 Good evening, Burlington. My name is Russ Ellick. I'm the communication specialist at Burlington School District and I'm pleased to be joined here today by superintendent Yao O Bang. Yeah, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you Russ. Happy to be here. So we're going to talk a little bit today about you are actually entering your fifth year as superintendent of Burlington Schools. And I was wondering if you would like to take a moment to reflect on what that time has been like. What are some of the things that that you didn't realize when you took the job? What are some of the things that you've been working on for the last four years and and just some general reflections of that time? Wow. Great question, Russ. If I could if I could project forward and look back and think four years back and think what would I change? What I do differently? There'd be a lot that I would. Well, there are some really good things and you know this year we do annually a year review which you'll get a chance to see later on today and After doing that this year, I kind of reflect like wow, I'm entering my fifth year and I said wow, you know It's time has flown by you know each year. There's been a different challenge and some great successes So look back and I remember coming in to Burlington with a great excitement. I was really excited to come to Burlington I'm still excited to be in Burlington and But I had gotten a picture of what what some of the challenges were but you never really know until you actually get into the to the job for you get into the role and I recall that I know we had a we had a huge deficit that we were struggling with in terms of the community and there was some financial instabilities To the extent that voters voted down the budget because of lack of confidence around the district There were racial tensions between staff. There's some documented information around that between staff and students and students and students and even board members so it was it was quite challenging in those times and In the backdrop of all this was the Was collective agreements and bargaining we have eight bargaining units And I don't think there's another district at least not in the state or other states that I know of that have eight units But we are Negotiating all those units at the same time and at that point when I entered we were stalled already so you walk in and we have stalled You know negotiations so that sets a certain type of climate or tone for your staff No one feels good about being in that situation. And you know from the student perspective there were some challenges around suspensions We had high suspensions students were missing instructional time and particularly I mean our vulnerable students like black students Had a high rate of suspensions and special ed students had a high rate And of course low socioeconomic students who were marginalized and some of that too So there were many things that we had to kind of look at considering all the pieces But you know, we did persevere through that, you know, I got excited about that. I said, okay Well, here's some challenges. What are we gonna do about it? And that prompted through my 100-day plan We got to go around and speak to many different stakeholders throughout the community And they got a chance to express what their needs and wants were and out of that conversation But we realized that we need a plan Strategic plan and we tried to look back through the records and we didn't find a strategic plan for Brompton for decades We actually didn't find any so I'm not sure when the last time was so we said we need a strategic plan So we embarked with some really good staff that we had sorry predates you That we put together a plan and we started going to the different community groups of school groups and students and staff and MPAs and all the different players in the community and developed these big rocks were our goals, right? Sustainable finance facility acroclimate and culture inclusive teaching and learning and then developed some priorities and develop a plan and gave Us a foundation to do that at the same time There were lots of work we had to do with our own operations in our central office and so we're doing some of that work and so we've come really far in terms of moving the the goalposts in terms of those areas and we're now at the stage where we are Shifting into the next stage really looking at achievement and how what we've done with achievement and how we close the gap and raise the bar And I'll talk a little bit more about that as we get into the Program a little bit, but it was great to have that reflection I was like wow, okay, because sometimes you think you're not getting up the hill at all Right, you're going two steps back But when you kind of reflect back from where we started that there has been some considerable gains made and I'm really excited and looking forward to this upcoming year and reflect them back on this past year as well Yeah, and I don't know when I started my job and I was looking at the strategic plan There were just a wealth of pictures of community members sort of gathered around in their areas You know whiteboarding and visioning and you could tell that that was really a ground-up Effort that there was a lot of community engagement around those process And I think sometimes we forget that we do have you know, not only a strategic plan But there wasn't a clear mission for the district at that time either Absolutely, and I'm glad you brought that up because one of the things that Give us the ability to do one we targeted some specific groups that we weren't seeing coming out Like we weren't seeing our special ed community coming out and partly because they're busy with their kids To leave them at home, and we weren't seeing newcomer families come out so we had special events just for those groups and Through that process the board at the time Thought that there was a good groundswell that we actually revised our whole mission vision And belief statements and developed a new logo for the board and said okay now we can move forward because now we've heard from the community Thousands and thousands of data points and input from people and this is what our community believes in and wants to support And this is what we we we this is our vision forward We should probably note that if you haven't read the district's mission vision and beliefs you can find those on the website It's www.bsdvt.org and as the superintendent mentioned those were all Things that were supported by the board so you will find that on the school commissioners page on our website So you had You you were talking about Setting the strategic plan into place and then sort of shifting gears and looking at some of those other foundational pieces That needed to be done after that so what would be some examples of the work that was sort of Had to be Done at the same time as you're doing the strategic plan But after that was done was the stuff that you really needed to focus on what are some of those things that you're happy are in place at this time. Yeah, well one of the things was was instrumental first Foremost was the restructuring of our finance department So we have a new fund. We had a new finance director just started with who's who's great Nathan Lavery is exceptional I had some experience at the state level so came in and knew exactly what need to be done in terms of legislation and and aligning with our work and Incidentally, we had just been separated from the city Because there were so many inconsistencies that the agency of education stepped in and said Frone 10 you need to be separate and we need to hold accountable Your sort of budget lines and so you're fine the finances in the district were separated from the city And that was at the same time we had deficits in the district and we saw that manifested in a couple of failed budget votes if my memory serves me well absolutely, absolutely, so that was critical to building that team and We quickly went to hiring some new staff that there were that need to be in that department and looking at restructuring how we do things and starting to introduce technology, right in this day and age We should be able to at a click of a button Ask for a report, you know, I was asking for reports The board was asking for reports and community members were asking reports and we couldn't deliver on it Because we just didn't have the infrastructure and so we've spent the last few years trying to get that and then of course training that happens And we're now in the process of finalizing some of that software and being able to do that, but coincidentally at the same time the agency of education is also Relying their Financial software, so we're still working with that, but we're in a good shape right now in terms of the staff We have the confidence in them and their understanding of what needs to happen to move forward So that was foundational to you to move forward. I remember talking with you About when you stepped into the role you were aware that there were many campuses But I'm not sure that you were quite so aware of the shape that some of those campuses were in And you want to talk a little bit about those foundational pieces. Yeah, well, you know the Walk around, you know, you kind of do the site visits look at the buildings and You look at it from a perspective Would you want your child in this in these settings and there were some places that were really hard to look at In terms of the needs, but there were some high safety issues And we had panels at the the high school level that didn't comply with the 9-1-1 standards Right, so, you know, we can do that. We had, you know, some of our elementary schools down at the boilers They were safety hazards It could you know blow up and destroy and students were being housed there because of space during during it So we had to respond and it was really difficult because where do we put them, right? Right, and there's some challenges around that but so with our property services director and Other staff we started working with consultants and developed a ten-year capital plan To look at all of our schools and all the crumbling sites all the holes in the patch And then all big infrastructure pieces and the one critical thing that came through that was a kind of a consistent theme Was it was the issue of accessibility? Yeah, you know, our buildings have been up for, you know, decades and back in those days Accessibility wasn't a prime point in terms of building the buildings But nowadays we definitely need them and some of our designs like a look at our high schools It's really designed for like California style like you go outside and you come back in and we've enclosed those and you can't do that You can't even get up there if you're if you're not fully able-bodied in any way So we developed this ten-year capital plan and we presented the plan went to the community and the community supported it So that's been great. So now we're in the implementation of Repairing some of the all of our buildings step-by-step and if people have been driving up and down main streets or somewhere They can see the work that's happening at Edmonds Looks like a construction site. It is a construction site But there's some beautiful things that's happened there thus far and our students are gonna be able to enter the year and receive That you know that gift from our community And once that project is done, I hope the community be able to join us We're gonna try to show off the If you haven't had a chance to check out the cafeteria at Edmonds. That's been totally redone They basically converted a space that they called the dungeon that nobody even wanted to go down into now It's beautiful. It's modern natural light You can tell that like kids they're not gonna want to leave the lunch room They're gonna want to just stay in that area, but they do have to get the class So there's some other foundational pieces that you have in place now that you think the district is going We talked a little bit about finances about a capital plan Obviously what we didn't touch on is that we also passed in November the largest bond in state history for a school renovation project So another piece of the puzzle of really having spaces for our children to be able to learn What are some of those other pieces? Well one one of the things that you know You talk about the academic achievement. That's primary most important for an educational organization But you can't build a house without a foundation and sometimes it's hard to communicate that to the community of people in terms of Okay, well, we're trying to do this we need to work on the capacity building but these foundational things have to happen and so Simultaneously we've been working on what's called the achievement gap so closing team got raised in the bar and One of the first things we had to do is educate both our board and our staff around what the achievement gap and opportunity gap It's often called What it is and what the data says and what is your role as an educational leader in our schools? And what are the students roles and once you've gotten that then to put a structure in place? So we've been working on developing a structure where we have instructional coaches. We have we have Interventionists for classroom pieces. So those are all sort of foundational pieces for the achievement piece and now we're just shifting into Okay, how do we implement so we can collect the right data that we need? To to move forward the other thing I would say is you know I mentioned the word data one of the challenges We had in Brunton first five is around the ability of our data Right, so if I and when I asked for data from our staff, I might get three different responses Because people asked collect it differently and we said well We need to have any if you look at the agency compared to ours would be a different way of doing it, right? and so we've worked on how to Be consistent in terms of what is the truth was the authentic data that we need to use and how do we use that to monitor our progress? So once you have that foundational pieces Then you can actually put in strategies that you can validate and say yeah That's strategy work because we knew that we started from here and we were able to move forward in into that without that You can't you're just throwing initiatives. That's what we were doing. We would just say hey Let's do this initiative just do this initiative, but you can't measure if you're having a success or not So I know sometimes everyone wants it to happen quickly But you have to take a step back before you can move forward a lot quicker Mm-hmm And now we have people in those roles for the first time actually who are actually in charge of making sure that we're using the Right data and but also educating our building leaders and the other principles to say like this is the data We're using and this is why and not only that but let me show you how to get the data and how to use it And we have an achievement gap lead for the first time Yeah, I think what is really interesting about those positions is those were positions that were sort of lots of people were sort of Chipping in to do but it kept coming back of it was we actually need someone to champion to champion this to own this work And that's came out of yeah committee meetings and Systems leaders meetings and so finally have those pieces in place I mean we're all accountable for achieving of our students But we need someone to be responsible for the lead right of it to drive us all So I'm glad we're there and I'll share some of that in our in our slides Yeah review you'll see some of the successes thus far already as we move forward Well, why don't we do that? Why don't we we've talked a little bit about the last four years? Let's talk about some of the things that happened last year that you're particularly excited about right then We'll talk about this year and we'll talk about this year Okay, so one of the things I wanted to kind of shared last year is that do we have our what I call our big rocks Inclusive teaching and learning Equal climate and culture and sustainable finance and facilities Big rocks right you're talking about the biggest pieces of the strategic plan for our district right? Those are the goal areas these are our major goals So this is what came out of our community consultations that we had all kinds of feedback and they fell into these buckets Around equity climate and cause people talked about those topics people talked about topics around Finance and facilities people talked about topics around teaching and learning and we were able to consolidate them put them in A bucket and then try to define priorities for one thing that was pleasant for us is that the Agency of Education was at the same time developing their priorities and download that to Districts and say report back to us on these things and we're like oh my goodness It's gonna be totally different from what we're doing and we're not we're gonna have multiple priorities and not be able to meet Them but as you can see from my chart here their lineup quite well Yeah, so the academic proficiency on the left-hand corner there in high-quality staffing That really aligns well with our inclusive teaching and learning and the work that we've done thus far Safe healthy schools lines up well with our equal climate culture and investment in priorities I was really impressed they had that because that's what we were doing investment parts Now we just need them to kind of pass some legislation that'll give us some funding for some buildings. So hopefully There's some legislators out there listening and we'll take that into their their next session As a conversation piece. Yeah, that'd be great so I'm gonna kind of share some highlights and just So people know that I'm gonna kind of zoom through really quickly and you can go on to our website if you want to kind of View these in more detail, but just for the interest of time I'm just gonna kind of go through them really quick and then people can go and search and look at them It's on the home page www.bsdvt.org And I'm going towards I'm gonna share the information in the buckets of the inclusive teaching and learning in this in the three Goal areas. So these are things that happened to that support the strategic plan in the last year that you're really excited about absolutely So here's a program that People aren't quite familiar with is around expanded learning expand learning is a continuation of our program throughout the day And those of you who parents out there who access after school programs in summer programs That's all part of our expanded learning initiative. You can see from the slides. They're just a tremendous success in terms of amount of students that we serve 1600 students that's bigger than many districts in the state in terms of just the the extra just the extra programming extra programming and the great satisfaction rate from from parents in terms of the utilization of those programs and there's lots of initiatives and things that we've won nationwide and statewide in terms of expanded learning but it is an integral part of learning for our students and one of the things I really like about the program it it gives an opportunity for those students who may not have the same kind of Curricular or social emotional support at home But they get that in the programming they come there and they get those resources And they also get nutrition to get food as well too. So that's that's a bonus And one of the things that I like as well as it is for some of those students who might not have the resources to Explore different things like I know one of the things they do is partner with UVM to do birdwatching and you know That's an opportunity that not everybody has to do at home It's a simple thing, but you need expensive equipment to do you need the time to do you need the supervision and the knowledge to Do it so just these different opportunities that students have to really come together as one and not see Social-economic barriers and you said it especially for parents who are working really hard and have one or two jobs time is Of the essence that we have time to do and 99% satisfaction rate for parents and we're both parents How easy is it to keep us happy exactly, right? I want to touch on this program a little bit parent university. This is the fourth year. We've had This initiative and it came out initiated by one of our staff members and it's kind of really grown and this targeted Parents and we know from our research that when parents are engaged in their own learning and in school in some way It has a significant impact on their students and this program has successfully graduated tens of parents every year and uniquely it's Really drawn an attraction of our newcomer parents and it's good to see people with limited English New to the country wanting to learn about skills that are going to make them better parents and also better learners And that's great modeling for for their children. I wish they had one of these programs for my parents Because you know we serve as a surrogate translators and all the other places when you're a newcomer or you're immigrant But I can see the the positives that happen for for our kids in our schools Just by what their parents are able to access and do There's a good slide I'm gonna let you talk about this I know you're excited about this for us because a couple years ago We changed our website and then we started getting into how we change communication Online and the other metrics that we use if you want to give a quick highlight on this slide here Sure, you know, we're really focusing on trying to get the messaging out every way that we possibly can We know that it's a big district and there's a lot going on So we've seen enormous growth in our term in terms of our social media usage and trying new strategies around YouTube and But also making sure that we're communicating with the press those good stories that are happening There's nothing better than watching The press come in and film third graders who are planting trees the kids are excited The reporters are excited and the parents and the community knows like we're doing really great work So we're gonna continue We'll talk a little bit about the community engagement plan But we're gonna continue to try to be as transparent and open and can communicate as much as we possibly can And we're certainly open to continued feedback around that process I'm gonna pick up the pace a little bit because then we've got a lot of content in a little time But you can go on to the site once again And there's some opportunities here that we sort of shared around improved student supports, you know part of our budget was around initiatives and supports around students social and emotional well-being and also their interaction and engagement so you can go on and read all these Engaging activities that happened in all our different schools throughout the course of the year But I do want to talk a little bit about early ed We know from the research that every dollar we spent at the early end It's like ten dollars at the top end and we've got a great early education program We have wait lists every year and we're working on a plan to try star every year I start every year and we're trying to work on a plan to accommodate more students And I know parents will be happy to hear that and we've got a great director of early ed That's leading the team there and we hope that we'll have some opportunities in the near future to expand those programs But you can see the smiling faces in these in these graphics here We're fortunate enough to work in a building that there's a program right in our building So we get to see them every day. So whenever, you know, I'm having a bad day with the big people I go to little people and and they they set me straight in terms of what the expectations are Burlington technical center. This is I'm gonna say it again. This is the best kept secret in Burlington our tech center We've got an aviation program. Many people don't know we have an Asian aviation program. We've got airplanes and helicopters and our students are getting They're learning the skills to go out and work right away We get companies calling our instructor saying do you have anyone that can do this job? And we don't have enough students to supply them So if you're out there and you have a young person male female that's interested in Aviation or a tech, please look into the Burlington technical center because there's many opportunities for employment Out there and it's not only I know sometimes people when they hear the word tech They think it's low-level but no we're talking to the the whole range Right, we have many of our students who've gone on to nursing and medical schools have taken programs there Just all kinds of great programming there. So right take the opportunity and it really has changed. You know, we have a Even an early early education program there where students are really learning first-hand what it's like If you wanted to be involved in preschool, how do you grow and our automotive? We just had a student win an award from the from automobile enthusiasts You know where they're the students are doing really great work. Yeah, we could talk on and on about that And here's a highlight of some of our students, you know, I've mentioned I've said this phrase quite a few times closing the gap and raising the bar and sometimes people quite don't understand What what we mean by that? So when we talk about the achievement gap or the opportunity gap Those are the students who are not meeting whatever the standard is, right and often they're Traditionally marginalized kids that can see social economic kids in there. You see students of different non-white students in there you see special ed students in there and You get other kids in there as well, too But whatever the grouping is we want to close that gap to the top at the same time. We want to raise the bar So that means we want to raise the bar for everyone We want the standard to be high the standard shouldn't be the top kid The standards should be up here the international standard too because you know if you look at the metrics across the world In America, we're not at the top their countries. We're at the top So I'm saying that we know we need to raise everyone's standards So you'd want your child to be above right? We all want just at the guy, right, right? So you can see many of these students in this next couple of Graphics are definitely raising the bar right in some perspective or not and the one comment I'll make is that we've had some national Academic award winners out of Burlington the last three or four years president presidential scholars and road scholars And I remember the one particular year there were I think there were six or seven road presidential scholars throughout the country and Three of them were from Burlington How amazing is that? It's incredible things that our students are accomplishing and on the next slide There's a student who has chosen as the student ambassador for all of the north northeast in terms of poetry So we're doing things that you know the arts are a big thing in Burlington So we're doing the presidential scholars and we have people Dispector the whole the whole vector. Yeah in the tech center again the first Tech technical center in the state to do resale to do wholesale Sorry, you know selling brownies that they are making they're doing the marketing plans and then their products are in healthy living so So this is a early learning English English language learning. Yeah happens early early as well And we've been really working on how do we connect with that particular stakeholder group to support them to support our students and there's so multiple strategies around how to do that and Last year we engage in a partner to develop an app that Gives us an opportunity to survey in a different way right because you know, we do a lot of surveys in education So I know parents out there. You love surveys when we send you surveys tell us how we're doing Right, but yeah, it's hard to communicate if English is not your first language You don't know what it is. So this app helped to do the translation Gives the opportunity for my parents to also communicate and also contribute to that collective Services, so we'll look at more innovation around around this area as we move forward. Yeah And again those Burlington technical center students stepping up and leading the way and giving our English learners a chance to participate in a Meaningful way in those surveys So we did take time this year to look back and reflect on the many staff accomplishments that we have I mean, there's so many that we just picked out a few that we can highlight and people can go and look at that We got range from national principles of the years to substitute teachers of years and all kinds of other accomplishments that have happened throughout the year so us and I did want to talk about this just innovation a little bit and some Of you may have engaged with this group city and lake semester program This was the innovative program and this was great because this was really grassroots It really actually initially started from a couple of community members Which connected with some staff and they came to myself and our exact council and said we got this idea We want to do this we're gonna do this and I said no You can't do that because of a B and C they went back did some work So we came back with some proposals and actually some grants and we we couldn't say no It was a yes because we had all the B and C had all the elements for a great pilot And we were able to support it and now it's it's really Demonstrated that students do need multiple avenues for learning and when I got to go to the end of the year session And here's some of those students speak and I asked them You know what's the difference between your classrooms where you were in and this semester you've been outside Could they do the work within the city of Brompton they go to different they go to city hall They go to different places and they're out in the lake. They're out in the lake. They're they're everywhere Yep, so they talked about the different style of learning and this was a range of kids too Right when I'm talking about kids who've always struggled in school those kids are there But also the high performing kids were there too and they all had Commentary on how this has accelerated their ability to see learning a different way and use their critical thinking skills And many of them found different pathways to careers because of the exposure they had with different community members So that's pretty exciting, right? So a number of innovative projects that are happening I won't spend too much time when we've talked a bit about achievement gap But this is just a representative of the the team that we're putting together Right, we've got a data systems coordinator and an achievement gap lead to actually have those champions and say This is your role you need to lead us and push us to make sure that all our kids at a certain level and beyond as you move forward so look forward to that as we Continuously roll that out this year and I thought this was kind of cute want to put this graphic in here Here's a group of educators together We've got interventionists an instructional leader that's in here And they've got a little cake see the cake there with the data walls Oh, yeah, they use a lot of data to sort of formative assessment to see what influence they need to change the practice And I really like cake. Yeah, that's why I wanted to put this no no reason I really like that graphic is the story behind that cake was actually those teachers and those Instructioners interventionists they presented that cake to Karen to say thank you for coming to help teach us about She's a new person there So it's really about you know You can see the staff buy-in that this is something we've needed for a long time And they're grateful to have this resource of their fingertips excellent I'll move on through the achievement stuff. We've talked about and then lastly the Sustainable finds the facilities we've talked about this and we just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Burlington Burlington once more for not just for this class coming up and for generations 50 years we'll be able to receive a new facility that has maker spaces and the science labs are designed for you know, 21st century and All the online learning that can happen within the building nowadays So thank you for that and a couple of shots of some of the capital plan work Some work that's happening in all our schools and many people have been driving down Main Street You've seen the Edmunds building that's happening and I think this is the graphic of Edmunds right here So this is the this this cafeteria is what you were talking about earlier We're not surrounded dungeon. This was a dungeon. We didn't hold kids there But that's what the kids called it the dungeon because that's where they went for activities and it was kind of clammy But now it's a nice facility for cafeteria and even our food services staff Appreciate that cafe here is brand new ovens and fridges and Ventilations and you can see the receiving areas is really really nice as well too. So and As we look back We're thankful for the budget pass again that And that this was a fifth straight year right that we passed the budget and it was overwhelming support from the community And that's incredible that the community understands that education is a huge investment and it comes back one thing that I did want to make sure that we reminded people is as part of our Commitment to really Delivering on the high school in the way that we said that we were going to do we have public meetings every month So we invite you to join us on the third Thursday at Burlington High School in the cafeteria It's a great opportunity to see why we need a new high school when you come on into that cafeteria and have that meeting but you'll meet with the building construction oversight committee and They have updates every month where we are what's going on. You have an opportunity to weigh in and be heard So third Thursday of every month at Burlington High School Burlington school for food project. We've talked a little bit about the social juxtaposition social justice and social action that happens within our schools and through food projects that donate, you know Food to people who need it. We need more than we do We have a staff who's just committed to making sure that our kids have healthy food in their bodies And that's all that's their passion They're always finding ways to make sure that the students who can't Who may not have the resources are fed but even students who have the resources Well, it's like these to be a cartoon on I know I used to watch as you are what you eat You need that foundation in order to to learn right so great And then lastly Equal climate culture the only thing I'll talk about this is people have heard about maybe RP and RP stands for restorative practices And we're restorative practices District and so you'll see communications about restorative practices and restorative practices for us is really a holistic view on How we communicate and work together and problem-solving critically think for our students and our staff and many parents and you might know that Some of your teachers they start their classes always with a restorative practice restorative circle And students get an opportunity to talk about social-emotional things and set the stage for learning and it's been very successful Thus far and our staff are really engaged and I just attended this summer The summer retreat that we had this summer around restorative practices and training for our next group of staff that are they're coming in So excited about that and we're hoping to engage the the city Yeah, to become a restorative practice city. Yeah, so we're all kind of be on the same No, and when you say we're restorative practices district And what that means is we are a district who's committed to using restorative practices as a way to build Relationships as a way to make sure that students can be kept in their classrooms and in Attached to their education as much as possible, but we should also say it's work in progress You know this isn't just an initiative This is three years in now And it's taken some time the buy-in you can see each year the buy-in gets a little bit more and more and I know one thing that We were happy about last year as we can now say that we have People practicing we have leadership teams in each of our buildings including in central office And so even talking about how Adults use this together as we try to be the model for the students Yeah, I mean this work all this work is ongoing. Yeah, but it's never stops, right? It's like you can you get to this level doesn't mean you're there you continue to develop it and develop your expertise to a certain level in terms of Understanding so we'll continue to work on that Number of initiatives around social dust justice and social action This is a really cool one many of our our schools do their reading to end racism and they invite All kinds of people to come in and read and I see a funny face there I see you rest in there and in a classroom reading to some students One of my favorite days last year is just to engage with the students and talk about you know We're all in this together and a really an opportunity for central office staff to come into the classroom And just get a reminder of what it's like to be in the classroom with those kids and and connect so And once again, we had the opportunity to have our second annual black History beyond black history on black history. You know, we're really emphasizing that black history. It's not just in February It's all year So we were advocating inclusive curriculum where you teach about history You're teaching about all people's histories at the same time So we've been working on that and we get a chance to showcase some of that on this night You can see from the graphic there that is a great turnout from the community in the right-hand corner They're like a lot everyone comes out. We do give them free food as well And we we're really trying to use that night to celebrate And and to learn and we try to do next this year. We've already got the date set so mark your calendars March 23rd I'm telling you about it now. So you don't have an excuse. You can't get your hair done on that day But I was planning to Opportunity to come together and we're looking to do some workshops Maybe even some restorative practices workshops and just talk about what does it mean to have an equitable climate and culture? And how do we make sure that? Black history and really the histories of all people are celebrated throughout the year in an inclusive way in our curriculum. So join us Student engagement is is primal in terms of reading student success a number of Graphics here that just illustrates how our students are engaging not just with each other But also with our staff and on different levels whether it's through media or in the classroom as well, too And talk about engaging. This is a Graphic of a new story that came out around our gender-neutral locker rooms And you know sometimes, you know We have to go through some of these challenges in terms of to find true success And this was a great opportunity for us to demonstrate what we really believe in and what we value And so we were able to move forward and developing gender-neutral bathrooms in our in our schools So we can accommodate all students So that was great to have the students who are involved profiled in this particular situation and to get the word out that you know We're a welcoming community and come and we will do our best to to make sure that you feel comfortable Absolutely, we're listening and we're trying hard and I appreciate that student participating with us and sharing the story And it was a great day. Good word appreciation because we this graphic looks back at teacher appreciation week back in May and This year we really focus on growth going forward. So hence the the plants and the the plants and the flowers And I think that our staff really appreciate the opportunity and hopefully is still growing in their backyards or in their Houses and they'll be able to reflect on that as the year goes on this year One thing that I appreciated is that the district took the opportunity to have teacher appreciation week and send out some really positive messages around that But then there was this all those plants that you saw that were actually delivered to all of the staff in the district and I remember Everyone just felt like surprised like oh, I get a plant to and I'm important too And so that was a I think a great way to honor everybody who works in our districts. Yeah, absolutely I think the you know the educational team is inclusive of not just the classroom teacher But all the other people it's the parents the administrative office staff the nurses that all the people who Contribute to them and we can't forget that right, so I'm gonna end right there and and with our tagline there We're like we're still just striving to cultivate care and creative and courageous people But we need people to join the journey join the journey and that's what we're gonna talk about now Yeah, how how do we engage segway to join the journey? Yeah so we looked at the last four years and we looked at specifically last year and Having some of those pieces and parts and in place you saw we have the RP work we have the data people we have a plan for our buildings and and You also have people championing those causes, so it's not all coming back on the superintendent's desk To say how are we gonna fix this? What's the plan for moving forward for this? So you have those structures in place not that you're going to disengage from those people, but you have people leading them, so What about this year? What are you excited about this year? I'm really excited, you know because I've been practicing what's called Theoretical framework called gradual release so you talk about all those things the structural things like they're really tight in the superintendent's office And now we have really highly competent people with plans to go for it I can gradually release them to go ahead and do their thing and trust that they're gonna operate it So that frees up my time to the other piece and the one of the pieces they're identified I need to do more of is around the engagement of our students our staff and our community To revisit, you know, where are we right now and what are our needs from our? staff and students and our stakeholders to look at the next step and so I'm gonna be looking at opportunities to go to the traditional spaces like the MPAs and city council and PTOs and also looking at engaging our community supporters, right? So some of the Organizations that support youth in the community, but also in particular equity seeking groups That may have something to share or something to collaborate on in terms of working with our students and move forward so looking for those opportunities and One of the things I've committed myself to this year is have a more strategic Approach to classroom visits. You know traditionally I do visits every week and I have on my calendar to go on Mondays and what usually happens is Something happens and the visit is not as fruitful as I would like it to be or not But now we're I think we have enough flexibility now that we can strategically Have teachers maybe invite me in to see some particular lessons and Strategies that's connected to what our major goals are and that'll be great for me to see the results of that You know because sometimes you don't get to see the end results, so you know a certain period of time So we're inviting our our teachers to communicate through you and through me to set up those opportunities But also our parent communities There might be some events that they might like to have me at to so I can see and and support as well too And there are many causes in Burlington that I would love to be able to lend my time or energy or even my voice to Right that I haven't had the time to do and looking forward to have those opportunities. So Now I'll say that Right because I know when you end invitation you get a flurry So people need to understand that you know, I won't be able to meet everyone's needs right away And I won't be able to be able to get out to every single thing, but at least I'll be able to Lend myself more. Yeah, make an effort to be really make sure that people know that you're engaged to that throughout the next year really learning from the community as I understand it and and What I've appreciated about this process is sitting down and being able to thoughtfully think through some of those equity-seeking groups and also some of those parent groups and I know that we've we basically wrote down like these are the 30 or 40 people that we want to make sure that we are meeting with this year But I know that we didn't get everybody and so there's really an opportunity. We've already set up some of those meetings I know that you've have meetings with the LGBTQ community leaders in the area and We've already been presenting and visiting NPAs But but those slots aren't all filled and we would love to hear those recommendations So how should someone say if they're a teacher, please come into my classroom or if they're a community member that says hey There's this event going on. What should they do? Well, one thing they can do one They can always go to our website and go you can go to the superintendent Page or you can go right on the website, but you can also email to the superintendent email Which is BSD superintendent at super intendant. It's just super intendant You're looking for you're looking for the superintendent at bsdbt.org and I know that Make every effort to respond to every email that gets sent from community members and remember when I started my job You were very big on if someone sends us an email or making sure that this office is responding to their needs Or connecting them with the the appropriate person. So so we're looking forward to that and hopefully people will Invite me hopefully invite you and join the journey on the journey. That's what it's all about. Thank you So I guess we should say thank you everyone for your time. Bye. See you out there. Do we hope to see you out there? Hey, thank you us