Demand #4

Year summary: In her role as Finance Manager at WSD, former team lead Nicole Mace and others on the leadership team made several strides towards achieving  the demand:  they worked to finalize the implementation plan that TNTP helped develop, they presented the TNTP findings to a group of Nepali parents and community members, they successfully supported four community members/parents in becoming fully licensed bus drivers, and launched the HOW Foundation BIPOC scholarship program and have awarded a scholarship to an employee who is seeking to become a licensed teacher. Rhonda Humphries and other representatives from TNTP facilitated an ARSC meeting in early May to share their ideas for implementing  a scope and sequence for affinity groups in the upcoming school year. It became clear during the May ARSC meeting with TNTP  that there was a disconnect between the Action Team and the work that TNTP has been doing with WSD. Given the nature of TNTP’s work with Winooski, the ARSC is interested in TNTP supporting  the work of Antiracism Action Team Two, Hiring and Retaining Faculty of Color. It is clear that this is the work of this Action Team, and with TNTP doing so much of this work for WSD already, it would be great to join forces.  TNTP could then  have regular connection with community members so that they could give feedback on initiatives, like the affinity group scope and sequence they shared with the ARSC. Sarah Haven has stepped away from the lead position, but it would be supportive for her to serve as the administrative point person for the Action Team, given her role in WSD. TNTP will facilitate another ARSC meeting in the near future and will gather feedback from the members of the team about a recommended discrimination protocol. 

We are excited to see the partnership with TNTP including the implementation of a scope and sequence for affinity groups in the upcoming school year! In June, TNTP will facilitate another ARSC meeting and will gather feedback from the members of the team about a recommended discrimination protocol. 

Sarah Haven and Natalie Dzessou are looking for community members who want to join this Action Team! If interested, please email christie@upforlearning. Stefany Tomlinson and Rhonda Humphries from The New Teacher Project (TNTP), the consulting firm working with the district on hiring and retention efforts for faculty of color, will be attending the ARSC meeting on May 1st to see how they can coordinate and collaborate with this team and the ARSC as a whole.  

WSD Director of Human Resources Sarah Haven and 9th grader Natalie Dzessou are taking over as co-leads. Please let us know if you are interested in joining this team, and we will connect you with them!

After working with the consulting group The New Teacher Project (TNTP) to conduct last year’s climate and culture survey, the team is focusing on several priorities in the next four months: 1) developing a recruitment campaign specifically aimed at attracting BIPOC teachers, 2) creating hiring systems, processes, and protocols that support a diverse workforce, including developing anti-bias training, with a focus on training school leaders to support all staff, including staff of color, 3) expanding current retention efforts to create an inclusive culture, including implementing Affinity Groups and launching a new discrimination reporting protocol, and 4) creating new and refining current systems to monitor recruitment and selection processes, as well as track candidate and new hire experiences.  

The team has continued working with the Barr foundation. They collected surveys from students, staff, and community members. A report based on the surveys and one-on-one interviews will be completed in July. They are hoping to expedite processes and eliminate financial barriers, so community members can get the licensing they need in order to work at the school. 

They split into small groups: students, Swahili-speaking parents, and Nepali-speaking parents to discuss their agreement with the following statements: 

1. I feel comfortable bringing my full racial and cultural identity when interacting with my school.

2.  What does it mean to you to have educators that share your child(ren)'s racial identity?

3. If I or my friend was interested in becoming a teacher at my school, I know how I would do that.

4. If given the opportunity, I would like to be part of the process to help hire teachers at my child(ren)'s school.

5. I believe that school leadership cares about having a racially diverse teaching staff. 

Many of the answers varied from group to group. 

Some members of the group spent the past month and a half responding to data requests and refining the research questions that TNTP (the technical assistance group working with us through the grant) will help us answer.  At this point, we are proposing to seek answers to the following key questions: 

Workforce Culture:  What elements of school and district culture are supportive of staff of color and which make it harder for staff of color to show up as their authentic selves?  How do district wide and school specific practices and culture shape the experiences of staff of color?

Retention:  Does WSD retain their effective staff, specifically effective staff of color? What motivates staff of color to stay? What retention strategies does WSD utilize and are those strategies equitably deployed?  How are efforts to promote from within supporting staff retention decisions?

Selection:   Are we encouraging, supporting, and selecting staff of color to continue in the hiring process?   How do the systems and structures of the selection process (i.e. hiring committee structures and guidance) mitigate or reinforce cultural and structural biases?   What are the barriers that candidates of color face when going through the selection process?

Recruitment:  Is WSD attracting enough highly-quality, diverse applicants?   What systems are currently in place to support internal candidates interested in moving into teacher roles? What are the needs of those candidates and how can WSD best position them to succeed?       

TNTP is going to conduct individual interviews, small group discussions, and surveys to help us gather a lot of information and input on these questions.

The group has been working with the Barr Foundation to gather data and develop an action plan.

Mohamed Diop took on the role of the Hiring and Retaining Teachers of Color Liaison supported by a grant from the Barr Foundation. In the last meeting, the group discussed certification barriers and how having teachers that reflect the student body can positively impact students. 

This Action Demand Group attended an orientation by the Antiracism Steering Committee on Oct. 4, 2021. The school district received a $25,000 grant from Barr Foundation for recruiting and retaining teachers of color.