There are times you sit through a meeting and feel exhausted once the session is done. I felt that way as I walked away from the newly-remodeled Hamilton Southeastern Schools Administration Building Tuesday morning.
I was not a participant, I was covering the meeting as a reporter, but the discussion was revealing and often pointed.
The subjects were Equity and Inclusion and the discussion was led by Dr. Erica Buchanan Rivera, Equity & Inclusion Officer for HSE Schools.
Ms. Buchanan Rivera spent time explaining to board members how she helps teachers with questions on how to handle specific situations they need to handle in their classrooms related to equity and inclusion.
There was a lively discussion about gender equity, treatment of transgender students and how to address the academic performance of many minority groups in the HSE Schools student population.
The school district must be quick to respond when an incident happens, but Buchanan Rivera says HSE Schools need to be more proactive in handling such situations.
Buchanan Rivera presented an action plan for meeting certain goals, and reviewed the groups and committees throughout the school corporation that are working on equity and inclusion issues now.
I am sure many of the board members and HSE staff at this work session felt a little exhausted too, but much was accomplished during the meeting.
Larry – As always, a huge THANK YOU for attending and covering a lot of these meetings happening around town. This would have been one that if webcasted, I’m sure a lot of people would have come to watch the video. Since it wasn’t, can you summarize any of the key points that were made as well as any decisions that might have come out of the meeting?
Did the question of “why are minorities performing at lower levels” get addressed? I know in previous board meetings there was a reference to lack of diversity in the teaching staff. Did any hard data get presented on what might be leading to the differences in performance? With the new dashboards the administration has, hopefully they’ll be able to better analyze the data to determine if there are factors impacting this that can be addressed.
Matt Burke raised the issue of minority performance, but this was focused more on larger issues. On the staffing issue, administrators say they are actively seeking minority staff members but they are extremely hard to find, all school districts need more diverse staffing. Keep in mind (my comment alone) fewer people in general are entering the teaching profession. The data tools were not addressed specifically, nor specific student performance data, but I believe you were in attendance when Dr. Bourff demonstrated the new system. I had to be a little more brief in this story because I have other commitments this week…perhaps I’ll write more about what I heard at a later date.