Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC) Meeting, Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 55m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1020629454?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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:02] - Good evening, everyone. It is six o'clock and we are going to go ahead and get started with the evening. Welcome to our October general body meeting. We are going to have a really good, a really different evening and I am looking forward to it.

[00:00:24] So we are going to get started. If you would just take a couple minutes right quick and sign in, we've triple and quadruple checked the links

[00:00:33] and they do work, so if you would sign in for me please.

[00:01:44] Now for our MSAC announcements and updates. For our update, I just wanted to share that last Tuesday evening, MSAC presented its update to the school board, and I got the opportunity to share about our vision for this year, about the things that we're focusing on, about our goals, and just to kind of bring our message and of joy to the community and to the school board and let everybody know that this is what we're going to be working on.

[00:02:17] While we'll still have our conversations about tough topics and doing that, we're still going to try to lean into making this space a positive space, a space where everyone feels welcome and feels safe and feels affirmed and feels like they are part of a community here.

[00:02:33] And we, it was well-received, it was nerve-wracking, But we had it was well received and I look forward to kind of reaching out further to the school board members and just kind of sharing more in depth and seeing the ways in which we can partner and collaborate and perhaps they can come aboard and support us as we go about the school year.

[00:02:59] For announcements, we don't really have any announcements except for next month's meeting will be our last meeting for the calendar year. is already going to be november which is surprising and so um we will get the flyers and everything and all the information out to you um as we go um as we go about planning um i believe that is it so um this qr code is for september's meeting minutes i know that i emailed that out to everyone but if you don't have them if you want to scan that qr code it'll take you to the document with

[00:03:36] the QR code, we need to come to quorum and vote on our meeting minutes. And so if everybody just wants to take a moment and kind of scroll through and view them, it's the same meeting minutes that

[00:03:52] we put out to you in the email.

[00:04:27] I have a motion to approve the September 2024 general body meeting minutes. And do I have a second to approve them? Second. Okay. All those in favor, would you please say aye. Those not in favor, the meeting minutes have been approved. We will get those added to

[00:04:57] the MSAC website before the week is out. Thank you. So tonight's topic, my friends, tonight's topic is leaning into joy. I put a little, my daughter put a little something in there for me to remind me to lean into some joy and to smile and to have fun tonight. So, but tonight's theme is leaning into joy and we're going to embrace a fresh and new approach with our theme so tonight we're going to explore ways to bring positivity connection and inspiration to our school

[00:05:34] communities we're going to engage about engage in discussions collaborative sessions and we're going to try to have a little fun along the way so an early thank you for coming out tonight and and joining us in this and bearing with us as we try something new tonight.

[00:05:53] It's gonna be different, but we're going to kind of continue the conversation that we started in September's meeting and bring it over into everything we do tonight, thinking about the things we learned from our presentation, thinking about those discussions that we had early on.

[00:06:10] So, why joy? I've been asked that a few times, and it's hard to say beyond, I tend to like to be a happy and positive person and I tend to want to lean into what makes me happy because that drives me to dedicate myself more to things and the things that I'm doing and to focus more and it also gives me an opportunity to take a break, remember who I am and remember the things that are important to me.

[00:06:38] And so fostering positivity and connections within our school communities is essential. We always tell kids it should be fun to learn and what do we do as parents, as adults, as teachers, as educators, what do we do to encourage students to have fun while they're learning?

[00:06:55] And so what we would like to do with talking about JOY this year is improving student engagement, well-being, and academic achievement. We want to create supportive environments where everyone feels valued and connected. And it's also about strengthening relationships between students, teachers, parents, and the wider community and we want to enhance our collaboration and we want to increase support so the question that i'd like you to keep in mind as we go about our activities and we go about the meeting tonight is how can we as parents advocates and msac delegates really bring more joy into our

[00:07:33] school communities so for our first activity we're going to have some table topics and discussions So if you are sitting at a table by yourself, find a table, go to another table, and join some friends, and join some partners to discuss these.

[00:07:57] On the table are your table topics and discussions. Now, you can choose one theme, or you can choose all three to touch upon it. The questions that are for each theme are just to give you an idea of how to start the conversation, and what to discuss, and what to talk about.

[00:08:15] But these are just kind of ideas to navigate the questions and discussions. So we're going to take a little bit of time and when you're having your discussions, try to take some notes and jot them down because I know everybody is going to want to hear what everybody else talked about and we'd like to collect some of those notes so we can share those in our meeting minutes with all of the delegates after this evening. But take some time, go through these topics, fostering positive school environments, supporting mental wellness, and celebrating cultural diversity and just have a discussion about these like what can we do

[00:08:51] better or what makes an into school environment joyful for students parents and staff and then

[00:08:56] we'll come back in a few minutes and we'll share some of our thoughts and ideas so go for it hello

[00:12:51] about two more minutes and then we'll kind of come together to share our thoughts and our ideas okay

[00:20:15] Let's come back together.

[00:20:41] Any of anyone like to share some of their thoughts and insight? You can share from any one of our table topics. Just a few thoughts or ideas, something new you learned, or just something that you feel is, you know, a takeaway you have, anything like that.

[00:21:04] Yes? What about now? Okay.

[00:21:19] We were able to complete the first part. My name's Quincella Dent Hess, and I have a student, well, two students, one at Stonehill and Rock Ridge. This is my first meeting, my first time to be a part of the group.

[00:21:37] But fostering positive school environments. For the first one, what makes the school environment joyful for students, parents, and staff, we came up with inclusivity, respectful of differences, and just staff knowing the names. It's like at the beginning of the year, how they try to learn all the students' names.

[00:21:55] We think that would create an environment of joy. How can we celebrate small wins within our school communities? Acknowledging good citizenship. I don't know that we do that much after elementary school. And peer recognition, just having them acknowledge each other for doing something right, like I caught you doing something good or I noticed that you excel in this area.

[00:22:23] In what ways can MSAC support schools in creating a positive and inclusive atmosphere? Hopefully having our recommendations be suggested and hopefully implemented, and having buy-in from leadership. Did I cover everything, group?

[00:22:41] Okay. I think we'll stop there. That was the one that we were able to fully complete. Okay. Anyone else?

[00:22:59] I'm Raquel, and our table did the supporting mental wellness. we can kind of lump all three of these pretty much together but for the simple everyday practices we talked a lot about being intentional about starting your day off positively maybe possibly doing some positive affirmations physical activity is a really good one to help reduce the stress and to have mental health days and that kind of flows into the next two questions

[00:23:34] about promoting open conversations about mental health within our schools with we've I fully believe that mental health starts at home and just teaching your children that when they do need that time or that space to be able to communicate that and to teach your children how to speak their emotions for the role that parents can play in the community and the community play in supporting mental wellness for students pretty much along those same lines is teaching your kids at home how to deal with those emotions and to be able to advocate when they need time to deal with their

[00:24:11] emotions and feelings and to also encourage those mental health days with all the extra days off that we have during the school year those can definitely be used as mental health days to just kind of decompress do some shopping do some pampering and not focus so much on school and all the busy things that parents have to get done sometimes on those days thank you and

[00:24:45] our group we were able to get through two of them and I am Jackson Roberts student equity equity ambassador for the seventh grade and our group talked about what makes a cool environment joyful for students parents and staff we it's we talked about having a community like environment where everybody's included in everything and we don't shoot down ideas and we make everything happen to the best of our

[00:25:20] abilities um um at least at simpson and then how we celebrate small small wins is making sure peers know that this person in our school is highlighted for one thing being in our lunches we have people come up and for heard awards as we call them either being honorable engaged respectful and or determined to do something in our school and we give them awards and certificate

[00:25:55] and they are featured on the house areas where you can see what they have done with a picture of them um for small wins if a teacher sees them in class doing something good they can give them what's called a monty buck which can go towards getting a small prize at the end of each time you get something at the each time each end of a week or a month or whenever we do a prize giving and

[00:26:25] that is just about all we got through. So that's all for me. Thank you. Anyone else? Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. We're a part of the Dominion cluster over here. And so we talked, we did the last theme, which was celebrating cultural diversity. And we talked about one way to

[00:26:58] incorporate cultural diversity into just like a school environment for students was making sure that it's a part of all classes so not just like the higher level classes but any of the classes that a student would take especially at the high school level and another thing that we mentioned was just like how especially in some of those higher level classes like the dual enrollment classes how you know culture is broken down just in a different way than it may be in other classes and then we got through the second part as well which is what resources or tools could MSAC like I guess push out or share with different

[00:27:36] school communities and so we talked about MSAC just putting together on their website just like different templates or videos that could be used that different schools could use so that that we could show either at you know either at the primary or secondary level and that because there's some days and we mentioned you know within our school there's a lot of cultures but there's some that like our students can't speak upon so if there are templates that are able to be used then we could incorporate those into different advisory lessons or into just different ways that we

[00:28:09] connect with students. And we didn't get to the last one, but yeah. Thank you. Yes. Our table has a teacher, an MSAC delegate, and community members who are coming to test the water. I'm going to call you out to see if being an MSAC delegate is for them. So it was an interesting conversation of different perspectives that are coming in from different backgrounds. And we discussed fostering positive school environments. And one of the things I mentioned about being an MSAC delegate is

[00:28:49] being an MSAC delegate is what you make it. And I think a lot of us who have been here for years know that if you take your role to bring it into the school to create positive environment, you might find some pushback sometimes, but you also might find that you can have a big role to play in that. One of the things that we notice is that a lot of people, especially coming out of covid people seem to be on edge school communities are on edge teachers and staff are on edge parents are on edge and that creates that kind of confrontational environment that is getting in a way of creating a positive school environment for the children and children can feed off that

[00:29:29] energy they feel when their parents are on edge they feel when their teachers aren't are on edge so one of the ways um that uh that we discussed on the table is small steps such as teachers doing that positive check-in and calls or emails early on in the school year to establish that positive rapport with with the parents instead of just calling when there's a problem so when you do have a parent that reaches out or you do have the you know teachers teachers or even the staff members reaching out on a regular day to say hey everything's fine I just want to you know give you an update your kid is doing well our class is doing well you know it's the beginning of school

[00:30:07] year that kind of establishes that level of kind of comfort so when when things do and if things do go wrong you've already established that relationship with the teacher the the last thing is on our part as parents and also as delegates there are ways for us to volunteer in the school I know I went in to do that I think it's called watchdog moms or watchdog guys and it's and when I first went in And I felt like the teachers and staff were kind of on edge, like I was there to monitor them rather than me coming in to really just kind of volunteer and say, I would like to see what a day in your life looks like and how I can be helpful.

[00:30:46] And so it took some time to establish that, you know. And once I did, the teacher was a lot more relaxed and found ways to get me to be more helpful. And I think these are avenues that for us to be more engaged without and diffusing some of that tension that can arise in schools thank you yes um push the okay I think this works yeah I'm from Port of McFalls and we have Riverside too so two of us together we were discussing

[00:31:23] about the fostering of the positive uh school environment so we were thinking about it the staff and admin should be approachable for the students anytime they should be educated too at the same time about the different cultures the and celebration of the different cultures also should be told to them and because there's so many holidays coming and most of us do not know what these holidays mean so yeah so i think the staff and admins should be really educated first and then with the students because if the student approaches you you don't want to see the staff

[00:32:00] or the admin going through their phone or through their laptop searching for you know what does this mean yeah so and then highlighting the students achievements uh academic way sports volunteer work school and community yeah and then we just went through a small part of the supporting mental health would be like breathing techniques and I think yoga is one of you know meditation part of

[00:32:31] it can be taught to it's really nice and just focusing towards yourself that's it thank you thank you I know that we all have a lot more ideas and a lot more things that we could share and I appreciate all of this.

[00:32:47] This is really good thoughts and ideas and I want to encourage you to hold on to them and we'll have another opportunity to kind of take some of those thoughts and expand them when we go into the working session. But now we're gonna discuss MSAC policy review.

[00:33:08] So I know that we send you out, when we have policies that are up for review, we send them out to you all and we ask for feedback and you can be honest, How many of you actually read the policies? Yes, that's good.

[00:33:23] That's actually really good. That's great. How many of you are like, I have no idea what I just read. There is too many legal words. I don't get it. Well, the purpose of this portion of our presentation is to kind of make it simple, break it down into bite-sized chunks, and to just let you all know that it is accessible, it's doable to read these policies.

[00:33:48] And I will tell you from the start, Google is your best friend. I can't tell you the number of times I'm like, what does this even mean or how does this work? And if I can't understand it, I'm like, okay, let me Google this and let me look up like I've got a thesaurus saved as one of my favorite tabs so I can find a different way of looking at words or understanding what I'm reading. So why does MSAC review policies?

[00:34:17] We have an important role as an advisory committee to review policies. And when we review them, we're looking at them to make sure they reflect our shared values of inclusivity, equity and positive community impact. Our feedback matters. And I want you all to understand that. Our feedback matters. When we provide our feedback, even if it's not as MSAC, as a parent, as a stakeholder in this division, your feedback matters. What you see and how you interpret it, what it might make you feel, what questions you might have that matters. And so by actively

[00:34:53] participating in the policy review process, MSAC has the opportunity to shape policies in ways that promote a supportive and inclusive environment for all students and families. So again, your voice matters. And when we send you the policies, we want you to know that we want to hear back from you. Your voice does matter. We don't want you to think, oh, I don't get it. They don't really need to hear anything. I've said it time and time again, One word can bother you, and that one word changes the tone, the meaning, the intention, the impact that that policy has.

[00:35:30] And it's just beneficial to hear differing viewpoints because it's easy to get caught up in, you know, if you're the legal expert and you're writing the policy, it's easy to think, okay, this sounds great. But to parents and community members, it might not sound the same way.

[00:35:46] And so if something stands out to you, if you have a comment, if you just want to say, I think this policy is great as written, or this is awful, I don't like this, please send it back to us. It's feedback. We can take that into consideration.

[00:36:02] We can bring that into our feedback and commentary that MSAC sends back to these policy committees. So we can, it helps, is what I'm trying to say. it helps, so please send it. Even if you think it doesn't matter, even if you think, okay, they're not going to read this, this is not important, please send it. Your feedback matters. So this is a sample of what the policies look like when we get them. And you've seen them. We will have policies. We sometimes get policies, and it will be completely marked up and scratched through in

[00:36:38] red, and you'll be like, what am I reading? And there's like a big sentence, and the rest of the policy is all in red. And so we take these policies and we start looking at them from here. And we offer, when we get our comment, when we provide our feedback, this is what we send back to the policy committees. And so we start with our general comments. And these are just what our general thoughts are, our first impressions, what we, if we've done some digging and some research, gone back and looked and listened to the policy committee meetings that that this policy was

[00:37:13] brought up in maybe there's a correlating school board meeting we go to these and we sit down and we go back through and look at them i also just learned that trick like six months ago so i'm like i don't understand where this is coming from and i'm like oh go back and watch the school board meeting videos you know it's not just in a silo you're not just hearing about it so you can go back and find out what prompted the conversation or where the change is coming from or why this policy is up for review. Next we have our comments and this is where we get really specific. We will start, we will go line by line by line and there have been times where I've come back and said okay

[00:37:53] everything that we've said I agree with but in this line I have a specific question about this or why is this worded this way? Am I reading this differently? Am I reading this wrong? And so we try to go through each line and provide feedback, but sometimes it's just one line that jumps out at us, and this is what we want to provide our feedback and comments on.

[00:38:12] And when we do, we provide a comment, and then we provide our recommendation. So we might say, we feel this way about the comment. This says X, Y, Z, A, B, C, but our recommendation is change the wording or make the wording more inclusive. Make the wording, instead of saying, is subject to review in a timely manner, specify what that timely manner is.

[00:38:38] Specify, is that six weeks from now? Is that every year? Is that every three years? Is that every five years? Because it matters if you are offering a time stamp, what that time stamp is. And so we talk about language. Again, it's if the wording feels off, if it's vague, if it's confusing, or if it's too complicated.

[00:38:59] because a lot of times it feels a lot of a lot complicated um they should be easy these policies should be easy to understand and not because sometimes we might encounter something happening with our students and we've got to be able to go to a policy and we might be told okay this policy covers this and if we can't read it and understand it how does that help us if we're advocating for our student or if we need to understand a situation that's happening in our schools if we can't understand the policy, that means it's written up here and we need it to be written as an everyday person would understand it. A big thing to think about

[00:39:38] when we're looking at policies is thinking about inclusivity and equity. Does the policy feel fair to everyone? Could it impact certain groups differently? Again, one word, two words, three sentences can change how a policy affects certain groups in certain either students teachers staff one word two sentences can impact how that policy affects people we try to ensure when we give our feedback that they promote an environment where all students staff and teachers feel supported valued and included and then a simple thing but not

[00:40:17] really is kind of consider the bigger picture take a step back and look at it If you think, okay, I was super specific, but how does it look according to the bigger policy? Again, send us that feedback. Look at it from a small lens and then zoom out and look at it again.

[00:40:35] Whatever you're trying to share with us, it's valuable and it's important. There is no bad feedback. Again, if you look at the policy and you're like, it's great, please send that to us. If you look at the policy and be like, okay, well, here's my five-page summary as to why I do not like this policy.

[00:40:51] send it to us we will read it we will go through it if we have questions please maybe try to be available so we can ask you our questions so we can understand what you're trying to say because we might need to sum it up but I can tell you we recently reviewed a policy and we sent back a nice long bit of feedback and we were like we have so many things we have questions about We have thoughts, but we itemize those, and we want to be able to include your thoughts and your feedback in that as well.

[00:41:25] So, again, think about general comments and questions, recommendations that apply to the whole policy. When you give, when you think of certain sections, there can be policies that everything from the top to the middle, you're fine with, but then there are questions that you have about it.

[00:41:47] Write that question down and send it our way. we can include that or we can maybe offer you some feedback as to what that question is or answer your question in a way that helps provide clarity again a changing of rewording adding or deleting language you know when we make recommendations we also ask that maybe the school board subcommittee kind of review and reassess the policy you know we we have done that before in the past and we continue to do that if we feel that it's necessary like can we we just recommend that you review this policy reassess it because we see some things

[00:42:25] that might not align with what we feel our shared values are we feel that it's not inclusive enough or we wonder if the language is going to inflict harm or it's going to cause confusion a good question to ask yourself is what I understand this if I didn't know the policy background that is the easiest and best question to ask yourself when you read it because sometimes we're looking at policies that were put in place three four or five years ago and if you don't know the policy background look at it from a lens is I just learned about this policy I just heard about it what can I say about it or what what am

[00:43:05] I reading and how am I viewing this policy words like shall may and should carry weight. For instance, "shall" can mean something must be done, so they shall or LCPS shall do something, whereas "may" it's like there's flexibility. It could happen or it couldn't happen. And so those are very strong words and you can ask for clarity on those. Again, jot a note down. This policy uses the word "shall."

[00:43:33] What do they mean by "shall"? Is this going to happen or is this more of a flexibility or it depends on the situation. We also would like you to consider when you do it going to the school board committee meetings either attend them virtually they put them up in videos where you can listen to the audio recording or if you can attend in person and just sit and listen to the discussion about it that's a great way to at least understand some the policy process that has that happens within LCPS and you can hear what what's going on the

[00:44:10] discussions in the subcommittee as it's presented not required it's just a good thing to do if you're have the bandwidth and you're able to do so when we talk about MSAC's mission we really want to be aware that MSAC's mission is about building culturally and socially competent a culturally and socially competent school system. If a policy doesn't align with these goals, if we have concerns as a delegate body, as an advisory committee, or if we feel it feels counterproductive,

[00:44:46] it's in the opposite of what we value as a committee, you know, that's worth noting. It's worth saying, hey, put an asterisk by it. You know, we have some concerns about this. We just want to let you know and it's valuable to hear that nothing happens in a silo you don't I don't want us to think that oh they write these policies and they don't care about how we feel it can feel like that a lot of times but our feedback can at least give them a moment to stop and pause and at least reflect on what these policies are doing and just think again the questions that we have

[00:45:24] Does this support a diverse and equitable learning environment? When you're reviewing policy, ask yourself if it clearly defines who is responsible for what. There can be things that they talk about roles that teachers and administrators and principals have in these policies or roles that student has responsibilities.

[00:45:46] Just make sure that you understand it. And if you don't understand the definition or how that role is applied to it, then ask, you know, should that be included in the policy to provide more clarity and to reduce misinterpretation?

[00:46:04] Because it's easy to read a policy and think, okay, well, that just says that they can do whatever they want, when they want, how they want, and they don't care. And that's not what it says. That's the reaction. So take a moment, read it again, and kind of reflect on it. Again, keeping in mind the same questions.

[00:46:20] Who will be impacted? How will they be impacted? Is the wording too vague where it can have various interpretations, or does it allow loopholes? I learned a lot about loopholes this summer. Like, what is a loophole? Like, minus, like, what we think of in general terms. But how does that change?

[00:46:36] You know, what is it, how does it impact a policy? Again, is the wording clear? Is it plain language for staff, parents, and communities? I mean, again, I don't know how many policies you've looked at, and you're like, I don't understand what that means. There are a lot of legal terms.

[00:46:53] I am not a lawyer. I am a parent. I just need to understand how my school district works. If you don't understand it and you have a question, again, a simple bit of feedback and commentary is, I don't understand how this policy works, or I don't understand this policy is read.

[00:47:09] And then something else to consider is, does the policy go against any section of the one LCPS strategic plan? We sent that out last year. I will get a copy of that again, and I will send that out to you all by the end of the week, just so you can have it and keep it as a refresher just for as you go about your schools, but even in the policy review process, because there are things in the one LCPS strategic plan that we would like to see policies line up with and be in accordance with?

[00:47:41] And then are all the necessary cross-references identified? If there is a policy that it correlates to or there are two policies and they seem like they are aligned together, again, if you're aware of that previous policy and the current one, just provide the feedback.

[00:48:00] The goal is to get you to just be involved and not be afraid to share what you think. This is, again, just more details about things that you can consider. Words like can, may, should, and shall.

[00:48:16] Example, we had policy 6320 playgrounds. In the example below, it says that all equipment should be marked with the appropriate age range for safe use. Shall would probably be more appropriate because shall means that this is going to be marked with so they understand that a child that maybe is four shouldn't be on this playground equipment that is better suited to a 10 or 11-year-old.

[00:48:48] Playgrounds and playground equipments should be properly maintained. Take out the should and put in shall. That means that this is a requirement for it to be done. any playgrounds or playground equipment that are unsafe should be restricted from use until repaired. Should means it's optional. Shall means that's dangerous. Until it's safe, until it's repaired, that needs to be restricted play. And then you submit questions as a discussion item

[00:49:21] before the school board committee. As you read through each policy, focus on aspects such as inclusivity stay on this page um so to focus on aspects such as inclusivity equity clarity and the potential impact on school culture remember that every detail counts if something doesn't sit right with you it's worth mentioning it can make a big difference in how the policy is understood and so a couple of just questions that i've learned and the things that i have in my notes when i'm reviewing policy is inclusive inclusivity and support does this policy feel like it includes

[00:50:00] represents everyone in our school communities potential impacts could this policy have unintended effects on specific groups either positively or negatively alignment with school culture does this policy encourage a positive and supportive school culture if not what could we suggest to bring it closer to that goal and then things to think about when you review again clarity equity community impact and role definition as I wrap this up because I know this is a lot and you're probably like this is so dry here and I'm like I'm sorry but we got

[00:50:34] to know this part um as I as we wrap up I just want to encourage everyone to think of this as a collaborative and approachable process you're not just reviewing policies you're not wading into deep waters that you're not familiar with you're helping to shape the way we envision an equitable and diverse and inclusive school district to be you're providing influence you're you're being an active and engaged parent and advocate please remember that when you provide feedback um there

[00:51:08] is no such thing as bad feedback every comment question or suggestion helps us move closer to that vision and helps us bring that vision to the foreground and remind those that are creating these policies that you know we these are the things that we think are important these are the values that MSAC holds. And we would just like to make sure that we're working to better and make our school district as amazing as it can possibly be. And so with that, thank you. If you have questions, we can field a few questions. But I have the slides we will send to you. I have a nice

[00:51:46] little three-page document with tips and tricks that I will send to you tomorrow as well. So you can have that as well but we just wanted to kind of get the msac policy review process out there so it's not just saying send us feedback please please please and then you say we don't know what to do so this is kind of our msac policy review one-on-one so i can take a couple questions if you have some thank you yes so is there like a process in terms of these set up like how do you

[00:52:25] organize which set of policies do you review them regularly or are there policies that MSAC decides well we want to review this policy we think that it might because there's so many policies how do we narrow it down and or if we might have a suggestion as parents or delegates about policies that we want to have considered how does that work well we have we get an email um sometimes we get four in a week sometimes we get once a month we'll get an

[00:53:02] email that says these policies are up for review and msac is being asked to provide their comments and feedback and they'll give us a deadline date and so as soon as we get that we start digging into it and reviewing it and then you will get an email from our wonderful pot policy lead mr Julio and he will say this policy is up for review we have we'll kind of give you a deadline date like a few days to go through it and provide us your feedback and if you have any feedback or comments just email them back to MSAC policy and we take those into consideration. If there are

[00:53:39] other policies the policies that are currently up for review if you go to the LCPS home page and you click you go to policy you can see what policies are currently being reviewed those are open to feedback and comment at large and you are welcome to comment on those you if you if there is a policy that you see that you feel like you have comment and feedback on that in fact might not be reviewing or that's not one that we are providing comment on please feel free to do that like I always say as a delegate encourage parents to comment on feedback because

[00:54:16] that's where changes happen in the policy in that written language that's where changes happen that's where things get in so you have that opportunity to provide feedback on both ends you can send feedback to us that you want to share and you can go out and put it on the lcps in that policy feedback document that they have up there so you have both options but we try to send you the policies as we get them and sometimes we get policies where we don't really have any comment or feedback, and you won't get any email from us, but the ones that we do feel like we want to hear back from you all on, and the ones that we're collecting that feedback, we try to get that to

[00:54:54] you in a timely manner, so you have time to read and review, and then we can bring all of that together and create our unified voice in policy review. Yes. I don't know if there are any of my equity committee delegates in here, but we get all the policy that's being reviewed, so every five years they have to review policy mandatory and then if like a community issue comes up or something comes up then they'll add that to the list but they're all on the front page of the lcps website that you can click and see what every single policy is being reviewed what committee it's

[00:55:29] being sent to and when they're going to review it um and so i get more i think than the msac delegates do just because i'm part of the equity committee but they're all sent by helen randolph and you click on a link and it's like here's the policy here are the comments here's the questions it's very easy and they do get read i will tell you the the committees the board members they all do get read so this is the current um policy and regulation so these are the policies that are currently up for review right here and so you can click on the policy

[00:56:07] and it'll take you yes it'll let me in to board docs and then you can click the policy and review it there and this is the infamous they blocked out all of that and so you can see the policy there um you can see what suggested changes they're making this is um anything marked out they're taking out um anything that's added this is what they're changing so you can go through and read this process or read the policy and then you can provide your feedback and comments either directly

[00:56:46] on this website which I believe they provide there should be a feedback form there's a feedback form I can't see it but there's a feedback form that you can click in and you can provide your feedback and as Robin said they do read it and they do see it so don't think that it goes without being seen It doesn't mean that just because you fired off your five-page discourse, they're going to change the policy, but at least they read it and they heard from you.

[00:57:19] So you have that ability to review it and to offer your feedback. Yes, ma'am.

[00:57:52] Thank you.

[00:58:14] There's this policy that I've gotten so many emails about, the grading and assessment policy, and then they were looking for parents to be on some kind of – Yes. So it goes a little bit beyond just this, like you're actually looking. So how are we as MSAC involved in that?

[00:58:30] That is something that I play in catch up this last month. I'm aware of it as just a parent that you can be a part of that committee, but I don't think we have a specific delegated role. I haven't been reached, I haven't been emailed about that specifically, but if you are interested in being a part of that committee and you would like to be a part of the discussions on that, I highly encourage it.

[00:58:57] I encourage you to represent not just yourself and your student, but if you would like to just be MSAC's ears and eyes as going through that process, I would appreciate that. Again, we haven't been asked specifically to have anyone sign up, but in terms of something that I think is valuable, I would highly encourage you to sign up for one of those meetings and participate in those discussions because I think that those are really important.

[00:59:25] And I will be interested to hear what comes from those. Anyone else? We survived.

[00:59:40] Yay. Thank you. Okay. So we are going to move into our working sessions, but I know we've been sitting for a while. So I want to give us like a two-minute break. And my wonderful helpers, thank you, Kunkel Kids, are going to kind of get the next worksheet on the table.

[01:00:02] So you have a couple minutes, stretch your legs, have a few minutes, and then we'll come back together

[01:00:06] to go into our working session all right we are going to come back into session okay so we are

[01:09:48] going to try something new for our working session um first i am so excited by how filled this room is and so we had a plan um anticipating a smaller crowd but again i love it the room is filled so what we're going to do is we're going to stick with our current tables but the way it's going to work is you're going to choose a group discussion as a table. You can only choose one. So you can choose from group one, which is MSAC communications and outreach, group

[01:10:23] two, which is parent engagement and support, group three, which is cultural events and inclusion, or group four, student-centered initiatives. And what you're going to do is when you and your table choose that group discussion, you can only have one, so just one. I know it'll be tempting, but we're going to hear from other groups. I would like to have at least one group for each topic. And then from there, everybody else has just added benefit.

[01:10:59] But what you do is you're going to discuss the questions on your table. Thank you to my wonderful helpers for passing it out. It is the MSAC working group, working session group questions. And you're just going to discuss the questions for your group.

[01:11:17] And your charge is to take notes and jot down ideas and thoughts. Because at the end of the meeting, you should have postcards or little index cards. With those index cards, jot down your notes or your thoughts, your big takeaways.

[01:11:33] And then we're going to collect those at the end of the evening. And we will put those into notes, and we will share those with you all as well so everybody can kind of hear the thoughts and ideas that we have. But the goal is for us to kind of dig in deeper, do a little work, have discussions, and then in about 25 minutes we'll come back and we'll share our reflections with everyone.

[01:12:00] But we just want to engage in this conversation, so everybody choose your topic, only one.

[01:12:09] and have a great discussion.

[01:12:52] If your table didn't get one of the handouts,

[01:13:00] if you would just raise your hand, I can bring one over.

[01:35:23] We are going to come back together and share some reflections from our discussions.

[01:35:44] Anyone that was a group one, would someone like to share? Group one.

[01:36:06] Anybody? Nobody was group one? Okay, I had a plan, if you must know, but the room is full.

[01:36:23] So we adjusted and we adapted. Okay. Don't make me start giving out homework. Okay. Do I have a group two? Okay. Group two.

[01:36:38] Okay. So for us, we all agreed that MSAC could continue to provide the education and resources to the delegates that we can take back to the parents.

[01:36:56] That's one thing that we all agree that we pretty much take from these meetings to be able to empower ourselves and kind of push us into the schools. And so that kind of ropes us into the next one is a question of resources and workshops to support your children's educational journey.

[01:37:20] Because the working groups that we do here, this definitely helps us to be able to support our children and advocate for them and their needs. I really enjoyed the MSAC Minute because it was something that I could provide in the PTO meeting to let them know, you know, real quick, what we reviewed, what we discussed.

[01:37:46] So being able to have that information to be able to take back to the school to highlight the important things from the meetings. One of the other things that I enjoyed in the past was how some of the other parents came in and told us what they do and what works in their school.

[01:38:03] I think it might be helpful to maybe have some of those parents work with some of the newer delegates that are just coming in to help them be able to implement similar things in their schools depending on what similarities they may have. So maybe depending on what your school population looks like, maybe finding a parent that implemented something that you think you can take to your school.

[01:38:27] I think it would be good for those parents to be able to work together and to continue to provide information to help the parents engage with the schools. I think the information that we receive here that we can take back and have those conversations with the principal or say, oh, we talked about this in the MSAC meeting, but I didn't see this on our website.

[01:38:47] That was one of the things I know that last year we really, I don't remember what it was, but it was something that everybody in the meeting was like, that's not on our school website. So I think that MSAC is doing a great job with making sure that we are empowered and equipped to be advocates for our kids.

[01:39:10] And we also discussed that it's not just for the minority students. There was so much that I could take back to my school that works for all kids. There were so many resources that I was able to be able to provide during those PTO meetings that even some of, you know, the very privileged families were able to use because they did not know that they were available.

[01:39:34] So just the information, the knowledge that we gain here is definitely amazing. So I think we're doing a great job, and I think we should just keep moving forward. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. One more. One other thing was that once we have the information here, we talked about how do we get it to the other parents at the school.

[01:39:57] We, well, we, I'll speak for her, we have had a challenge with that at our school, but now she's moved away and left me. She's gone to the other school. She was actually invited to meetings with the equity lead and other resources at the school.

[01:40:15] So it's going to make it easier for her to get that information out to a broader set of parents. So I think that's an example of something that folks can do. We know that those roles exist, but really getting involved, she was actually invited to a meeting where everybody was at the table, which gave her a broader audience outside of the PTO meeting.

[01:40:39] And then the last thing is we wanted to confirm, do all of the slides and minutes from these meetings go on board docs? I don't think so. Or is there a place? They will go on to our MSAC website, but I always try to make sure I get them to you.

[01:40:58] Once we, now that we have voted and approved the meeting minutes from last month, those will go up and they should be live by the end of the week. So you'll be able to click the meeting and listen again to the meeting and view the documents. But I always try to get you the slides and the meeting minutes as fast as I can because I know that school meetings, PTO meetings and catch-ups happen shortly thereafter.

[01:41:24] So I'm trying to make sure I get that to you as fast as I can so you have that. And that was also the purpose of making the MSAC Minute, because I was like, no one's reading this. And I tried several times to put this, here are the meeting minutes. And they're like, I can't read that. What did you learn? Okay, so how can we make this easier?

[01:41:43] It was to a question. So we have a new delegate, and so we mentioned a resource from a long time ago. So she was asking, oh, where are those resources? Yeah, well, we are also kind of constantly going through our web page and changing things.

[01:42:01] So if you go in and you see something that was there and it was something you know that you wanted to see or you would like, if you just let us know, we can get that back to you. If it's something that we get enough, if it's like, no, this should still stay up there, please offer that feedback to us and we'll get it there.

[01:42:17] but we're trying to kind of coalesce, stay kind of aligned with the new changes that are happening to the websites. There's a limit to what we can put on and can't put on the website, so, but I want to make sure if we can get it to you, we can, and we're still trying to figure out the workaround about a drive for everybody to access, but everybody doesn't use Google, so I'm trying to figure out how can I put all of these documents into a drive that you can just click the link, and you can access and so I'm still racking my brain about what the best option for that is but we are trying to make sure you have access to that information when you need it but if it's

[01:42:55] something you need right away and I can find it I'll get it for you or I will go on a treasure hunt to find it and get it to you yes so I learned about the equity lead from these beautiful women yes and I was wondering how does that person intersect with MSAC like how how can we um if that person on this because I don't even know who that person is at our school you should be talking to your equity lead um from my own personal experience our equity lead when my kids were

[01:43:33] in the elementary school our equity lead at the elementary school was somebody who I would come back and I would share like you know send off a quick email and say we had a meeting this is what we discussed these are the things and then we would either catch up in the kiss and go line or if I was in the school getting ready to meet with others and we actually were able to kind of collaborate on things and plan events and just offering what we were learning here and what we were discussing was good but you should as an MSAC delegate know who your equity lead is and if this is a matter of getting getting the list I can inquire about getting us a list

[01:44:13] of the equity leads of the school so you can know who you need to reach out to but you this year we're kind of supercharged because we want you to work with your equity leads and to partner with them and be a part of those equity conversations with your principal equity leads if you have a student equity ambassador if you have a student MSAC delegate as well we want you to collaborate with them. But the other thing we have is now the within the clusters, your feeder schools, DEIA has, they have people that are over each individual cluster. So do you have a kind of a

[01:44:49] point of contact if there's a question you have specifically, or just kind of reaching out? Is there anything? I know we talked about these issues or these concerns in the MSAC meeting. I just wanted to ask, is there something else that we should be thinking of or something else we can share it you have a point of contact that it should be like this little group of equity advocates kind of in your school and you're supported and so I can see if we can get that list of equity leads and I can send that out to everybody so you can find your equity lead and reach out to them and legitimately it can be just an email dear hello my name is Erin Kunkel I am

[01:45:28] the NSAC delegate for and I was just reaching out to see if we could get together and have a chat or conversation to kind of discuss MSAC's goals and mission for the year and kind of hear about what's going on in our school. And that's a conversation that should be having. And you are empowered and welcome to have that conversation. Don't be afraid to have that conversation. If you need support in getting that conversation off the ground, please reach out and we will help you.

[01:45:54] We're here to support you in that effort, but you should know who they are. You should try to meet with them you should try to they should meet with you because there's information and I've gotten emails from equity leads who is my delegate I don't I don't know who my delegate is and some of the times I'm saying we don't have a delegate there yet but if you know somebody who's interested please send them my way but also this is your delegate if I can if I know that you're the delegate at that school I can send that to them and I've been trying to make those connections as best I could but we're kind of catching up filling in the blanks as we go

[01:46:28] because September is usually the month to get started so what about a group three

[01:46:36] yes that's actually brilliant we're working we've been kind of trying to

[01:47:21] figure out how to breathe a little life into our social media posts and make them more engaging and interactive and I think that would be a great way to have either our student delegates you know once a week you know they can put something out there and kind of share that I I love that suggestion thank you

[01:47:40] for that I think that's great group three okay so we had a lot of great ideas that we put on the note cards as asked but the two that I would highlight that I thought were cool is one as a way to celebrate our cultural diversity all year round is if we can really survey our commuter communities more deeply and

[01:48:17] then visualize it so is always available so you know LCPS community excuse me sorry they're from these many countries they speak these many languages they you know these are their favorite songs etc but it's just something that's like always available and you can also look at that over time we have someone at our table who went through this school LCPS school system when it was mostly farmland and now it looks very different with a bunch of data centers everywhere so we thought that might be interesting and then how can we for to make things more

[01:48:54] accessible to kids not every kids families can come in the evenings for like special nights or you know activities so how can we bring more things into the school day so there's more accessibility for our kids can we invite parents during the day to share some stuff?

[01:49:14] And then what can we do asynchronously, sorry, you said it better, where people could take videos or share things that could be shared on a site? So it's not, you're not just doing a cultural night or celebrating a very specific moment, but how do we celebrate our whole selves all the time in whatever way that looks to us?

[01:49:38] Thank you. and then we have time for group four so for our first topic what initiatives could msac spearhead to promote student joy and well-being in schools we talked a lot about um msac becoming more involved in like electives and and clubs affinity groups um a lot more of the delegates themselves being involved in the schools because you go and ask a student or maybe even some teachers, what is MSAC?

[01:50:17] They'll be like, huh, I've never heard that before. So in some ways to do that could be like promoting through advisories or through announcements or having the delegates introduce themselves to my principal, to their principal and their equity committee in the school.

[01:50:38] because I only recently had a chance to, well, I had lots of chances, but I only recently did that. And my school didn't even know that they had a MSAC delegate. And so then my principal connected me with the equity committee, and now I'm doing more to be more involved.

[01:51:00] And I think that if we had that in a lot more schools, then MSAC could be a lot more well-known and a lot more involved and be able to get a lot more done a lot faster. For the second topic, how can we collaborate with student groups to ensure our efforts align with their needs and interests?

[01:51:21] We said, like, encourage different groups to interact with each other, have MSAC kind of sponsors, maybe different clubs, or maybe have their own club.

[01:51:37] and how can we empower students to take an active role in creating a positive and inclusive school environment. So maybe like once a month during advisory, 'cause not every school, my school only recently had advisory, started doing advisory, Dominion High School.

[01:51:59] And we do it like two times a week. So maybe once every month after a meeting, We can have the delegates kind of make a recap of what's going on in order to promote more interest and maybe have even more people join the MSAC as well.

[01:52:21] Thank you. That is really awesome. That is a lot of great suggestions. We are going to go to our moment of joy because we are getting short on time. We actually made it the whole two hours.

[01:52:37] So a moment of joy. I was kind of trying to think of what is something positive and something good, just a little thought to uplift you. And I was going through all of my kids' old books downstairs.

[01:52:53] That can make you cry if you're not prepared to do that, all those books. And so I happened to find our copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends, and I was like, oh, Shel Silverstein. So the one that popped out to me with thumbing through it is I just would like to encourage you all and ask you all to remember as you go about the week and, you know, just going forward that anything is possible and anything can be.

[01:53:22] And I think that is a powerful thought that can lead to a lot of joy. So if you're like me, you get discouraged easily sometimes. Just remember that anything is possible and anything can be. Now, I have a favor. i need you to scan that qr code and i know she did a lot of qr codes but i was trying to think digitally less paper um this is an exit ticket if you just take a few minutes um as you're leaving or even when you get home and just complete the survey tell us what you think tell us how it went

[01:53:57] offer your suggestions we would appreciate it because we really tried to do something different and bring a fresh and new perspective to it. I would like to take a moment while everybody is scanning, and I would like to acknowledge Dr. Rashid for joining us this evening.

[01:54:13] I would like to acknowledge Dr. Tyler, who is always in the room with us and supporting us. I would like to acknowledge the division of DEIA. They are here, and they're helping. We are always grateful for them. They are super supporters. And also, Dr. Deans had to leave, but she was here, unless she's still here.

[01:54:32] She was here this evening as well, so I just am grateful for all of their support and their encouragement and them coming out to join us in these meetings. With that, we will see you in November for our last meeting of the calendar year. If you need anything, questions, comments, concerns, something I can help with or we can help with, please feel free to email us.

[01:54:55] Thank you for coming tonight. Drive safe, and we will see you next month.

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