started it. So that's a really neat connection to have had a really long time ago. I was teaching kindergarten, first and second grade at that time, and have done several different pieces of admin work at middle and elementary, and am now in elementary as a principal.

[01:02:25] I think that what Erica said really resonates with me because it has continued to become really validating because the things that I continue to learn validate kind of how I've always felt education should be.

[01:02:49] And even going through the microcredential process, not the newest one, but the one right before that, it really just kind of validated a lot of what I believe is what education needs to be.

[01:03:08] And it's validated even more now because I started at my school an equity audit process school-wide, which started as we'll just do it twice a year. Then it was, or actually we did it one time the first year, and then the second time we'll do it twice a year.

[01:03:32] And then the next year it was like, let's do this quarterly. And the reason that we continued to do the equity out of process and went to quarterly was because we were seeing such great results with achievement.

[01:03:49] And eventually that became super validating this past year because we became one of the schools in the division who got the highest achievement award and the exemplar award. And I really believe that it is partially because of the work that we have done with culturally responsive teaching and the equity audit work that we continue to do because it really is making sure that every student who walks through our door, feels like they belong, but also their family knows that we know their kid.

[01:04:29] And exactly zero parents want to feel like you don't know their kid. And I'm a parent, too, so I know this very deeply. But I think that it not only helps in that way with relationships, but it clearly makes a huge difference in achievement.

[01:04:50] And so those numbers that Ayanna showed are not a surprise. I'm going to ask you one more question and I'm changing it a little bit so I'm going to give you some think time.

[01:05:13] So here's the question and I'll tell you how I want you to think about it. Why is the work important, necessary for our entire ACPS community? And you all have been learning about that today, the things that we're doing. So I'm going to have you think of five words to answer that question and we're going to do a quick share.

[01:05:31] Okay. Five words to summarize your answer to the question, why is this work important or necessary for our entire ACPS community? Take time. Good. Put you on the spot there. They weren't ready for that change.

[01:06:01] It is late. It doesn't have to be five. It could be two. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It can be three. Cultural relevance is one of the most important things we can recognize in education.

[01:06:30] I was going with the one word. I mean, the five individual words. So I was thinking equity, humanity, achievement, belonging, and trust.

[01:06:52] My thought is the idea of every kid who's not a semi-trainer or done with that, but every kid feels valued. Nobody tell Michael's that. I'm a patient. I was going to say, when you are safe, you're able to learn.

[01:07:13] I really don't think I could ever think just five words for that, but I will say that it's important because it is definitely here to learn.

[01:07:35] classroom when you feel seen and heard being welcomed is very important

[01:08:07] oh i was hoping to hear from the board yeah it's okay oh yeah it's a moral obligation i mean i said all along that teachers can't teach and students

[01:08:26] It's not just about belonging, but being your true self.

[01:08:54] Thank you. Well, hopefully, as you all can see, each of their responses encapsulated something from our framework. They talked about seeing themselves in the curriculum, to the importance of student and family partnerships, to having affirming spaces so that they see themselves and they can feel safe to learn.

[01:09:17] They talked about constant personal reflection. It's not, I'm CRE certified and I'm done. It's a constant evolution of the work and we learn every day about something. And then the importance of looking at data and analyzing it so that we can target our instruction and close the gaps that our students are experiencing.

[01:09:37] I'm going to let you ask some questions after we finish this scenario because I know time is like tick tock and we want to get out before it gets too dark.

[01:09:59] So I wanted to give you an opportunity to take out your framework which you have in there right in your folder.

[01:10:07] I want you to look at the framework and we mentioned earlier there was

[01:11:12] characteristics 1 2 & 3 and those are all outlined here the indicators are underneath I want you to take a walk in their shoes you just heard from middle school students you're an educator planning a civil rights movement lesson for diverse eighth grade class you have 18 15 15 students two of your students talk about the pride they have from their southern community one of your students is an english language learner

[01:11:49] one of your students has an iep everyone brings something to the table and it's time to plan a a lesson. I did tell you. Now, I want you to use the framework. I want you to turn the three of you, if you can work together, two of you can work together, two of you can work

[01:12:23] together. I want you to take into consideration your own personal cultural lens and experience, the one we talked about earlier. Take that into consideration. Think about that. What What did you even think about when it was like civil rights movement?

[01:12:42] Last one. What did that bring up for you? Because characteristic one is about your own cultural ways and understanding that. Then, I want you to think about what it was like to be a learner and what then would you want it to look like for your learners. And when you read those labels, what is the cultural wealth that shows up in the room because of the students that are in your space?

[01:13:14] What do they contribute to the room? based on what you saw in those labels. Now, talk to the people with you. You can look at, do you want one, two, or three?

[01:13:29] - No. - You can choose one. - I have one. - Okay. - One, all right, you're gonna look at it through the lens of characteristic one, you'll look through two, and you'll look through three. All right, so I'm gonna give you eight o'clock, stop and talk about that, it's two minutes.

[01:13:55] - But who's counting? - Who's counting? - Who's counting? All right. I'm also, I'm also, but it was also, it was, you know, how to be characterized, but I think it's really good.

[01:14:24] I can see what you're saying. Oh, yeah. We are supposed to be, right? So, we are trying to, yeah.

[01:14:48] Right. So, we are trying to, yeah.

[01:14:57] Okay, I'm going to bring you back in five, four, three, two, one.

[01:15:30] And we'll go in the opposite direction. So, why don't you look at the framework, what was the conversation? What would you take out of that? We were talking about, you know, what, how you could relate, how these kids could find a way to relate to their own family, their own community, things that happened before.

[01:15:51] So, you know, have the mental stories of other grandparents living through the civil rights movement, what they heard about our community and what it was like during the civil rights movement, and also, how does that compare, or how do they relate that to things that might be today?

[01:16:07] And how did the framework help you think through that? Well, just to remind it, I think, number three was about, you know, that you didn't have to think back to how, like, technology came back.

[01:16:32] I was just going to add that you brought this up. Like, the most meaningful educational experience I ever had was taking the history of the civil rights by Julian Bond. And, like, having somebody who lived that experience share that with you changed the whole way I do education. And so I think that seeing it through that framework where you, everybody has something spring and it was across UVA in the 90s, it was mostly white kids, you know, and it was a really interesting perspective as somebody who lived and walked and breathed it, teaching white kids who were 19 years old what it was like, you know, to cross the bridge or so. So I think it's incredible.

[01:17:10] And an amazing opportunity even as an educator to be able to share that experience and make those connections. Thank you. Can I say too, I think the one thing we see here and we take for granted a lot to community partnerships, even if we narrowed it to a lesson like this, that teachers and others in the division make.

[01:17:28] You know, we have so many great local resources around that, from things going on at Nancy to Burleigh, Jefferson School, and there's just so many community resources. And I think that we're blessed to have those here, but I think that's also a part of this framework that pushes us to engage in community resources and you don't always stay in other places.

[01:17:53] Thank you. All right, characteristic two. First, we needed more time. That's good news. That means we did it right. We really didn't get a lot of time, two of us, to discuss.

[01:18:09] But I took from it. I saw assessment in there a couple of times. And so as I think back to, you know, the civil rights area and whatnot, there's not a lot of assessments going on. And then for those who were fortunate to have some sense of you know where we are today it was not as profound and so now where everyone's being assessed and you know those are tools that you can truly use and so it has tremendously

[01:18:39] um that's what I got from it yeah I always add stuff I just I think it's showing their strengths We hear a lot when we work with educators that aren't in the classroom, specifically when they look at 2.2.

[01:19:03] Well, I don't give tests, so how does this connect with me? For everybody, what it really connects around is rather than pigeonholing students into one way to show what they know, what they can do, and what they can learn, we really need to find new ways to let them show their strength.

[01:19:21] I was just thinking about 2.3 and how you have a student that has Southern pride, and so trying to talk about that in the space of talking about civil rights might be, but just honoring those different conversations and giving them a space to validate their heritage as well and then talk about it.

[01:19:43] I think that's really important right now, because I think there's a connotation that comes along with CRE that it's black and brown history and LGBTQ, and you're really talking about seeing every kid in the classroom, regardless of what they're bringing in, I guess, not regardless, but because of everything they're bringing into the classroom, you have to be able to see all of them, where you're not doing it.

[01:20:08] That's right. Great segue for CR1. I guess I looked at teaching Civil Rights Movement as sort of a prototype for what civil rights among, you know, for all kinds of people.

[01:20:26] And my stronger identification is with women's rights and civil rights with women. But we have such a diverse student body, and a lot of people have collaborated here because of civil rights issues in their whole country. So this, I would approach it as what is civil rights in that?

[01:20:44] and what are examples that we can draw from all of our students in their field. And then I also mentioned that we probably would have to include, it's a really important part of what was happening in the country in the 60s and the 70s.

[01:21:01] Like the history of this country. You both bring up really great points about bringing your own perspective and your own understanding of who you are and what you've experienced to the conversation so that it makes it even richer and you can understand and help them bridge the gap between what has happened, what you've done, and where they are and who they are, so thank you.

[01:21:23] Do you have anything? No, I mean I think I got really caught up in just reflecting on our own personal cultural lenses. I think that, I guess that's a pretty big part of the work, so I didn't really get to make the rest of it.

[01:21:40] Judy and I both are from Iowa, but we had very, very different cultural lenses, age, and life experiences. I did ask you how the framework helped, but how did the framework help you with when you were looking at this problem?

[01:21:57] It confused me because I did not understand what teach to and through culture. That's a good point. That's one of the things we teach within our program. Does anybody here want to share about that? Teaching to and through culture? Go for it.

[01:22:19] It really is to and through culture, but it's about representation. And I think that's a lot of the part that's absolutely necessary, but is only half the way there, right? We need to teach students about culture so they have a wider cultural lens and aperture so they understand the wider world around them.

[01:22:40] So teaching to culture really is about that part of representation, but it's not just teaching about culture. It's recognizing that how we teach. I have to give a personal example, I guess, to describe it.

[01:22:57] I taught AP Psychology at Amron High School for a number of years. Through this work, I came to realize that my style, the way that I taught that class, was perfect for a hyper-scheduled suburban family, right?

[01:23:17] And that's the culture that I was teaching through, just with my policies, the way that I would provide syllabi to kids and schedule things. And I didn't abandon that, right?

[01:23:33] But I recognize that to some students, I wasn't communicating care because I'm giving you all of this support. I was communicating just the opposite because I'm not building that personal relationship to say to you, hey, you know, at the end of the week, we've got this coming up.

[01:23:48] How are you feeling about that, right? I didn't need to because I had it on paper. And you could put it on your bridge with the other parts of your calendar and know that it's coming up. So that's, I haven't talked too much, but that's teaching about culture in two, but also thinking about your own culture, right?

[01:24:05] How is that showing up in my classroom and how I'm doing this and recognizing that I need to engage my students' culture? Another thing, the through part is, again, just honoring who those students are.

[01:24:22] Am I a student that needs to collaborate? Am I a student that needs think time? i like to write out my answers as opposed to speaking it forward so all of the different things that make that learner um learn that learner's profile you would take those in consideration when you did your lessons and um and even your delivery and have your delivery modes for some different students thank you team how did the framework help you

[01:25:03] candidly i didn't get to the framework because i was just thinking through our personal influences i think that is how it helped you because it made you pause and think about it for cr1 that's usually what that looks like it makes me stop from my just routine oh this is just what i do and it's because they just don't understand this is just it makes you pause and think about what What am I doing, who are you, who am I, and where is the disconnect or the congruence.

[01:25:39] Alright, I'll let you ask us questions for however long you will allow us to do so, considering what time it is, which could be one minute, no minutes, or we can come back and see you at any other time if you choose. I have two quick things. One, I really like that we're calling it CRD now. It really bothered me that we were calling it CRD because there was a lot of unnecessary problems.

[01:26:04] So I hope, yeah, I saw some of the paperwork still said culturally responsive teaching. I would love for us to completely confirm that because then I think it's a lot easier to get buy into it. I don't know, one of them. But it was one of the very first things I saw, and so I loved it.

[01:26:24] My question has to do with the teachers that don't buy into them. How do we handle that? Because I think in this political climate, we're seeing a little uptick in the divisiveness, obviously, but also the emboldens of some people to say, I have a right to not diversity, I believe.

[01:26:48] And I have some specific examples of teachers that are, this is the hill they're going to die on. And I guarantee they are the part of that 150 board that haven't started it. So what do we do in light of that?

[01:27:03] How do we, you know, I'm sure that they could say, well, I'm bringing my cultural beliefs, everything's coming through my lens, but it's, you know, not a safe, welcoming environment to the point that parents are requesting the kids not be in this teaching.

[01:27:22] I'm one of them, for two of my kids. What do we do in that situation for those parents, those teachers that are not buying into it? I want to reframe the thinking around what they do as far as culturally responsive education, like what that means to do it.

[01:27:48] Well, I'm talking about the book study and go through the credentialing. But also, in the doing, I mean, in the living it, the teaching it, the breathing it, the not just, you know, I'm following these guidelines that you're, you know, Because that's very different than actually, you know, the people we had sitting up here who are living and breathing in, and you can tell that they are a safe place for those students.

[01:28:15] You can also put other people that are not safe for those students. Yes. I think what you just said is what's starting to show up more and more. We have so many people now in the School of Vision who have engaged in our professional learning That it's clear that the difference in the way they approach planning, the way they think about the work that they're doing, the way that they resource for students, the way they talk amongst themselves about education and planning, the way they use data.

[01:28:50] We don't have to call it an equity audit to look at data to determine the next steps for students, but that is what we're doing. We're looking at each student to say who's benefiting, who isn't, what do I need to do to make adjustments, and because it's ingrained in the way I think about it, it's not about the program, it's about the way I'm processing it, because now I'm thinking about things I didn't think about before.

[01:29:16] That difference is starting to show up very clearly in buildings. There's conversations that happen that's very different. So what are we going to do about it? There's parts of that do that's like compliance.

[01:29:32] You know, the EOE licensure is attached to completing cultural competency training. Licensure. So at some point for my licensure, that shows up there. That's a part of it.

[01:29:51] When we talk about what happens in buildings, I can't speak for everyone when it comes to that, but it is on the EPA. It is a standard that's supposed to be assessed at the end of the year. And if people aren't fulfilling that standard, you do what you do when someone is not fulfilling any of the things you expected to do in the school.

[01:30:10] So this isn't mandatory. Is the micro-prudentialing, those things are not mandatory? Everything is aligned to meet the outcomes we expect in the school division. So yes, it's mandatory because it's part of what we have decided is mandatory for you to teach here.

[01:30:28] To teach in the way we need you to teach. So if they, let's say every teacher goes through their microphone after, then what sort of data are we using after the fact to make sure that not just the outcomes of the students, But what sort of follow-up and that are we using those classrooms are following these ideas?

[01:30:55] We have lots of opportunities through LearnWalk tools to be able to see are we meeting the indicators we're asking for in LearnWalk. So there's a trend showing that these are things that are showing up. Do I feel like my students are meeting the learner, right?

[01:31:10] There's a lot. The strategies of good teaching is still in place. culturally responsive education, since I'm using them in targeted ways to meet them with other students. So if I'm constantly in a room doing the same thing with the same gap of students who are constantly not achieving, sooner or later somebody needs to have a conversation with them. Why?

[01:31:33] What's happening there? And what are we going to do about it? And what are we going to do about it? Well, here's the people that will help you. If that makes sense. We also have the EPA, and our preferred performance evaluation shows that as well.

[01:31:50] We have data to show, but we're trying to have that show itself as well, so we can learn. Was there other things I need to consider? What are some of the reasons for the 154, at this point in time anyway, not participating or not completing some of the work?

[01:32:07] Is there like any, are there any reasons? That's one of them. What we just heard. That's one reason. Another reason has been time. People didn't feel as though they had the time to spend and they had different things happening. so we've certainly made accommodations as far as time is concerned and I mean we do have some people with outlying situations or they left the division came back or they were in a role and now they move to another one so there's plenty of reasons for why and I think there's lots of contributors depending on

[01:32:38] I'm glad we've changed it to CRE also but I'm also questioning those who are not classroom teachers i know we have you know some administrators you know has become certified and just wondering i mean i like to think that we're all part of this educational enterprise so so how i mean many of us on the board have take done the work studies um but i'm just wondering

[01:33:17] micro credential is really focused on teachers so what can be done at the first pace of many of our kids about eight thousand a day or you know the school bus drivers i mean you know how can we um build an entire culture that is thinking we can i think the answer is yes we can okay

[01:33:53] We'll talk about the technology, what the technology team is doing. Dr. Diggs embeds some culturally responsive education in her professional development that she does with the technology team during their meetings. So that's one way. And then, as Ms. Mitchell mentioned, Ms. Gellner is a culturally responsive educator.

[01:34:14] And so we've been talking about ways of how can we redesign the programming so that it can impact all of our staff and not just those that are in the classroom. I just started a book study. And so what does that look like through an assistant superintendent lens working in the school division?

[01:34:29] And so that's some of the things that we talk about as a team. How can we branch out to food services, operations, facilities, so that we all are a part of this work? I would say I will have to just name these three people here are the ones that do that work.

[01:34:49] So I, yes, and I say that because we are talking about expanding. Yes, we can. so the only people we have who is doing this right now as far as leading the training um you mentioned community and schools do you want to say something uh sure yeah just to add to that the community and schools site directors uh and jackie waymark have asked us to do some programming with them that would be like connected to our framework and targeted for the work that they do and then we're working with the special education department there are some folks in there

[01:35:25] OT's who are licensed differently. So we're thinking about what that programming would look like for them as well. And over the years, I know that there's been lots of opportunities to work with departments and that's something that we do have a goal about. No, I was just going to say that, you know, it's just about adaptability.

[01:35:43] And so there's a lot of iterations, like one book study that looked the same. Like we did an iteration for the communications department, the after-school EDEP. And then going in and just thinking about how you can make those shifts to resonate with the work that they're doing.

[01:36:02] Thank you. And as far as the micro-credential is concerned, that's a perfect plug for I would love to lead a micro-credential cohort with you all. You are so interested in doing so. I currently have three sessions that I'm working through.

[01:36:18] We have one final, the third one tomorrow, where we have our executive leadership members who chose to participate in some three-hour sessions to complete the coursework together as a cohort. So they're working together through each one of those indicators in that time where we do some learning and real growth and experience by hearing from one another and being able to do some of the artifacts that we ask people to.

[01:36:45] How long for books? The book is five sessions, about an hour, hour 15, and they're spread out in different ways to talk about that adaptability. So, you know, it can be compressed where you have it expedited or extend, for example, some of the educators starting at the beginning on DPLC days.

[01:37:10] So that is stretched from.

[01:37:20] I want to thank you all for being here and getting the other educators and students here. and I apologize for including you from the January agenda. I knew that you were ready to go then. But I think this was very valuable, and it was -- I'm always glad to have students participate.

[01:37:41] And I thought that was a very good part of this discussion. Thank you. You have a post-reflection on the opposite side. When you have an opportunity, I would love for you to just kind of take a look at that and think about that, and maybe together you can talk about what the next steps are you going to take this.

[01:37:57] Thank you. I'm going to go back to the names, I just wanted to, do we have to, do we have to go back? No, Dr. Eckhoff, you can adjourn from Cambridge, George Stratford right there, we're still in open, here you go.

[01:38:15] Is there, is there any other business tonight, I don't think, Dr. Laws, did you have something, or is there any other business tonight? No, I'm good, now I'm figuring it out here.

[01:38:30] is having no further business this meeting before spring break.

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