good evening the work session of the ISD 279 School Board is being held in the Forum room of the Educational Service Center at 11200 93rd Avenue North in Maple Grove on Tuesday April 9th 2024 the work session is being audio recorded the recording will be made available on the district website within two business days after the work session has ended the intent of the Schoolboard work session is to allow for Schoolboard discussion of topics work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board to acknowledge attendance this evening I'll ask that all present at the table State their name starting to my left Thomas Brook Schoolboard member Jackie mosa Jones Schoolboard member Heather Douglas Schoolboard member Kelly parpart assistant superintendent of secondary schools Laurel Anderson Executive Director of Human Resources Steve Fisk assistant superintendent for the elementary schools uh Gotham barani student School Board representative Mina Bey student School Board representative Izzy Andor student School Board representative Amy ton District level principal rapid gonus director of learning and achievement John coordinator dat and assessment Tomkins coordinator dat and assessment K executive director of commun relations Brian Cen Hall executive director of community engagement John Morad executive director finance and operations you need more general counsel Brian bass assistant superintendent for equity and achievement and iany Prince Schoolboard member and present the purpose of the Schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and when applicable to provide Direction in order to facilitate efficient and effective decision-making at all regular board meetings Dr Hal is not in attendance this evening as she is chaperoning uh with the students connecting through international service which is an amazing program that we get to hear about regularly uh Dr Brian bass assistant superintendent of equity and achievement will facilitate our work session Dr Bass thank you uh Vice chair Prince uh members of the board uh our first presentation this evening as you see on the monitors is our vision card for strategic Direction C I want to thank uh our team from learning and achievement data and assessment so this evening we have direct well they just introduce themselves Robin Jenna and Tom who are here this evening and we also have our school board um who have been prepped thank you to our district level principal uh Amy tson and they are prepared to join us in our conversation this evening in reviewing the data uh from our vision card C I do have a little bit of a of some context setting for the presentation then I'll hand it over to the team so as a reminder this year we have shifted from Baseline data to comparison data so this is our second year of populating vision cards our Baseline data established our current reality for the district last year year tonight we show our progress toward realizing the vision for our district by comparing the early data this data will show that while we still have a lot of work in front of us we observe some signs of progress that's encouraging so to set the stage for tonight's presentation I want to briefly review the definition and the mindful critical questions that guide or inform the data we will be presenting this evening so strategic Direction C States promote inclusive participation of all our communities and provide timely relevant and easy easily accessible communication the definition statement members within the community find themselves represented and reflected through each communication method we understand that meaningful participation Fosters positive academic and Equitable outcomes and communicates respect and maintain dignity affirming each member of our teaching learning and the broader Community our mindful critical questions how have we provided multiple Pathways for families or community members to engage in communication what practices have we established to ensure that communication is accessed universally and lastly what feedback loops have we created to ensure our communication is making intended connections I want to also acknowledge that Kella will also be uh presenting a bit in this presentation as well U our ex director of community relations so I just want to acknowledge that as well uh and then each vision card provides us with an opportunity for increased transparency and Reporting our progress the impact of our initiatives on each strategic Direction so without further Ado I'll turn it over to the team thank you so as Dr Bass spoke um we are tonight we're going to make sure that you receive information or receive data for the high priority initiatives for strategic Direction C and understand the alignment of the operational plan to the vision card data collection we um as a district have decided that Vision cards will serve as a critical data point or will serve as critical data point toward the realization of the desired daily experience for our Scholars staff and family the vision cards measure the district's success in achieving the Strategic directions and they provide the data to support and assess progress toward the NIT of vision outlined in the Strategic Road mapap Vision cards set the ongoing District goals for performance and continuous Improvement on this you can see um the learning and implementation work for strategic Direction C that's on the district through your operational plan we're going to be talking about uh four different indicators tonight um C1 which is family and Community engagement C2 school to family communication C3 family to school communication and the fourth is is perception of inclusive communication with families as I start as we start each of the these presentations the vision card presentations we really focus on the data that we're presenting tonight and the the data is going to be satellite data it's that really high level data that we can't really use to make programming changes but it does indicate patterns across our system that we can dig deeper in to find that map and Street data that we can use to identify R causes so as your hearing this very high level data we also share the information with sites so that they can look at their site level data and then dig even more and I will turn this over to thank you so our first indicator in vision card C includes six process metrics that measure various aspects of family and Community engagement first metric is the percentage of sit having representation on one or more of our district advisory committees and the Committees included are linked in the VIS card um overall 97% of our sites were represented on at least one committee um this is an exciting result as it moves us U this metric into that Vision category and was a 10% increase uh overall from representation that we had last year and this is important because District Community committees are one way for our families to have their voices heard and to co-create initiatives and engaged in problem solving with District staff and then for the first time we're also reporting on the results of the family engagement rubric which was designed by our family engagement team led by Vanessa Gil the rubric consists of four areas on which site staff focus when engaging with families in December of this year site leaders were asked to rate their sites in terms of where they are at in their implementation of each of these areas to set our Baseline the rubric also linked in the vision card has a rating scale of 1 to three with one meaning emerging two meaning progressing and three meaning excelling the ratings in each area were averaged and those average ratings are what we see here in the vision card effective communication Rose to the top with a me rating of 2 .3 followed by climate and culture at 2.1 and tied at 1.9 are intentional collaboration and inclusive practices and empowerment and advocacy I'll pass it to Tom to talk about C School of family communication is measured using data from talking points and our Blackboard uh family communication systems and also through the Morris Leatherman Community survey for school to family communication we selected talking points in Blackboard because they both are used across our system one thing to keep in mind is there's not a requirement or an expectation that sites use talking points to communicate with talking points staff can send a message or announcement to family members in English and it's automatically translated into the family's home language when family members reply that's also automatically translated back into English and for these measures we're reporting the number of messages and announcements sent by staff to families and talking points during the first trimester of each of the last three school years uh and these are the first three years in which the platform was used messages and announcements both increased to more than three times as much from the fall of 2020 to fall of 21 return to Baseline levels in Fall of 22 and increased again in Fall of 23 in the first trimester of this school year the following schools send three or more talking points messages for student to family which is add or above the vision level for this measure AIO education center Crest View Birch Grove Palmer Lake Edinbrook Garden City Zan wood fos 279 online Elementary burbrook Brooklyn Middle 279 online and uh aing Center and our second measure is our Blackboard data from the first trimester of the current school year for fall of 2023 Blackboard is used at the district and school level to to communicate with families via phone calls email messages and text messages the measure is the overall percent of Blackboard messages that were delivered and after this report was sent to you we received word from the vendor that there were some technical issues preventing us from getting accurate data on this indicator and so we'll get the corrected data to you once it's available our third measure is the Morris Leatherman Community survey and this survey has been conducted with a random sample community members for several years the specific data will'll use from the surveys as the percentage of community members responding excellent or good to the following question overall how would you rate the job the St the school do grip does in communicating with residents excellent good only fair or poor this percentage was at 84% in 2023 uh this uh the slide you saw in between is the one that has the black for data that's going to happen off dat it so we're not going to really report on that tonight and then uh for C3 family to school communication includes two measures the first measure is talking points messages sent from family members to staff during the first trimester of each school year like the school to family measures described above the measure is the number of messages sent per student family messages to staff increased each of the past 3 years the following schools head family message rates at or above the vision level Birch Grove press view AIO education center Edenbrook Palmer Lake Garden City Fernbrook zood barrows Woodland Brooklyn Middle School 279 online Elementary and Rice Lake the second measure is the percent of parents using parent view parent view allows parents to check attendance course grades health records high school credits test scores and other data The Information Systems Department began reporting parent view use data in January of 2023 the records for February were used for this report the Baseline level for this indicator was 86% and it increased to 88% in February and this year and I will pass it back to Jim on this slide you can see the survey results for the 2122 school year um and that is because that survey is conducted every other year and the administration of the survey is currently in progress and so we will have results from that survey um by June so that's a very brief presentation on vision card z um so one of the things as our next steps as we're moving forward is really to continue to get pass that satellite data into the everyday practices that math data and Street data that we're been talking about which is why we have our students here today are um to kind of share their perceptions of this vision card and how how they have um felt of the communication in our system um so as we go through just as I said before earlier that we were going to continuing to share this information with um with sites so that they have this information can make decisions at their site based on this information Okay add some some I was going to add a little uh context to this as well so as many of you are aware we have a districtwide communication plan as well well in which we um dig even a little bit deeper um we have lots of goals and objectives on there for all of our um po audiences that we're focing focusing on our families so our um our students and our parents our greater community and our staff as well um so some of the ways that we're digging even a little deeper um in that realm is we're focusing on um so for our digital Communications like what are people clicking on what are they reading so we can kind of get a little bit more on that content side of things so that we're um reaching people on what they want to know about right and what they're most concerned about um we're also bringing um communication plans to the school level as well so right now our community relations team is meeting with every school to talk about just what they're doing at their site um we started that conversation a little bit um about a year ago but now we're just getting on paper like what are their goals specifically Communications wise right what are they doing are the ways that our community relations team can help out so they really have a plan moving forward that they can take a look at and adjust as needed to with what their family needs are and their staff needs um and their Community needs to and as part of that we've partnered um at length with like our multilingual team um there's so many different tools that we have for communications right now think of all the different ways we can text we can email so there's a lot of variety out there so we're bringing some consistency into what tool um people are going to utilize um so we were specific in um when and how to use um our math notification or our Blackboard system um as well as talking points we've now added as a requirement um now all Sites haven't been met with yet so just keep that in mind so it's going to take a little bit of time for implementation but um we're asking that all of our classrooms utilize talking points as well moving forward um so there's some consistency that will be coming we're about a quarter of the way through with meeting our site so there's still a few months before we're able to connect and reach with everybody but I'm confident that we see even some more progress on our vision card as we move forward here um and we're really um in partnering with our multilingual team like we really um wanted to make sure like we're making every effort to reach families especially for the top language is a weend service here in our school district that they're receiving simultaneous and accurate communication um so that is a lot of what we're sharing with our schools in hopes for the future um we've had some additional success just over this these last um few months as well well um in hearing from our schools a little bit more when we first started this conversation there was definitely a desire to have e newsletters and a lot of them were using a more e newsletter but not all so we brought that and our community relations team is taking that on created templates for all of our sites and they're um all utilizing that night now so that was a really great partnership that I think is um forward moving um and add additional ways that people can get information in in different languages as well um we're seeing an increase we know from our on data that um website and email are like some of our top communication vehicles with um our families um and that's the way that they're wanting to get a lot of our information so um we also push for an increase in our website um making sure that that's timely and relevant for everybody so we're seeing an increase in requests which is good progress um and we're also seeing um some increase in usage with social media in regards to Facebook specifically so um some of the things when we have our conversations with school is just making sure that we're communicating um early openly and honestly and in multiple different ways that we're having two-way communication um when possible making sure we're really listening um making sure that everyone is aware that you know that inperson communication is always the best um always putting ourself in our audien's shoes and just making sure to have that good customer service so um these are just some of the ways that we're um trying to additionally um make progress with specifically with this great thank you are there any questions from the board uh student Representatives or the board members or others yes um so uh two questions actually um one question going back to the beginning on the advisory committee engagement um and I'm sure you probably knew this question was coming but um that's a pretty high percentage of representation across the district and just wondering um what the breakdown is and how can we going forward get better information that um speaks to uh parent representation or scholar representation yeah so um I agree it's a high percentage and what the percentage is telling us is the percent of sites that are um represented on a committee so like if we have um a parent or family member from each of our sites on at least one of those committees and so um a positive thing was that we saw a large increase in um representation we have approximately the same number of parents participating on um committees but they're more well distributed I think through the district so that number does include staff or does not it includes staff except for principles who are often required to be there they're mostly members yes mostly okay all right uh thank you yeah um and then second question uh k um you talked about the district um comms plan and uh some of the site comms plan and just wondering how we are integrating um language into that yeah that's definitely a key piece so um we want to make sure that all of our Communications have some sort of language component to it so for our um we were trying to make it a little bit easier so that was the great thing about our partnership with the multilingual team so when we're meeting with schools right now um we're requiring that um we have like our language line information in all of our emails that go out and that everyone is utilizing the translators that we have in house here for their top languages that were notifying if they weren't already aware of what those top languages are um and then definitely reiterating that our classrooms um and I would say in some schools talking points has taken off quite quite a bit and and some not as much so we're just that's is the first time that um we're requiring that classrooms used as well so that's an additional way that communication can go out in different language as well um and the nice thing with our translators inhouse is that we can like even with like our Mass notification system which we've utilized in this fashion before like we have our translators record something in an audio format and send it that way as well we can send text we're just limited on on the amount of characters but we can send people to a different like a website that might be translated right so everything that goes out should have some sort of translation component to it it's just going to take some time for that to be implemented across the system something that we're definitely um aware of that we need to make some further progress on um working toward that thank you I had a question about the um talking points uh data for 2021 it's a it looks like an anomaly um significantly higher than the other I was wondering if that was a Tapo or if that was it's really P effect that's that's what I was wondering a pinch point where that was absolutely needed um yeah I to remember that period of you know just the amount of weight that landed on our local translators and you know I remember meeting with them at that time it just absolutely crazy uh so I think that's reflects that the fact that there was just a unlit need that was there okay thank you um my question is if I'm remembering correctly the SM newsletter can be translated buttons to translate so that is a new new translation that we brought that wasn't there before necessarily yeah we I use yeah we use it in my school too so that's kind of exciting um and then I'm guessing that when people go to the website of either the school or the main District that they can get to where those newsletters are yes they can right after the in the new section of the home page just because you said website and email were the yeah yes I guess so and the website is automatically translated into three of our languages there was one that it just the translation wasn't quite accurate but that's something that we can definitely work on as well thank you it's exciting to see how M has changed um I had a question um from the engagement rubric um for the row where it's uh discussing empowerment and advocacy um what does leadership training through families it's very it so um the face um face committee does different trainings and different parents kids opportunity for parents to come in and families to come in so I believe that that is we have students here if you need help all right or you can just go up to the top okay go ahead so the so um they they're bringing families and do training on different family training along with your students at the same time at the bottom okay sounds good thank you and faces the family and Community engagement yes just wanted to like thank you I and Dr baz not to put you spot but I feel like that's also a part of um the work of the r committee as well to empower um you know parents to um be able to um speak and act on the issues that are important to them and their Scholars okay I have a question are the leadership training something you guys want to implement or are they already being implemented the particular one that goth mentioned mentioned about trainings for families diversity of schools reflected on communities leers are trained on facilitation so I think those are different different labels going under yeah going underneath they just different examples of the um empowering and advocacy piece that rise and face in the family engagement community so they're doing that they are doing that currently and they're going to they continue to they're continuing to yeah what other questions might there be well um I guess I'm wondering from student perspective how are how is the communication that you're receiving it says is that um the announcements are staff to families per student um so are your par do you feel like your parents are are you hearing from people that they're receiving the communication or they're using it as far as the talking points like do you have any yeah I can add to that um we personally my mom is a teacher in the district so she's more familiar with how to work with those type of things so she's very updated on that like checking student view for all my siblings and I but I am aware that I do have friends in my classes and many students honestly in the school their parents don't utilize that their parents either just don't take the time to do it or simply just don't know how to do it and also I know we talked a lot about language barriers obviously Park Center there it's a very diverse school with a very diverse room of languages so I think that's another very for example my friend for parents speaks l so when they receive these messages in English they probably don't even take the time to look at them because they're not even going to understand them so I think I know you mentioned that right now they're being translated to the top three most current Lang yeah which most likely is not so hey and from a Park Center perspective the top three languages that they're being translated to which I can assume is probably Spanish momn and Vietnamese that only maybe represents a portion of par Center and not much I mean obviously a greater half of part Center but there's still that other half where again like my friend her parents don't even bother to take the time to read it because they don't understand it or also they just there's just parents also at the same time that don't take the time to read it cuz maybe they don't think it's important or they maybe just don't think it's Rel to their life I know that's kind of bad I'm sorry but um that's at least what I've got from at Park Center and from what I've gained from other students but I know like for parents like my mom she does appreciate it she utilizes it she has other colleagues who have students in the district and they utilize it so there is a good number of people at par Center who do use it but then also there's the other thank you I have a question now on top of that I'm very curious um for uh at our sites like so for the example at Park Center would do we have translators like at conferences that might be showing parents how to utilize parent view or how to look for certain things in a email that might might um it might not be translated but they would recognize it and then know to go to parent view and they've been able to have some translation services in advance so that they can go into parent view and understand the information um so from what I'm aware of we have Vietnamese M Spanish interpreters and then some languages native to Africa I'm not for sure so I don't want to say we are incorrect something incorrect but we do have those interpreters and translators they are present at conferences as well to help families and I know that there is at least from what I've seen going to conferences there is always a large amount of the Hispanic Community there so obviously our Spanish interpreter is being utilized a lot same with the mo community so they obviously are able to help parents and students and whoever needs assistance with that which I think is great as well um however same thing if those parents don't come to conferences or if they just don't have the time or don't you know they don't understand the email they don't think it's relevant then they're just not able to have access to seeking those translators because maybe they just don't know about it or they just don't have the time or again if they don't understand it that's kind of out of their contr So yeah thank you our um to to your to your question about um how we get families um who may have um other languages as their um other than English as their predominant language our multilingual learning team um has annual family um MLL family nights where they're trying to get families connected to all of that support that we have across the district for language support um and it's a it's a hugely attended event um and we do that every fall there's a fall winter and spring each year to help um to help with that and making sure that families are getting connected to the language services that they need it's almost like an orientation families and all of our programs and services and they do an excellent job with that okay any other final questions before we move to the next agenda item okay um I didn't have a question but I kind of wanted to put my perspective out there so um in my household um my mom has to me my brother and growing up with Communications with um teachers it wasn't um like she doesn't really check like student view like she does she doesn't track our progress like that most of the time when there's like a situation at school where that needs to be communicated to my mom uh she only really recognizes it if it's I guess bad you know so like I don't even know if like it's out there but I think also when we're talking about communication I don't think we should just be communicating like the bad things I think we should also be communicating the breakthroughs that students are making and I think from my experience most of the communication to home is negative and that can kind of depending on your household too that's not really a good thing to have if you don't have a good home home life you know and so yeah that was kind of okay no thank you so much for adding that that's a really good point um and I think we've had some conversation in the past before about exactly that need that we need to be reinforcing um the great things that students are doing with families that it shouldn't we yeah I recognize that and is there anything that staff might add to that or how we've thought about that or been working on that we do I mean thank you Izzy because that is really really important and we do absolutely ask teachers to um make as more often than not good news phone calls and they'll even say that families are often taken aback by that so that just says exactly what you're saying is he is they're not used to that and so we're really trying to push that and I we need to continue to push it harder and harder because you know we don't want families to even get to the point where they think oh this is another bad phone call so I'm not even going to answer right and just get deflated about their school experience when there's good things that happen every day for all of our students so yeah look I'll it's a good reminder to talk about that with principles again I do think I was thinking the same thing that Izzy mentioned um just as a parent the messages are so much more noticeable when it's something bad that's specific to like one of my uh students so all the good things tend to be like sent out to All Families which isn't as noticeable for me because there's so much of that coming in every day um it's not personal yeah so yeah even just those one off um you know something good that's happening I think would be appreciated by my family thank you that's a good reminder it's a good reminder oh I'm sorry I was just going to say uh from personal experience actually I to get a phone call home once and my child was on the other line and I was like oh my my gosh what happened and she's like I did really good so I got to miss NES had like a special telephone in her office like it was like Micky Mouse or something anyway um that's beside the point but um I do think that leads to um what Mino is saying as well which is that sometimes I think our parents get overwhelmed by the amount of communication that is being sent out um not just the language barrier but even as a native English speaker I can't tell you how many times I'm like no that's too much like you know you get like 50 emails from the career Resource Center like a day you know so I think you know from my perspective maybe it's not as much at the elementary level I don't remember anymore but um at the high school level the communication is really almost excessive but it's all valuable information um and so I think as a parent and I hear this from a lot parents they don't want to read it they don't want to look at it they don't like they only want which I think is why the website gets utilized because they can go to what it is that they're looking for rather than read through all these emails so I I wonder if there's a way that we can um I don't know alter the way that we distribute Communication in its like level of like important not important because it's all important but like what the type of content is like this is important content that you need to know about what's happening in your child school this week and this is what you need to know about graduation more like in I don't know in a different way or like condense it somehow so it's like like the s'more thing I really liked that where you get like all the sheets all at once for all the things you could K could sign up for instead of like an individual like basketball sign up softball sign of like all the different individuals um but I don't know if possible well I know this more is such a big hit with many of the principles they love it because of the translation but they get to see where people view it and and it's and it's pretty cool but I'm wondering too K is that part of your plan and meeting with the school principle talking about good because it's just not you know the demands um and the expectations are all kind of Shifting around and so I think that's kind of the exciting thing that I know K and I have talked about how do we a better position the schools to be more active and thoughtful in what they do yeah so I mean next step would be to and we've shared some thus far but really focus on those best practices right like just as a whole um in the world right now right everybody's inundated with so many things and more than they ever have been right so um I'm of the mindset that uh less is more um and we need to get even just even internally with um with emails like we like newsletters you know no more than 10 items in there right really short and sweet make them bu you know make it easy to read right bullet point things um so that will be our next step um but yeah I agree um you know as a as a parent myself like it's it's overwhelming the amount of information that you're getting I completely agree so definitely something that we're going to continue to um so kind of going back just a little bit but um when n was talking she was mentioning translator her school and to my knowledge at least my school does not have a translator so if people were who do not speak English because I'm pretty sure most of the teachers and staff they only speak English and we also don't have like extra cck or like Spanish classes or other language classes so we don't have a teacher to Aid students fam so I think making sure also that we give resources like a translator or opportunities for families like that too smaller schools not just bigger schools of course that's like a like a difficult thing to figure out with like Staffing and things like that but I think that's a really good resource to have for families when they come to conferences because more people would want to come and I'm pretty sure at my school not a lot of families do come to conferences and it's pretty small turnout so it's great be back uh just a little um my principal canceled the staff meeting last week and told us all to call five families and with a positive thing um so just a little bug in some people's ears a bug when you're talking about staff meetings maybe they could be used a little differently um can we add uh the positive communication to our culture work as a um just as a notation because I know as we think about creating all of our work to create positive School cultures I think that's something we might want to retain for a note in that work okay awesome great conversation Izzy thank you for you started all that all of that conversation thank you all right should we move on to the next agenda item okay really appreciate students joining us for uh the the vision car for strategic Direction so you really appreciate on a on a busy school night I'm sure so thank you so much this is yeah y grab a grab a sandwich on your way out if you didn't have a chance to get one yet okay you got okay Sher there's more okay have a great night see you just give a moment here for our next uh presenters to queue up their technology and then we'll uh introduce our presenters and our special guests for this evening all the I thank you I didn't hear anything and that one doesn't work anymore is that one working early I wonder did you switch this one oh I did that's what you [Music] need [Applause] all right so our next presentation in uh is entitled strategies to recruit and retain a diverse Workforce joining us this even uh evening from the human resources uh Department our HR Director bu mua and Susan H are Recruitment and Retention manager also with us this evening is Marcus Flynn uh who is the the executive director of black men teach uh who will be U presenting towards the second half um of the presentation so without further Ado we'll hand it over to BU and Susan thank you great well good after or good evening everyone um I Susan the recruitment attention manager here with my uh uh director here um thank you for the space and the opportunity to share our District's Recruitment and Retention efforts that we have uh been executing in implementing and enhancing um quickly here one of our strategies actually our strategy our ongoing strategy to recruit and retain a diverse Workforce is through inventing recruitment attention at a systemwide level um also including which is collaborating with our internal and external Partners so it's a very Collective uh approach to the recruit retention um particularly now in the time of uh not only does we putting a diverse uh Workforce but also a very competitive and our Workforce that's limited Workforce and so we'll be covering just highlighting some of our recruitment efforts and retention efforts I say some because there are still uh many other activities or items that have happen um at a school district whether that be a sight level positions um and so we'll cover some of the highlights but I think some of the key highlights that we'll be covering are uh those key components that really do talk to the systemwide approach and our collaboration strong collaboration with our internal exp so recruitment efforts what does that mean and how does that look like so it's really looking at how are we growing the workforce how are we actively seeking the workforce our talent uh how are we uh hiring recruiting how are we attracting the workforce to AIO um also as an employer of choice and so some of the items I'll be highlighting really speaks to Growing uh diversifying recruiting and actively seeking so some of the highlights want to start with our grow your own osteopath program I have another slide that I'll talk more about what is that mean what is that umbrella of oio area schools a pathway program but this pleas really speaks to how are we growing how are we tapping into talent untap talent how are we uh training how are we preparing our upcoming Workforce to be able to meet those Workforce needs our teaching our teaching uh staff needed our work uh Workforce overall in a short-term and long-term goals we also have uh we continue to work with our College and Career Readiness program our sites and our programs in terms around recruiting events and so this is an approach that we have done a continue to do um and actively each year enhance and increase the amount of a presence in the space of our schools so whether that be the open houses right before school starts uh going into the classroom being on the career panel um you know being at the Brooklyn Middle School career dare talking about education like how did I get to where I'm at being at the sites relying also partnering with the sites to let us know what are some good uh times to come out what are some activities that we can tap into and how can we partner we meaning HR or other our other recruiters or Champions across the district uh we also have uh higher ed and Community or higher ed and our Community Partnerships very key and how do we uh tap into our diverse population help uh recruit and train um I can't speak to uh all of the heart Ed but I just mentioned a few that we close work closely with so metro state universities uh North henan St Cloud so whether that be sharing different uh their student teachers or their candidates that's part of their program going to their job fair or having them in our space to talk about those opportunities to grow in the education field uh or with their degrees or partnering to be uh partnering to get those letter of support when we're going after those grants right so it's really a a collaborative approach for that Community Partnership as well um we partner with a lot of Community Partnership including for example book link program or Youth Employment Program we also have our career force center we work work with the veterans rep there and so how do we tap into some of these T untapped Talent OR Talent that's out there and then also other uh Partners sh um partnership for example our Blackman teach will I'll hand um the the uh Paton over to Marcus to talk more about that so those are just some of our collaborative efforts that we um work in terms of recruiting and seeking Talent so this grow your own it's the visual of this umbrella and so what is this umbrella is our Oscar a our our go g um trying to brand that uh a visual of different Pathways that are students or non-licensed or tier one tier two uh staff can tap into as they are going to uh go to a teacher prep program or come their Journey their approach to becoming a fully licensed teacher with aie we have the different buckets so there's different Pathways that individual can tap into it's expanded over this well this this year has really expanded with the grants that we've got from MD and so we're very excited about that uh the dark blue bucket talks uh speaks to our growing own adults program and MD their Grant is is to diversify the education Workforce and that aligns with our vision and goals as well so our our uh Pathways there are for our BAC staff who non-licensed staff who are going to the teach craft program getting Financial um SC scholarships of course St PD mentorship uh same goes with with our yellow bucket which are our staff who are interested in going into special education we have our our green bucket Pathways which is one that we have existing which is our mou to support staff who are who have access to the mou for student teach practical so when they're at that stage they also have financial support um there's a number of list of for ML so I won't go to details and then that high that blue one at the end there Taps into our secondary students So currently right now we have a partnership with Park Center and have a education course where students can explore um create awareness of teaching education Workforce or each education field and also get concurrent college credits uh they'll pay paid internship summer internship we have partnership with across other all many of our departments here at the district to provide those internship PD um training and then of of course introduction to education is that's something that's for n it's really to also diversify about the education work for create that um and I'll touch on some of the other additional recruitment efforts some of these recruitment efforts are also and retention efforts that I'll cover really it plays a gray line between Recruitment and Retention so there's a lot of recruiting retention um but we also have an optional uh mou that's in partnership with the Union um for alternative mandatory probation and so these are for our bipo staff who are tier one tier two and may need a little more additional um information or extension experience to enhance their uh their skills they're learning so there's an opportunity for folks to tap into that as well that kind of ties into with our next bullet point and then that sub bullet point where extending probation for teachers who may need more time and so um giving us opportunity for folks to also expand and have a little more time to um grow um in areas and how can the district support that uh keep going back to partnership with building so we have those career panels job community events so not necessarily just being at the site to talk to our community who's every who's Whoever has kind of in uh a connection with the oal so family friends but also bring our staff whether that be our admin or coordinators or teachers into the space of the employer panel um into the space of our career Affairs um our Community Partners and letting them folks know having folks speak about their journey and how they became um where they're at in the education field so really having that strong partnership uh that's been something that's been amazing across the district that we work with not necess just our the staff but also our partners so we work closely also with our Union groups to have that support to say hey um a area school is an employer and hopefully it's your employer of choice um going to highlight that last piece here which is employe our choice I keep talking about that and it's about having that narrative out there that AA a school um yes we're a school district provide we support our scholar scholars in community but we're also an employer and we we employ teachers non-licensed and all types of careers for folks can grow here and how do we do that we do it with what we have been doing going out there talking about it but also have hosting our own Career Fairs so we hosted the last three years we' hosted our own Career Fairs and expanding more information within our own career fair so for example this year for spren career fair we added a component of information where we have session for different departments to come talk and say why choose oio what are some of the services what are some support system that we can provide you as a staff here uh social media is also another platform that we continue to grow on my team nature we usize that space that social media space to share recognize our employees our communication we have a very strong partnership with the communication team to share not only about jobs or what we're hiring but also the workplace culture um we have um uh when Communications share about recognition a week like teacher a nurse we also share that on that platform so that there's also a lens of careers and how okay I'm going to transition to over to the retention effort so retention how are we retaining bringing folks in but how are we retaining um our our Workforce our diverse retaining those diverse and qualified um staff but here are some of our efforts again very districtwide in in a collaboration with a lot of our partners mentorship uh is one of our aspect in supporting new staff to the district but also it also provides leadership opportunity for our current staff and so we have uh our mentor mentorship I'm um going to just briefly just talk about in terms of what the efforts are for the mentorship program but it's really um having our new staff having a connection having Resources with someone who who um is a 10-year teacher or a staff who can support them as they go on their Journey starting here um at the district we have our te teachers of color mentorship program our new teacher uh mentorship program knowing that this is also very critical in retaining our staff and also growing your staff uh we have aggressively sought out grants that support this that aligns with this and so we're excited that we will have t FTE next year to support the due teacher mentorship program um special education mentorship and our ESP a mentorship program uh we also have partnership and resources with our department of educa equity with our groups um these are also things that I talk to when I go out to talk to folks and people ask me how why why oel um or talking points I also provide for my um team who go out and to to speak to why oio or how can we continue um our new teacher Workshop week in our adjus in time training along with our new ESP onboarding training with our ESP Liaisons and and schools in then just in time training and so really what that does is capturing our new staff to be able to have the resources the support that they can do the best at their job um and um uh part of so these are some of the recruitment efforts uh that we are doing here that we continue to enhance and and be creative with so thank you all so much I'll if there's any questions and then um I'll hand it over to Marcus to talk about right questions comments I just want to thank you for all your efforts and like diversifying all that efforts to um approaches and I'm really excited to see how the Park Center Program grows I'm curious did we see any uptick in um our recruiting effort after our recognition for being a TP place to work did that help us at all yet yeah we are not allowed to advertise that unless we pay for it oh okay so great we decided yeah we decided to comply with the regulations so it was over 10 to it was 10 to $20,000 if we wanted to brand that as a part of AAL that's how they get you huh of course it is what the heck uh I guess what I'd be wondering though is for um other employers who have received that recognition and paid for it like is there a statistical benefit to it I don't know I'm sure if you ask them you know well I wouldn't ask the people who make you pay for it I ask people benefit from it but you know I mean that I feel like that's uh something that you know when we're thinking about ways that we support those efforts as a board $20,000 towards something that might have a significant impact I feel like as a board member I would be willing to support something like that um but I would want to know the data on whether or not is actually a useful tool to us before spending money on something that might only give us one more person but um uh I did want to say too I really appreciate the aggressive approach for um getting grants and additional support um that I know grant writing is a whole full-time job by itself so um I really appreciate that effort um to continue um our uh efforts towards Recruitment and Retention so thank you I have one more question um so as we look at the different mde initiatives or flexibility regarding lure are we seeing Improvement and that I know it's a reoccurring um legislative platform item and the reason why I'm asking is I for my job I recently had the opportunity to look at some candidates that didn't have the educational background requirements but had experiences that could mirror the skills for the job you're hiring for And So based on that we were able to bring some people in I know it's very different when it comes to licensing and so forth but are we seeing some improvement or some increased Innovation so the spaces that I've been in with around um like mde or just even District I know there's been conver ation about from apprenti ship model um so I I have not I'm not aware of any of anything like that that's yeah not that I'm aware of U but those are conversations I know there's continuously to have liur I haven't heard either in terms of really being strategic with MD and really utilizing the grants and um tapping into like such as our PA professionals our esps are those that that have um an AA or working towards an AA and then an undergrad I haven't seen any grants out there that specify for those particular individuals I think that would certainly open up um additional gateways for us to explore different opportunities with them we are working with I know that Susan mentioned about Metro and they do have programs and even at the um some other Partnerships that we are in conversations with meeting our staff where they're at now it could be a program of between one to three years depending on their credits and I think our grow your own grants that we just received for the next 5 years with mde will certainly tailor to that particular individual staff so um so yeah I just I want to understand a little bit more so so for example if we wanted to create a pool of resources to say that we target to um support like five pair professionals each year for um for education and and moving into their lure we can can we only do it through the grants or can we create our own or that become a contract issue I can say we can tap into a grant right now so let's say we have a cohort a lot of the University wanton to entertain a cohort of less than 10 okay right for financial stability for them so if let's say we partner with a neighboring school district and we have a cohort five and they have a cohort five that could be a conversation that we can certainly explore but again then you're talking about in terms of the different Pathways how long is it going to take Buu versus Susan versus Marcus to complete a program and at what terms and conditions are we going to allow ourselves the stien that we receive will certainly expand that because we have money to give to our staff right now that's just waiting the pool for us to just hand it out based on the criteria right so based on that absolutely um we can certainly explore that um the other condition is that they have to be a regular full-time staff so not like a sub right and so and then they also have to give back services so there are certain criterias I'm not one right now to say no I'm one to say let's explore and let's have conversations and we can I can always massage things to make it happen yeah I mean because once if we got something really started and then it's yielding you know now then it's not a weight right it's yielding every year X number of um of people just just just a curiosity so something we can talk more about absolutely thank you Tanya maybe a couple other things that folks might not be fully aware of so like on the community ed side we're dealing with a lot of part-time staff hourly casual staff and you know our Nations had record uh low unemployment rates in the last few years you know including here in Minnesota so it's very aggressive and the salaries are very aggressive for part-time workers uh throughout the system um but we we've done some efforts um on our side with with a a recruiter and we're thrilled that we're going to be hiring our own Talent acquisition Specialists with HR starting in July 1st but even some even some like Behavior changes that have happened for people on my team specifically the kidstop team so when we would have openings for example in kidstop in the past we would say we're going to do interviews for kidstop staff they're going to be on Tuesday uh you know from 1:00 till 5:00 well that's been completely blown out of water now so the the uh acquisition group that we're working with they have access to all my program managers Outlook calendars and so when someone calls and shows interest in working for us instead of having to wait till the date that we designate for interviews that person gets plugged into Brian's Outlook at Tuesday or tomorrow at 8: am. all of a sudden I have an appointment and I'm interviewing someone because if you wait till Friday they're going to take a job over here at Amazon for 28 bucks an hour hour and that's just been our experience right so there's so that has happened in the last uh year year and a half you know we started this year with like 52 open positions that kids stop and we're around 11 or 10 right now we've been staying at so that's been helping we've been retaining them um so I just think there's some I'm not in HR but I'm just explaining kind of some of the behavior things that we've had to change to try to recruit staff um and then we're super thrilled uh with some dollars that have been made available uh we just entered our I think last week was our first week of some longevity retention pay for people who work in kidstop I can't tell you the exact parameters of how that works but it's based on if you stay with us for over a 3mon period you get some additional pay based on the number of hours you average on a weekly basis for every three months that you stick with us the staff are thrilled about that um so I know not everything is pay but we've gotten a lot of feedback from our team that this is appreciated um that for uh we still don't compete with Amazon um we we still don't compete with some of the coffee shops in my neighborhood that are paying 27 bucks an hour for people to be Baristas right but we're doing some things that your impact with kids uh flexibility of hours and then now there some of this retention pace so um this last year and a half is been like a what's that uphill learning curve for me on on this kind of new situation with hourly and and Casual staff but I I wanted to make sure the board knew kind of a couple of behavior things and that we've implemented in the last year in Partnership of course with HR and I think um we've learned a lot and I think when we add this um Talent acquisition specialist I can't speak for the HR team but our our belief is it's going to go well and uh we're hoping that it's potentially could be um something that might also have additional staff in that area because this whole I think it goes without saying when you retain staff and they end up becoming good employees that's worth the investment versus all the time that it takes to to recruit people right so so that's just kind of my I just wanted to put out in the space my perspective on how it's kind of been working for us on the recruitment uh and retaining retaining side for um part-time employees Brian um what coffee shop is that thank you was doing summer job it's right by the Mia I'll meet you there at 8 I like mocha's time no but if I may also share one thing too about our grow your own with the student and Scholar when Susan mentioned about internal Partnerships it's truly a systemwide um for every single department and every single site to be an ambassador of of uh recruitment retention we can't do it alone it doesn't sit within HR we lead it but we have to have Partnerships and relationship is key here and so I want to also highlight because Susan really touched based on just a glimpse of what um some of the drawings that happens in my office there and it's scribbling but it but it turns out to be something beautiful um with our staff and our students is truly partnered up with Brian's team and the kid Doc and so when we're talking about a year round um internship that's really what we're looking at in terms of phases with our grow your own grants and and also paying them throughout the summer so that they are also being paid and have a one-day Workshop that's geared towards whether or not they're working towards teachers or they're working towards an ESP which is that so hopefully we can mirror this to be something much more beautiful and AAL and not just a focus on education but career-wise as well cuz this is a a business operation we really look at it from that from that angle so we thank you for your time and for the platform I um I just one more thing I think uh Brian sort of hit on uh at least part of what I was thinking about as you were going through the uh presentation um just given that so many districts are focused on recruiting staff of color um I think incorporating um some of those compan tactics into um how we recruit teachers in esps I think is also um something that we need to continue to explore and I know some of that's already happened but I'm just thinking about you know how we can get um you know teachers locked down faster than other districts or um you know start to build those relationships sooner so that um they come here versus somewhere else um so just uh that was one thing and then second I think what keeps coming through my mind is um I've been aware of this grow your own AIO program for um a while um but what keeps coming to mind for me is like how do we know that it's working U what are the metrics um how many students are going through the programs um how many staff are successfully completing the programs um you know even looking at some of the others that you mentioned the um Extended probation for teachers which I love um uh but how do we know that that's successful and um do we need to expand that further you know so I think those are some of the questions that um I have um I think for the next time you come to us um and I know that um I don't know if you're both doing a presentation to rise soon but um I know they're supposed to get a similar presentation soon so forward to I I I'll be the r okay just week add to what Thomas is saying is not not just like what uh is it working but what pathways are participants gravitating towards what's getting more participation and um I guess return on investment for us like a little just like a little bit deeper I guess like into that and if there's a particular pathway that is a standout or something that we should be focusing on well and I also recognize that we're talking about we're talking about numbers that in some cases could be small yeah you know we might have to make very incremental progress um you know with some of our um you know diversity recruitment efforts um so I don't want to get too caught up in like where the big numbers are but um I just want to make sure that we do have metrics and that we are um making progress toward I guess actually thinking about it reverse like are there any Pathways that aren't being utilized mhm versus you know cuz I know that the participants aren't great enough to say you know but anyways promoting it and not using it yeah yeah that's kind of what I'm thinking about is like do we have anything that's just not being utilized there are a few opportunities that with us two plus your the three of us can't do it alone in that I'm not short time but know that there are potential um opportunities for a few of our high schools for us to tap into and mirror this um educational grow your own in other areas to really help and um Elevate that that seamless Pathways that we recruit our own I I'll just say and put it there and then please feel free to reach out to Susan or myself directly if you have questions but those questions are noted and um how would you um recommend that we respond back to you VI email to the board or to you Thomas directly and Heather or yeah usually usually our follow-ups um we work Dr H and it'ss organizing sent out to the rest of us we'll do that then thank you okay and I would also I'm just going to echo on to what Bo said because we're we're working on this um new position with Community engagement we see that happening in multiple areas like custodial um food service with all of our esps facilities and so right now A threepers Team can only do so much but if we can get the value ad that we think we're going to get with Brian's position and can purchase some more Talent acquisition Specialists to really then you then you can respond immediately because then you've got Mass people to do that work instead of just two or three so we do have a Nirvana if you're asking I was just going to add to like anecdotally what Brian's talking about is I know number of people who've changed jobs recently and they start applying on Friday and by Monday they' got four or five job offers so is that response yeah it is I think that that what you were talking about is really a critical new Behavior development yeah and the ability to apply with your phone while you're sitting on your couch you know so even that's something we've learned like how our own application systems work or don't work well for that rapid response and I know you know and then just one other thing so I know we're talk I'm talking about Recruitment and stuff but then for us um you know we started the school year with over 500 students on a weight list to participate in kid sta right and now it's down to about 150 now our goal is zero right but that's 350 kids who are participating on a weekly basis in a positive program in our community that weren't being served before these efforts took place right so there's it there's sometimes we forget to highlight like here's the long-term benefit or as we recruit quality special at esps here's kids who might need additional Services who are getting those services that we might have had to been scrambling before before so like for me that's how I there is an end to this that benefits um both students that we serve but and the community that we serve um so sometimes well that keeps me going cuz it can be frustrating to be in these um Staffing scarcity right it's it's very difficult it's it's not fun that's for sure EO it at the at the school level for sure yeah great conversation sorry we'll transition to Marcus Blackman teach um how are you all doing welcome so so while she's pulling that up I I'll start with like some just Baseline context I think it's important for us all kind of come to conversation the same way so there's um two studies I think of about of um one 2017 John ckin study says if you have a black teacher by third grade 133% more like college right you had a second one in that same time frame that 13 goes all the way up to 32% right there's another study looking at I think almost 600,000 students in the east coast North Carolina they looked at you have a black teacher SCH third and fifth grade life Su right so we're looking Upper Elementary than 29% more likely to Aspire to college if you're lowincome black boys of fre reduced lunch kindergarten from 8th grade by the data standpoint one of the toughest groups to reach 39% of lik drop out of high school right so I I share that because the to me is large and anecdotally is large I've experienced I used to be a classroom teacher myself but when I look at the data the data to me um and I I didn't so my background is an epidemiology right so I think just naturally I'm a numbers person when I look at the data objectively and I think about academic outcomes for black students there's nothing more important there's no policy program professional de development after school program intervention that's more impactful than black teachers and these studies don't say that they have XYZ professional development they have this training they have this often it's the mical qualy brings to the classroom so this the context I kind of bring I think the other part of the context is Minnesota peace so I don't know the numbers as well today I memorize the numbers from 2019 there's 63436 teachers teaching in 2019 there are not that many teachers leading classrooms right now at the time there were 1 4% black that's 875 teachers they don't stratify by racism gender so if you take the number the proportion of men to women apply that to inter 75 we looking about 220 black teachers black male teachers sorry so that's less than half of 1% of all of the teachers we think about specifically the elementary school going back to the data I shared also to the work of our organization a conservative estimate will leave you with about 50 I actually went to pel and I requested the data cuz I was tired of conservative estimates they told me the number in 2023 was 35 black men teaching Elementary School classrooms so you think about 35 black men Elementary School teachers that could easily be in this room and we would not even feel cranked right that's the context that we operate in across the state and so our organization our mission is to recruit prepared place and retain black L teachers what I'm talking about though this is the effort that we're looking to stand up right now so it all revolves around this idea of collective impact act which is effectively a nonprofits approach to system change using the vehicle of Coalition building Coalition building with specific strategy that has five core tenants on the screen it's a common agenda we're co-creating a Northstar to align to share measurement a p is intuitive mutually reinforcing activities there's I think in the education and the nonprofit space you go District to District you go organization to organization see there's a lot of similar activities and I think the fortunate thing is if you look at the landscape all of the answers that are requisite for solving the problem are present the problem is often it's people and organizations working in sils and I think we demonstrated over time it's been an inefficient approach so mutually reinforcing activities is thinking about how do we amplify efforts and Not Duplicate communication piece get intuitive and then the backbone is really who's the convenor of the Coalition helping us fill the gaps to so text is small so just want to give a kind of a quick overview of like what have we done in this Coalition space today so we started back July this since 2024 and we basically started strategizing and when we built these strategy sessions we took a cross-section of the ecosystem look at it like top down we say what's a representative sample if anyone who has a direct or indirect influence on a black man who de they want to become a classroom teacher jul Vision it's a lot of people right so we had government agencies had people from o mde hsby at higher ed leadership University presidents down professors District leadership so we have multiple superintendents associate superintendents HR directors we have building leaders of course principles APS we had Community organization leaders other executive directors of nonprofits polic advocacy folk then black Educators all in the room we talking about 50ish stakeholders all coming together to just do two things look at data and IDE from there we took the data or we took the ideas and we started to refine and filter through additional conversations through focus groups all of those things came up with a set of strategies we felt was comprehensive enough to move the needle at a significantly larger level than our organization was currently operating the result of the meeting was basically this right it's the scope of the Coalition was the first thing and so the Coalition said we want the work of the Coalition result in three things increased academic outcomes for students more affirming learning environment for students and then School environments where black men Thrive and that thrive piece is defined by three indicators as well the primary population we said that this work is going to concentrate on are School that have a black Cent population that's 40% minimum right 40% are greater then the primary indicators that we want to track to measure the success of the work of the Coalition first we want to get 20% of the teaching staff and each of those schools to be black men so relatively critical M and a 20% threshold of black male Elementary School teachers at a elementary school in Minnesota does not exist unless you partner with black teach and so the goal is to do that by 2023 or 2034 35 not 27 um the academic outcome piece trying to develop a composite metric that looks more than just proficiency orens it's growth some surrogate measures as well measure students perception of joy and belonging to get that affirming learning environment piece and then the Thrive piece for black men is looking at their perception of belonging that school environment affirment in them Financial Security and support for health and wellness those three things compos to Quick numbers there's 96 elementary schools we found that meet that 40% or more threshold there's 49 black male teachers in those schools I told you 35 member earlier some of these schools are K8 K 12 so they're counting black men who are not in the elementary but to get those schools to 20% of their teaching staff they need to be at 433 so that means you need an additional 384 blackmail teachers 433 black male teachers teach in elementary that's more black men that are teaching K12 today that's roughly 1,00% increase of the number of black men teaching in those specific School types but I think with those School types that number of black men you're talking about about 50% of all Black Elementary School students across the state of Minnesota have access to a black little teacher many of them have more access to more than one here's an idea of where those schools are now this is nowhere near geographically accurate I drove the AIO and if not that South that far west but the point of this is these are the traditional school districts that hold the most schools so you see minap St Paul unsurprisingly have the most 14 and 10 now we set that there's four of course your data may be a little different um and then Charter School at the bottom like the bottom right corner is in green it's 49 charger schools that meet that threshold and so that's like how the 96 schools are distributed across those are the schools that we're looking to partner with over the course of this 10year period um 10 districts 49 Chargers B are so so the strategy piece that we talked about right the outcome of those strategy meetings there's 10 strategies that divided between the High School College non-traditional teacher Prep Professional level the high school level is three things very similar to what you all presented earlier right concurrent enrollment um or the career pathway programs focused on education right supporting more men going into those courses we've done this over the past two years we worked at Patrick Henry High School in St Louis Park High School we started working with Patrick Henry they had two black mines at the class the next year they had 17 year after that they had maybe 22 23 24 somewh in that ballpark St Louis Park I think we have another 18 19 at that school right now you sering internships so again just like you all thinking about one of the best ways to get young black men to decide they want to teach meet them in front of young kids and pay him to do it simple and then leveraging athletic coaches as recruiters that's how all those strategies work together athletic coaches help us recruit to those two areas before the high school level bit quick just for the second of time um college level it's really two things it's thinking about developing cohort style Partnerships with universities and then thinking about on those universities how we finding men who are proximate um we have data that says the average age of black men Minnesota based deciding to teach is 23 so it just tells you already like it's already past the traditional college students graduation age it's telling you the story of how most of our are not traditionally come into the profession for a number of reasons many of them are com into it as either a second career or second major so kind of leaning into that piece nontraditional side two more strategy so the apprenticeship pathway we're in the process of trying to design an apprenticeship right now working alongside Alex lzi is the former executive director of pby he's working with Deeds probably the main contact person across the stage who building apprenticeships then alternative licensure pathway so not the same as an apprenti ship this is more postback thinking about a pby approved postback program to allow you to get a tier one tier 2 license and a new tier tier three and then at the professional level that's the last four sets of strategies so we're thinking about school culture support specifically culturally responsive School culture support really leaning in if you're familiar with the cultur responsive School beer Institute muhamed khif he used to be at the University of Minnesota or ktie pel he's currently at the University of Minnesota that work together addressing policy barriers addressing Financial barriers and then a speed of Health and Wellness of ports thinking like you really can't pour unless your cup is full enough to pour from that's the set of strategies and then here just like quick overview next steps on the right side is just the time I'm not probably Focus primarily there April where we are now we just actually had a week ago today um we had a kickoff event brought in community to celebrate the launch of the Coalition so the first formal Gathering of the Coalition mve into something which is design days but for us that's really just like finalizing numerical benchmarks then we have cly Cadence and we moved into the end of the first year in June we have like an annual gathering with the Coalition and last thing is just like tenative event timeline for the coalition this is probably the activity pieces that you might see pop up all the other stuff that have behind the scenes there's a coaches and Community leaders summ that happen in December we do a high school submit we're actually doing the first one now in may we'll do another one in April 2025 we're bringing together about 100 blackma high school students who are either in concurrent Roman courses or just in a high school that we're partnering with really get them to kind of underscore the why behind the decision to teach and then that annual Gathering of the coalition I think it would be a large event probably about 1200 people so that's that in mind so I do want to open the questions little bit of time yeah questions and comments go ahead no you can I just an otally say um we where I teach we have two um black men teach teachers um in the younger grades well one in the younger grade and one in an older grade and a a mentor also there and it feels like to me already that the climate of the school for the students has um greatly improved positively just from having those two additional young black male teachers so just uh thank you from this prek teacher trying to start them off on the right path go ahead sorry no you're good um no so one uh I'm a big fan and this has been long overdue for you to pay a visit um to the district so thank you for being here um uh a few questions so one um I was curious about any challenges you're facing um in just Recruitment and talking to black men and trying to get them into the program or just into the profession in general yeah you know when I first started I thought that would be the hardest part it's not um there's no shortage like if any was like is there a shortage that black male athletic coaches the answer is no so there's not a shortage that black men were looking to give back to youth in capacity the question is why should they teach and so I think if you have the right the right message but more important the right support and environments is possible and I mean black m teach is a young organization been been really been at this for about three years now and in that time we grown to about 70 70s and number of participants between high school college and classroom um and I think I've been thoroughly encouraged by the number of people willing to raise their hand under the right conditions so I didn't talk a lot about what our supports look like because I didn't have enough time to get into some of the details um but some of them are really compelling and I think it's necessitated by one just where we are in terms of the number of teachers the benefit teachers bring and um I me I think we all know that it it can be a challenge to recruit teachers without compelling incentives so that was actually G to kind of one of my questions that you're leading to is the challenge to recruit teachers in general right now is very challenging and I love all of this and at the same time it almost seems like how do we get there right how do we get to that 20% especially hearing um the actual data from PP right that you shared with us the number is so low of male blackmail teachers in schools and that's the whole state right yeah that's really really alarming um and how do we get to 20% when we are in such a competitive job market for any type of job right now um like what is the what is the sweet spot that you know because like you said there is no shortage of people who want to give back to their Community who want to work with kids who are already working with kids in other ways um but how do we create the perfect environment where someone says you know this is the path that I want to take um because you don't just get to be a teacher overnight you have to go to school you have to get your license or you have to do all that and you know we have our grow your own program that we're working on and different incentives that we're trying to build but um in programs like this but how do you create the right conditions for someone to say yes I want to do this I'm going to do this um to get to that 20% when everyone's being pulled to the next job that pays the most the fastest right and I guess what I'm wondering about is like what kind of things are you running into in that regard and what are you looking for in the connections that you're building to create this program mhh yeah uh it's a big question I know I'm Sor at all and I realized actually didn't answer your question at all so you're kind of forcing me to come back to that of like really addressing what the challenges are and so I I think there's like it all starts with understanding what are exactly the barriers that exist and then thinking about how can you mitigate or eliminate as many of them as possible and I think some of the barriers are just like this pure isolation piece well I think we solve for that by operating in cohorts even that 20% threshold means that like likely you'll have people on your great team like at there you all are probably approaching 20% they have four black men who are teaching at North Park we have five five right so I think we're we're better than 20 yeah mhm and so um some of it is addressing that a lot of it especially for the younger guys is the financial aspect so we do a lot of work with our young high school students to even understand the earning potential that exist in education relative to some comparable professions but the data will tell you that it's not good particularly for men um and so we address some of that right we provide scholarships with this Northstar promise that piece will go away but we also provide uh retention incentives so we do student loan debt relief support for our men to think about it on the back end how we attenuate that we also have a partnership with Twin City sabit for Humanity so now we're helping them think about home ownership through fully forgivable interest breing down payment assistance and so we think about like all of these different areas the health piece right like that's another Focus where we're really trying to pour into our guys and making sure they have access to a lot of different services to make sure that the health and loers is taken care of um and it's still not perfect though right like we have had men who were fully committed to teach and get post by something else they were coming with numbers that were just like undeniable given the conditions right like if you are 3 years away from getting your bachelor's degree to recommended to teach but you have a job opportunity from I forget what it's called if I said it you all recognize it um that's paying you like 90,000 plus you got a mortgage and you got young children right sometimes it's hard to say no matter how much you going to teach it's hard to say some of those things that's um but I think it's like we really try to hammer home early with our men like this isn't a challenge free this isn't like uh a magic pill this isn't something that will go with its own challenge but we're here along the way the entire step like from the time for some people your high school college into into your profession to support you and try to remove as much barriers as possible emergency funds if something comes up you got guys battling evictions and car troubles and this and that and this just life stuff um try to be there to support in that process but I also think too back to the num piece that you mentioned Right Moving from 35 up to 400 something sounds absolutely insane but that's why we think about it from the perspective of a coalition so you think about like all of the people and I should have kept it sliding in the shows like who are the people committed to be at the table the like amount of social and political and even Financial Capital that's there it's like infinite it feels like 433 is on a smaller side um really when you unite all of the different forces that exist in the community because really I do believe all of the answers to the problems are here think we know is just like how do we bring them together and work in a concerted effort thank you can you um sorry like to talk at the same time um can you um tell the rest of the about um the support you offer the teachers even when they after they even have the jobs because I know that our teachers uh meet on a regular basis for that support yeah so some is a few different things um so one I think our partnership also like we have five men at North Park three of them we recommend it to North Park but two of them were hired on their own but we inh all the the men and so there's a school that you have even partnership witho you have black men who are in those schools already who we then bring in and provide access to our supports to have an instructional coach who's probably there relatively often working with those men who come in on the Bible basis to just help be both a mentor but and also help you with your practice we do professional development um sometimes it's in-house sometimes it might be uh National Conference um we do the loan forgiveness support we have the home ownership piece now um we do the health and wellness piece I mean we really try to think about our mentalistic we try to support as much as possible to sustain the profession I um you you sort of already talked about it in the presentation um addressing School culture um and I think you know one of the things that I have to Grapple with every day just in you know my day-to-day work is retention um you know we are seeing record numbers in terms of the recruitment of um just black and bipac staff in general across the state um but struggling with uh retention because of the culture that um you know many of these employees ways are walking into so I think about that as well with um such um significant goals um in terms of um increas in Black Men um in our school systems and um bringing them into systems that weren't necessarily set up for them or with them um at the table um and so I'm just curious about the experience of um some of the the men that you already have working in the systems today so right now we support 14 teachers is in the classroom and like again we haven't been around a long time so I'll say this and of course I say that context first we've had 100% retention rate so far none of our men have left education and the school culture piece is something that's like newer in development we've been kind of going back and forth trying to figure out the right Partnerships but I think it's important because we have survey data from some of our conferences of larger Gathering of black men and say the two things that are most attractive in the school most likely that lead to them being retain are leadership culture which is not surprising right I think that's the data says about most teachers and so I think that's something that we're keenly aware of and even when we go about the part process of developing of partnership as part of the process of us determining is this or is this not a school that we should work with and there's a number of schools you had to turn away and there's even Partnerships we have to take away because the answer was like that that piece isn't strong enough but as we're moving into this Coalition work we're a lot more developmental in approach than we were with and it was just kind of like honestly me making the decision um because the context is set we said these 96 schools are the parameters and like this parameters where we're looking to operate these 96 schools and so we're going to be a lot more Developmental and thinking about like how we bringing people along how are we introducing them to the support of the culture responsive schol leader Institute so that they get access to the Institute but also Ono coaching to help build that skill set but there's only so much you can do with individuals I know that'll be a challeng because not everybody will be coach responsive not everybody wants to be no matter how much coaching you get you're not going to implement you can't coach somebody in the Cera black yeah are there particular things you pay attention to in terms of the leaders of the schools and what you're looking for and how they're positioning um themselves so that you're feeling more confident about the placement of your your teacher that's a great question like a year removed from any additional Partnerships um and I'm trying to think about like the current Suite of partners that we have right now like what are the common threats it's kind of hard to predict what it is I think the the good thing is like I think most principles have what's represent right there there's very few where it's like okay that's a little yellow flag um to be honest I think of all the principles we work with the one who probably embodies it the most is here since a is uh and so when I think about the work of the Coalition I think about her um like the goal should be to replicate her as much as possible well for me um this is just so impressive because I I've seen my fair share of uh corporate presentations education presentations and this is such a clear road map and Heather you asked like how do you make it happen like you've laid out exactly how to make it happen and now it's to your point about the Coalition and the execution and the support so um this is really honestly one of the best presentations I've seen on my time on the board of clearly laying out the problem making it meaningful having a clear goal and creating a very tangible Cris road map sometimes I feel like when we talk about this topic we get into a lot of philosophical conversation and and this is the how do you solve the problem how do you make it happen so this is extremely exciting for me and I'm um glad that we're participants and I hope that we can accelerate the work that we're doing um with you um and I hope that there's a lot of other partners you're continuing to bring in I mean I I know the competition from a corporate perspective of we want the same pool of people but maybe if there's a different way to say hey you'd actually be better off helping if you do something different in supporting the teachers like you talked about and supporting the program providing more incentives and support so it's just got me thinking from a different lens on um as as a coalition what can be done to help support this program as well so um I I'm super excited about this and this is just uh so good um thank you for all you're doing I appreciate that other thoughts okay one last thank you just seriously thank you I mean it's just so amazing to have um our school change and I I'm so excited about Zan wood and the other schools um it's thank you for taking this chance and starting this group and coming up with this amazing coalition it's an honor to be in your presence honestly I appreciate it so much oh Deon and ke are I'm like their work Mama's a part of too so thank you Marcus uh really appreciate you being able to be here this evening to share uh your most recent uh development work around the the Coalition and the collective so um as a vice Sher Prince shair um it is inspiring and um I think part of what I'm thinking about in this moment is so even if um the Coalition is seeing uh slow uh integration of black male Educators it may not be that you get to supply and have Pathways that are full of students over the next um three to four years that are preparing to be license but if if School uh systems are growing their own that they get to benefit from the value ad of having these additional supports around health and wellness around additional professional development affini SP with other black male Educators being a part of the Summits that take place so there's some value add for districts um in that you're coming in just to support those black male Elementary Educators as well so there's a variety of different ways that that that the program can be complimentary to grow your own uh projects across District so thank you thank you for saying that too last thing I I do think like to underscore that point it's all about supplement not supped yeah and so want to work alongside districts aren't looking to replace anything aren looking to like push your G on out the way like let work along thank you for absolutely absolutely and find a prek teacher to replace me in 10 years all right are there any other items of business okay then this work session is adjured at 7:46 p.m. [Music] com