Demand #6

The team spent most of their meetings reading through the WSD- City Equity Audit and working  to capture key ideas from the sections of the audit most aligned to WSD.  An important reflection came out around the need to shift the language of the audit from a deficit-mindset to an asset-based framing.  For example, it is not the fault of BIPOC students that they are performing at lower levels, rather it is a result of barriers in opportunities. When they share the results of the audit with the community, they want to be intentional with their language. One of the chief findings to come out of the audit was that BIPOC students do not feel they have a voice. Two essential questions are, how can we ask the young people the best ways to engage them in the Equity Audit and larger WSD work? How can we engage all the community groups to have an impact on the policies? What would this process look like?  

Next Steps: Moving forward, the team suggests that the new Superintendent work with Jean Berthiaume and Jess Handrik to design a flexible pathways course that meets GX and GP requirements where students would collect and analyze data aligned to the Equity Audit and would receive payment for their labor. They recommend that the Superintendent works with the Board and the community to crosswalk current policies in light of the recommendations of the equity audit looking for inclusive language gaps and overlaps. They would need a budget to stipend students to take the flexible pathway class. They would also need funds to hire a consultant to audit and help the board and Superintendent examine policy. 

The team continues to examine the city-wide equity audit and to pull out major highlights and findings. They are thinking about ways to make the audit more student-friendly. 

The team continues to identify highlights from the WSD equity audit and is beginning to think about follow-up questions they have from the audit. It is clear there are already some items that have seen action (buses, for example!) and they will continue to think about ways to make the audit more student-friendly. 

They are trying to figure out their next steps now that the equity audit has been completed. 

Update from visits:

• 2 teachers focus groups & counselor focus groups

• 1 BIPOC teachers

• 2 student

• 3 parent

• 1 District leadership

Now in the “How” phase to synthesize the findings from data analysis and focus groups

Insight into their findings:

• Commendations: community school, use of liaisons, encouragement of student voice

• Need for diversifying of workforce & work with TNTP

• Recommendations: will identify what the district needs to do, this implementation plan will be a district document. If a joint report is made, there will be more explicit connections between policies and implementation plans.

Opportunities Consulting conducted focus groups Feb. 16-18th. Multiple focus groups were scheduled for February 18th, but had to be canceled because it was a snow day. The student focus groups need to be rescheduled.

The group is looking into partnering with the Culture & Community course to get student involvement. The report from the audit will come out late spring. 

The group met with Etai and Iris from Opportunity Consulting. They are working on forming the focus groups. The focus groups were supposed to be at the end of January, but have been pushed to Feb. 17-18 to account for the high amount of COVID transmission. These are the focus groups:

• Students from low-income, refugee, non English speakers background (two focus groups)

• Teachers of color (and paraprofessionals)

• Teachers, in general 

• District Leadership

• Parents (two focus groups)- w/ interpreters (Arabic, Nepali- maybe)

They talked about groups they might be missing. These were some of the ideas that came up:

• Custodians, groundskeepers, kitchen staff

• Administrative assistants, etc.

• Liaisons

• Students on IEPs

• Special Educators

• Alumni, especially recent grads (especially the students who organized Winooski Students for Antiracism)

• Coaches & extracurricular leaders

• Guidance counselors

They also talked about potential barriers for each of the focus groups and figured out ways they can be addressed. The groups will be meeting again before the focus groups take place.

Michael Eppolito met with Etai Mizrav from Opportunity Consulting. They reviewed the first stage of the Equity Audit. This stage mostly involves data collection and analysis. This part will primarily be handled by Michael Eppolito with the support of our data consultant, Elizabeth Meyer.

They identified the data sets WSD plan to share with them. However, they did ask the action team  to consider what additional data we might share and any advice for what else they could look into.

Opportunity Consulting is planning to conduct focus groups with parents, teachers, leadership, and community members on January 27th and 28th. They will share with the action team their interview protocol and solicit feedback as we get closer to those dates.

This group has continued meeting with Opportunity Consulting. The focus groups for the audit will take place at the end of January. 

They are working on recruiting youth and community members of color. WSD is pursuing an Equity Audit by Opportunity Consulting who is also conducting an equity audit for the City of Winooski. The School Board approved funding for Opportunity Consulting at the October 13th board meeting. The Action Team will be meeting with Opportunity Consulting to review the proposal.

This Action Demand Group attended an orientation by the Antiracism Steering Committee on Oct. 4, 2021.