Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Equity Committee Meeting, Thursday, June 1, 2023

Date: Thursday, June 1, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 2h 11m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/832413863?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

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 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] I just want to let you know we're currently at 13, and we require 16 for a quorum, so we'll be waiting, and we'll give it the 15 minutes, and we're hoping for three more members to arrive, just so everybody knows where we're at.

[00:00:12] All right, everyone, we have established a quorum.

[00:02:56] Thank you all for being here tonight. If we could go on air, great. Hey, good evening, everyone. My name is Brenda Sheridan. I'm chair of the Loudoun County Public Schools Equity Committee, and I'm calling to order the June 1, 2023 committee meeting.

[00:03:12] Ms. Corbo, who normally asks for remote participation, has informed me she's not able to attend this evening, so we'll not be doing that. So we'll move right to item two, public comment. I've been informed we have one public speaker tonight who knows the ropes, so I won't go through the whole speech, and that you'll have two minutes tonight, and our speaker is Andrea Weiskopf.

[00:03:36] Go ahead. Good evening. Tonight you are looking at the equity statement and the definition of equity, so for those who may need a refresher, Just because we may be talking about equal outcomes doesn't mean we expect everything for the same child.

[00:04:00] What you need to do is take two children of similar cognitive ability. One of those children grew up in a home that always has meals with leftovers. One of those children is food insecure. Even if they have the same cognitive ability, we are not predicting equal outcomes.

[00:04:24] That's why we have lunch for students. 90% of Americans attended public school, but not all came from homes that had music. The great American musical equity equalizer, the recorder.

[00:04:43] Giving all children a recorder is equity. We, 90% of us, all suffered through it, but that's equity. So school buses are equity. So I'd like you to keep that in mind.

[00:05:02] We are not dumbing down curriculum. We are trying to ensure that all children can access the curriculum. Thank you. Black Lives Matter. Thank you. All right, we'll move to item three, the minutes.

[00:05:20] and so we're looking at item 301 the approval of the may 20 it's already june that i said that already but wow kind of just hit me may 2023 uh draft minutes they were sent to you an email so is there a motion to adopt can you just turn your mic on say your name and make the motion would be great robin scott i move to approve the minutes from may 4th 2023 and is there a second i can second it second the sheriff thank you this time any changes or questions about

[00:05:54] the minutes all right seeing none all in favor of the approval of the minutes please raise your hand and say aye any no any abstentions all right that will carry with one abstention so that'll be 16 0 1 abstention just Jill thank you all right so number four was an introduction in case we had new members

[00:06:33] this evening which we do not so we're gonna move right past that one we're going to move to our information item number 501 which is a year-end update on incidents of slurs and hate speech and Lottie's going to take that thanks Lottie thank you Brenda good evening committee members as stated in our last meeting we know that the work of this committee for this term so far has focused heavily on really monitoring and providing updates and having insight into our

[00:07:08] racial slurs and hate incidents we started this 2023 school year calendar year in the february meeting with providing you some data you had an opportunity to look at incidents there was even a specific request of what these incidents look like by level and so we know what that looked like for the february and march meetings and then i believe we didn't meet in april but in our no in our may meeting we did have a simulation by our student services team so that we could have a little bit more insight into what it looks like to offer restorative

[00:07:45] practices and so we've talked a lot about naming the problem we've tried to reiterate our division-wide promise through the commitment to equity statement and then we also have really shared with you the protocol and what it is that we are doing about it and we're really focusing heavily on the prevention part as well so tonight I'm introduced last time Shahid Muhammad our supervisor of equity who works in my office and he is going to provide us the

[00:08:20] update and answer any questions that you all may have about this update on the incidents thank you Lottie good evening committee members so the next six or seven slides will be updates to the total number of incidents since the report that you all had, I believe in February.

[00:08:45] And at the end of the presentation, we can open it up for questions. I wanna make sure to just pause for you to be able to look at the graphs themselves, not designing to prior analyze for you, but just to wanna make sure that you have an overview of what has been occurring since.

[00:09:02] Yes. - Only because for our optically challenged committee members. Could you just read the titles on the side? Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. Sorry about that. This slide is total incidents, and it breaks down by the type of racial slur or hate speech that occurred. So there were 13 different types that we were categorizing, and to date, as of yesterday, May 31st, at 4 o'clock, we had 861 total

[00:09:39] incidents. This slide breaks down the number by type of incident. So for general racial incident or offensive language, there was 203. The N-word, 280. I'm going to have to get out my readers myself here. For an incident around an African-American student, 143. North Asian, 49. A homophobic slur or hate speech 63 any slurs directed toward hispanic students 22 islamophobic 22

[00:10:18] anti-semitic 15 swastika 23 southeast asian or indian descent 23 white 13 ableism 4 and anti-immigrant 1 the next few slides will be broken down by level so for elementary incidents

[00:10:43] That's 78, general racial or offensive language, 80, N-word, 15, homophobic, 57, African American, 14, North Asian, 2, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, 5, Hispanic, 4, Southeast Asian or Indian descent, 11, anti-immigrant, 0, swastika, 1, white, 3, and ableism, 0.

[00:11:15] Elementary incidents made up the second highest number by level. Middle school incidents made up the highest level of incidents by level. I believe it's later on in another slide, you'll be able to see the exact number.

[00:11:35] I don't have it added up in my head, but I believe it's 400. General racial incident or offensive language, 89. N-word, 142. Homophobic, 36. African-American, 73.

[00:11:52] North Asian, 30. Anti-Semitic, 10. Islamophobic, 13. Hispanic, 16. Southeast Asian or Indian, eight, anti-immigrant, zero, swastika, 12, white, eight, and ableism, two. High school incidence was the lowest level out of all three levels. General racial incident, offensive language, 36, N-word, 58, homophobic, 12, African-American, 13, North Asian, five,

[00:12:31] anti-Semitic, three, Islamophobic, four, Hispanic, two, Southeast Asian or Indian, four, anti-immigrant one, swastika 10, white two, and ableism two.

[00:12:47] And I will be able to go back to these slides if you would like to see them or have a question about them later on. We did want to make sure that you knew the total number of incidents because we were working by quarters.

[00:13:04] And I believe in the previous meetings, we talked about the total number from quarters one and two. So we wanted to update for total from quarters three and quarter four as of yesterday. Of course, we have a few more days of school, so that number most likely will increase.

[00:13:23] Total from quarter three was 294 incidents, broken down by level 87, elementary 153, middle, and high school 54. And as of yesterday, for totals for quarter four, 262, elementary 102, middle 127, and high 33.

[00:13:45] This information is from the direct responses that were provided by deans, APs, or principals at their prospective schools when they logged in a specific incident.

[00:14:05] We wanted to break it out also by month so that you could visually see the graphic by month and how through the beginning of the year through January, there was a variance of around 22 incidents between September and January, it fluctuated.

[00:14:23] But in February, there was a spike to 133 total incidents and then an increase in March, a large dip in total incidents in April, and in May, a rise or a spike of 128 total incidents.

[00:14:44] And as you can see by this graphic, it is broken down also by level. I will pause just for you to be able to review that for a few seconds.

[00:15:15] This is a slide that is broken down by total incidents by school. You see that? Yes. The first slide is by elementary school, and the corresponding slides afterwards will be by middle and high school. So 270 total incidents as of yesterday from elementary.

[00:15:39] You can look through how it was broken down by each quarter for each school. I'll just jump in here with a reminder. When this information was first provided to the committee in February, you know, in the spirit of transparency and honesty, we really need to share that this is a very real problem.

[00:16:04] And just the pervasive nature of it has people intrigued. And so while we did our due diligence to provide some of the overarching, like, by-level graphs, when we had a specific request to see what it looked like by school, we've had conversations in our office about what that looks like, of course, as we provide sort of prescriptive support to schools.

[00:16:31] But never would we want to use the data to out anyone in a way that, you know, really puts them out in a bad light. I think last time we also talked about, and I appreciate the principals who serve on the committee, and having been a principal, I think I would be looking at this and saying, you know, do people wonder if nothing is a good thing?

[00:16:56] And we talked about that. And so we recognize that if we have a division-wide issue, it is really kind of hard to believe that there's nothing, right? And so, again, we're going with what is reported, and we do recognize that everything's not reported.

[00:17:12] And we thank people for doing what they should be doing. We have a policy. We have a regulation. It is not an option. It is an obligation. And so we're not proud of the numbers, but I just wanted to kind of frame that and put it in context.

[00:17:28] The next graphic or slide is by middle school. Yes, it was 439 incidents as of yesterday.

[00:18:18] and high school 152 incidences as of yesterday similar to the information that was provided

[00:18:52] earlier meetings where these incidents occurring the top three incidents per level are still the same elementary schools in the classroom cafeteria and at recess middle school's classroom PE class and the bus and high school's classroom hallways stadium gym and social media kind of make up the third so uh what are we doing about it as as discussed at previous meetings um the discipline

[00:19:29] process is ongoing with consequences for students uh when they are uh warranted social emotional learning along with the unified mental health teams and restorative practices are helping to have conversations and discussions with students staff and families on how to repair harm what these slurs and hate speech do to students as they are learning in school and the learning conditions that they're learning under ongoing topics during principals meetings and training and professional learning a lot he spoke to a little bit of the prescriptive nature of

[00:20:09] the second part of the school year in meeting with administrators that's principals aps and deans provide updates on reflective lessons or reflective documents as part of the protocol to help with the learning piece of rectifying the situations.

[00:20:28] Central office leaders have engaged in professional learning sessions on incidents and how to better support principals that they work with, hosting a series of sessions with the Anti-Defamation League that have been very successful, where in many cases scenarios and situations are brought to light and conversation and discussion on how to handle those situations have been taking place.

[00:20:55] And school visits by members of the Division of Equity team to support equity leads and their teams in the proactive work. There's been quite a bit of listening sessions, visits to the schools in order to really see what's going on in the individual schools as well as what scaffolded supports can be put in place to support them in their work.

[00:21:23] Now we'll take time for questions. Yes, sir. So two questions. And obviously we only had a few seconds to look at some of that data, but just looking at it very quickly, it seemed to be that there were possibly sort of three groups of trend lines, if you will.

[00:21:45] There were some schools that seemed to have a proportionally higher number of incidents, kind of a group of them, not just a single one, but a group. Then you had a bunch sort of in the middle, and then a few, as you noted, sort of at the end or at the bottom. And I was wondering if we looked at that across all three levels of schools, would we see something in terms of either the feeder schools or geographic distribution of those groups in such a way that we could focus resources perhaps on particular feeders within the overall system?

[00:22:18] So that was the first question, and then the second one was, so we're seeing this sort of distribution from elementary school to middle school to high school in sort of a downward slope.

[00:22:34] Would it be possible to look at that data in a year-over-year analysis by class year to see if we are seeing just a natural maturity of the students that are perhaps beginning to learn to behave better?

[00:22:52] Or are we seeing classes maybe moving through the system where we have class years that as they move through the system, we can expect those numbers to kind of follow them? Thank you for those questions. Excellent questions.

[00:23:08] To answer your first question, yes, there is availability looking at the data to look at specific clusters of schools where the trends are higher, particularly with specific types of slurs and hate speech. And so that is an option in terms of being very intentional with the work with those particular clusters.

[00:23:33] To your second question, the data doesn't, right. So the data as it comes in now that we receive does not name students by name, ID number, or grade level.

[00:23:53] Sometimes there could be something indicating who the offender was or the alleged victim were in the description, but clearly that's not something that is reported that we see in the Office of Equity.

[00:24:13] But schools would be able to dissect that information a little differently. Does that answer your question? Yeah, I think it answers my question, and I guess obviously not to the student level. We don't need that kind of information, but if there's any way at some point to be able to break it down by class year so we can anticipate, you know, say if there is a class year in middle school right now, should we anticipate as they matriculate to high school is that, can we get ahead of the problem essentially by looking at the data?

[00:24:45] Yeah, since that data does not come in broken down by grade level or the students, that would be something that we would need to be able to extract from each individual school and then compile it so that is possible.

[00:25:05] Yes. So I was wondering if is there any correlation between the particular area or the demographic and the number of the incident happening? I said, at least I observed at least for Sterling, for one level of school, the incidence was higher than other schools, but I'm not sure if that's the data that is across the board.

[00:25:27] So I was wondering if that's the scenario, is there something differently that we can do for those demographics? The higher level of incidents are, it's happening sort of like everywhere.

[00:25:45] It's a little more difficult to kind of pin down specifically one. We do know that there are higher level incidents by some clusters. But to answer your question, are you saying put something in place for those particular schools or work for particular demographics of students who are receiving, on the receiving end?

[00:26:06] No, I would not establish that correlation, but I was wondering if there is a correlation that, hey, schools in the Sterling area have more incidents. Yes, there are some correlations that can be made by the number of incidents by school, which align to a particular area.

[00:26:27] As we can see also by the charts that some of the schools that might be in the Sterling area might have equal number of incidents reported to schools that are in Western Loudoun. so again back to our goal is to make sure that we want to get to a place that we don't have to use the protocol for responding we want to be able to proactively get ahead of it so we're doing some common learning and professional learning time with our principals and school leaders we just

[00:26:59] got off our meeting with our equity leads so it's ongoing work and we are supporting them in that prescriptive manner no matter where they are and we're seeing this as I understand your question But we're seeing this as a big issue across all of LCPS, no matter the demographic.

[00:27:21] So I'm going to jump in just because I'm a Sterling representative and I can't help myself. And say that just as we look at the schools that have nothing, is that a good or bad indicator? The Sterling schools are obviously reporting them and addressing it.

[00:27:37] So we can look at it that way as well. So I just wanted to throw that out there to remind everybody that having no incidents isn't always a good thing. it means perhaps it's not being reported or it's being done outside of adults, whatever the case is in a building that doesn't have any reports or really no numbers.

[00:27:56] And in a school, yes, where there's high incidence, that's an issue, but it might be because it's also being addressed. I know that we're not, well, sorry. I'm a data person, so when I look at those data, I feel so excited.

[00:28:15] One thing that I realized that just exactly what Brenda said, It's not necessarily telling us, like, each school, if they're not reporting, they're actually really good. But what I'm seeing is the elementary, middle school, and high school. Can we, from multiple years' data or multiple quarters' data, seeing that, what's the chant, chanting, what type of kind of, you know, complaint that happened in middle school?

[00:28:37] Then we can sort of probe those kids in elementary that they don't go into those chants, and then send for middle school. so you see what is customing, what problems they have going to be in middle school, what problem they're going to have in high school, then utilize those data.

[00:28:54] We can help the kids in the lower grade to prepare for that and to understand what's going to happen in a different, you know, setting. So that's why I see how good the data is going to be, but not just going into the detail of each school and whether we should care about that school.

[00:29:11] That is probably not at this moment, this level of data we can answer, but we certainly can see the difference in middle school, high school, and elementary school. - Thank you.

[00:29:26] - Anna, did you have your hand up? - So many thoughts. I'm wondering what kind of supports we might be providing to schools that are not reporting because this is a county-wide, every cluster, systemic problem that has existed since we were one of the last counties

[00:30:00] to desegregate. And this is a rooted problem that we, many, many, many Loudouners don't move. They stay in Loudoun. And I'm wondering what we might do for those schools. And I'm also wondering how the data looks in terms of teacher stakeholder surveys, because we had a real win with ours at Meadowland which was that our we grew 10 percent and our teachers feeling like

[00:30:36] they have the capacity to directly address these types of incidents which is incredible growth on my staff and I'm so proud of them for that and I'm hoping that we're going to start seeing those numbers across the county because I just really wonder about those middle and high school numbers because it's a lower child to teacher or it's a higher child to teacher ratio not to mention the sterling schools also have a very low teacher to student ratio due to the equity of our el

[00:31:14] students that populate there so that likely lends itself to better reporting so many thoughts i'll just say i really appreciate your perspective as a principal and i was going to pick on all the principals in the room, because we also see more reporting in the third and fourth quarter, because I think after the data came out after the second quarter, everybody was like, well, did you all get the same directions? Do you all understand the instructions and how you're supposed to report? So I guess, was there retraining there? Did you have to retrain your staff? If any principal on the committee that would like to answer that question and really

[00:31:53] give your perspective on, and maybe what you've done in your own buildings, I think that that is something really important for us to hear, like, what's actually happening in the buildings? teachers too I'm not singling anybody out to participate I just we do have four administrators in the room as well so for us I look at the issue as the whole school addressing it teachers students so bringing awareness so we start from the beginning with equitable classroom practices what does that look like in our CLT meetings we talk about how we're making connections and when there is an incident and the parents are notified I actually go into the

[00:32:32] classroom and talk with the students about what happened and how words harm and I think it's every day all the time so it becomes part of the culture and that's what we're beginning to do but it wasn't always that way and I think the resources definitely has helped I had the opportunity to attend the last meeting with the ADL and it was incredible the resources that were shared from that one meeting I can directly take to my staff and plan some conversations with some talking points that I think will help but I think it's

[00:33:10] every day all the time I appreciate the every day all the time and also that what Anna said about it it's every school we can't like we can't you know I have a chip on my shoulder I'll admit it I'm defensive about Sterling and any comment that's made that right I'm sorry I've lived there for 25 years it's embedded in me so I appreciate the fact that we have to address it in every school across the board every day so that messaging is really important I

[00:33:45] think that that's really great so I thank you both for that Jill I just wanted to speak to elementary our school is one that had a higher number and I will say that the assistant principal who records the incidents has been extremely extremely diligent about reporting incidents and talking to myself and my co-equity lead about like what should we be doing about this he's reported really good interactions and conversations with parents and then what we really decided was despite all of these discussions with children and with

[00:34:22] parents what we really needed to do is bring in other students so the Light Ridge Ambassadors equity ambassadors came over and they did a presentation for our fifth grade students and they were so outstanding I just really want to say that they were incredible the kids for 45 minutes or half an hour 45 minutes really they had their attention and we said like they need to see maybe appear and not an adult telling them and I really hope moving to middle school that they will continue to remember that we've already talked about next year

[00:35:00] pulling those ambassadors in earlier to talk to our older students so they can really see like this is a person who you might say I was just joking we have a lot of that like just squirrely kind of behavior right now that's just not acceptable and I think once we can turn it and say like this is a person that you are harming by saying this whether you think it's a joke or not I think having the kids from the high school come in and talk to them was so impactful

[00:35:32] And I really think that like elementary schools and middle schools looking towards those peer, you know, the high school, we have a lot of student equity groups in the high schools. And I think they just are an outstanding resource. So I'd really like to just give a plug to those great student groups that are happening in the middle schools and high schools and starting in the elementary schools.

[00:35:55] So hopefully we'll be seeing some improvement. That's incredible. and I think as you were talking I think we all know that middle school are the three toughest years for students and so especially coming back from the pandemic we've all heard about the increase in negative behavior in our middle schools across the board and and addressing all of that and I know like for my PTA days that's when we would see parents kind of they were very involved in the elementary school and then they're like they kind of step back a little bit to give their kids a little bit of freedom and and all of that and I think now is the time when we have to

[00:36:35] also pull the parents in so what you made me think was I wonder if those high school students could also talk to parents and not just the other students but could we bring that in so that they understand that the behaviors that their own students may be experiencing or doing that it's harmful on both sides and that they need to be more involved and not step away I just I know it was a trend we saw my entire time with PTA so I would really I would love to see us even push a little harder and be proactive at the beginning of the year and get the you know back to school night and conferences and get the parents

[00:37:11] more involved if that's something we can also do so thank you for sharing that I think that was really great with any other comments Tom so just one quick question so being new to Loudon this year is this the first year we've looked at this data at this level for the for the entire year I believe that there were times last year yes thank you there was I would say yes is a quick answer and it's a little bit complex because there was an update made in the spring to the board and that was basically I think in response to a

[00:37:50] question and we also recognize that there were some upticks at specific times of year specific times specific months and so that was one presentation given I think in May last year And so we started this year saying it's going to be from the beginning. We're going to really closely monitor it.

[00:38:07] The reporting has always been the expectation, but sharing out in this way and providing the updates, this is the way that first time that we've gone this deep and consistently. And I thought that was the case. So given that, and also being a data-inclient person, this is essentially a single data point that we have for this year.

[00:38:28] There's nothing else to compare it to. And as some others have mentioned, there's missing data. that's the only way to really describe that. It's missing. It's absent. We don't really know one way or the other. In which case, what this highlights is that it is a significant problem. That's the only thing that we know currently. And so we know that we have to address it systemically until we can start to break it down year over year and start to see in the future what the data starts to tell us in terms of trends. Right now, we don't know a trend. We just know that there is a problem. And that's been well documented by the work you guys have done. So thanks.

[00:39:00] And speaking to, what is the outreach to the ones who have no reporting? Because that almost seems nearly like impossible that they have no reporting. So how does that circle back? Is there somebody that's accountable for going to the principals or administration and saying, like, what are you guys doing?

[00:39:19] I mean, not assuming that they're not having any, but, like, are you guys having a super, like, share with us? Or do you not understand the process of reporting? Like, where is the circle? Because it does. very heavy-handed line like reporting the ones doing it and the ones are is there consequences for not following policy like where's the circle back for great questions and so you know it's been reiterated at principals meetings in large groups in and in small groups and recognizing that our office works closely with the level offices who are the directors and the supervisors and

[00:39:55] evaluators of the principals those specific conversations are held with the principal and their level director but so our office provides the data we've been we start the year providing quarterly data we sit with the level directors elementary middle and high and they use that data to plan out their subsequent meetings with the principals as their evaluators there is an expectation there is accountability our office doesn't necessarily oversee that But in every instance, in our meetings with equity leads, in our meetings with principals, we're reiterating the expectations.

[00:40:36] It's hard to believe that after four quarters, there's, I think, there's at least five that had no reporting. And one school, I had students that attended that I really find it hard to believe there was no reporting. I mean, they have a very low minority group, but that minority group, I have a hard time that it's not being reported.

[00:40:59] they're being picked on or singled out so it's just something to really think about that that is that's in my eyes that's the bigger problem because the ones that are taking the time the principals they're taking the time to report are going through the policy learning like that principal had say like she the resources are there being taught to the teachers the ones that aren't are the ones that are flying under the radar in my opinion any more questions or comments on this topic erica um so i noticed in the reporting of where the incidents were happening um one of the

[00:41:38] high school places it was listed as stadiums and i was curious as to if that's only say high school sponsored games where they're just students primarily in the seats or in you know during the daytime out in the field or whatever or if it's also um if it also includes like lacrosse games and baseball games and things like that because I spoke with a friend of mine who is a lacrosse parent and as I understand recently at a girls lacrosse game there was a situation where

[00:42:12] one student player student athlete shouted a racial slur at another student athlete and that student got upset and reacted of course and that child had disciplinary actions the one who reacted But because the ref didn't hear what the first person had said, even though there were many witnesses who came forward and did, the person who said it didn't suffer any consequences at that game.

[00:42:41] And the lacrosse parent that I'm friends with explained to me that all of the schools handle discipline in those situations differently. So I was wondering if, since they are school-sponsored sports, if there shouldn't be some kind of county-wide accountability for what the discipline measures are, for what the incident is, and how that gets reported as well.

[00:43:08] And it might be that there is one and they're just not doing it. I don't know. But I'm curious about that. Yes, thank you for your question. And the answer is yes to both pieces. There is reporting from just classes, students just who are in the stands and the seats spectating different sports events, as well as during the sporting events themselves.

[00:43:38] And so there have been reports that have been logged in on both accounts. I believe, and I did have a conversation with Mr. Ferry, the supervisor of athletics, and they have a lot of things planned even for this summer when they're bringing all the coaches, athletic directors together to really talk about what the consequences will be from like a tiered step when these things happen during games up to, I believe, quite a bit of loss of their actual season time.

[00:44:17] Sometimes through the investigations, they may come to an understanding that, maybe to your point, that it was unsportsmanlike conduct, and still there are consequences for that as well. But yes, definitely they are being reported. So that the anticipation is that there will be countywide school, not just school-based decisions on discipline, but countywide decisions on discipline for incidents like that?

[00:44:47] Yes, during the games. Is that what you're speaking about? So not necessarily just during the games, because as I understand, the lacrosse parent was explaining to me that a number of the schools, when the games are over and they go back, they kind of pick and choose how they want to discipline their own students, their own players, and they don't necessarily have a mandatory, if you're athlete blank, then they must or you must blank.

[00:45:15] So I was just, I was surprised that it was something that was handled school by school, and I didn't think that that should be accurate, so I didn't know if these are just schools that they've just kind of decided, you know, we're athletes, we don't really need to worry about following school policy, or if there isn't a consistent policy across all of the sporting groups.

[00:45:40] I believe that the schools using the guidance that is provided to them, there still is going to be that investigative piece that then will determine what the consequences will be. The document or the guidance about what happens when a racial slur or hate speech occurs during an interscholastic athletic event is going to outline what should be done.

[00:46:05] But to your point, there still is going to be the schools handling the investigative piece of it and then what the disciplinary consequences will be. It won't have the guidance, but it won't say specifically you must do this. I hope that answers your question.

[00:46:23] It does. And unfortunately, I think just as we're talking about some of the schools that have the zero numbers, I think it answers my question as to what is expected, but also kind of confirms what a couple of the La Crosse parents were telling me in that some of the coaches will pick and choose what they decide to report, and that seems like something that should be addressed as well.

[00:46:47] Thank you for sharing that. The only other thing I'll add is the VHSL guidance changed on that last spring, and so that really governs it all. So, again, some things are not optional, and that was very much a direct teaching point to the coaches and athletic directors, And I know that because there were some leaders from the Division of Equity who attended that first meeting of the athletic directors in the fall to talk about that because it did result in the suspension of some games for some athletes.

[00:47:24] And that was different because, hey, we've been saying this slur for years. Well, you're not going to say it anymore and expect to play. So I don't have that guidance right in front of me, but that could be easily pulled up, the VHSL guidance.

[00:47:41] Brian. As a school who has a little bit of a higher number at the elementary level, I just want to speak to the work that has been done that is represented with a school.

[00:47:58] We had about 10 incidents reported. And knowing that, we have provided staff with extensive professional learning so that they have a higher level of awareness and reporting any incident that is seen throughout the school, no matter the intensity or the intent from any classroom across all settings.

[00:48:23] So we have provided all of our teachers with resources. We have rolled out a semester-long called OneGPE, which really unpacks a lot of cultural competencies. And we do cluster meetings as well to see the vertical articulation from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade.

[00:48:43] So we've had several cluster meetings with the high school, middle school, and elementary schools to see if there are any trends so that we can address them at each of our levels so that we are on the same page with how we are addressing them. So I just wanted to speak to a school who had more reporting because we want to make sure that we are as transparent as possible and that we are not hiding anything.

[00:49:06] And if there are any questions about the work that we are doing, we make sure that the community is aware. They've read all of our resources that are being implemented with morning meeting time and making sure that our students have time throughout the day to generalize those skills.

[00:49:23] And so when they are not generalized appropriately, that's a learning opportunity for them and for our staff. So really empowering our staff to report and making sure that we are handling it appropriately. - Thank you for that information.

[00:49:40] Go ahead. - I'm gonna follow up with that because I am a parent that I have children that attend that school and they are very transparent. They have done a wonderful job at that. And it's not easy. And I will say that I have a child that is part of that number in that school.

[00:49:56] And it's hard as a parent to hear that. And a lot of it revolved around what is being taught in the schools in history. and what is in how it's being portrayed. And unfortunately, we are in a time when it's being revamped up and it wasn't revamped up in a way that has been more equitable to the students.

[00:50:15] And so we're gonna continue to fight this where students are being, well, we're being taught that and you are that. And just kind of the assumptions of what being taught. So I mean, it's really, really an uphill battle with what's being taught in the schools. But I do have to give and commend the elementary school, The principals, the spoke, he has been very transparent.

[00:50:36] They work very hard, but it also goes with curriculum that's being taught that, unfortunately, we are circling right back to where we're not getting anywhere. We're, like, treading water, and it's really unfortunate to see because we're going to continue to see these trends going up as they're working harder and trying to teach it, but what teachers are teaching in schools and what they're being taught.

[00:51:06] It doesn't go together, mesh together with, like, we are one, we are equitable, we are united. That's just fine. Kelly? Just to piggyback off of that a little bit, because the elementary school is a very difficult age to kind of go through that.

[00:51:26] And the school where my son attends, I mean, that was pretty much, it was around what was being taught. And earlier, Dorothy said something else, too, about the schools that aren't reporting, or even those schools who have low reporting.

[00:51:42] sometimes these principals don't want to address problems or they don't want to bring attention to themselves. So I know for a fact that there were more incidents that occurred because I heard them as a parent, but it wasn't reflected in the numbers.

[00:51:58] So it's one of those things where how is it that you can get more accurate data? I mean, because I'm pretty sure if, I mean, my husband asked me about surveys. Parents are all surveys because, I mean, if you're going to the principals and you're going to the schools and they're not being transparent like some of these principals, the only way you're going to get the truth is from the parents.

[00:52:21] But again, we still have to have that representation. So I find that a lot of us that are here are being pulled in a lot of different directions because we want to be here, we want to be advocates for our students, but then we have to go back and we have to be a part of the PTO. We have to take that information to the parents to let them know, hey, you have this option.

[00:52:39] You know, she was talking about the incident at the school. Okay, she came to you with that information, but did she go to the school board? Did she push, you know, I don't think that this was handled correctly. So it's, as a parent of an elementary school student, it's trying to navigate that, but it's becoming more challenging, like she said, because of the curriculum.

[00:53:02] And at that age, they are sponges, and it's all based on how it's taught. So, I mean, just my two cents, but I appreciate your perspective, Jill. I think that, you know, is there maybe something we can do, like in terms of educating parents that there is this protocol so that when children come home and say so-and-so said this to me or I heard somebody say this, I do think, like, as an elementary school teacher,

[00:53:38] there are some students who are really becoming very aware and they're coming to teachers and they're saying like, I don't like the way that this person said this and it hurt this person's feelings. Um, so we know to bring that to, you know, somebody to report that. Do you think that we could educate parents to, to ask that question? Have you logged this into the protocol, the reporting so that there is just that check to make sure that in these places where we're not

[00:54:14] seeing reporting again I'm going to say it again that I do find it hard to believe that we have reporting in elementary school and reporting in middle school and in the same exact cluster there are very low numbers in high school and I find it hard to believe that that problem just disappeared especially with social media especially with post-pandemic just the way students are speaking to each other so could we kind of think creatively on how we can kind of advocate for people using the tool because if you don't have the numbers and reporting if you don't

[00:54:49] face the fact that there is a problem you're like just putting on like blinders on yourself to actually addressing and it makes me really proud of the schools that are doing that work and that are trying and are reflecting on the data that are trying to report because I think that that is where the good work is coming just you know being part of equity leads and hearing the amazing things that are happening in our schools I think you know like working all together I think

[00:55:25] that we can address this give Haley a chance then we'll go back to Erica um on that point I was wondering if perhaps maybe we could use something like the leaf committee which has to report back to their PTAs at least for elementary school where the representative will report back to them and try to get the information out to the the parents of the schools that they represent as a resource and principal emails if there was like a link or something.

[00:55:58] I know I had an issue with my daughter at the school on the bus, and I emailed the assistant principal, and she called me on the phone and told me that she was grateful for my email because she didn't get reporting on the bus.

[00:56:16] A lot of those incidents went unseen, and so if I had not reported it, She would not have known I existed and asked me to please keep an eye on the situation on the bus in the future. And I know a lot of parents don't reach out because they don't know how to perhaps reach out in that way, or they don't know where some of the blind spots are happening in the schools.

[00:56:40] And students don't necessarily have the ability to reach out either. And so if there was some sort of link or ability, I know parents can email, But if it was more available to them to have like a direct line to do that, that might be helpful.

[00:56:58] And again, I think LEAF would at least get some parents on board and educated on some of the issues if the PTA was reporting back to them on those. I think that's great. And I think, you know, going through all of our advisory committees and messaging through there, but I think messaging through principals and at the building level to parents to encourage them if their student comes home and reports something to let the school know so that it gets addressed and it doesn't, I think we've, we all, I don't want to age anybody in the room, but I'll just say I grew up in a time where you went home and you told your parents something and your parent dealt with it for you, right, and you didn't necessarily,

[00:57:36] and we want our parents to report it back to our buildings so that it can be, we're trying to address it and we need to know when it's happening. So I think all of it collectively needs to be expressed and working together. This takes everybody doing this and not just one group.

[00:57:54] So thank you for that great idea. Erica. So I'm going to step on my tiny little soapbox for just a second. I think what a lot of this boils down to as far as whether or not things are getting reported, just like our community member who was taking a moment to address us at the beginning, one thing we have to remember is that not all families and communities feel comfortable reporting issues as other people might and the work that we're doing now for our students the

[00:58:27] whole purpose is so that they grow up and learn the importance of treating everyone equally and with equity and with grace and with respect because the parents don't know that it's okay all the time or a parent might think they heard something and some parents are the parents who We're over-report and things like that.

[00:58:49] So I think the work that we're doing to make sure that all parents have access equally to gifted education, to special needs, to the information, knowing that it is safe and okay for them to report that someone said something terrible to their child, that's what we're doing the work for.

[00:59:08] So hang on, Tom. I'm just, I'm going to push back and say I totally agree with what you said. And I do also think that we also have to keep in mind that some of this behavior is homegrown.

[00:59:25] And I'm going to say that, and I'm just going to say it out loud because I think we're all feeling it, we've all experienced it, and that we can't overcome all of it. But if we address it in every building, in every classroom, and we try, that some of those students will overcome perhaps what is homegrown.

[00:59:47] I hope that was as nice a way I could say that as I could. Tom. So just a quick thought, because it sounds like one of the problems that we're struggling with here is in statistics called FTA, failure to acquire, and how do you make sure that you are sourcing the data in an accurate kind of way.

[01:00:05] And so not to add to your plate of things to do, but maybe a thought would be an alternative path to gather some of these statistics. That is a way for somebody to report something without launching a full investigation, because as some people have mentioned, there are people that are not necessarily comfortable with wanting to confront the entire incident and go through a formal process, but something happened, and it would be a way for them to just, you know, through a website, through some other mechanism, to say, hey, there was this incident that happened at school today.

[01:00:37] It could be completely anonymous. Again, we have the problem of over-reporting in some cases, and it's anonymous, so you can't depend upon the data as clearly as the full investigative process. But if we start to see some correlation, or we start to see a lot of reports from schools that have no data reported, it might highlight, again, we're dealing with the first year here, so I realize we're dealing with, as I said before, sort of a single data point. But it might give us an additional view of some of these incidents, maybe that are being underreported in some cases, where people don't necessarily feel it rises to the level in their mind, because they're interpreting the policies,

[01:01:16] they're interpreting the regulations, and they interpret it, perhaps wrongly, that it shouldn't be investigated, but at least a way for them to report it, even if they don't want to launch an investigation. It's a really great discussion tonight. Thank you all very much, but I think we need to move on to the next item. So we'll move to our committee discussion. Item 601, the equity equity draft policy 1045 commitment to equity so I'm just gonna give a quick update on where we are where the history of this and the last

[01:01:51] last year's committee we had some discussion in committee about whether or not LCPS needed a policy that was dedicated solely to the idea of being committed to equity or if having equity embedded in policy was enough and that committee determined that they absolutely did want and any of anybody who was here last year that wants to chime in please do so that they did want to have a policy and over several committee meetings we developed what

[01:02:26] turned into 1045 commitment to equity that was sent to the school board and the school board as you know tabled it because the school board was in the midst of developing the strategic plan and they wanted to make sure that any policy that was directed towards equity was in line with the strategic plan so it was tabled and then of course all of you asked for us to bring it back and so the school board has sent it back to us and we will be it's ours now so we can look at it and that's we're going to start doing tonight I anticipate this is

[01:03:06] going to be more than one meeting and to get it really vetted out and and fleshed out your ideas because last year's committee put it together but this year's committee owns it now so we'll be able to do that over the next couple of meetings okay so Lottie do you want to take it from here we're going to work on it thanks sure thanks Brenda so in your packet of items for this evening probably have noticed several things related to draft policy 1045 first of

[01:03:44] all I do want to note that the name of the policy was commitment to equity and that was the name that it was given of course the policy still in the draft form even before we had the rewrite of the equity statement which is also named commitment to equity so something we have to think about going forward but in your stack you'll find several things. There's a sheet that looks like this that we're going to be using in a few minutes. It has revise, add, and delete. And so I just want to make sure everyone

[01:04:18] has one of those. You'll also find just before the draft policy the feedback form because we wanted to give you any feedback that had been provided. And this is from MSAC collectively. So you'll be able to see some specific feedback that was provided by MSAC at that time. And then you will see in red, as we usually do, our draft policy commitment to equity. So I also want to bring to

[01:04:51] your attention one thing you don't have printed out, but something I sent to you via email is a list of policies, policies that you might find helpful as we begin to have table dialogue. So those of you who've been on the committee for a while, you probably will remember this. We had probably three to four meetings really trying to answer the question, do we need a policy and what would it say? And so to do that, we really had to explore what was in place. And so I sent you all

[01:05:28] that email so you could have the live links they're all there so I just went to the LCPS policy page and made a list of hopefully what you'll see like you might want to say do we already have something for equal opportunity of course all places of employment have to have that as a requirement so we have that's 1040 then you'll see some specific ones listed in chapter 7000 which is personnel. You'll see policies in the 8,000 for students, specifically student discrimination and harassment. You'll see the regulation, including the protocol for responding to racial stories and

[01:06:05] hate speech that we've been referencing. I also put bullying there because sometimes people think what might be included in an equity policy, do we already have something that addresses that? We do have a bullying policy and then the bottom of it is chapter 5,000 policies which is instructional policies so how are we addressing themes in instruction several people have mentioned curriculum materials and resources so we have controversial and sensitive curriculum standards we have regulations that correlated coincide with that policy as well so again so that you can have it

[01:06:45] right there. It's not a hard copy but sent to you electronically so you could click on those links as you begin to have table discussions. So you have everything you need to be able to have probably some healthy table conversations about where we are. Brenda has already framed it for us.

[01:07:06] This is being sent back to this committee so that we can continue to work on that and hopefully it will land after multiple meetings where it needs to. So we need to continually ask the question what do we already have in place by way of policies, and what, if anything, is missing.

[01:07:24] So I want to cue up again that note-taking sheet that you have that says Revide, Add, and Delete. And why don't we start first with just a few minutes of independent time so everyone can get acclimated or re-acclimated with the policy and have an opportunity to jot notes.

[01:07:46] and then we'll let you know when time is up and that you can begin your table dialogue. What questions might you have before we start? Okay, let's see where we are within the next eight minutes.

[01:08:06] Check back in.

[01:12:52] Just a quick time check.

[01:13:25] We have about three minutes left. Please make sure that you review MSAC's feedback and utilize that as well in your table discussions.

[01:15:25] Okay, about 10 more seconds.

[01:16:17] All right, if you can wrap up your thought or your notes and don't feel pressured, you'll still be able to add to it. But at this time, we do want to open it up at your table so that you can begin to share some of the things that jumped out at you. We're not asking for definitive decisions at this point, but it will be interesting to see what your table mates thought might be beneficial to change, add, or delete, if anything. So at this time, let's see

[01:16:54] will we land in about 10 more minutes, take about 10 minutes to have table dialogue about this.

[01:26:48] All right, everybody. I hope you've had some really great table discussion. So in the interest of making a bold statement, I'm about to ask you a question and I want an honest answer. Is there anyone who thinks that LCPS does not need this equity policy before we move forward with your tabletop discussions fantastic news all right now i'm going to turn it back to ladi to do

[01:27:20] the protocol to report out all right the protocol for sharing out is really not fancy we are literally going to hear from each table um so i probably should have announced that part first so that you could at least um select someone or have someone voluntold to be the speaker for your table um so i'll give you 30 seconds to determine who that person is going to be and then when we hear from each table, we will need one person to just share what your table dialogue and discussion

[01:27:59] really was about for each of the columns. What, if anything, you're suggesting would be revised, added, or deleted. So take a few seconds to identify who is going to speak for your table,

[01:28:15] and then we will hear from each table. Are we first? Yes.

[01:28:51] He not only volunteered you, Michelle, he also volunteered you to go first so i think he since he asked he should go first okay so in the revised column we have to clarify define what is meant by diverse or diversity which and uh line 12 to adding um including but not limited to when it looks at um race religion

[01:29:28] country of origin and those terms. And another addition is also to include religious accommodation for students in schools. All right, thank you. Any other thoughts? All right, thank you. All right, I think this table has volunteered. I told them I've had too much caffeine, so I might as well

[01:30:05] just get it over with. So our table, I'm not going to lie, we got to line 15. We're very in-depth thinkers so we didn't get very far so line 15 we we wanted we thought that there should be a little bit more clarification in in the statement it should specifically reference if possible what statement that is referring to so that it's clear so people understand what it's being compared to and for adding things we think that the beginning of the state of the committee commitment to equity should begin with a much clearer definition of who the author is

[01:30:44] and the discussion that we had was, is this kind of owned by LCSB or LCPS and who would be the definition of the owner or the author?

[01:31:13] Great feedback. Thank you so much. Alright, which table is next? So a couple of things that we identified kind of throughout the document there's a lot of capitalized words which appear to be terms of art just because of them being capitalized but there are no definitions anywhere and so I think that leads to a lot of what appears to be vagueness particularly as we look at regulations that will be developed based on the policy overall we looked at a

[01:31:47] number of things that need to be tightened up some phrases such as on lines 59 and 60 that we just actually can't even make sense of what was really meant by some of those phrases they just seem to be maybe a little inartfully worded that could be tightened up a bit and there's some duplication in in areas you know particularly with recruitment and so forth and we had the same observation about the list in line 12 that that ought to

[01:32:22] refer to the fact that video we has a list we're sort of adding to that list if you will but again it's not necessarily going to be a fully inclusive list we can't list out every possible thing here but we should try to probably expand that list as we can maybe related to appearance socioeconomic status some of that's listed video as well but some of those other things published should be called out in our list as well great observations and feedback thank you and And our last table.

[01:33:02] So we discussed the presentation of the policy because, oh, sorry. So we discussed the presentation of the policy because it can be difficult to read and understand. Because it seems that a lot of the information is not consistent throughout the policy.

[01:33:30] And it can be like some of the information is dragged out and difficult to understand. Obviously, we're not policy writers, so we don't understand what needs to be written in policy. but it'd be nice if it was, like, I don't know what else to say, like, user-friendly, I guess, like, understandable for, like.

[01:33:53] I think that's 100% true, and a lot of times when we write policy, we forget who it's for, and so any staff in the room would be able to verify what you just said is 100%. Sometimes we have to look at it and say, who is the user of this policy?

[01:34:09] Is it a principal, and they need to be able to implement it, or is it a parent who needs to be able to look and see? So I think that that's absolutely great feedback. And sometimes we get caught up in the structure of our policy rather than the user ability. So those comments are very valid. Thank you.

[01:34:27] Awesome. Thank you. I think we have time for, we're going to take five more minutes to do this last part. If you are willing to share your note-taking sheet, that's fine. But all we'll ask is that we get one copy from each table. So you'll have almost five minutes to determine which paper you're going to turn in.

[01:34:49] And if you will also be so kind as to put your names on the back of that in case we need to reference for clarification, that would be great. Thank you.

[01:35:13] Lottie, did you want the policy marked up back or you wanted that sheet with the ads? The note-taking sheet. The note-taking sheet. Yes. Okay, thanks. Thank you.

[01:35:22] All right, so we appreciate the work done at the table tonight.

[01:38:31] The next step for this policy that we've been discussing over here is to, because it's almost two years since it was drafted, is to have legal look at it again to see if anything has changed to make sure that it's in, it's following any code requirements.

[01:38:47] And also a reference cleanup. Ashley was noticing that some of the things referenced in there don't exist anymore. And it looks like we might need a name change too. So we'll work on that over the next two months, and then we'll bring it back to the committee at our August meeting to start really looking at it and seeing any revisions we might want to make.

[01:39:07] Okay. So we thank you all for that. If you can, Jory's going to come around and grab your table copy that we can keep. Great. And so we're going to do 602, our mid-year reflection. Just a quick little say this.

[01:39:24] Can I make an additional comment? Sure. That just came up. So I think because policies are only reviewed so often, I think when we define diversity, we need to be really careful about who all we include in that group, because our diverse climate right now may not be what it is two years from now.

[01:39:48] So that's a great point. And I will say that some of our policies include a, while the code requires every five years for policy review, we can include in there that it be looked at every two years, perhaps. So that can be a point of, you know, like an ending comment in the policy that has been included in a couple of policies that are time sensitive and do evolve or make changes come around.

[01:40:15] And just so you know, if code changes on any policy and those come back before any five year review requirement, if code changes, then those policies come back before committees. We were just wondering if, you know, even if it just could add at the end all marginalized groups.

[01:40:30] Like, I'm just saying, four years ago, transgender issue was not as big as it is today. And right now, you know, we deal with it all the time. So I suppose if we say it should be reviewed every two years, that would probably cover us.

[01:40:51] And I, well, I think that this is a great place to start our discussion, too, is the type of language that's in the policy. absolutely we'll wrap up with Erica so one one section that we didn't get to in our table talk but I just want to put it out there really quickly because we're talking about revisiting things as things might change one thing that really is kind of sticking in my mind especially in the in the political environment that our country has entered into if you're looking at lines 62 to 66 one thing that I think it's important for all of us to have kind of planted

[01:41:27] in the back of our mind is we can make decisions as a school board but if in our state just as in some other states there are decisions made at the state level we need to be prepared to know how we respond to that and what kind of language we have so that we're prepared to kind of still continue to do the best we can for our students while not violating any state issues right and that'll be either a code or any kind of policy that comes out of VDOE requirement.

[01:42:01] So absolutely, thank you for bringing that up. All right, we'll go to Lottie for 602, our mid-year reflection. Lottie? All right, recognizing that this is the last meeting for this school year, and we'll have a break for July and then resume meeting in August, we thought it might be a good time to do a mid-year reflection.

[01:42:23] and so in the center of your tables you'll find a page that has praise and polish and so we just want to give everyone a couple of minutes to quickly jot down something that might come to mind something that you think so far is about the functionality of the committee this is the committee that you all said hey I'd like to be a part of and for whatever different reasons I remember we started the very first meeting with everyone stating their why so recognizing that

[01:42:58] and we come with our individual passions and advocacy we're curious as to what is going very well in your mind as far as the functionality the topics the meetings for the committee and then what might be some things that could improve so what could be polished up a little bit or refined so we'll take a couple of minutes and individually take notes, and then we'll share out. Yes.

[01:43:31] I would like to take this moment for us to acknowledge this is the last meeting for our equity director. Please don't ruin my bubble at the end. So we'll wait for that acknowledgement from our Cooper. That's announcements. You're in the wrong, I'm calling you out of order, Ryan.

[01:43:48] Wow. That's under announcements. He didn't care. He said, I'm going to beat you. I'm like,

[01:43:55] what is he doing okay all right so we're gonna start who wants who wants to start anybody want

[01:46:45] to share fantastic raquel and you are welcome to shell shell share praises and polish or one or the other i'm going to let you determine what you want to share okay so i'll i'll do both but i'm going to do praise first um i really enjoyed the organization of the committee um i've been a part of a few committees and I think the organization the communication everything that I've been provided has been amazing also the variety of topics

[01:47:23] presented in my two meetings have provided education and resources that may not have otherwise been provided so I do want to commend you guys for that it was it's been amazing just to be a part and I'm looking forward to the future sad that Lottie's leaving because she's one of the reasons that I joined but well so I mean she she was very instrumental in me actually keeping my house here and not selling it and moving somewhere else but for polish I feel

[01:47:58] like we need to find a way to get more participation and it's not just this committee it's a lot of the committees that I'm a part of is you know just getting people to understand that when you commit to this you commit to this And so just trying to find a way to get people to show up and do what they said they were going to do.

[01:48:21] I appreciate that. Ryan, do you want to go next? And feel free to say anything you like. So as I was saying, I would like to praise Lottie Spurlock. I guess what I'll say to keep it succinct is your four years of leadership and the sacrifice and the challenges you overcame through this first phase of equity work.

[01:48:48] made the difference. A lot of people have been in this division for years and have seen this work coming and have felt that this change needed to come. And your leadership during the first phase of it has us off on the right start. So it was never going to be smooth. But the fact that you saw it through, that is appreciated. So that was my praise. And Ms. Sharon will go into detail about that. And also more opportunities as far as polish, not a critique, but more opportunities to hear the multiple perspectives of implementing the equity work from leaders in the faith

[01:49:26] community, from business folks, from practitioners here, and what it takes to kind of walk it out from multiple perspectives. And we've had some conversations about that, but I'm looking forward to more conversations about that. So I hope I didn't spoil the surprise at the end.

[01:49:48] But there are people at that table crying because they didn't know. Well, tears are not always a bad thing, especially when you're celebrating someone's hard work and dedication. It's all good and I appreciate what you said. I know Lottie does too but she's shy right now. Is there anybody else who wants to share? Thank you. Jill. I really appreciate the number of questions and like the deep reflective conversations we've had regarding the data on the racial slurs and the hate speech. I think it's been so valuable to actually look at

[01:50:23] actual numbers because I think that that feels like the start of what might be more of an actionable plan like I think we started like talking about like a protocol back in those first first few meetings and to finally see it kind of coming to fruition and um seeing a path forward to how that can actually like make change I think is really exciting and I think that just like the value that the different people bring to this was is terrific anyone else want to share

[01:51:00] out. And you don't have to. It's volunteer only unless Charles wants to tell Michelle that she has to. Ryan. I just wanted to add to the conversation. So the schools have had climate data for four plus years where we've added questions about students treating each other with respect regardless of race or other differences. And it's been an area of struggle for us that the students feel that the staff are more respectful of students than students are of each other. So for those of you wondering about the data, we've been aware that students have felt,

[01:51:38] a quarter of students feel that students do not treat each other with respect, regardless of the differences. The racial incidents have just added to that to confirm there are incidents occurring where students see that students are not treating each other with respect, where they see the adults are doing it more. So it's all building and confirming that we have an issue that students are seen, and that a lot of it is being driven by mistreatment of students of other students and some adults, and the racial incidents are actually helping to confirm that there are actions and incidents occurring that are driving climate that is not what it should

[01:52:18] be. I just wanted to add that for context. Appreciate that. Anyone else? I would like to appraise also for Lottie the work that we're doing, and she always refers do it as hard work and just bringing the conversation to principals and and doing the work alongside us has made a difference and I just wanted to thank you for that this is a really

[01:52:53] simple one but something that I have appreciated from my beginning last year I love that when we are in this room and we're having conversations regardless of what the topic is what we're trying to revise this is a level playing field I love how you all have instituted the no we go by first names in here because everyone whether they're a high school student or someone very high up in the county we're all coming at this at one level so that's been that's been a wonderful feeling so I will just echo what some of the other folks have already said and I have not worked with Lottie

[01:53:32] that long but I think it is a reflection that this is a very respectful and thoughtful group of people in this room and I'm very very happy and privileged to be a part of this group and in a world that's lacking both of those currently in a lot of ways I think this kind of committee's the work that this committee is doing is particularly important I would love to see some more focus on some of the policies that touch on equity throughout the county and I think I heard some comments about that before going forward I think that'd be a nice thing for us to to take a look at as well

[01:54:07] not only this particular policy but other policies throughout the the the regs that that touch on these issues but i also just wanted to call it in particular i thought that that presentation on the restorative practices was really one of the best presentations i have sat through in my corporate life in advisory councils etc i thought that was extremely effective and it just does a wonderful job i just wanted to call that in particular thank you for bringing that back to the table for discussion that I agree with you and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it as well

[01:54:45] anyone else Dorothy um I'm just I I've sung my praises to Lottie but I'll just a polish one of the things that I would hope to maybe see in the future as equity committee is that we can leave with an action item of our own maybe that may be small that we can go out and take back to our schools or something kind of a call to action for ourselves because sometimes it I'm a parent and so I feel kind of like I'm on the low end but I do love that we're on the level playing field and I'm a parent of a multiracial family so I kind of have

[01:55:24] two different views but I also want to be able to have something that I can take back and go something that I can take back and make it feel like this two hours wasn't just two hours right now and then forget about it because sometimes that's what happens. You review policy and you see it and you're like well but having an actionable item to say you know take this back to your schools and share it with your schools um and here's who you have to do because some I don't know sometimes you don't know what you don't know right and what should be shared so I think as a committee just having an actionable small item MSAC has started to do that um and I've just sat

[01:56:04] in on and it's just it's been great it's like it's a learning opportunity for everybody I think that's a great idea thank you and I think that we can totally make that happen and I I would also welcome everyone to not just count on me and staff to come up with what that actionable item is but maybe it comes from the discussion in the group what's the actionable item and the whole point of this isn't for the people sitting at this table to come up with all the ideas and push it out to you the whole point of this committee is for all of you to push us so I'm gonna I'm gonna ask that

[01:56:44] those actual items and the ideas generation come from all of you and that you when you're in your other groups and you're at your other other meetings that you bring those things from those meetings here as well it should be going back and forth does that make sense I was just gonna say like one of the things I wrote down kind of as my own actions time is that how she had spoke that the high school equity committee group came and spoke to the school and I and I thought oh that's really great to take back to school and then you know actually make you know implement and kind of get those wheels turning what did it take what did it take so it would have been like something like she could you know maybe further on that next month

[01:57:23] like what it took like who she had to contact just something simple so that it could be this is something you can take to your schools because as we're seeing the elementary schools if you know if we can get it's happening younger and younger and how are we going to be reflective on that like how can we tackle you know tackle those big subjects um at a with peers and so it's my like My question to her was, like, who did you contact?

[01:57:46] And so that is an action item, just kind of something that I'm looking for. Great. Understood. Jill? I just had an idea for an action item, if you want to record this. When we first started the equity committee, our homework was to meet somebody for coffee, because I do think that there's so many of us here that it's so interesting to get to talk to somebody and get a different perspective coming from the gifted advisory and talking to people from MSAC as we were going through this process to revise our identification system was so valuable, and I think that without that nudge to meet somebody new

[01:58:25] and talk to somebody new, we would have missed out on some really important information from a different group. So I think we have such a great opportunity with so many different groups represented here that I would love to see that come back maybe after the summer to meet somebody for coffee.

[01:58:45] I'm going to do you one better. I'm going to give you some homework right now. And I'm going to say, get somebody's phone number or email, however you want to do it, before you leave the room. Somebody you don't know that maybe you weren't sitting with tonight. And you have two months to make it happen and get together.

[01:59:00] So maybe you could get two people's information and make that happen. And then you can let us know when we come back in August. And I saw Junji, your hand was up. And then Anna. I know that we're running out of time, But I just wanted to take this moment to thank everyone because I really feel that this is a very good committee and platform with all those thoughtful and respectful people here that I don't need to worry about.

[01:59:28] There are discussions of being, you know, why are you thinking it that way? Because everybody has a different perspective. That's why we have this equity committee. So that's how I feel this year. And I do feel like this year's structure, the school year structure with the equity committee discussion are much more structural compared to last year and then everyone was very engaged in all the discussions as how I feel it. We have a small group discussion so that's how I feel we got the achievement for the committee and the one that the Polish one I don't know whether this is possible but I do feel

[02:00:08] like we had a lot of missing meeting because we don't have the quorum. Is it possible to allow virtual attendance just to accommodate some of the situation that the folks are having sick kids and you know family to take care they can come here or they they themselves are not you know able to present because of the time difference etc so if that's possible so I would like to answer that question I have to have quorum in the room before I can even consider letting someone participate virtually it does not solve the problem oh okay so if I don't have tonight

[02:00:47] the number 16 because of the amount of people on the committee if there are not 16 people in the room it doesn't matter how many people are sitting at home waiting to join us we cannot start the meeting you have to be physically present in the room yeah I remember that the quorum has to be present in the room before anyone can participate virtually so half 50 percent right it's 50 percent yep okay it's a majority so it's really 50 plus one thanks for thanks for asking because anybody who needs clarification on that I'm happy to remind everyone Anna I just wanted to share one

[02:01:24] of the things that Meadowland will be doing we put in a proposal for ALT which is the administrative leadership team days where all the administrators from the county get together and Meadowland we have affinity groups for our black students we have a boys group and a girls group separately and they have been it's been this is our second year with the group and I don't talk a lot about it not because I'm not proud I'm very proud but I'm also very protective of my students

[02:02:01] and I'm very aware of what they face but we will be presenting including our star who is her name is Cabron Jonas and she her it was her vision that helped us to begin this work and she is amazing and she's leaving us and going to middle school but she'll be featured in the 2023-2024 back to school video and she also is doing a video of her why for the administrative leadership team

[02:02:34] and we're going to share with principals how they can begin affinity groups and why would you start one and what kind of groups does it make sense to start one for and next year we'll be adding a an affinity group for our muslim students so we continue to build on the awesomeness at meadowland that's great you should be proud all right so in the um i realize we're a little past 7 30 but i hope you will all just give me a second because i really wanted to highlight some of the things

[02:03:08] that have happened since april of 2019 when this committee was first put into place i will admit how naive i was at that time when we put this into place and we gathered all of these people who didn't know each other and were at different points in their lives with different experiences and we were all sitting here before the meeting started reminiscing about that first meeting and how i don't want to use the word awful because i think what came out of it was fantastic but how uncomfortable it was it was it was for me as chair i wanted to be the chair of the equity committee

[02:03:45] and then i got in the room and i was petrified because i did not i was so naive i did not realize what we had gotten into and from day one Lottie was by my side from day one the planning and the throwing out the plan and going with what the committee decided Michelle you talked about I call it hard work and Lottie calls it heart work a hundred percent of the time it is always about that I don't think you realize that you've helped how far you have moved the needle for LCPS with

[02:04:23] equity work and that we would not be where we are. There's not one single person responsible for it but we would not be here without Lottie's leadership and daily commitment to it. You've challenged me personally and you've supported me. Lottie and I will share with all of you that Lottie and I have had conversations that I could never have with anyone else. We've had conversations about race. We've had conversations about our LGBTQ students and staff. We've had just deep

[02:04:58] open conversations that allow us to be in this room with all of you and Lottie has given me the grace to learn and the space and then come back and make a mistake and still give me open arms open arms every single time to to be able to make those mistakes learn from them and move forward and um we've laughed and we've cried and your support over the last four years not just of me

[02:05:35] but the entire county and the principals that call and the teachers that call and everyone else that turns to Lottie every single time they need an answer and they need help Lottie is the subject matter expert in Loudoun County Public Schools this is a loss for us this is this is a loss but what I want to do tonight is promise Lottie that we will continue this work, that we're all going to continue to show up so that everything that has happened for the last four years continues

[02:06:04] for the foreseeable future and beyond. My only regret in all of this is for the personal attacks for you and seeing your beautiful face put on posters that are ugly. And I'm really sorry that this work came to that and i'm really sorry that anyone could take the work we do

[02:06:38] and spin it to be ugly i hope that the memories that you leave here with are the positive ones and i will not accept june 30th as the last day of our time together because we also promised that we would be friends forever and our friendship will go down as one of the best in my life

[02:07:05] So Lottie Spurlock thank you so much and if you would all please join me.

[02:07:50] Thank you all. So because I still have to close out the meeting and do announcements. So awkward. I just want to remind everybody that there is no meeting in July. We will regroup in on August 3rd we do have a meeting. I am going to ask staff to send an email and get confirmation that we will have a quorum because the last thing I want to do is gather people here on August 3rd and have staff come in and have the room all set up for us if we are truly not going to have a quorum. So I'd rather everyone just be honest so that we can plan for September if that's what we're going to do. I really, it makes me

[02:08:25] uncomfortable to come here and not have a quorum. That is worse to me than just saying, okay, we're not going to be able to do it. So we're going to reach out to you by email and I just need everyone to just let us know what your plans are. Okay. That's all I have. I hope everyone has a really great summer. Two months off from this committee, but continue to do the work, the research, and whatever you want to bring back.

[02:08:51] If you want to share any of your polishes via email, we take no offense. That's what we do here. Just one more thank you for Lottie. It will not be the same without you. Wow.

[02:09:07] I know I need to make this brief. We're over time, and if I talk really long, I know the tears will flow. But I'm so very grateful for this journey of excellence and equity.

[02:09:23] That's the goal for each and every child. And so I want to thank you all for showing up physically. Please continue to show up physically and show up in your individual spaces and how you, whether you're a parent or a staff member, a community member, it is so important.

[02:09:41] I feel fortunate to have had, I guess, my saw sharpened by this committee because I feel like I've grown in a lot of ways. And sometimes there were some moments when I said, wow, wow, I didn't predict it would go that way.

[02:10:03] And so I think we have to lean into the discomfort. We have to lean into what is not known. Hence, the need for listening and human connection and trying to really make this space better for each and every child. So, again, I thank you all.

[02:10:18] I appreciate, so appreciate the support, Brenda and Ashley, too, and just each of you, whether I've known you for a short time or a long time, I'm just so very grateful for this experience. Thank you so much. Seeing no further business, we're adjourned.

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