 This is a new avenue as a community to have thoughtful and meaningful conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism. Today our guest is Rachelle Smith and Rachelle is the new Mechal Director for Arlington Public Schools. Welcome Rachelle. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. This is great. Thank you. You're welcome. So my first question for you is, you're the new Director of the Mechal Program, so tell us a little bit about yourself and what role led you to Arlington. Wow. Okay, so that's a good question. So let's say I am a Mechal alum. I am also a current Mechal parent and a former Mechal parent as well, so I had a student that participated in the program up until 10th grade and then transferred and we can talk about that later, but yeah, so I am all entrenched in Mechal and so my journey with Arlington and Mechal, so the combination, is I decided to go back to school, so I decided to go back to school and be an adult learner, so I went to Simmons University, whoop whoop, Simmons, yeah, yeah, you got the rose present, and I decided to take up social work. I was working in homeless services and really found myself doing a lot of that social work there, case management and so forth, so I was like, I'm just going to go back full time and so I did that and that was a huge, huge risk for me to do because I have a family and I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this, but they were like, you got to come full time, I don't think work is going to be an option, cool. So I get into Simmons and people get in placement and in August I'm sitting in class and they're like, where you going? I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about, you're supposed to have your placement. So I went into the field office and I'm like, I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't want this, and one of the things was I said I didn't want to work with youth, so she's like, I have no idea where I'm going to put you. And I was like, well, let's figure this out. And at the time I was taking dynamics of racism and oppression and I was writing a paper on Meco and I found so much passion in writing that paper that I said, what about Meco? And she was like, well you say you don't want to work with kids and I said, but I like Meco. So let me try. So she goes, okay, so I get an interview with you and the rest is history. No, yeah, and so I get hired, so excited about that and I start working with you and I start getting to see not only the macro pieces, but the Mezzo and the micro and I'm like, this is great. So I had a wonderful experience, not just saying that because I'm going to give you a lovely joke, but I had a wonderful experience as an intern and then being asked to come back to Arlington, even though I had to take another internship in a different school district, I got to work behind the scenes doing like a community partner outreach coordinator. And then also, and that's working, you know, that was working with in the social and emotional learning department. And then I also was a advisor. I'm still a advisor for the Black Student Union at the high school. So I still had these connections. And then when this position came up, I was like, wow, let me let me try, you know, I had some encouragement along the way. And and when I got that call of like it was a no brainer, definitely have to come here. So yeah, when you so I remember our interview and when you started, you were very clear with me that you wanted to learn about the macro and micro level and that you were taking urban leadership at the time. Absolutely. And so there was a lot that you were learning from urban leadership and you wanted to learn more about system. Yes. So I just wanted to add that. Thank you. I know I did forget that part. Yeah. And that you did so well that even I was like, can you come back for the next year? Because you made a lot of connections with the families and with the students in the community, in the community. So it seems like a no brainer that you would now be stepping into a role that I had, right? And it's so you are now been in Arlington as the director as the director for a couple of months, three months, three months. So I don't want to assume that anybody really knows what the macro program is. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what the program absolutely have that type of conversation? Because I can go back and forth right about that. Yeah. So the program to me overall is when I think of always give one word and that's opportunity, right? And so I know how it started out. It started out as a as an as an opportunity, like one sided almost, you know, in a sense that it was the opportunity for students from the Boston area to come out to suburban neighborhoods to get what we call a better education, because at the time the education was not good for black and brown or people of color, primarily black people. And then I've seen the transition being a Meco parent and then, you know, a Meco alum, I've seen the transition and I like it. It's it's an integration program now. So now we're not just bringing these students in for a different type of education, but you're also bringing some value into these communities with these students that become Meco directors, that become city counselors, that become acting mayors, that become NBA superstars, you know. So, you know, it's it's a beneficial situation on each each front. And so this program changed my life, it's changed my children's lives. And I see that it's changed friends' lives. And I'm so excited to see how it's going to help to change trajectories and to transition the students' lives that we have now. There's 72 students in the program and I'm super excited to see how that will transition as well. So this program is is, to me, another family dynamic. Yes. Did you I mean, Meco has been around since 1966. Right. 1966. Did you ever imagine that the Meco program would still be around? That we would still need a Meco program? I guess that's the question that we would still need a Meco program to, you know, it we all know that it's a state law, right? The Racial and Balance Act, but we would still need a program to diversify education. Did you did you ever think that Meco would be around this long for your children? I so yes and no. I was clear that I when when whenever I had children, they would be a part of the Meco program, right? And so I really I think at the time of being a young mom, I didn't really understand that. It was a good and a bad thing that it had to still be around. So, you know, it's good that it's still around so that students are able to in these communities are able to get this opportunity. But it's sad that it has to still exist because we are still so segregated in communities. And you just look at even from where our students are coming from the city of Boston is very much segregated. And so it's like, yikes, you know, this still has to exist. And then it's also like, well, I'm glad that it does still exist because, you know, the opportunity that may not present themselves in that urban space do kind of present themselves in these in these suburban neighborhoods because of the resources that are allocated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I always think like Meco is still around and I, you know, like you said, people have wonderful experiences and friendships that have come out of the Meco programs, like people who have been friends since kindergarten are still friends to this day. And their children now are friends. And I look at Meco as a legacy, right? You have sometimes third or fourth generation that have gone through the Meco program. Second generation. Yeah. Yeah. My mom was a Meco student. She didn't stay in the program all the way to graduation, but she was a part of, I believe Marblehead. She was, yeah, she was a Marblehead student. Yeah. Yeah. My sister was part of the Meco program. And when I got called into the Meco program, it was high school. So my mom thought you already kind of have a foundation where you're at and you're, you know, you have a community where you're at. So that's, I'm always been on the other side. So I've never been the student. Yeah. But I've always been the one working on that side. So, as we're talking about Meco, can you tell me some of the things that you appreciate about the program? Absolutely. So I, one, I appreciate the program overall. What I also, I think that, and I'm hoping that we get back to this, but in the past that we were really, the students were really connected to not only the district, but the Meco, like entity itself, right? And I believe that that is happening with, you know, certain district, but I remember being able to go to the Meco office, you know, for tutoring or whatever it is, you know? So we got to know other districts, right? So we were able to, oh, little Lexington, there goes this one. So hopefully we can get back to that, right? But the big thing that I appreciate about this program are the friendships that I built and the connections that I built. And one of the connections that I can, this like really remember, distinctively remember is when I was working at Homeless Services, I had a client come in, we call them guests at the time. So I had a guest come in who was elderly and I was like, we cannot have her stay in this shelter. Like she, it just wouldn't work. And I remember calling up a housing agency and talking to this person and him saying, hey, I'm gonna refer you to someone. Is that okay? So I talked to this person and great guy, somehow he had some kind of housing establishment in Framingham. I was like, okay. So he goes, do you know about Framingham? I said, well, it's kind of close to Newton. And I was a Newton alum, Newton graduate. So he goes, what do you know about Newton? We'll come to find out. We both graduated from Newton North High School. Now he graduated probably like 30 years before I did. But he was like, you know what? You know, we stay together. And so we were able to, I was able to house this, this individual, this client within two days. That was quick. So I did social work stuff too, right? So that was a really quick thing, but it was that connection. Now had I not gone to Newton North, I probably wouldn't have that connection. And then I probably would have been, it would have been slower to house this person. But because we have that connection, so that's what that program brings. It brings a connection. And then you go around and you tell people, what high school you went to or whatever, they're like, oh yeah. And you hear about those things, you hear people. And you really like, you connect. So that is like the biggest thing that I, that's my take from being a part of program and what I can appreciate are those connections. And it also happens on the other side when you work for the program, right? You're like, wait, you work for, cause that happens to me. And I've worked in different districts, previous years. You said something that resonated with me and I wanted to kind of unpack that a little bit more because you said that when you were in the Meckel program that you were able to establish relationships with students in other districts and other programs. And it seems like that is not happening anymore. And let's unpack like maybe why that's not happening. And what are some maybe creative ideas that we can start to talk about the intersection of these different districts to kind of come together because they're all having the same experience, right? They're all leaving their homes at a certain time. They're all being on a bus to go somewhere else to go to school. So they're all having that, they know that experience in that community. So what do you think has happened that kind of connection of different communities of districts are not happening anymore? I think there was a common goal back then. And the common goal was we're bringing some of the best of the best out to your schools to get this opportunity, right? And because of the transition of how that looks now as far as integrating the schools, I think everybody has their own way of doing things. So I think now it's like districts are kind of like, oh, well, we're kind of doing this. And then you have, you know, this other district, well, we're doing this. And so it doesn't allow for the directors to really come together to say, hey, how can we, you know, let's, because you're always putting out fires or there's always something going on. So like, how can we come together? Let's do a big dance. I think COVID definitely, you know, changes situations. And I don't know if previously, you know, I think you got with some districts and kind of did apple picking and so forth. I think we had like dances. There were things going on at Mecko headquarters that brought us together. So they would have awards in certain things. And you'd be like, oh, so I don't know how, but I have Lincoln sub-berry friends because we went to dances together. There were certain things that we connected with. So I'm hopeful that after this pandemic kind of just goes away that maybe that can start to happen, especially since we have a new little establishment down in my hometown, Roxbury, I represent very well. And so maybe we can start doing some things like that to bring our district students together. Yeah. You mentioned being a Mecko director and putting out fires. Let's talk about that a little bit, right? Cause both of us can have that discussion. I guess my first question is, do you really think people understand what the day to day that you do in being a director of a program? No, cause I've been asked like, well, what do you do? You know, and I honestly can't give it a real description of what I do because it's pretty much everything. I do what you do. I do what you do and it's, you know, it's just a combination of so many things and it can change at any given moment starting from the bus. I turn, well, I turn my phone up cause I don't even turn it off now. I turn my phone up at 5 30 because my first bus stop is at 6 30. And that means I may have to list here from the bus driver that may say he's late or the bus company that may say here, buses down or the bus monitor say I'm not feeling well. So I have to turn my phone on at 5 30. Yep. People don't understand that your day starts before you even leave your house. And I have a Mecko student at home who wakes up at 5 30. So there's times that I may be preparing lunch and I'm navigating the bus and so forth because, you know, hey, it didn't come yet. Something's going on. And then I believe during, so when I get in, you know, there may be some issue. Like I, one day I came in and, you know, one of the students called and was like, I left my stuff on the bus and then come to find out, like, at least five of them left something on the bus. So it was like contacting the bus company. Hey, can we get this stuff? And, you know, luckily it was the Arlington bus company. So it would have just bring it upstairs. It was the other one. And, you know, out of a whole different story. And then throughout the day, you get a lot of emails. There's a lot of stuff going on because we have K through 12. So during the day, there's a lot of stuff going on with the students. It may be grades, it may be attendance, it may be behavior, it may be, it could be praises at some point, like things are looking better, you know, IEP meetings, SST meetings, just some kind of meeting that you're doing. And so I'm running from school to school. I don't stay put. One place, like today, I went to Pierce. I also went to Audison because we rock our Meco T-shirts on the first Friday of every month. Shout out to Brian Merrigan, his school for that. Yeah, so. Which I'm gonna get in on, because you just told me. Please, yeah. Because we take pictures, so we took pictures with the students, we called them, hey, let's come and take some pictures. And so they liked that, it was nice. But I'm moving around a lot. Like, a lot. I used to call it, I'm on roller skates. They used to be like, what are you doing? I'm on roller skates. And then I changed it to the hoverboard. I was like, yeah, I'm on the hoverboard today. It's like you said, you're in and out of your car. You're at this meeting. You mentioned SST just for the audience that's student support team meeting, or you're at a special educational meeting for a student and their family. I remember a director years ago did a presentation for the superintendent, and she had all these gift boxes, and they were all name something different of what we did. It was all like nurse, friend, advocate. Absolutely. Sometimes you're, you know, whatever. It was like, there were like 20 boxes, and all of those boxes were real. Real stuff? They were real. And so, and then sometimes when you get home, right, some people, they, their day might end at four. Does your day end at four? My day does not end at four. So my day should typically end at the last bus stop. But there's sometimes, you know, either students are being picked up late or something's happened. The bus gets into pockets of traffic. There's times I've either had to pull over on the side of the road in techs, families, in the big group text to say, hey, the bus is 10 minutes late, 15 minutes late, because otherwise that phone will blow up. And then there's times that maybe if something happened on the bus, maybe a student accidentally got hit or a book bag, somebody ripped a book bag, like, you know, this plane horsing around. And so, you know, families, I have to be a mediator. And, you know, hey, do you guys wanna talk? Yeah, what's up? All right, perfect. You know, and then something may have happened that they didn't tell me throughout the day. So then there's a parent calling and maybe upset me, anything. Yeah, so. So can you tell me, you know, you tell me what you appreciate. Can you tell me what are some of the wins that you've had since you've been in here as the director for three months? Ooh. So some of the wins have been, one, creating relationships. I think I have some, I think I've started to create some amazing relationships with principals where I can kinda go to them and talk to them like we have these real conversations. I think also the relationship establishment with the students as well, like they are like the primary, the most important piece to this. Without them, there's no program. So just establishing those relationships and it's been great doing it, but it's also hard cause I'm running back and forth. The other piece is a big win is being able to have my student meetings with them and the family meetings, so being able to do that. And I started out doing those on a Saturday. We have one coming up on Saturday. We were trying to switch it up cause we have families that do things on Saturdays that can't be a part of, so I wanna switch it up. But just having that and I'm looking forward to really bringing in like some guest speakers. I love Wyatt Jackson. I shout him out all the time. Yes, Wyatt's great. He is an educator, has his own show on PBS. And I think that moving the body is so important and so he does these great things with that, so bringing him in and really just bringing in some more support. So I think overall making it to where I am right now is a huge win cause it was really rocky to begin with. Yeah, the beginning, you just, you're just trying to get your footing. You're trying to understand everything. Wyatt's great. Wyatt came a couple of years ago, did some circles with the middle school and the students loved him. Absolutely. So what are some of the challenges, those some of the wins, what are some of the challenges that you think you've been facing, but and you've been overcoming? Yeah. Absolutely, so I think one of the challenges is people not really understanding what the program is. And so you'll get maybe that old way of thinking that all these poor children are coming out here or these children are coming out here sucking up all our resources or all these children are coming up here and messing up things. And even though people may not say it verbally, I'm a social worker and I'm a feeler so I can feel things. And do I think that that's an ill intent? Absolutely not. I just think it's a misunderstanding of what the program is. So what I've been doing to get through these challenges is going to the different schools and explaining the program. But I'm not giving them the surface level like, this is what this is and this is that. I'm actually incorporating my experiences, my experience as a mom, my experience as the director and my experiences as an alum. So I'm giving those real life scenarios. I give them a day in a life of what it looks like for a Meckel student to wake up at 5.30 in the morning to have to get at the bus stop at 6.30. I mean, do you have to leave your house about what, 6.15 or so? Depending on where you live in a city. Depending on where you live and get into the bus stop and then ride in that long bus ride and your school, it's not your only school that's on that route. You may be the last school. My daughter's the last school to get off. So she's on the bus for over an hour. So you're already exhausted sometimes coming into school. You're hungry, you know? So those are the challenges that I think we'll be able to overcome as we start being more realistic about what this program is and what it can bring. And I talked to, you know, faculty now about, you know, you can have bragging rights because you may just have the next Tito Jackson. You may just have the next Kim Jane. You may have the next Bruce Brown. I believe Bruce Brown was Wakefield if I'm not mistaken, but, you know, so you may have these students sitting right here. I also talk about my, because I think the challenges is too that as students of color, you're different, right? And we all know that race is a social construct. It's not real. It's not real. There's only one race and that's the human race. But we still operate in this kind of sectional type of understanding of differences. So, you know, just helping people to understand these students are human. And they're just the same and they're Arlington public school students. So I think that's a challenge, but I also see some change manifesting. If I've had people come up to me and say, thank you so much for that presentation, bringing that real life experience kind of puts it into context for me. I've never had it that way, so I appreciate that. I'm like, well, I can give it because I lived it. So I have the lived experience of it and I'm living it. So you can see what that looks like. And I'll tell them, I'm like, don't feel sorry for them. Cause this is a voluntary program. Keep your expectations. Absolutely. But just have some empathy and some compassion and understanding that if your student comes in, this stomach may be grumbling and they may want to eat. And they did have breakfast in the morning, but it's been two hours. I need a snack. It's like us, coffee break or I need my tea or let me go get some cookies or let me eat my apple, yeah. Absolutely. It's, you know, you and I have known each other now. We're going on three years. I know this thing. And so let's talk about our relationship. Absolutely. And I think when you first interviewed, our interview went for over an hour. It was out of Starbucks. It was out of Starbucks. It was out of Starbucks. And we really started to kind of talk and you really opened up about where you wanted to be. The reason why you went back to school and we found out like, cause Simmons is my alum, right? I have my master's or social work from Simmons. So let's talk about like, what does this feel like? We switched roles. Oh my gosh. Right, you now are not, you're not, you know, my student intern. Now you're the director of the program. Like we're sitting at the same table together. What does that feel like? You know, it is so hard for me to be proud of myself. I have to be real about that. Like I've never really been able to bask in that. So I have been trying to be intentional about celebrating that. Even if that's even a Facebook post so everybody else can kind of like pump me up and I'm like, okay, you are on the right. I got this. It feels magical. So prior to, I was telling you this during the interview, I had, I have a master's in management. So I have a master's in management from Eastern Nazarene College. And a lot of concepts that we learned about in social work, we actually learned about those. So I have a background in HR, ethical leadership, business law. And so I was trying to get ahead. You know, I was trying to, I was working too hard and I wasn't being recognized for that. And I wasn't working hard to be recognized. I was working hard for those clients that I was working with. But when I looked to climb that ladder, it didn't happen. And it was devastating. So that's when I had to, I was like, I gotta reinvent myself. I gotta figure this out. And I love school. So that's why Simmons became it. And so I remember writing on my Twitter handle, Future Program Director. I never thought I'd be sitting in the seat though. But I do remember that, right, in Future Program Director. This is something that I want to do. And I looked back and as I was changing my Twitter handle, I wrote Program Director. And that hit me. I was like, oh my gosh. But I got into a place and a space and with people that recognized my strengths, my abilities, my possibilities. And that was you, you definitely one of them. I think Arlington Community in general embraced me, loved me and was like, yeah, you're it. And I felt that. And I had never felt that before. So it's still kind of foreign to me. I appreciate it. But sometimes I'll sink in like, ooh, I don't know. And I think I didn't even say today I'm not yet walking in my authority yet. I'm not yet walking in there because it's unfamiliar territory. It's uncharted for me. But I appreciate it and I'm happy to be here. Yeah, you're doing a great job. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Because I'm like, wow, just to see you in that seat and to know where you come from and that, you could take my seat over. And I'm so proud of you. I had a great mentor. Listen. I'm so proud that you could do that. And I think you said something that I just want the community to know. I think it's really important to let people know, especially in this time when we've had a pandemic, just to let people know, like you're doing a great job. I see you. Thank you for this small act that you've done. I don't think a lot of that happens. You know, we just, it's like. It's like it's supposed to. You're supposed to. And sometimes it's okay to say to somebody, you know, that was great. Whether it's a presentation, whether it's just that student interaction that you saw with somebody. And that helps somebody to continue to build out their confidence in the new position that they have. And so I'm going to tell you publicly that you are actually doing, she's doing a wonderful job. Thank you. After three months. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm needed, which is fine. No, you are. Which is fine. Because I think you have a great handle on a lot of things. So I think the way we kind of talk now is, you know, you just, you're really just talking about like, I'm thinking about this, how does this work? And so I appreciate the conversations that we're having. Yes, me too. And that I can pour my knowledge into you. So I wanted to say that publicly. Thank you. So I want to thank you for just being on today's show with me. I feel like a superstar. I really appreciate that you took the time out to do this today. And just to share your story and your love for Meckle, because I really believe you do love Meckle. Oh, I love it. You've been a student. You're a parent. I wasn't the best student. It's okay. And now you're a director of a program for Meckle. So that says a lot, you know. So again, thank you. This is Rachelle Smith. She is the new Meckle director for Arlington Public Schools. I thank you for joining us for DEI Matters Conversations with Margaret Kledel Thomas. And I hope to be visiting with you again soon. Thank you.