2018-19

Monthly calendars highlighting heritage and history months including notable dates sent to all teachers and principals on a monthly basis. Why did we make this move? Student feedback from the year before was clear that they wanted us to start acknowledging these nationally designated months.

Corresponding heritage & history month signs were posted on the main entrance doors of all school buildings. Monthly themed informative posters were posted on the interior walls of Chautauqua Elementary.

Additionally, Chautauqua's specialist teachers (Amy Bogaard, Tara Brenno, Erynne Smith, Alex Craighead, Kathleen Lawrence and Victoria Elizondo-Hopper) adopted a history & heritage month and focused their lessons accordingly.

Sep 15 - Oct 15 Hispanic Heritage Month

October: Disability Awareness

November: Native American Heritage Month

February: Black History Month

March: Women's History Month

May: Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

June: Pride Month

Celebrating the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, we will hear presentations from Lois Watkins, author and educator; Trish Dziko, co-founder and Executive Director of Technology Access Foundation; Thrett Brown, Executive Director of numbers2names and Young Business Men and Women; and Just Speak, a student group using spoken word as a vehicle to examine identity and social justice. Our afternoon will be emcee’d by Daemond Arrindell, poet, performer, and teaching artist. Student art from the Harbor School and McMurray Middle School inspired by Dr. King’s work will be featured in the lobby following the presentation along with food, conversation, and community. Please join us for this inspirational event and make a commitment to furthering the work of the visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Vashon Maury SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)

PRESENTERS

Lois Watkins (author and educator): Topic: civil rights then and now

Trish Dziko (Co-Founder and Executive Director of Technology Access Foundation): Topic: POC representation in education

Just Speak: a student group facilitated by Daemond Arrindell and Tom Pruiksma using spoken word and poetry to examine identity and social justice

Thrett Brown (Executive Director, number2names and Young Business Men and Women): hip hop improv

Admission by Donation to support the continued work of Just Speak

Join us for food, conversation, and community 5:00-6:30 in the Lobby with these organizations:

• Vashon Resettlement Committee

• Vashon Maury SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)

• Backbone Campaign

• Vashon Youth and Family Services, Hispanic and Latino Services Department

• Trish Dziko (promoting her new book, This is the Work: Insights for Social Innovation and STEM Education: Real stories and lessons from the Technology Access Foundation (TAF)

• Lois Watkins (promoting her book, What It Was Like – Short Stories of Childhood Memories of Segregation in America

• Vashon Dove Project

• VISD Racial Equity Team

• Vashon Indivisible Immigrant/Refugee Rights Work Group

Karen Nelson, community activist, had worked with Danny Rock, principal at VHS, and a few teachers from Chautauqua, Holly Boyajian and Dr. Jen Lindsay, in our district to bring a performing artist, mayfield brooks, to our community and school district through a 4Culture grant. mayfield was scheduled to offer a workshop for high school students followed by a workshop for our teachers on February 11th, following a community-wide event on February 10th. Unfortunately, the midwinter snow caused all of these events to be cancelled.

An email from Danny Rock, high school principal, to the rest of the leadership team captured the intended plan:

"Hi,

Karen and I met today to talk about an opportunity on Monday, 2/11 for VHS students (3-4pm) and CES/McM/VHS staff (4-5) to work with an accomplished artist/educator, mayfield brooks, and local Vashon resident Karen Nelson. The experience is designed to get people moving, raise awareness around race, privilege, and advocacy, as well as support the structures we're developing for equity work.

Karen has been meeting/talking with Jen and Holly at CES about the staff possibility (after pivoting from the idea of a student assembly) and ideally they see the staff portion inclusive of 10-15 teachers. Invite our equity team and encourage them to 'bring a buddy'? The student experience will focus on students of color and allies with the same goals around movement, awareness, and expression.

The costs are already covered in a grant Karen secured through the country and the main event for mayfield is going to be Sunday 2/10 at the O space. She flies out the 12th so these activities fit nicely in between.

So - Greg are you interested in promoting/inviting McM staff? Alanah will be following up with Karen to connect her to our equity team and how VHS staff will be involved. Rebecca - I'm hoping you know about this already (the work with Jen and Holly) but were you supportive of it or have any concerns?

Monday, 2/11

2:55-3:50 - VHS Students, around 30 or less, in the Theater.

4:05-5:00 - VISD Staff (at CES? VHS?)

Karen says the numbers can be flexible, as few as 5 and as many as 40 are all workable for them.

Danny Rock

Principal, Vashon Island High School

Direct: (206) 463-8680 | Office: 206-463-9171

9600 SW 204th Vashon WA 98070

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Karen Nelson

Date: Tue, Oct 2, 2018 at 11:05 AM

Subject: Black History Month offering

To: <drock@vashonsd.org>

Hello Danny Rock,

I’m a Vashon resident of several decades, and touring dance artist with connections to wonderful colleagues all over the world. I am hoping to instigate a project here on Vashon around Feb 6,7,or 8th, 2019 which brings my friend and colleague mayfield brooks (they use lower case letters for their name) to the island during Black History Month. mayfield’s work entitled “IWB/ Improvising While Black” is composed of dance, movement, story telling, singing, and visual imagery to raise consciousness and artistically asks question’s about identity, diversity, openness and creating a culture of support and love for POC and Allies.

Would you like to have a conversation to see if we could offer this event at VHS during early Feb?

The event could include a student workshop during the day, followed by a theater performance in the evening.

I am currently looking to write a 4 Culture grant to cover some basic fees to get mayfield here from her home in NYC, with a small amount available for space rental. I believe this 4 Culture grant would look positively at an application that ideally was in partnership or association with a local venue such as VHS— even more than a general arts venue. The purpose of this proposal and grant is to support the local community to experience something outside of the normal demographic. This work at VHS would definitely bring some chance for the conversation of Black History to kick-off well in advance of MLK day and possibly foster important conversation and connection in our community.

Are you interested in pursuing this proposal with a conversation? Here are some links to mayfield and a few of our collaborations in the past.

https://contactquarterly.com/cq/article-gallery/view/iwbimprovising-while-black

https://vimeo.com/85012273

Thank you for your attention!

Best wishes,

Karen Nelson"

At the beginning of March a notice was sent out to all of our families describing our next steps in gathering student feedback.

"Over the next few months, our school district will be conducting student interviews in small group settings to gather more information about the learning climate using a racial equity lens. These interviews will happen during the school day during lunch, homeroom/SMART period, club meetings, or as part of a classroom activity related to their studies. Stephanie Spencer, Director of Teaching and Learning and Kevin Dickerson, Director of Facilities, will be meeting together with these student groups. Student narratives provide important details and allow a deeper look into the results from our Center of Educational Effectiveness School Climate Survey. While an overall summary of the students' comments will be provided to our school equity teams and school staff, student names will not be shared.

If you would prefer that your child not be invited to participate in these groups, please contact Jodi Burwell by Friday, March 15th. Please send an e-mail to her at jburwell@vashonsd.org with the name of your student(s) and the grade level(s).

We appreciate your continued support in our mission to equip every student to engage, thrive and contribute in an ever-changing world."

Please note that a Spanish translation was included in the message.

We heard back from seven families with a total of 10 students (4 elementary, 5 middle school, 1 high school); ultimately, six families requested that their children not participate in any of the interviews. Three parents chose to share more detailed messages:

"My daughters attend the elementary school. I would prefer that they not be asked about race. I would like them to get the fullest out of their school day so I pulling them is not ideal during lunch or any period at this time."--parent of two elementary school students

"Thank you for your work on racial equity. It's an important issue that should not be overlooked. I'm writing to request my sons, ***, not participate in interviews. If there are other activities that they may be asked to participate in I'd like to be informed beforehand."--parent of two middle school students

"Using a 'racial lens' to conduct interviews with all students sounds like institutional racism to me. I do not want my children participating in this activity. I also warn you against creating a hostile school environment for any students regarding this activity and the racial lens agenda." --parent of one middle school and one high school student

One parent sought additional information:

"I am curious to know if these interviews will be with students of all backgrounds, or only with students who have been identified as non-white. My son, . . ., was pulled out of McMurray homeroom last year with a group of other non-white students for a talk with the racial diversity consultants. Ironically, he told me that it was the first time that he felt singled out at school because of his race. We had no prior knowledge that he would be pulled out and no follow up about the discussions. I spoke to Greg Allison about this at the time and he had not been aware that it was happening either. Based on his reaction to previous experience, I am inclined to ask that *** not participate in these interviews, but, before I make that decision, I would like as much information as possible. What is the goal? What will be discussed? Which students will be participating? Thank you."--parent of a middle school student

This was Stephanie Spencer's response:

"Jodi asked that I respond to your request for more information about the upcoming student interviews. Thank you so much for reaching out to us. I'm sorry that *** felt singled out last year as that was definitely not the intention of seeking feedback.

I'll do my best to address your questions below:

1) The goal is to gather as much detail as possible about school climate: what student experiences are like during structured time (i.e. class, assemblies, etc.); what student experiences are like during more unstructured time (i.e. passing time, break, lunch); what student experiences are like at school events (dances, games, etc.)--essentially, we're trying to learn with greater detail whether or not students feel welcomed, involved, academically challenged, represented and supported. Because it is narrative data, it's hard to predict exactly what will flow from the conversation. The school climate data will supplement the numerical data from our CEE survey. It will be shared with the school's equity team and the larger staff. No student names will be attached to the narrative.

2) Kevin and I plan to start with a large sampling from all students regardless of race/ethnicity (in groups of 5-7 students) in the most unobtrusive way possible. Students will be invited to participate in these small groups and we will be coordinating with administrators and teachers. For example, if we use homeroom time, we will likely invite a group from the same homeroom class and likely do this over 2-3 days to get everyone from that homeroom who wants to participate. Depending on what we hear from students, we may dive more deeply with specific groups of students later this spring after we finish up with general interviews. But again, through invitation and as necessary to clarify student feedback. We will be interviewing groups of students in all of our schools/programs.

I hope this information is helpful. Feel free to give me a call if I've missed something or you just want to talk further.

Please let us know if you do not want us to invite *** into conversation with us. Thank you again for reaching out."

During the months of March, April and May, Kevin Dickerson and Stephanie Spencer sat with many different groups of students from Chautauqua, McMurray and Vashon Island High School. Ultimately, they did not end up connecting with students in our alternative learning programs. Student feedback was summarized and shared with building administrators and each building-based racial equity team. Additionally, Kevin and Stephanie followed up with a few students on specific concerns/issues and worked with the respective building administrators and these students to address their very specific concerns/issues.

Questions used to guide the conversations

Chautauqua Elementary School student comments

McMurray Middle School student comments

Vashon Island High School student comments

Please note that all names were redacted from the feedback linked above.

CEE Survey K-3 Students: Belonging and Identity

CEE Survey 4-5 Students: Belonging and Identity

CEE Survey 6-8 Students: Belonging and Identity

CEE Survey 9-12 Students: Belonging and Identity

Finally, based on the feedback of the students, reflection on the process and a review of CEE survey data, a recommendation was to expand student voice through the use of classroom surveys specifically addressing their classroom experiences using the Marzano Instructional Practices student surveys. Essentially providing a more direct route for students to provide important feedback directly to their teachers. 12 questions from 4 areas were selected from the tool that aligned with the common themes uncovered in the interview process. The building administrators agreed to work with their teachers to implement the tool the following school year with two data points: October and again in April.

August 6-7, 2018, Sound Supports

• Restorative Justice

August 28, 2018, Teaching & Learning Forum

• Actively Engaging Students to Strengthen Learning

• Circle Process for Teachers

• Supporting Students with Disabilities in a General Education Classroom

• Standards-Based Grading Working Session

December 1, 2018, Washington Association for Bilingual Education Winter Institute

January 18, 2019, Accelerate ELL Students’ Learning in PreK and Kindergarten

March 14, 2019, Accelerating the Academic Literacy Skills of Your ELL Students (Grades K-8)

April 25-27, 2019 Washington Association for Bilingual Education Annual Conference

May 16-17, 2019, Strengthen Your ESL Program!