Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC) Meeting, Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 39m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1086562893?rel=0

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 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:47] Good evening, everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started. So good evening and welcome. Tonight is our final MSAC general body meeting of the school year. It is May 21st and it definitely looks like October something outside and it feels a little bit like it as well. So I'm confused as to what season we are actually dwelling in currently tonight. But we welcome you tonight.

[00:03:20] As we've said all year, this year has been about seizing our joy. And we have truly learned that joy can live alongside the honest work of reflection, advocacy, and growth. So this evening, we're going to take a look back.

[00:03:35] We're going to have some conversations, not just of what we've done, but what we've learned. We're going to take a moment to breathe, to listen, and to imagine what comes next and to imagine where we're going next. And this month's meeting was supposed to be the student takeover.

[00:03:51] As you can see, we don't have many students. My children tell me they don't count as students tonight. They're just children. So we know that there's so much going on. If your students are like mine, they took an SOL for two or three in the last couple of weeks. They have finals.

[00:04:07] They have projects. I just learned about another project in art that I thought was done, but now it's a new project. So there's so much stuff going on in their lives. And so we had hoped to have our students lead this takeover. We had hoped to have our students lead the conversations, and we, the adults, the adult delegates, we get to sit back and take it all in, hear their perspectives and hear their viewpoints, but instead, we're going to pivot, which might be, for me, the re-pivot on the pivot at this point, but we are going to pivot, and we're going to have discussions about how we as adults, as advocates in our schools, can uplift our student voices, how we can be better listeners to students, because I know sometimes it's hard for us when our kids

[00:04:47] are telling us stuff it's easy I've found myself saying I sound just like my mother when my kids are like you don't understand and I'm like you don't understand you're 16 or you're 13 you'll know in a little bit but I've had to realize that their lived experience is completely different from mine you know they're like you grew up in the 80s and 90s it couldn't have been that great I'm like it was actually spectacular I don't have evidence but it was great and they are like we have a different reality. And so I want to encourage us tonight to focus on what that reality is for our students and how we can be better delegates because we do really go

[00:05:23] into our schools to advocate for the students. It's not just what we say we think we need, but we can be better listeners. We can be better partners. We can lift them up and encourage them to speak up and advocate for themselves, even in ways that are not just always getting in front of a microphone. And so we're just going to discuss that a little bit. We're going to kind reflect a little bit about this year. And just keep in mind that we're thinking about ways that you can lead with loud voices and with quiet voices. And we're grateful for your presence tonight. I know it's a little quiet in here. We're going to make a little bit of noise and move

[00:05:56] around here in just a second. So before we begin, we're going to check in. If you wouldn't mind,

[00:06:04] please sign in. And it should be working. I checked it three times. And now we're going to

[00:06:41] do a little grounding activity as you see on the screen the question is what brings you joy and when we discuss this I would like everybody if you don't mind I know you have snacks and you have treats and you're comfortable but we're going to get up and move a little bit tonight we're not going to stay in the same seat so find someone maybe you haven't met or you haven't seen or talked to in a little bit and just share what's something that's bringing you joy today or brings you joy constantly and we'll come back in like two or three minutes so please feel free

[00:07:11] to share it's not gonna be great whichever table you'd like you can join one of the big tables or

[00:09:14] one of the tables over there we're gonna move about the room um as we go on so you can sit wherever you'd like wherever pick a table or you can join another table whichever works for you

[00:12:36] okay we're gonna come back together and i'm a huge fan of asking the simple questions um my first experience as an msac delegate in meeting with my principal the only question he and I had for each other was, how are you? And that shaped my entire MSAC experience, how I approached being an advocate in school, because sometimes it's easy to ask the hard questions and to get overcomplicated and get bogged down in the minutia of the words and saying the right thing.

[00:13:06] But I wanted to remind us that joy is something that we have and we carry with us wherever we go. And my hope is that as we go about this evening and even as we conclude for tonight, that you remember your joy is precious to you. It's unique to you. It's important to you. And there's always, always, always something to be thankful for, something to be grateful for. And I would also like to add, there's always something to find joy in and to bring you joy and to fill you up.

[00:13:33] So we're going to move on to our next thing. Like I said, we're going to move along. We're going to do it differently. That worked. So I put our mission statement back because we said it at the beginning of the year. And I just want to reiterate it again at the end of this year, because this is the important work that we do and this is why we're all in this room and this is why we go to our schools and we work with our school leadership and we work alongside partnerships with the division of DEIA and within the administration. There are these things and so we just need to sometimes just bring it back into our mind and recall it and so the MSAC mission statement says

[00:14:10] that the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, MSAC, is dedicated to partnering with all Loudoun County public schools, parents, and the community to acknowledge and promote the needs of minority students. MSAC is also dedicated to building a school system that is culturally and socially competent and positioned to provide fair and equitable learning experiences for all students. And again, that's the emphasis that we want to place on it, that this is for all students, that our goal is to open doors, create pathways, to move the needle forward, to make demonstrable and evident change that is evident in our schools but we do it for all students

[00:14:49] and so this is tonight's agenda um we are all in on radiant reflections um so we're going to begin with just radiant reflections talking about this we're going to try something new i tested it it works um and then um we're going to have roundtable discussions where we're going to get to move around the room and just have these quick these conversations that did or centered around our topics. The questions are on each of the tables. So when you pair up with your group, you'll be able to go through each table and have those discussions. And then we'll make an executive board announcement for the election results. And then we will have our closing reflections. And

[00:15:28] that will be it for the 2024-2025 school year. So we are going to talk about lifting up student voices. So I'm going to need you to get out your phones because in a minute I'm going to have you scan his QR code and join me on a website.

[00:15:48] So the questions I want you to keep in mind as we're talking about student voices and we're participating in the next slide is how do we hold space for student voice even when it's quiet? I have sat with that question for the last five days. I was like, I don't know why that question came to me, but I was like it is kind of quiet on the student end.

[00:16:09] If you've been trying to have conversations even in your homes with your students, sometimes they don't want to talk to you. My kids will be like, I'm not talking to you. I don't want to have a conversation with you. But then they will pile up right next to me on the couch and want to be right close to me. And that's all they need. Or my youngest will grip my hand and she will not let go. And that's how I know this is all she's willing to say. This is all she's got to say.

[00:16:31] This is all she's sharing. Or my oldest will report back something that's happening in school or tell me, what do you think of this? I have a concern about this. Or she doesn't say anything but a, and I'm like, wow, they're going to read that in the gaggle and wonder what's going on with you. Thank you for sharing that with me today, but that's all you needed to say.

[00:16:50] And then the second question I want you to keep in mind is, how do we ensure that when students are ready to share, that we, the adults in the room, are truly prepared to listen, to engage, and respond? And I would like to add in parentheses, respond respectfully, lovingly, because it takes a lot sometimes to speak to adults in the room.

[00:17:09] we sometimes know that as adults as well it takes a lot to open yourself up and be vulnerable and so we want to make sure that as delegates in our schools that we are doing the same thing creating a space that is safe for the students if they want to talk to us or their parents want to talk to us with them that they feel safe and comfortable sharing their voice and their experience so now if you would scan this qr code we're going to go over to menti.com and if you entered that

[00:17:45] code in there, you should see. I'll give you just one more second to get there. There we go. Hey, everybody's in. I can see that you're in down at the bottom. Okay, so this is our word bubble. I stole this from my husband. He's using it today at his presentation. So I would like you to think of this question, and you can get two responses and share what the student voice means to you.

[00:18:16] And so as you enter in what student voice means to you, we will see it hopefully. Hey, thank you.

[00:18:24] it worked okay now i see one that i besides empowerment because we all can see that that

[00:19:06] is big and that is huge and we can have a discussion about that in just a second but i have one that's a curiosity for me and if you don't want to say anything i just a show of hands who put next gen i'm just curious okay can you share i'm just curious um so student voice to me When I first saw that question, it immediately made me think of my current situation and my job with interns.

[00:19:40] And we have interns that are onboarding. And one of the things we talk to them about is, and that they share with us, is that, you know, yes, they're here now, but they're shaping what our agency and, you know, what's going to look like in the future.

[00:19:55] And so that's what that made me think of, it made me think of them and how that's what their voice represents is the now, but also who's on next and it's them. And so what we're doing, especially from my agency's perspective with our internship program, is helping to shape that with them.

[00:20:16] Thank you. Okay, who would like to maybe share a thought or two about empowerment?

[00:20:32] Nobody? Oh, can you hit the microphone? Yes. I think that when I hear the word empowerment I think I think of the you know the word power is in there and that's so important but you know it's not just power it's our job to empower right our students and to give them the confidence and the safe space to be able to do that because I think developmentally children are learning to just communicate right they even have a hard time

[00:21:08] communicating their own personal feelings so if it we don't as the adults in their lives provide them that safe space to be able to like navigate and learn how to communicate how they feel then it's it's so that is so important and it's our responsibility is there another word that sticks out to anybody that you'd like to highlight like this is a discussion so that perspective yes dr

[00:21:41] asheed mm-hmm that is very true i've learned from my kids that when i'm when i'm talking to them that again their lived experience is completely different there are things for them that are normal that weren't even talked about or normal or were out in far right field for us growing up and

[00:22:16] so I've learned with my kids and even in the opportunities that I've had to like talk to their friends or you know be in the building or engage with some kids if they say something or hi it's always amazing to me what they they experience that is their reality that is different from mine and my perspective and I'm always trying to think of ways that you know when they used to say you know we have to get down on their level but it's true you know like get to where they are and hear what they have to say and understand what where they're coming from without you know judging or discounting what they say or making them feel bad um is there another word anybody

[00:22:56] sees it sticks out so one of the words that i um i i added was mindfulness and just right along with what you're saying um getting down on their level so that means we have to be mindful that we may have this level of experience and they are are yet to get there and so being mindful that they don't

[00:23:27] know all the always know how to articulate how they're feeling um but being mindful that we as adults need to watch uh pay attention right pay attention to what is happening in their in their world um sometimes it requires us for those who are on social media it requires us to peek at their social media um sometimes um i often tell my daughter as i was growing up we weren't allowed to shut our doors our bedroom doors right so um if she's in there too long i'm knocking on

[00:24:07] the door so i i need to know what's going on with you what's happening right what conversations are you having um that i don't hear but i'm being mindful that hey she's talking to somebody which is impressionable. So being mindful is a word that comes to mind. Yes, thank you. I would say the safety that I see up there. Students that feel safe or in an environment where they just feel

[00:24:42] comfortable enough to share whatever is going on with them, especially starting at this age, that they build up that skill, that their voice is important. So by the time they become an adult they have that practice and so things that bother them frustrate them challenging that they don't keep it to themselves and keep quiet they speak up and advocate for themselves especially when they become adults and now they're starting to practice advocating for themselves now and maybe advocating for their fellow students especially if they're in an environment where they

[00:25:20] feel safe at home and safe having their voices heard at school. Thank you. Okay, if you're just joining us, if you'd like to hop on Menti with us, if you go to www.menti.com and enter that use code at the top, you can join us, and when we click over to the next slide, you can participate in that next word cloud yes oh please go ahead keep going i think um mindfulness mindfulness and

[00:25:58] safety go together because you have to be mindful that they're coming to you and choose your words wisely per se is what you're going to say in response to it so their feelings don't get hurt or they feel like they're not um their voices aren't as heard as they would want it to be thank you for sharing that because that's very true and very important and i appreciate you

[00:26:22] saying that. Anyone else? I'm going to click over to the next slide. Okay so as delegates we have MSAC student delegates and a constant thought I've had in my head and what we've tried to work really hard on this year and we hope to continue going into next year is how can we engage with student voices next year not just with our student delegates but perhaps in the schools that we serve

[00:27:00] as delegates in or if we're out at a community event how can we as MSAC delegates and adults better engage with student voices so with this one you still have one or two words you can share

[00:27:17] and as you enter them they'll pop right up okay um would anybody like to share a word that they

[00:28:17] put in or something that you see on the screen now that sticks out to you that jumps out for me it was keeping an open mind whenever you have those interactions to not have a preconceived notion of what a child is going to say by the way that they look or how they sound or any preconceived notion, just to keep an open mind and genuinely listen.

[00:28:49] Thank you. Anyone else? I'm the delegate for Kenneth Colbert, and we are going to implement focus groups for next year. We already talked about it.

[00:29:05] because one of the things that is a concern for the majority of the student is all the different religions and traditions, and we want to be able to bring all those to the table and acknowledge it, not just during a certain time of the year, but just on a rotating basis. So we're going to start that in September of next year.

[00:29:22] That's great. That's actually really awesome. Thank you for sharing. There was another hand. Yes. So to me it looks like there's a lot that's basically be where they are,

[00:29:46] Be at their level, maybe at their school, and be ever-present, whether it be on social media, kind of get into their world so they feel more comfortable with seeing maybe the same consistent person that they may feel that they can engage with and be open with. because I'm staring right at him I would say um I like that right underneath each other we see

[00:30:18] be present ask and respect um a lot of times I've had discussions at home with my son and he tells me you know it it's important to feel respected and it's important for him to feel respected just as much as it is important for him to be respectful respectful of his friends and his peers and you know his teachers in the classroom and he said you know that sometimes it is you know understanding that the way I operate is different but I'm not trying to you know say that I'm right and they're wrong he said but I would like to feel like we're I'm respected and that as a student

[00:30:58] what I think matters and how I'm feeling matters and what's important ask is a big one I annoy my kids I ask them all the time like what are you doing how are you doing what's going on and I'm Like, okay, you asked me five minutes ago. I'm like, okay, I'll ask you a different question in 20 minutes.

[00:31:13] Or how did that make you feel? You know, what are you thinking when that's happening? When you're sharing a story or when they're sending me emails, you know, if they've got free time at the end of the class, you know, well, this happened.

[00:31:29] Well, how did it go? What's going on? But just asking them to get them to know that I'm here. My ears are open. I'm ready for you. You know, what's going on? What's happening? or even when they were littler and I volunteered in the elementary school, sometimes the kids are like, can I ask you a question? Yes. And they just want to ask, and it's not just me asking them, but they want to be able to talk to someone, or they want to be able to hear, or they want to ask random questions.

[00:31:54] Like I had one that was kind of scared to ask a question, and they were like, he has a lot of marks on his arm. I'm like, oh, those are called tattoos. And they're like, that's crazy. Thank you for answering my question. I was like, I'm here for you anytime. I'm glad to help. I'm glad to help you understand.

[00:32:09] And I think it's important, again, going back to being present and asking and being respectful that they know we're here. And as you shared, not feeling judged and not feeling like I am, your feelings are going to be hurt when you say something and share something to me that you don't feel like I'm not a safe space and a safe person.

[00:32:26] And so I think that's important. I like potluck. I like to eat. So potluck is great because, you know, getting families together is a great way. As delegates, we can having events in our school and saying, hey, get together. We're just going to have a community conversation and a chat. And a potluck is a great way to do that.

[00:32:45] There are a lot of good words in there. I think action is important. It can be various ways. But I want to give someone else an opportunity before we go to the last slide. Anybody else, please? Yes. I thought that anonymous survey along with the focus groups.

[00:33:06] Focus groups are more intimate. So you're dealing with people who might be talkers, but the challenge is a lot of children, students feel afraid of backlash. Like, what if my opinion is so far the same safe space issue? And so just serving anonymously and giving them the freedom to express themselves without being judged.

[00:33:28] And then sometimes when you do that, they find out that other people feel the same way that I do. And so, you know, while they might be afraid to ask, it's still there. And I think empowerment comes about when they find out that, you know, I'm glad that I feel affirmed.

[00:33:47] I know with my daughter, I not only ask her, well, how was school today? I also ask her, is there anything that I need to know about that happened in school today? Just to give her the tools as a six-year-old to begin to express herself. and then she'll start to, the conversation will become more micro and she will get into the details of what happened so that she feels empowered to know that, oh, well, you know, school is good.

[00:34:12] You know, the commonplace language that she probably hear people talk, you're at home, you're safe. And sometimes it'll happen during bad time, during storytelling time, during mealtime, and just sometimes during the lull of the night before she goes to bed she'll tell me something very intimate so creating that i saw someone holding space and i was like figuring out okay that that's kind of what holding space is for them

[00:34:40] yes that's wonderful thank you anyone else yes i have on there uh shadow days so we take our kids to work with us right how about we go there and we shadow them from the beginning of the first bell to the end um following all the rules that they need to follow or required to follow during the school day um you know even if walking in the hall and you have to be quiet doing exactly what they

[00:35:12] do um to get a feel of what it's like okay anyone else okay i'm going to click over to our last slide so this one you'll be able to enter like a little short answer and i believe you still have too so going back to joy because i'm gonna keep saying it until the end of the evening and even

[00:35:37] till the end of school year what is one joy from this year that you will carry with you you can

[00:36:49] keep filling in your answers i just bundled them together i learned that trick like right before we started so because i knew we might run out of space on the screen and so i'll just toggle back

[00:36:59] and forth between each of the the categories we have hey i'm gonna keep it up and we can keep i

[00:38:17] think you can answer twice i'm not sure that was a tricky one um but if anybody would like to share just what you shared um if you feel so led that would be great um or if there's one that sticks out to you that you would like to just comment on please feel free yes um i volunteer at the school every thursday um and when if there's something going on with the chamber or something like that and I'm up there, one of the teachers will call me like, are you okay?

[00:38:52] So I do that every Thursday, and once a month I do, I stay with my grandson all day. Like, for example, like she said, from the time I take him to school and I go to all the, do all the activities with him, lunch, and then we come home.

[00:39:10] So I spend one day to be in the school from beginning to end. And the principal said that the kids love it, so I'll keep doing that next year. And it's really fun, because now I pretty much know everybody. Thank you.

[00:39:34] The other night, I enjoyed watching my husband, my daughter and I, watching him open the appreciation notes from all the students at the school who appreciate him volunteering as a watchdog.

[00:39:50] And so, you know, some of it my daughter had to explain. No, Daddy, you've got to fold the paper. See, it's a happy face, and, you know, the children made some real creative things, and so we were just, you know, making fun of him and saying, oh, you're a superstar now, and that was really fun to see that, you know, you're seen, you're appreciated in a school community, and your work is valued by the students.

[00:40:16] So this school year, we had a couple calls to action, and what brought me joy was, you know, the vein of student voice our student delegates that you know prepare comments and spoke up at our school board meetings I thought that was really powerful example to their peers but also for them to just like you know getting the practice of speaking up and being an advocate so that's something I'll definitely that joy from seeing that and experience and that I'll take with me into next year but probably forever because you know in a couple of

[00:40:56] instances like you could really see the pride in the students um when they gave their comments so anyone else i'm trying not to do the teacher thing that my aunt taught me years ago where she's like okay i'll take volunteers being good today and so i will say the one that i there are lots of them to stick out to me the equity was wonderful and beautiful it was a fantastic time um moments of belly bursting tear-jerking family laughter i don't

[00:41:36] know who put that down but i'm telling you there is nothing like it it can cure your soul cure your angst and all your woes and one thing and the best is even better for me if we get a chance to speak to my family that's back home in texas we don't even have to say much and like we're just just in tears cracking up and they're like what could be possibly so funny we don't know but it was funny when we said it it was funny when we were having that conversation so i believe in the power of that family laughter. Feeling supported and valued is so important and I think there are so many beautiful responses and I will make sure when we send out the slides and everything that I capture

[00:42:16] all these because I get to save it and I will share these slides with you so you can take some of these joyful thoughts and the word clouds home with you and so you can have those to share with your schools as well. So now I'm going to take us back over here and now it's time for roundtable discussions. And you're like, oh no. I'm like, oh yes. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to reflect. We're going to rotate around the room and you have an opportunity to share your

[00:42:50] thoughts. So here's how it's going to work. We will break up into three different tables and the tables are table one is over here at the back. Table two is in the middle and then table three is all the way over here. And so you're going to divide up to three different tables and you're going to go, each table has a couple of questions and thoughts that you can share. You have pens and sticky notes that you can write down thoughts and ideas and share them and stick them on the poster board because we're going to save them. And at the 10 minute mark, we're going to rotate to the next

[00:43:27] table. Now you have the option. You can switch up your table mates and you can go to a different group and join them, or you can stick with your same group and go through each table together. And then as we're doing the roundtable discussions, over there is our radiant reflection wall.

[00:43:43] Please, everybody, take a little bit of time tonight, even while you're having your discussions, and go over there and just write something positive on the board over there. It's just to reflect that joy. There are a couple questions. If you don't know what to write or if you've got something on your mind, please feel free to share it.

[00:43:58] There are pins and sticky notes over there as well. So divide up into tables, table one, table two, and table three.

[00:45:07] Okay, so just in case you're wondering, I'll go back and forth between the sides. Table one over there, this is their guiding question. This is their driving question that they're going to discuss. Table two in the middle, the questions are on the table, so you'll be able to, you won't have to look up here back and forth, so you'll be able to have your discussions.

[00:45:25] And then table three, your questions are over there. So we're going to start the timer now, and in about nine to ten minutes, we'll switch it up. So have a good conversation.

[00:56:21] up there. Hi, everybody. I'm all the way over here. We're going to rotate now, so you can pick your

[00:56:28] next table and switch it up. You going to do it? Go for it. Go. Okay, it's time to rotate to the last

[01:08:26] table. Okay, I'll give you just a minute to wrap up your conversations, and then we're going to come

[01:20:01] back together. One more second. Okay, we're going to come back together now. Okay, so we're going to

[01:24:42] have one last radiant reflection and it is open to anyone that would like to share um i thought just to finish to circle back to what we thought of where we opened at the beginning of the school year we asked like what did we hope to see and what did we hope to accomplish what were some goals or things that we wanted to do as delegates and kind of try to pave a path forward and we did take all of that feedback that we got at that meeting i went back and spent two weeks listening to it over and over again trying to get an idea of where everyone was going with it and how I could

[01:25:17] weave that into a message called seizing our joy and I wanted to come back to that reflection and just give us an opportunity to kind of pave the way for what comes next next year but also to give you an idea from hearing from other delegates maybe what they're hoping to do at their schools or hoping to do in their community so if you would like to take a moment to share we can take a couple of thoughts and ideas just so we can have them. I know that there are some great ideas and feedback over at table three and we will gather those up. Thank you for filling out the sticky notes

[01:25:50] but if somebody would like to share please feel free. That's good. That's thank you for sharing

[01:26:28] that. Anyone else? Push the mic. Having a toolkit for the delegates and as delegates setting goals and working from that toolkit the goal at the school may be different but having a common

[01:27:05] theme that we are trying to work towards like joy right doing something like that I think that

[01:27:12] would be very helpful thank you thank you it worked okay so I'm excited when I get it to work

[01:28:41] but it's actually Aaliyah's magic so I can't take any credit for that I just I'm happy I don't mess it up. So we are very excited to announce the 2025-2026 MSAC Executive Board. Yesterday evening, if you've had a chance to check your email, or you might not because there are a lot of emails going out these days, I sent off an email announcing the two new leadership positions on the MSAC Executive Board for next year. And so it is our joy to introduce our incoming Executive Board. These individuals have stepped forward to carry on the mission of MSAC into the next school

[01:29:15] year continuing this work of advocacy, partnership, and outreach. So, it is my honor and a pleasure to ask you all to join me in congratulating our incoming MSAC chair and our incoming communications chair. So, congratulations to our incoming MSAC chair, Ms. Tammy Jones, if you would please stand. And I am very sincerely sorry if you would tell me how to pronounce your name. I don't want to mispronounce it, and I apologize. Auto-correct did not like me.

[01:29:50] But it is our new communications chair is Selenat Kelke, not Kelly, autocorrect did not. I've corrected it five times and it was not having it. But we welcome you to the role of chair. We thank you both for stepping up to lead the community and continue this very important work.

[01:30:07] This is a space that continues to grow and to uplift the voices of our students and our community members. And these are voices that most need to be heard. So their bios have been shared with you. We look forward to your work next year. We look forward to getting to know you and working with you.

[01:30:23] And as I said in the email, they will take over in the summertime. And the next time you probably hear from an MSAC chair, minus the email, I promised everybody I would get out with some little bitty things that were requested. You will be hearing from the MSAC chair unless we have anything that comes up that we need to stick a bow on and wrap up for the year.

[01:30:42] But congratulations to our new executive board members. There are still roles to be filled, but they will be reaching out to you in the summer for opportunities to apply and serve in an interim role. So, again, thank you and congratulations, and we wish you all the best. So I was reading.

[01:31:08] I read a lot. I read a lot, especially when I'm stressed out. And so I came across this that I was reading an article, and I just thought it was such an interesting statement and an interesting thought. But I think it sums up what Seizing Our Joy has been about this year, which is that joy is an act of resistance.

[01:31:26] And some people think, oh, resistance is fighting back and fighting the powers that be. But it's actually saying, you know, I'm not buying into your narrative about me. I'm not buying into the diving into the maelstrom of everything's wrong, everything's going bad, doom scrolling, spiraling down dark paths.

[01:31:45] But saying that my joy, my peace, what makes me me, what brings me happiness, the things that bring my family happiness and peace and security are resistance. And I'm not giving those up. And I'm not giving those up at the sake of what the world says we're supposed to do. And celebrating, which I think we have done every step of the way this year, is a form of power.

[01:32:04] And so I want you to take that with you and remember that. Your joy is an act of resistance. And celebration is a form of power. And celebrating their wins and celebrating your victory, celebrating your kids' wins and their victories is such a huge thing. I make it an effort when my kids tell me what's going on and tell me what happened, you know, they will get a GIF, they will get a meme, they will get whatever I've got to give them to let them know.

[01:32:29] I got, it was free time after the SOL, and I think it was Aaliyah that sent me a message that said, you know, I passed. I got a good score. I passed. And she was really anxious about it. And all I could think to do was send her, okay, I'm a fan of WWE wrestling, long time ago. So I sent her The Rock.

[01:32:49] And I sent her The Rock, you know, doing his thing where he's like, if you smell what The Rock is cooking. And she knew exactly what I meant. And all I got was smiley face, smiley face, smiley face, smiley face. Or with my son, you know, I'm a little extra and I'll give him faces. And he knows that I'm there. And I just think that every time we get a chance to celebrate big things, little things that we should take that moment and I hope you continue to do that as you go on about the rest of the school year finishing out strong and just every day so I want to thank you for a joyful year and if you will indulge me I just have a few closing remarks keeping it brief we're not ugly

[01:33:25] crying tonight y'all so radiant reflections thank you all for being a part of this journey this was a huge deal this was a risk that I took in saying we're going to seize the joy and I know a lot of people looked at me like you are out of your mind that we are going to talk about joy all year. And I'm like, if we're going to do it, go big or go home. I'm a Texan. So we're going to go big or we're going to go home. That's the only way to do it. And this year has been a year of learning, listening, challenges, and obviously uncertainties. But through it all, we've held on to something very powerful, our joy. Seizing our joy hasn't been about ignoring the hard things. It didn't

[01:34:04] mean that everything was perfect and everything was great and we were ignoring all the struggles and the strife that were going on in our communities and in our schools. It meant that we were choosing to keep showing up with hope. It meant that we were there for our students, for each other, for this community we built, for our communities that we live in, and the future that we are striving every day to build. When we opened the year with the theme Seizing Our Joy, we didn't just mean smiles and good feelings. We didn't mean that everything was great and fine. We meant that our joy was going to be active, that we were going to keep pursuing it and keep seizing it every

[01:34:40] step of the way, that it was resistance to despair, that it was a declaration that our students deserve more than mere survival. They deserve to thrive. We all deserve to thrive. So I want to thank each and every one of you delegates, those that are here and those that are not here. I want to thank Dr. Rashid for reminding me every time she saw me, and I quote, joyfully, Mrs. Kunkel. Yes, Dr.

[01:35:07] Rashid. With joy, Mrs. Kunkel? Yes, Dr. Rashid. Are you sure? Yes, Dr. Rashid. Joyfully. She kept me in line every single step of the way. I want to thank the MSAC Executive Board for trusting me to step out on a limb and shake things up and do things differently. I want to thank you all for showing up for these conversations, showing up to lend your voices when we needed to be heard, and speaking passionately, fiercely, lovingly, and loudly in favor of equity, in favor of our students having every opportunity and every access point to become the best versions of themselves.

[01:35:42] I want to thank you for showing up and talking to your principals and advocating for equity in your school in any which way that you did it. It mattered. And I don't want you to think that just because you didn't do it the way you heard somebody do it or it didn't look or feel right that you didn't make a change. You had a conversation that might not have been had in your school before.

[01:36:01] And I want you to know that you matter more than you know. Your encouragement to each other, your encouragement to me has been profound, and I have been so blessed and humbled by it. To our partners and collaborators, my heroes in the division of DEIA, thank you for showing up. Thank you for showing up for me.

[01:36:19] Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for walking with us. Thank you for telling us that if you're willing to work, we will work with you. I want to thank the school board. I want to thank Dr. Spence for showing up. Y'all, if you didn't know, in the two years that I have led this committee, he has for every major event that MSAC has hosted.

[01:36:42] He has shown up for our meetings. He has spoken up. He has told me to keep going. And I hope that MSAC continues to keep going because we have the superintendent in our corner. Do not give that up. Lastly, I want to thank my not-so-tiny humans.

[01:36:57] They are the best thing about me. Thank you, Aaliyah, for dedicating yourself to making our presentations better. I get compliment after compliment after compliment because you're so amazing.

[01:37:13] thank you Declan for being my man in the room you show up every day every week every month setting up and putting things together and thank you for my little mini over here she's never far away her name means to be content and she's just as content right next to me supporting me and loving me and telling me I can do anything I want to thank every parent every student that has trusted us with your concerns they are real you were heard it is valid it does not mean that we don't care thank you and lastly for leaning into joy and for doing the hard work

[01:37:52] even when it was difficult i say thank you i want to leave you with this lead with joy grow with purpose have a little fun laugh at yourself please laugh at yourself and speak for those who need a voice because change starts with courage and it blooms with care so i hope you continue to choose joy to listen deeply and to build a future where everyone's student everyone's kid everyone's baby can shine thank you for this year thank you for the last two years it has been the joy and honor of my life to lead this committee thank you for believing me now have a great rest of the year

[01:38:27] students do amazing things to us parents we will get through it is almost done the year is almost done and i want you to have a fantastic joyful summer do things that bring you joy lean into it Don't let it go and drive safe. Have a good night and we will see you in the fall for the next good, joyful, and new thing that's coming for MSAC.

[01:38:49] Thank you.

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