Diversity and Equity Updates

Greetings all

I have been completely immersed in recent weeks on how to significantly address the issues of racism and equity within our schools in a manner that is sustainable. As I have already shared, we have done quite a lot already, and those who came before me have as well. However, individual action steps are not sustainable and we need to do something that will make an impact immediately as well as be sustainable for a long term change. This is where my head (and heart) are. 

 

It is clear to me that we need new types of professional development. I think from the very issue of how do we recognize acts of subtle racism that occur daily to students and adults, to how do we respond when an incident is brought to the attention of adults. Do we all know what to say in each situation? Do we know what to do with the knowledge we glean? Do we know to withhold judgement until we investigate the incident, and be open to hearing about the complainant’s experience? Is our complaint process transparent and accessible? Do we follow our own policy? Do we communicate along the way? These are huge questions that need to be addressed and outlined through a plan of Professional Development as well as communicated to parents and students so they know how to let us know of incidents and what happens when they do. This is the very first step of changing our climate to one that does not tolerate racism in our schools. 

NYTimes: Refugee Farmers Find Solace in a Floodplain

NYTimes: Refugee Farmers Find Solace in a Floodplain

Great article about the richness our new neighbors bring to our community! However, please note even the NYT can make mistakes, as Burma and Bhutan are in SouthEast Asia, not Africa:)

Spotlight – Superintendent’s Column

Greetings all,

On Wednesday, I joined Mayor Weinberger, Somali Bantu Community Association Executive Director Mohamed Abdi, a number of Somali Bantu neighbors, and Burlington College faculty and staff for a ground-breaking ceremony of free garden space at 345 North Avenue. This garden will be used by 30+ families from the Somali and Burundi communities and is part of the College’s launch of the Sustainability and Urban Gardening Project. The project will incorporate growing fresh veggies with an opportunity for these communities to come together with the college and its students to participate in such things as workshops for children, a connection to local agriculture, and other activities related to civil engagement and sustainability.

L to R: Jeanné Collins, Ali Amir (Elder from the The Somali Bantu of Vermont

Community Association) and Mayor Weinberger

I continue to work on plans to address disparities in the School District. This will include a tighter review of data, training on our updated harassment policy, and a new and significantly different training model on cultural competence and diversity in the coming year, with a kickoff in the fall. I will be releasing more details shortly. Meanwhile, the first meeting of the Equity and Inclusion Report Card Committee took place this week. This group of teachers, administrators, Board members and community members are working to identify data points that will guide our work and creating a report card which makes our data and our goals and progress transparent. I have also met with all administrators this week and provided a protocol to bring back to the schools to hold at least one full faculty discussion on race issues before the end of the school year.  For an example of this work, please see the Report Card from Ithaca, New York: http://www.icsd.k12.ny.us/legacy/district/equity/Equity%20Report%20Card%20V3.pdf.

Enjoy the sunshine. But don’t forget we are still in school!
Jeanné

North Avenue News – May Superintendent’s Message

Greetings everyone. What a beautiful spring we are having this year. As the school year winds down, I invite parents to check with their individual school websites to confirm final days in June, graduation dates, and other events at the end of the year. For the entire community, I invite you to participate in the upcoming school plays, musical events and other community gatherings as the weather continues to improve and the days get longer. We have incredibly talented students and dedicated staff and parents. Come enjoy your schools! Check the calendar on school websites for dates and times.

DIVERSITY UPDATE

Burlington schools has the unique opportunity to be home for students of color, students of different countries and of different cultures. In a state that is nearly all white, we are fortunate to have a student population that is nearly 30% of color and this percentage is increasing. Yet we have not yet caught up to these changing demographics. Racism and unequal achievement opportunities continue to exist in our schools. Racism comes from misunderstandings and preconceived ideas of a person’s attitudes based upon their appearance; that will always be the case between humans. Despite dedicated teaching faculty and administration, despite a desire to change, we have not yet achieved a district free of racism or inequities. We need to dig into ourselves, review and communicate our data, open up communication and lean forward together to create an equitable and welcoming environment for all of our students and families.  

Recently, I provided an update to the City Council with a statement of what I believe needs to happen and what work is being done now.  You can read this statement on the District web page. You can also read the statement of Principal Amy Mellencamp who commits to this work. I am committed to creating an equal and inclusive school district where all of our students belong and achieve. As racism is a community issue, not beginning or ending in the schools alone, I invite the community to come together to create an inclusive and welcoming community. We need to stop blaming and shutting down voices and work together for the vision of the schools and community that we know Burlington is capable of. To participate in the schools’ work, you are welcome to attend the Diversity Equity Committee meetings of the Board, whose dates are on our web site, and help to shape the District Strategic Plan on Diversity and Inclusivity, being built from the work of the Task Force on Diversity and Equity Report.  

NELLIE MAE HIGH SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION UPDATE

The Winooski-Burlington Partnership for Change is working to re-structure the high schools to better prepare all students for their future. In collaboration, Voices for Vermont’s Children is leading a parallel community-based effort to engage and develop parent and youth leaders from communities facing economic, social and cultural barriers. Our goal is to create powerful, organized communities with grassroots leadership to help design and ensure a student-centered learning system in which every young person thrives. Peter Garang Deng and Dawn Moskowitz are our local community organizers. Right now, Dawn and Peter Garang are in the middle of a personal, one-to-one, “listening campaign” which will reach out to over 200 high school students and parents. At the request of New American Leaders we worked with last year, they have also scheduled a planning meeting with Vermont Interfaith Action Leaders to dig deeper into the work of organizing – deepening relationships; defining, prioritizing and researching issues; and taking action. 

TRANSFORMATION FELLOWS CHOSEN

Meanwhile, we have chosen the Fellows to help move our five areas forward and are in the midst of hiring the Transformation Director and Manager. The Fellows will work in the areas of Family-School Partnerships, Effective Teaming, Community Based Learning, Youth Leadership, and Personalized and Proficiency Based Learning, with a goal of ensuring that every young person graduates from high school with the confidence, enthusiasm, skills and knowledge they need to be successful. The fellows are:  Jill Jacobelli, Dov Stucker, Benjamin Roesch, Matthew Webb, and Sarah Bertucci.Through a combination of full- and part-time fellowships, the Fellows will spend the next year accelerating the work of high school transformation in their particular area of expertise. Each fellow will serve as a convener for a team of youth, educators, family members and community partners who together will research and implement new approaches to student-centered learning as well as improve current practice in the areas described above. Underlying the work of each team will be a focus on technology integration and better meeting the needs of underserved learners. 

 TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE

As we move forward with the technology initiative, we have spent time visiting Burlington High School in Burlington, MA and talking with teachers at the middle and high school levels to determine the best hardware to use in this initiative. You can follow this progress at our website under the One to One Transformation link. 

ENJOY THE SPRING

I enjoy hearing from Burlington parents and community members about our schools. Please feel free to contact me at superintendent@bsdvt.org or call 802.864.8474 to share suggestions, concerns and good news!

Spotlight – Superintendent’s Column

Greetings all,

I hope you enjoyed the break last week and returned fresh and ready to finish the school year. With so little time to go, it seems things always speed up this time of year as the weather gets nice and both adults and students get restless. May 7^th – 11^th is Teacher Appreciation Week. I want to thank each and every one of you who work for this District in a variety of roles for what you do to help our students succeed. The relationship each of you have with students is meaningful and helps a child know that someone believes in them. Whether you are helping with a math problem, handing out a lunch, cleaning the gym, or counseling a student who is crying, it all matters as we create a learning community. I thank you for your part from the bottom of my heart.

There has been a lot of press recently about diversity in the Burlington schools. I realize it is difficult to read at times, but  want to point out that it is important that we stay engaged in this conversation. We do great things in BSD; and we can do even better things to create a welcoming and inclusive community. We have students from over 30 countries, with diverse backgrounds, and it is important that we work intently to build those relationships and create a welcoming place. Racism does exist in our schools; as it exists in our community, country, society. We have an opportunity during our short time each day with students to build a place where we can make a difference. To do this, we need to listen to our students, think about what we say to them, and model behavior that is respectful at all times. This year, as a District, we have brought in the anti-bias training as part of our hiring practices and nearly all faculty has participated in that. We invited Paul Gorski to continue our conversation. Many of our schools have used faculty meeting time to discuss race issues further. Our Equity Council, composed of reps from each school, approved a cultural competence assessment tool that schools are completing now. We have taken major steps this year to continue to improve our climate and we will continue to take more steps. I have experienced more faculty and staff engaged in this conversation than ever before and I thank you for that. Please continue to listen and stay engaged, even when it is easy to become defensive. Follow the progress of the District Strategic Plan on Diversity and Inclusion being worked on by the Diversity and Equity Committee. Participate in the Annual Equity Report Card we will create to share data and track progress. Stay open to new ideas and challenges to our ways of thinking. Burlington is a leader in this area in the State; let’s work together to be successful in creating a welcoming and inclusive community for our students.

Enjoy the final weeks of the school year.

Jeanné

Spotlight – Superintendent’s Column

Greetings all,

Scheduling is on my mind this week, as I suspect it is also a topic of discussion at the schools. Some decisions have finally been made around the calendar and school day for next year. The Board has approved the calendar for the 2012-13 school year. It took longer than usual this year, but had much input from the BEA along the way (very much appreciated). You can see the calendar on our website: www.bsdvt.org. BHS will be starting earlier than usual, with students returning on August 27^th and staff returning on August 22^nd. We will have an all-faculty welcome on August 24^th, which is the first day for K-8 staff. K-8 students return on August 29^th. The reason for this differentiated schedule, as requested by the high school, is the first steps of the work they are doing to transform learning at BHS. Starting early allows them to finish the first semester at the December break and start the second semester in January. This allows the second semester to end in May and to use June as a Year End Studies program, a program focused on student centered learning and choice projects. Next year will also be the first year of the new 9^th Grade Academy. Stay tuned for more information on this; it could be a good topic for a future column. K-8 will follow our traditional schedule. An additional change this year is that MLK Day will be a no student, no staff day in 2013 as the Board studies how it should best be used in the future.

A change at K-5 next year is an increase in the student day by 15 minutes. With the change in the planning time with the last contract, students lost 15 minutes of core instructional time each day, which totals quite a bit of lost time annually. As all of our schools are designated as not meeting the standard, and with a focus on improving literacy and math scores across the District, this loss of core instructional time does not make sense. The teacher day, however, remains at 7:45-3:30, with one meeting that can go an hour after school once per week, per the contract. We had made this change at the middle schools awhile back.

As you root around the website for the calendar, take note of our new look! We will be adding the layers to this site in the background as we go, but the front page is quite different and, we hope, easier to navigate. This site will not need webmasters and is easy to update. It is available to all schools and will be made available to teachers as well in the future.

Enjoy April break. I am wishing flowers and sunshine for everyone!

Jeanné

 

North Avenue News – April Superintendent’s Message

Greetings all. I must start with a heartfelt thank you for supporting Burlington’s children in the budget vote this year. It was a very complicated year, with a complicated story, and one we do not plan to repeat in the future! Our schools serve nearly 4000 students, with a variety of complex needs, and we do it very well. With a post secondary rate of over 80% and a drop out rate under 3%, with the awards our students and faculty receive, it is a school district to be proud of and the faculty, administration, Board and I appreciate the support of our community in keeping our system excellent for all students. Thank you.

We are moving forward with the high school transformation work which includes the 1:1 technology planning. We have approved bids for a wireless infrastructure for BHS and EMS (HMS is already complete). The cost for BHS will come from the Nellie Mae grant. We are under discussion with teachers and administrators about what hardware to use, with the criteria being what is most related to the educational needs of students and teachers.The team of 9th grade BHS teachers is meeting on a regular basis, and plans are underway for a 5-day intensive School Development Institute in June. We are having discussions about a class option for a student-run help desk, to deal with tier one support and training issues. This will also engage students more fully in the ownership of the computers. We plan to talk a team of high school teachers and tech staff to visit Burlington High School in Burlington, MA where they have miplemented an iPad curriculum for grades 9-12, and we hare having discussions with Franklin West and Franklin Northwest here in VT about their implementation of iPads across middle and high school grades. The Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education is supporting our work at the middle school level, as they have supported the current project at EMS for the last three years. A large focus is on staff professional development, as integrating technology does change the way one teachers significantly as it increases student engagement. We will continue to update you, the community on these plans as we move forward and will be asking for your input along the way as we work to transform our secondary education in Burlington.

Spotlight – Superintendent’s Column

Greetings all,                                                                                       

After last week’s summer weather, it is difficult to return to March! But as the year is winding down fast, the cooler weather helps us and the students stay focused on school.

I would like to invite any of you who are interested to a Tea with Jeanné, April 4^th from 3:30 – 4:30 at Hunt Library. This, my   second Tea, will include Dan Balón, Diversity and Equity Director, and will focus on the discussion of diversity within the District. There has been much external discussion of late, and not all of it leads to a feeling of support and safety for our own talks. Thus, I would love to have a discussion, answer questions, whatever you need to do, to help provide that sense of support and clarity and to have Dan present and available for this discussion as well. I do intend to hold one more Tea before the end of the year and hope to have Mayor Weinberger present, if possible, so any faculty or staff can talk with him as he takes over the helm of the City. Stay tuned for date and time (likely May).

With the passage of the budget, we are moving forward with our 1:1 technology plan. Bids for wireless infrastructure for BHS and EMS have been approved. HMS was completed last summer. Discussions with teachers and administrators at BHS are underway as we consider a variety of parameters before determining what device will be used, per the educational needs of the students and teachers. The iPad is being discussed and  analyzed for possibilities and drawbacks. A visit to Burlington, MA to see how they have implemented an iPad curriculum is planned for a team of high school teachers. Plans are also underway for a five-day intensive School Development Institute in June at BHS. There are discussions about a credit class for a student-run help desk, to deal with tier one support and training issues. Discussions have started at the middle schools and we plan an open house for teachers to meet and ask questions as well.

As this plan rolls out, professional development will be key for teachers and we are talking with the Tarrant Foundation who has partnered with the Navigator Team at EMS to provide PD for teachers. Teachers across the District will have a chance to learn more about integrating technology more fully into learning environments. This is a very exciting time, as we envision a new forum for delivery of education—exciting for teachers and for students as we recognize the capacity of our students that is opened up with the use of technology. I will provide periodic updates for you as we move forward. 

Jeanné

 

My Response to 7 Days Article on Race Impact in Burlington Schools

Ken Picard’s article last week certainly disclosed the views of some former school district employees. But it did not shed light on all of the successful work we do every day on diversity issues. While we may not always get things right, and it may take awhile to change paradigms in both the school and larger community, the people who work in Burlington schools care deelply about issues of race and equity and have been working with laser focus to improve the education of our students.

 

I would like to share a few of the areas of focus in our schools. To improve recruitment and retention, we have revised our hiring processes for licensed educators. Our students will graduate into a very diverse work force and we have the unique opportunity to give them a diverse community right here. We have set our sights on diversifying the racial/ethnic makeup of our faculty to match our student body. In addition, we have identified basic criteria to ensure all new hires are culturally competent to teach our diverse student population. 

 

Professional Development for our faculty and staff is also an area of focus. We hold book studies for administration, teachers and the community, using the book Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn Singleton and Curis Littleton. All interviewing committees and staff receive a 3 hour training in cultural bias awareness and in our affirmative hiring practices. We invited in Dr. Paul Gorski, an author and national expert, to speak with educators and community members on how to be a better multicultural educator. 

 

We know we can’t eradicate racism alone. It takes a community. Thus the Board created a community task force to look at best practices in diversity and make recommendations for a strategic plan to be written by the Board by Oct. 2012. Just last week, we held a town meeting to gather feedback on that report. We also offer ongoing community discussions about race and about our particular cultural groups in Burlington. 

 

Change must start at the leadership level. To this end, the Board has a committee focused on Diversity and Equity, whose charge is to look at these issues. Our diversity office is working on an annual report card which will highlight data to be shared annually with the community. We are in the midst of revising our harassment policy, to be followed by district wide training when complete. 

 

The issues of race, diversity and equity are part of our every day lives. In my time in Burlington Schools, the awareness and focus on these issues has been constnt; right now we are turning up the heat. Progess will require a steady hand and consistently and unabashedly putting one foot in front of the other, including the community in solutions. I appreciate the commitment of the Burlington faculty and administration in working on these issues. Our goal is clear: to ensure our school community is welcoming, just and safe for all students and families. 

 

Chinese Opportunities at BHS

A message from Keith Pillsbury, Board Chair

I have just returned from an event at Champlain College with Amy Mellencamp, Mr. Hao, and Kathy Chasan sponsored by their office of international education. I met with and enjoyed an elegant meal with a delegation from Shanghai Datong High School. We have signed a MOU which will allow for a student exchange program between the high schools. Students from Datong will be coming to BHS for a year and BHS students may study a year at Datong high school in a program that is taught in English with Chinese language instruction. Champlain College is sponsoring this program as a way to attract more Chinese students to Vermont higher institutions and to create economic ties between Vermont and China.
I have made connections with the Datong principal and an English speaking teacher that will facilitate my visiting the school when I go to China in May.
Mr. Hao and I had a long conversation about ways to increase student enrollment in Chinese.
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BHS offers unique opportunities for our students. By the way Mr. Hao is taking students to China in April. BHS students will be going with their Spanish teacher to Peru next spring.
Thought you would like to know,
Keith