 Good evening and welcome to this month's edition of commissioners corner My name is Lucia Campriello, and I am your school board representative for Ward 5, which is home to Champlain elementary school I'm in the second year or second year of my first two-year term as commissioner and tonight I am so thrilled to be joined by Burlington School District's office of equity team members including autumn Bangora Teresa Gillarenzo Mika Moore and Sparks our director Welcome and thank you all so much for being here on this beautiful Monday evening. It's great to see you all So our goal for this evening's program are to introduce and reintroduce Viewers to the district's office of equity, which is charged with providing leadership around restorative practices anti-racist education culturally responsive curriculum and so much more We're also very excited to highlight for folks some of the good work underway across the district to advance these objectives Including opportunities for community members to engage in the work And to access resources that help shape the work and help shape everyone's lifelong learning in this space All of which are available on our website at www.bsdvt.org So who better to do that with than the folks I am seated here with tonight So we're gonna jump in and get started because 30 minutes will move very quickly But before we do I would like to first extend my gratitude to you all And to teachers and staff across the district today kicks off National teacher and staff appreciation week So thank you so much for your work for your commitment to ensuring that every student is successful in our schools We are so fortunate to have such an incredibly talented team really across the district Which makes tonight even that much more of a joy to spend time with you all so With that let's go ahead and transition sparks. I'd love to open the conversation with you Please take a minute and share with us a framework for the office of equity and Priorities underway so before I do that luce. I'd like to say thank you again And thank the board for the work that you do But I'd also like to send a real shout out to our teachers Because a lot of people don't understand how hard it is being a teacher being in a classroom and Really serving the needs of our students and families So I want to just say thank all of our teachers for the work that they do and our building leaders so what I'd like to do is kind of go over the goals of our office and Then get into some specifics. I'm not going to read everything Due to time but then give each of the team members and Individual time to be to talk more specifically About their work the other thing that I'll say is all of our goals are lined with the strategic plan They're connected to the district strategic plan because what we want to do in the district is make sure our work is connected It's aligned and we have a way of really measuring Success and how successful we are in the areas that we really need to improve in the other thing That I will say about the Burlington School district We are one of the only districts across the state that has always been Transparent with our data and had our data public facing that gives us an opportunity of really working with our public Working with community partners to really look at some of the strengths some of the areas that we need to continue to make improvement on So our first goal actively work to Remove the predictability of success or failure that currently correlates with any social racial or cultural factors This is connected to strategic plan priority number one Belonging and well-being Number two Acknowledge and address bias and discrimination that negatively Affect or our students their families and our staff This is connected to priority area number one belonging and well-being And priority area number four the other part of what we have been working at is really trying to Hire educators that look like our students and you and I were just talking about that And that has been a struggle across the district because one of the things we do know is much more than hiring It's also creating a positive learning environment to support different people of the global majority that we bring in So the second part of that is retention area number three Work to dismantle systems of oppression and white supremacy culture in our schools This is connected to priority area number five Relationships based on communication through restorative practices So Mika will talk about the restorative practices work So one of the things we really wanted to do as we think about Dismantling white supremacy culture and anti racism is to really understand how white supremacy culture and racism Impacts our students. So as we look at reducing suspensions racial and ethnic disparities in our suspensions We do know it starts with white supremacy culture in our anti racism work Goal number four continually examine and reexamine Biases to interrupt and replace inequitable systems practices policies and procedures with those that are just and Equitable this is connected to priority area number five Relationships based communication through restorative practices as well Again, as we think about biases one of the things our district has struggled with for decades is biases Racism in us not aggressively dealing with it So this has been one of the first times in the district that we are aggressively addressing White supremacy culture in the anti racism work But also one of the first times the district has had a full-blown office of equity that's been resourced and staffed number five Support district curriculum by infusing Inclusive and anti-racist culturally relevant Patigodgy to influence the school environment for adults and children This is connected to priority area number two deeper learning for every student The thing that we do know If a student can't read can't write or do math that is definitely an equity issue So one of the things that we are working on or looking at across the elementary schools A different curriculum to really support their reading And that's going to build a foundation if a student cannot read effectively. They cannot do much of anything else And this is also connected to priority area number three reimagined high school number six Redistribute district resources based on academic and social Social economic data to better serve our most marginalized students and families This is connected to Priority area number two deeper learning for every student One of the things we know As we look at resources if we're not putting the resources Towards the most vulnerable students in the areas that we know Students are going to need more support Then we're not going to be able to meet the students educational and social emotional well-being number seven Partner with students family and community members to build a truly inclusive Community where all voices are included. This is connected to priority area number one Belonging and well-being So one of the things that we have been able to do for Especially this year as we think about families and student and adult partnerships We have done a lot of work to not just give student voice but have students at the table As equals decision makers Because I firmly believe and my team believes if students are at the table helping us make the decisions It serves to have a better outcome for students across the district because Historically we have been very good at telling students what to do are creating policies and procedures And expecting students to adhere to those policies and procedures But if a student is at the table when we are making those decisions, they have voice They know what's going to work and what's not going to work. So therefore having them at the table at the beginning Really eliminates challenges in the backs on the backside of it So this is connected This is also part of the strategic plan And as we think about priority area number one belonging and well-being One of the things that we have seen across the district since we Come back came back to the school in person We have seen a lot of students struggling with social emotional well-being mental health and Issues around behavior. So we have seen suspensions go up. We have seen Incidents of violence go up And as we think about restorative practices and some of the other work that we're doing around Social emotional wellness We really want to pay attention to students well-being students mental health And also working with families because we have spent a lot of time working to support families and the students As part of that work number eight To create an uphold a learning environment that promotes safety and inclusion for all students staff and families This is connected to priority area number one belonging and well-being also And i'm going to stop there So what i'd like to do is turn it over to I'm going to start with mica to talk about the restorative practices and the reason I'd like to start there restorative practices Are that's part of our foundation for building that climate of social emotional well-being And some of the work that we are doing Aligns with the restorative practices work and then we could talk about some of the work that autumn is doing And as we think about the safety and the well-being We'll talk about some of the hazing harassment and bullying work that teresa is leading Thanks sparks and mica if you don't mind before we transition I just want to offer a couple of quick reflections because so much of what you just discussed is really grounded in data And one of the things that i've appreciated so much About joining the district first as a parent of two young students and then more recently as a school commissioner Is just what you talked about the transparency and access To data that is collected and analyzed and then reported out on quite thoughtfully And so as a commissioner, I often rely on Our strategic plan which you highlighted beautifully I rely on the annual office of equity report I look at the school snapshots Which offer sort of a very high level look per school at a couple of key metrics that we are looking at I enjoyed so thoroughly the presentation on the literacy program a couple of weeks ago at the board Meeting and the enthusiasm of the teachers and staff who were with us that day sharing it Because it directly relates to this conversation Which is that if we are to truly fulfill our mission as a public school system of delivering high quality Education for all pre-k to 12 students in the city of burlington We absolutely must meet the needs the very diverse needs that every student walks into our building with And rather than needs the word I meant to use just now as attributes Because we are all richer for learning together in a space. Um, that is diverse and Attribute rich so just wanted to reflect on that because it really is Beautiful and so linear to watch the way both your office as well as offices throughout the district link data Both quantitative and qualitative to the decisions that are being made And to the strategies that are being employed to advance the mission of your office Yeah, I'm a self-described data nerd. So I really love that our office stays focused on data and uses that to drive our decisions My name is Mika more. I'm the restorative practices coordinator here in the district and part of my role is to think about how we're utilizing restorative practices both From like the 10,000 foot view to think about it across all our schools but then also what that really personal student and staff experience is of restorative practices because We rely on restorative practices to build a foundation of relationships in our district We can't just assume that because you put every kid into the same room in one place That relationships will happen. Um, and too often that's what schools do is they just say well, they're all in the that one room together They're in a classroom So they must get along and they must know each other and value each other But we know that that's not the case and so what restorative practices does is offers a consistent way for Students and staff to build relationships with each other and really value each other as individuals And I think it's a really beautiful way to do that And then you could also rely on it in more of a responsive way to think about if harm occurs How can we keep bringing people in and pull folks closer when harm happens rather than pushing students out? Our office is committed to reducing our reliance on out-of-school suspensions It's a focal point of my work as a restorative practice coordinator And I work with a team of seven individuals our restorative practices specialists And our youth and family restorative liaison To implement restorative practices in our schools and what we did was we looked at those positions and where we should place folks In our schools based on the behavior data. What are we seeing of where are our most vulnerable children? Where do we see most incidents of behavioral referrals in there? And we could respond to that in real time by having these positions there So they've made a huge difference in our use of restorative practices And i'm really proud of the work that they do so a big shout out to our restorative practice specialists and our Youth and family restorative liaison that's through a partnership with our burlington community justice center So we rely on our community organizations as well When we think about how we're implementing restorative practices But the data informs everything that we do right now We just did our annual restorative culture survey And we already have some of the preliminary data back that we're able to present to our restorative practices Collaborative that meets across the whole district folks from all different buildings come as representatives And we got to look at data that was less than two weeks old and think about like what is that sense of belonging? How does it change from k or k to five thin six through 12? What happens to the sense of belonging in our secondary schools where how can we address that with the use of our resources? so i'm really excited by the fact that Folks who are committed to utilizing restorative practices are truly Involved in this work from like as a way of being they don't see it as just like Okay, check. I did restore their practices. It really is like who they are. They're restoratively minded And we want to bring that even further out into the district Yeah, I love it the way you just described that it's almost like shifting from preventative medicine to just an active state Of how you move through the world and it feels like the district is making that transition And then also provides a framework and toolkit for folks to use when incidences arise To address those instances immediately so that your point which is so brilliant and yet You know should be obvious to all of us that All of our experiences or our our young students experiences when they're in a classroom Just because they're in the same classroom does not mean they're having the same experience and so really being thoughtful about that and creating frameworks to build those relationships so that You are operating from a position of trust with the folks who are in your space And that you can move through the world with that skill as well Yeah, we want VSD to be a place that students and staff care so much about that if We have to separate them for their learning for any reason which would be a thought of as a suspension If we have to do that that they're like no, I want like please. How can I make this better? How can I make things right? And so that our work is you have to have relationships and a foundation of something to restore So that's why we really focus on it's if you think about it in a tiered model But like that tier one the strong foundation of relationships. So that way if harm occurs There's actually something to repair. Yes, if there's nothing to repair then you can put in all this effort And it doesn't really matter because there was nothing there in the first place Yeah Sure, we're doing some work right now to work on our restorative code of conduct That the whole this whole team has really been integral in working on and creating to rethink about how we respond to behavior and unexpected behaviors in a way that is restorative and so we've drafted a restorative code of conduct That will be fully implemented in this fall 2023 And what it does is it offers teachers administrators and students a roadmap for what are our expected behaviors? What are your student rights? What can you rely on to say that these are my rights in burlington school district? What are the rights of our school board commissioners of our families our administrators everyone involved in our community? And then when unexpected behaviors do occur it offers some options that are not relied on punitive measures But some other options. So and we took what we did was we used data to look at What are our highest levels of the most referred behaviors things like disruptive classroom behavior things like that? And then offer some real alternatives say rather than kicking the student out of class Here's some other things that you could do what we don't want to do is have folks feel like Restorator practices comes in it's this brand new shiny thing and then wait How do I actually use it? We want to give people really that toolkit like you mentioned So the restorative code of conduct Is offers ways for us to reduce our reliance on suspensions while also giving people more Agency and kind of like feeling like they have the tools that they need. I love that the framing too of Agency is so important because it reduces the punitive nature of the language that we use as well And just generally human beings respond better to things that are not punitive. And so again, it's like this beautiful Arc of work that sets everyone up for success because they've established that relationship and that trust among their peers With administrators with teachers with staff, etc Yeah, great. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you autumn So i'm autumn bangura. She heard pronouns and i'm the equity instructional leader of the berlington school district This is my fourth year and What how my role differs a bit is I do Systems-based work as well, but i'm mostly teacher and student-facing I join you in appreciating teachers today and every day and every week and every year Because I was a teacher for the rest of my career prior to Getting involved in this leadership pieces A lot of people ask me what does equity instructional leadership look like what is your day to day? And so I try to describe it as its social justice education and it's helping Teachers serving as a resource curating resources helping people have difficult conversations about identity and justice and diversity and action and really Giving them the tools sometimes I go in and model teach in front of classes In order to guide teachers or they'll have a particularly difficult text That has some inflammatory language or something so I might go in And give them some resources maybe some restorative circles in order to talk about the language and the text or to talk about the author's viewpoint um Some particularly proud stuff that I do mostly involves youth leadership And leveraging a whole new group of youth leaders in the school district We're entering the third year of the summer racial justice academy, which is Just a really really wonderful opportunity for youth to work as consultants for the school district to make things better I'm in the process of inter interviewing students. We have over 100 students for 40 spots So it's getting really known and when I ask them what do you want to learn about? What is your message? What do you want to change? A lot of them talk about understanding each other's perspectives Wanting the experiences to be better for the young ones. They say this is what my experience has been like I've encountered some oppressive systems in my school experience And they really want to change it better and pave the way for the younger kids That seems to be like a universal messaging um Other things that I'm proud of is involving the community in a series of equity workshops We started in 2020 when the pandemic really made it so that parents couldn't be involved in the school And I thought of it as a really great opportunity to invite parents in virtually And also just to learn about the equity work that's happening. Um, so this year we moved into some in-person workshops on lgbtq themes Sparks and I were hosting lgbtq workshop for Somali and my my communities over 50 parents showed up Just to talk a little bit about some of the cultural stigmas and again that word transparency comes up that we want to be transparent We don't want to hide what's going on our schools I am so proud to work for the burlington school district and i'm proud of Our focus and support for the equity work Yeah, absolutely. Well, congratulations on the huge oversubscription of interest in the summer racial justice academy It's obviously a testament to not only the work, but the interest which is a reflection of the work And it's just so exciting to see youth You know engage in leadership opportunities, especially for the reasons that you reflected I would absolutely encourage viewers to visit the bsd vt website Where you can find videos of student performances from past years. They are incredibly moving And I think sparks to the point that you made earlier and that you you all have made Student participation in this work student leadership in this work is so incredibly important in in all of the work that our district does But I think so often about the ways in which You know, I learned as a young person many many years ago and how different it is today And all of the opportunities that Students have today to engage more deeply and really lead and teach Adults in the room around them, which is a really big responsibility But all um a reflection of their kind of genuine reflection of their perspectives and experiences So that's really exciting and I really would encourage viewers to to check that out and also The webinars I had a chance to just join one of them that was led by the youth participatory action research There's another letter in there that I'm missing I believe But it was incredible and just again another opportunity as an adult to learn from young people who are Thoughtful and smart and committed and passionate and really driven by Wanting to be inclusive To all of the people who they encounter in their day-to-day life in school out of school and after school I mean beyond their education. So again really impressive work with young people and I I always find engaging with any of our Young students to be incredibly rewarding. So thank you for your leadership Teresa My name is Teresa. Jill Lorenzo and I am the district hazing harassment bullying title nine coordinator and district safety lead I am proud to be working for the burlington school district and with the office of equity I feel honored to be a part of this team My focus is on student safety mental and physical Um, I do a lot of work. Well, we were we were in an agreement with the department of justice and we successfully exited that agreement this year And a lot of the work was done before I got here, but I helped get systems in place We have designated employees at every school We I'm kind of like a compliance officer when I see incidents that are happening making sure that um There we're doing the work in the schools to keep the kids safe and coming back to school because we know education is everyone's right And don't talk about the safety teams we have we have We have ensured that there are safety teams at every school And we have a district safety team and we also put together a district crisis response team and um We're going to be working with all groups in the district to make sure that they have knowledge and understand safety procedures and you know our protocols and that includes food service property services multilingual liaisons and their teams including staff Um and students we this summer I will be working with autumn and mika and the the racial justice academy students To help ask them to help us create prevention kind of psas So it's from the students for the students about appropriate behavior and why we want to be upstanders And you know just keep do the right thing Talk about the option space work that we're doing with Yes, sure. So we are Every school in vermont has been mandated now to have an options-based response as part of our safety protocols And ours is run hide fight, which is recommended to us by the vermont school safety center and it's been a little bit challenging to roll out because it's not Easy work and it's a little bit scary when you don't know what what's happening and what to expect and why we're doing it So we are now Entered into an agreement with margolis healy and they are they work with the safety center and rob evans They're coming to work with we started with our building administrators and we'll work down the line To ensure that we can fully roll this out by august and be you know confident in our response Our options-based response So one of the things I think people need to really understand First and foremost The school's job is not to teach It is to keep people safe Because if we're not creating a safe learning environment students are not learning adults are not feeling safe So as we think about the options-based work We want to do this in a manner where we're not causing harm to students where we're not scaring students where we are Not scaring parents, but we want to make sure parents know that their schools and their kids are safe So that's why we are working with the vermont safety center for schools And really trying to roll this out in a thoughtful manner That's great and age appropriate Fantastic. Thank you for that context We are just about at time, which is incredible. I think we sat down and knew that 30 minutes would be insufficient for this conversation But really just a delight to spend time with you all and hear from you all and obviously enjoy the passion that you all bring to the work So thank you for that. Again, I would encourage folks to check out The office of equity webpage within the district site You'll find a really comprehensive report that was released gosh a month ago or so That goes a bit deeper Then what we had time to cover today and I'd love to wrap up with Finally a shout out to colleagues of mine on the board Commissioner waltz and commissioner von check who co-chair the board committee on diversity equity and inclusion, which you all Support as staff members. They're doing some really incredible work and I will look forward to hosting them At some point on a future program You know, as you all mentioned the board is equally committed to these values and to this equity work And so I am just so proud to be their colleague Given their leadership in some really important work Under way within that committee. So with that we are at time at 555 Thank you all for tuning in this evening and for those of you who choose to watch on your own time Whatever date and time it may be in the future. Look forward to seeing you next month. Thanks again