Diversity Committee Meeting Minutes

October 11, 2006

 

In attendance:

Irene Haddow                Parent, Chair

Kimberly Kinzer                    Parent, Vice Principal

Allison Fee (“Ollie”)          Parent

Kelly Delaney                 Parent

Julie Nelson           Parent

Lance Adams                   Parent

Jane Enterline                Parent, Scribe

 

Moment of Silence

Irene opened the meeting with a moment of silence for the violence that has been occurring in schools around our country.

 

Approval of minutes

The following minutes were approved: March 2006, April 2006 and August 2006

 

Additions to the agenda for the meeting

Kimberly reported on her opportunity to participate in the District’s Race and Equity Steering Committee, chaired by Caprice Hollins. 

·          The mission of the committee is to measure the effectiveness of each school building’s equity team and to study how the teams can move from an “awareness level” to a “skills level.”  How can this committee support each equity team to have a meaningful, authentic impact?

·          One step each Equity Team can take is to analyze the building’s cultural competency.  The Salmon Bay staff viewed the video “Passion and Persistence: Professional Learning Communities” and then reflected and brainstormed for their own classrooms. 

·          Seattle Public Schools has applied for a $90,000 OSPI Grant to look intensely, using an equity coach, at African American students and their families at three high schools

 

Movie Night Oct 16th “Tough Guise”

·          PR: Kelly has posted flyers.  They look great!  She will post more upstairs. Jane will email people from our Summit email list that we have generated over the past two years.

·          Posters: Irene has posters from the movie’s manual that she will hang in the cafeteria on Monday.

·          Handouts: Kelly will have handouts from the manual ready for people to take home with them.

·          Coho Kids Time will be open from 6:30 – 8:45.

·          Timing: The movie is 1 hour, 40 minutes.  That doesn’t leave much time for a discussion.  We will hold a brief debriefing on Monday and then discuss the movie in length on November 8th.  We have a scheduled meeting that evening. We will start a half hour earlier (at 6:30) to allow time for the discussion.

·          Food: Pioneer Organics is donating salad fixings. Irene is working on pizza donations. If we do not get pizza donated, she will buy cheese and bread. Jane will bring popcorn and water.

 

Upcoming events for this year

·          Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth Night:

o       Irene has spoken with Lisa Love from the Seattle School District’s Health Education Office. They are starting to plan an evening panel discussion. The thought is to have Salmon Bay alumni (current high school students) who were part of the GSA participate on the panel.  The evening would be open to parents and students. It would also be an opportunity to display our library’s GLBTQ collection.

o       There was concern about students being comfortable speaking to a parent audience. We hope to attract other students to this event.  It may also help if some of us met with the GSA. Kelly and Irene have done that. The GSA meets on Wednesdays from 12:45-1:15 in Jay’s room. Check with Jay if you are interested in attending a meeting.

o       The target dates for this event are during one of our meeting dates – Jan 10th or Feb 7th.  Jane will check with Kimberly to see when the all-school parent meeting is scheduled – sometime in January.  We don’t want to schedule our evening too close to that event.

·          An Evening with Anthony – Update from Irene

o       Anthony wants to explore doing an evening parent event to discuss/present his ideas on a curriculum about different kinds of families.

o       Irene will talk with Anthony when he returns from paternity leave.

 

 

 

 

Mentorship programs for kids of color (Allie, Kelly)

We discussed how we might connect kids of color within our community.

·          How about a lunch group?  The lunch group for children with divorced or separated parents was successful last year.  There was concern expressed that such a meeting might draw more attention to the students involved.

·          The following adults were mentioned as people who might be able to help structure, organize and facilitate such a group: Anthony, Mr. G and Scout (a counseling intern working at SB this year.)

·          ___________ will discuss this idea with Anthony, Mr. G and Scout.
Who is following up on this?

 

Report on “Chasing Daybreak” – a film on mixed race in America

Kelly reported on this documentary on the mixed-race baby boom in America.  The movie profiles five young adults, part of “Generation Mix,” and their experiences in our mono-racially biased culture.

·          The Committee was enthusiastic about exploring multi-racial issues at Salmon Bay.

·          The Mavin Foundation www.mavinfoundation.org sponsored the film.

·          Allie will call Mavin to look into renting or buying the DVD and organizing a discussion evening, facilitated by someone from Mavin.

·          Linda is interested in acquiring more books for our library on multi-racial families. (See the FOSBE Update notes below.)

 

FOSBE Update

Book Sale Wish List – due Nov 1st

·          In the past three years our committee has funded additions to the library in the following areas: gender, GLBTQ, and Native American

·          Last year we had set our focus on Asian American materials for this year.
Allie has a list from the UW bookstore of books discussing Korean-Americans and adopted children. She will forward that list to Jane.

·          Linda is interested in acquiring more books for our library on multi-racial families. 

·          Jane will work with Linda to generate a list by Nov 1.

 

Salmon Bay Grant Process – Grants due Oct 31st

We discussed the following ideas and some of the pros and cons:

·          General funds.  In the past our committee has had the money and discretion to determine what resources we purchase for the school, what conferences our members might attend, the scope of the events we present, etc.  We would like to have general funds available for those purposes.  However with so little money available this time around (FOSBE only has $1500 in this round of mini grants.) it was felt that we should be more specific with our grant request.

·          Library resources. A good idea but there was concern as to whether we should ask for library funds when we know that the library will be receiving money from this process. The library line item was mistakenly left off the FOSBE budget for this year. 

·          “Chasing Daybreak” DVD. Allie will find out the cost of that DVD.

·          The mini grant forms are now available.  Contact Irene if you have further suggestions and/or would like to complete a grant form for the Diversity Committee.

 

Diversity Posters
A couple of years ago, the Diversity Committee purchased a number of posters (worth $1500) to be displayed around school.

·          Kelly has found 11 of the posters.  She has spoken with Kimberly and Sharon Muza who were involved with the ordering and laminating of the posters.  The staff has been asked through an email to keep an eye open for the posters.  There is one more locked room in the library where Kelly will search.

·          Irene will ask Dan Miller and Jen Busch if either of them has the original receipt.

 

District-wide sharing of diversity resources

Jane met with Linda to learn about the current status of inter-building library loans within the Seattle School District. 

·          Loans are currently done on an informal manner between librarians, using inter district mail.

·          The school district is in the process of upgrading to a common catalog that will be linked to the Seattle Public Libraries.  School users will be able to see all resources at all schools and public libraries. Public library users will not be able to see the school resources. If and how materials will be transferred between buildings is yet to be determined. Garfield HS, Washington MS and an elementary school will pilot the program sometime in 2007.

·          Our committee will not take any action to set up resource sharing.  This topic may be something a future District-wide Diversity Summit could address.

 

Ideas for Fishwrapper article

Diversity Committee update. Irene and/or Jane will do this.

Does anyone want to write a review of our Movie Night?

A movie review – Kelly may write one on “Chasing Daybreak.”

Book reviews are a good idea.  Anyone?

Other Announcements (Julie)

The 2006 Seattle Race Conference is taking place October 21st from 9:00am-6:15pm at the Seattle Center NW Rooms. The Race Conference Theme is "STOP the Miseducation!: Learning to Heal our Communities and Organizing for Change." Please pre-register at www.seattleraceconference.org. *Pre-registration is not necessary, the event is FREE, Everyone is Welcome.

 

The Seattle Commission for Sexual Minorities is holding a forum on LGBTQ Parenting, titled LGBTQ Parenting. What are the legal, family planning, school and social activity issues?, on Wednesday, October 18th at the Capital Hill Library, 425 Harvard Ave East.  The forum is 6:00-7:45 pm. Details can be found here: http://www.seattle.gov/scsm/forums/

Future Meeting Dates: Wednesdays at 7:00 in the Library:

·          November 8

·          January 10

·          February 7

·          March 14

·          April 18

·          May 9

 

The following items were tabled for this meeting:

·          Discuss/Approve the Revised Mission Statement (Irene)

·          An Evening with Will Bill (Irene)

·          Diversity at Salmon Bay:  (Rosemary, Jodee)
Are we supporting our existing families adequately, and are we doing the best job as a parent body that we can to attract a racially diverse family mix?

·          After school drama program with Denny Middle School (Kelly)

·          Multicultural Dinner (Megan)