Salmon Bay Diversity Committee Meeting Minutes—November 21, 2005

*indicates scribes additions

In attendance:

Irene Haddow--------------Diversity Committee Chair

Despina Strong-------------Parent

Jodee Reed----------------- Principal

Kimberly Kinzer-----------Vice Principal

Kelly Delaney--------------Scribe

Jane Enterline-------------- Parent

Peter Gross------------------Diversity Art Works (DAW)

Julia Donk-------------------Parent

Bill Falk---------------------FoSBE Chair

• Irene reorganized the agenda so that Jodee’s report would be the third item on the agenda tonight.

• Despina inquired about Diversity Committee presence at middle school PTA meetings. At the beginning of the school year Kelly said she wanted to go to MS PTA meetings to represent the DC, but as of yet she has not been able to go.

Amendments to October minutes:

• The Summit Reconvening date has been changed to January 24, 2006.

• October minutes were approved.

Summit Reconvening Report:

(to be referred to now on as Summit Reunion)

• Irene e-mailed Jeff Clark informing him about, and inviting him to, the Summit Reunion meeting coming up in Jan.
• Jane reported that 13 schools attended the Diversity Committee Summit, which Salmon Bay hosted last May.
• The Reunion meeting will be open to as many people in the district who want to come, and those who Jane and Irene contact will be encouraged to bring other staff, parents, and administration who are interested in this work.
• The Purpose of this meeting is to follow up on what we did at the May Summit last year, to form task-teams out of the original group who would like to continue this cross-city work, and to begin organizing the next district-wide summit, which will be hosted by Denny Middle School.
• Seattle School District Director of Race and Equity Relations, Dr. Caprice Hollins, has said she will attend the Jan. 24^th Summit Reunion meeting.

Tasks:

• Jodee will send out an All Principal e-mail invitation for this meeting.
• Jane and Irene will contact by phone those who attended the May Summit to invite them.

Diversity Committee Parent Ed. Movie Night Report:

• Thursday, December 8^th, 6:30 pm the Diversity Committee will put on a Parent Education Night on Gender.
• We will show the film Killing Us Softly—Advertising’s Image of Women. This is a 34 minute film that deconstructs advertising’s images of girls and women (and to some degree, boys and men too), and critically examines the ads and their messages that we (women, men, girls and boys alike) are all bombarded with on a daily basis.
• The movie will be shown on a large screen in the cafeteria. We will have pizza, salad, soda, for dinner.
• We will have childcare at Coho Kid’s Time—Pizza, carrots, and juice for the kids.

Tasks:

• Kimberly will send out an invitation to all the Middle School teachers for movie night.
• *Diversity Focus group discussion will be held in the library 11/29 at 3:15 to develop a debriefing and break-out sessions for movie night.

Jodee’s Report:

• Regarding how this committee functions in relation to her task as principal, Jodee’s topics of discussion are:

— Where are the committee’s strongest commitments?

— What is the school’s expectation of her as principal?

• Jodee sees that the #1 charge for herself as principal is being responsible for addressing the achievement gap. Her goal is to get all students functioning at their full potential. Students of color at Salmon Bay (and in our district, state, and nation) are functioning disproportionately at a lower level than students who are white. Therefore, Jodee believes that issues of racial inequity are of the utmost importance and when it comes to diversity work, wants to focus solely on this issue.

• Jodee said that she does not want to change the focus of the Diversity Committee, but since the question of what role race plays in the achievement gap is pertinent to diversity work at SB, she thought she would start here. What role does the diversity committee have in addressing this issue? We do not have a good idea of what happens to kids of color when they come to Salmon Bay. It is the primary job of teachers and administration, and parents have a role too, to find out what does happen to these kids. We have a responsibility to every student in every way, but we have an especial responsibility to students of color.

—What is it like to be a student of color at Salmon Bay, a

minority, within an alternative school?

—What is it like for their families?

—What role does SB have in the district in closing the gap?

—How does the district act as a single committee?

• Jodee needs a group of parents who will help her figure this out by focusing solely on this issue. She will take these same questions to the teachers and parent boards and wants parents and teachers to be working closely together on this. Jodee believes that addressing race directly is the only way to erase the achievement gap. The only way to do it is to focus on it until you get it right. The project is to bridge the achievement gap at Salmon Bay, which will contribute to bridging the gulf between the North and South-end schools, and our segregated communities.

Responses:

Irene sees this proposal as a “whole school” endeavor. She said she does not have time to lead a parent group whose sole focus is on disproportionality, and still be able to maintain her current Diversity Committee work she’s committed to.

Kelly: Once leadership is in place, I’m on board to support this work. Could this be an ongoing project team that focuses solely on this work, and who gives reports to the Diversity Committee in order to share and educate the community about the achievement gap? I think it would be a mistake to exclude issues of class, gender, ability status, etc., because all forms of inequity defend and reinforce systems of oppression. Also, this is a huge project, so what would the parameters of a volunteer parent committee be? Clearly, taking on a time-commitment at the district and teacher level are paid positions.

Despina: If the committee has time to do other projects, why do I hear you saying we don’t have time for this? The new focus of the school is what Jodee has said. What is our role? Do we want to lead the #1 diversity goal?

Julia: Clearly this is a diversity issue. Having attended a couple of The Coalition toUndo Racism Everywhere (C.U.R.E.) meetings where Raj Manhas, the Seattle school board, and Caprice Hollins had a panel discussion, I began to question whether we, as a school, have the same definition of diversity as other diversity groups in the district. What I do know is that as a predominately white, affluent school, we can sympathize with students and families of color who are struggling within an oppressive system, but we, as white people, cannot know how they feel.

Bill: I see this as an exciting new project that may bring in many new volunteers. What I think Jodee is saying is that she wants a group of parents who will begin to focus on this idea and work closely with her, teachers, and the parent boards to meet the goal of closing the achievement gap at SB.

Jane: This is a great idea. It is a diversity issue and this is the right place to start the discussion. It seems like this work would fit nicely with the kind of team work we do on the DC. It would be great to have a team working on this issue that would be involved in sharing and exchanging information, ideas, and resources with the DC.

Jodee: The district is invested in eliminating achievement gap in the city, and I am invested in eliminating achievement gap at Salmon Bay

Peter, Jane, Irene, Kimberly, Kelly, Bill, and Julia all said they are in support of the project and would like to help.

Minutes Submitted by Kelly Delaney who had to leave at 8:20pm. Meeting minutes continued below.

Minutes from the end of the Diversity Comm Meeting

Monday, Nov 21, 2005

Submitted by Jane Enterline

Wrapping up the presentation from Jodee

Jodee will take the lead on her committee.

The committee’s focus will be to address the following questions:

How well do we know our own family community? Who are the families of color?

How do we gather the information that will enable us to create family portraits?

Jodee’s next steps are to go to the Building Leadership Team and to both parent groups – FoSBE and the Middle School Parent Group-and to invite interested parents to join her committee.

Jodee’s committee will not report back to the Diversity Committee. Issues of privacy and of efficiency were discussed. Members of the Diversity Committee expressed interest and support and are looking forward to assisting as they can.

Diversity Art Works Report:

Peter Gross presented the status of the Diversity Art Works (DAW) Project.

DAW was born last year from an idea to create murals with diversity themes in order to beautify our school. A group was formed from the Diversity Committee to work on this project. Last spring and over the summer, plans were put into motion to bring in a visiting artist from Graham Hill Elementary. Despite set backs when the artist moved away and one of the lead teachers left Salmon Bay, DAW is moving forward this year.

Peter and Judy are working with Shawn’s class to create a mural (actually it will be an installation so that it can be saved during future renovation work). The theme has transformed into the idea of “Home,” in a very broad sense, as well as in a very special, personal sense. This is the first time in five years that Peter is working with students on curriculum-based art! The program will expand into Brian and Kathryn’s classes this spring.

Peter and Judy work on this project on Wednesdays. They will be asking for parent volunteers and material donations as they need them.

Tabled for Next Diversity Committee Planning Meeting:

• Contemporary American Indian library books project report 10 minutes
• Jane’s Proposal—Chess Program and Sister Schools 15 minutes
• Brainstorming Topic: Diversity Committee Mission Statement- ideas for revision

Diversity Meetings and Events Calendar

Tuesday, Nov. 29- Diversity Focus Group Discussion Meeting–Library 3:15-4:15pm. Topics to include: Contemporary American Indian library books project, and develop a debriefing/ break-out session activity and for Diversity Committee Movie Night.

Monday, Dec 5th - Diversity Summit Task Team Meeting – Cafeteria @ 10am

Thursday, December 8- Diversity Parent ED. Movie Night—Library 6:30 pm

Wednesday, January 11th -  Diversity Summit Task Team Meeting -Library @ 7pm.

Tuesday, January 24th - District-Wide Diversity Summit Reunion and Planning Meeting - 7pm

Wednesday, February 15 - Parent Ed. or Planning Meeting TBA--Library 6:30 pm

March 15- Diversity Committee Meeting--- Library 7:00 pm

Thursday, April TBA- Diversity Meeting or Parent ED. 6:30

Wednesday, May 24- Celebrating All Families--- Time/Place/Event