Salmon Bay School

Minutes – Diversity Committee – February 16,2005

Facilitator: Irene Haddow.

Present: Irene Haddow, Julia Berg, Rita Hagan, Jeff Clark, Sharon Muza, Carita Polin, Kelly Delaney, Priscilla Jourden, Kimberly Kinzer, Irene, Lois Eulberg, Nancy Kalos-Nakano, Julia Donk

Check in: Introduce yourself, how associated with Salmon Bay and one thing that is going well in your life.

Meeting norms: We discussed: using facilitators, raising hands, being respectful of all opinions. Lois suggested that we have an “other” category on agenda. Some wanted times by agenda items – not resolved. Some wanted agenda put in both bulletins in abbreviated form – agreed on.

Poster buying team:

• Kimberly said that the posters that she bought are laminated and up. Yay! They look great aground the school. Many comments overheard. Thanks to Sharon and Rita for laminating them! Irene had not ordered her posters yet – waiting for a bigger selection and thinking Mr. G. might want some.
• Update: MR. G. does not want any posters. Irene has resigned from the poster team in protest. “I cannot in good conscience continue to participate in covering up (The logo on) corporate sponsored posters.”
• Nancy wonders why buy posters? She suggests moving posters as people get numb and ignore them after a while. She suggests having students make their own posters that we display. Maybe in a showcase in the lunchroom. Students do look at what is on the wall in there. Maybe we could have a school archive of posters that we rotate – maybe housed in the library? Nancy will write up a proposal for interactive art to be displayed in our school. Maybe buy fewer posters and save money for the interactive art (with a justice theme) idea. Note: as it turned out, we did not buy more posters at all.
• Sharon wonders about displaying our own artists’ work. For example, Ginny Alleman is a photographer.

Conflict Managers:

• Priscilla reported that we have 17 students almost trained as Conflict Managers. Priscilla has designed an orange armband made of fleece (Div com will pay for the material) that the students said they would like to wear. She asked for help sewing them and for help taping instructions on small clip boards that the students would use. Note: Julia Berg taped the clipboards. The conflict managers will do demonstration for younger grades (Dorothy, Carita, Rebecca); this will start about two weeks after winter break.
• Someone asked about middle schoolers. Priscilla said that we used to use student mediators, but that was very time consuming and pulled them out of class too much.

Diversity Summit report:

• Irene reports that the team tried to meet with Caprice Hollins, Diversity officer at the district, but the meeting had to be rescheduled. Questions: Where would the summit be? Would students be invited? How would we cultivate relationships with parent groups of color? Would we want to plan two summits simultaneously, one here and one in the south end? Carita likes the idea of a hook – students performing, such as Rainier Beach High School’s drummers, or Lion dancers. Nancy will write down contacts that she knows of from different schools. Jeff will e-mail principals list to help us get contacts at different schools.

Treasurer:

• See the report at the Board meetings. We have about $4500 left.

Racism Parent Ed night:

• Julia talked about Playback theatre and suggested hiring a troupe from Olympia. Nancy suggested local Playback group. Note: Julia has since contacted the local troupe and they will be leading our racism parent Ed night on April 26, Tuesday.

Classism Parent Ed night:

• Note: this event went very well. WE had 50 parents and children watch People Like Us, a documentary made by PBS. It was two hours long and very powerful. Participants enjoyed bonding over pizza and salad. Some children went to Coho Kids time. Thanks to Asher, who created a PowerPoint presentation to go along with the movie. And a huge thanks to Kelly Delaney for organizing and promoting this event! We own this video and curriculum, and it is appropriate for middle schoolers.

Mural Team:

• Nancy reported that she, Judi and Peter had met to discuss ideas for murals. They want to get input from parents, teachers and children.

Parent team:

• The issues that the parent team brought up are tabled until the next meeting – as it was quite late.

Next meeting:

May 11, Wednesday. 6:30, Library

Proposed topics:

• Advertising and commercial activities. (There are other school meetings on this topic, so it may not be necessary to discuss at the Diversity Committee meeting.)
• Corporate logos on posters in our school – gym and possibly other places.
• Corporate donor recognition as it relates to the upper field.
• Identity - Who are we as a committee? How are decisions made as a group? Perhaps we as a committee could use some time to identify ourselves, our process etc with a facilitator from outside the committee.
• Menstrual products - Could we have pads and/or tampons available to students in a more normal way than them having to go to the nurse? Maybe from their teachers?
• Bullying in the middle school. Girls bullying girls. Maybe a group where they can talk? Some girls not feeling supported by staff.
• Diversity issues – institutional.
• Why aren't there any parents/guardians of color sitting in parent board positions at S.B? What approach can we take to encourage all to participate?
• What does S.B. need to do to appeal to a more diverse population who are choosing schools for their kids?
• What are we doing now that is turning people off who care about diversity and are factoring it into their decision for school choice? Are we warm and welcoming to all? How would we know? What would that look like?
• What is S.B. doing now that influences people as they consider socio-economic issues when making a school choice?
• Does having an alternative school that includes a commitment to parent volunteerism single out a segment of the population who has that luxury? 
• Does having the Enrichment Fee single out that same population?
• What are we going to do to appeal to the segment of the population who are low income and interested in being involved in their children's education?