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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-02-10-LHRC-min Town of Lexington, Human Rights Committee Meeting RECEIVED Thursday, February 10, 2021 Virtual 2022 12 May, 11 57 ui °m TOWN CLERK 8:30a.m.- 10:36a.m. LEXINGTON MA Present Members: Tanya Gisolfi [TG] (Chair), Monami D. Roy [MDR] (Vice Chair), Stephanie Hsu [SH] (Clerk), Christina Lin [CL], Larry Freeman [LF], Melissa Interess [MI] (Town Manager's Office Member/Human Services Department), Chris Barry [CB] (Police Department), Cleveland Coates [CC], Scott Bokun [SB] (School Committee Member) Guests: Julie Hackett, Johnny Cole, Andrew Stephens, Maureen Kavanaugh, Becky Wilusz, Dane Despres, Jennifer Turner, Chris Wai Meeting called to order at 8:31 AM, Quorum was present at 8:31 AM 1. Welcome 2. Lexington Public Schools (LPS) Update on Efforts to Reduce Systemic Barriers to Equity — 2022-01-01 LPS Report on Efforts to Reduce Systemic Barriers o Equity) o Formal reporting and partnership with LHRC began 3 years ago. For many years prior, LPS has incorporated DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work into its strategic plan including input from constituencies and stakeholders to work on reducing equity gaps, promoting meaningful inclusion and integration so that everyone in LPS has a sense of belonging and a feeling of safety at school. o Work has included addressing disparate school disciplinary practices, access to advanced coursework and inclusion in the general education learning environment, Dr. Hackett recognized that while much has been accomplished much still needs to be done. o LPS has tried to connect its strategic plan to its partnership with LHRC and expressed appreciation for LHRC's feedback and suggestions. LPS Reported efforts on ensuring a diverse workforce including critically examining current hiring practices and processes. One third of LPS new hires, including at the administrative level, have been individuals who identify as people of color and/or Latinx/Hispanic". o LPS is trying to improve retention of diverse staff, including formalizing affinity groups, and offering stipends to facilitators. Since 2019 racial and ethnic diversity has improved, especially for Units A&C teaching positions (INSERT WEBSITE LINK). o Committee Questions: o LHRC Member question on whether there is mandatory DEI training for all building leaders and staff including recess monitor and coaches, also is there any mechanism for all staff to check individual progress on DEI? Dr Hackett responded that professional learning days are structured around both mandatory and optional development. LPS keeps track of what training the administration has done across the district. 100% of LPS workforce has engaged in some training and approximately 20% have engaged in in-depth graduatelevel coursework focused on DEI and LPS is seeing steady gains. LPS leadership at all levels have completed some DEI training including sometimes graduate levels type coursework. Re: athletic coaches, talking with athletic director Naomi Martin about requiring training and LPS hoping to put training into place. All members of the LPS administrative team will have completed about 12-25 hours of graduate level coursework, but there is no mandatory requirement for cultural competency or DEI training or professional development coursework/training. o LPS is Looking to make work more systematic by collecting data o Multiple LHRC members raised concern that LPS DEI efforts should not be limited to an attempt to mirror the "diverse" population, but instead the goal should be to hire a diverse staff across all levels, all cultural, identities, structural positions in all areas because that helps LPS students become culturally competent in the broader global community. Merely looking to mirror our population effectively is further marginalizing the marginalized, because we're not actually helping those kids who don't see themselves within the curriculum or staff. Additionally, many African American teachers and more broadly, African American people have historic and generational experience of curriculum and representational exclusion. Thus, it would be very helpful for all students to have African American teachers and administrators and for LPS to understand student experiences on a deeper broader cultural level. o LPS responded that they are developing a diverse curriculum (PreK-12) with community input and adoption of the Learning for Justice (_ ps://www.learnin orjus ice.or ) social justice model. LPS curriculum will eventually address identity, diversity, justice, and action. o LPS reports that it is looking to better incorporate student perceptions and students' voices. One example is studying the data from the annual student climate survey that was developed by the state measuring student perceptions regarding instructional relevance. LPS reported that in some cases Black/African American subgroup was not large enough to provide data regarding harassment, disparities, and disparate treatment within LPS. o LPS reported MCAS achievement gaps for two key subgroups SPED students and LPS Black/African American students - - for high school, gaps notably widened, while some gaps lessened from previous years with SPED students in elementary and middle school level. o LPS reported continued underrepresentation of Black, SPED and "Hispanic" students in honors/AP and overrepresentation in CP2 courses. In response, LPS reported that this is the first year with changed 8th grade math content and collapsed math levels; also changed HS math placement process; students were encouraged to enroll in advanced math courses as they went into high school; hopefully translating into an increase in the number of students enrolled in math to as freshmen and improvements in course enrollment disparities. o LPS reported that the LPS Inclusion CIT will in the future present a report/ presentation with specific recommendations around universal design for learning (UDL) multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to support access to all student supports within the general education classroom. o LPS reported that they found Black/African American students were at a greater risk of being identified with a communication disability ( sm//wwwm oe.mass.e u/shed/rinks/s eec m ml) and/or a specific learning disability (_ t psm//wwwm oe.mass.e u/sped/linksZlearn isa ili y. mi) but not other disability types. o LPS reports that they are working to address disproportionate uses of suspension and student discipline; by avoiding exclusionary practices and/or using restorative practices and restorative justice and have seen lowered suspension rates. o LPS is examining how staff are informed by their own bias or different expectations for different groups. While LPS has seen an increase in challenging behaviors both in frequency and severity at the beginning of the current school year, post pandemic, suspension, or emergency room removal as a form of discipline, as reported by LPS, appears to be on track as lower than pre pandemic levels. o Unfortunately, LPS reports seeing similar disproportionality for SPED and Black/African American students with office for administrative referrals for behavior. LPS launched a new data collection procedure for documenting office referrals and saw evidence of disparities, where Black/African American and SPED students are more likely to receive behavioral referrals to administrators. o LPS discussed bullying and harassment of LGBTQ community and noted ongoing work of the SHAC LGBTQ subcommittee to change culture. LPS also mentioned launching the SHAC neurodiversity subcommittee. o Bullying reports collected by LPS identified that racial discrimination is the still largest type of reported harassment/bullying. o There are also higher rates of bullying for LGBTQIA+; cisgender females; Middle Eastern, North African, or Arab American students (vs straight cisgender White Male peers), students on IEPs or 504 plans (vs non-disabled peers) o LPS reported reduction of verbal threats to LGBTQIA+ students showing a narrowing of disparities vs other groups. While some LGBTQIA+ students report feeling sad or hopeless, LPS reported significant reduction in suicidal ideation and other previously reported disparities vs other groups. o Chair thanked LPS for the tremendous work that obviously went into preparing this presentation and for all members who took time out of their busy day to attend. Noted that work started 4+ years ago under her predecessor chairs Sean Osborne and Mona Roy and commented that things are definitely moving in the right direction. Committee is grateful for all the work that the entire LPS community has put in. o School liaison requested that the report be linked on the LPS DEI webpage which is linked to the LPS homepage and to the homepages of all the public schools o LF—thanked LPS for the presentation and noted that there is no data for Black/African American students and LPS answered that the state will not give data if a group is smaller than 10 or 20 students. o LF—asked if the LPS report captured data on students who were absent due to medical reasons and LPS answered no. o CL-- Appreciate the report and progress over the last few years and noted the in-depth analysis is a great example for the town on how to measure progress. Re: slide 17, it looks like there is an increasing trend of office referrals for Black/African American and SPED students. LPS responded that it is not a trend but a change in data collection, data on office referrals, a precursor to suspensions, is now collected and they too disproportionately increase by grade level and are consistent with the unfortunate disproportionality in suspensions. o The benefit of collecting this information is to examine proportions and patterns. Secondary teams are looking at data regularly to try to adjust in "real time" (within a year) but also reconsider and reexamine long term strategies. LPS is looking at alternatives to exclusionary discipline and working to building better community thereby enhancing the culture and climate of LPS schools. o MDR asked about middle school de-leveling, and noted multiple parents and students report that students in LHS advanced classes often don't get their legally prescribed accommodations, and/or they don't get their full accommodations and/or there's resistance when trying to obtain those accommodations. o MDR noting prevalence and disproportionality of reading disabilities. To mitigate this in the future can LPS publish procedures on how kids are identified, how interventions are given to bring parents in early and empower them so that they are partners in this work. Often parents don't know what they don't know and rely on LPS to notify them that their child is struggling in any way. o MDR asked will anti-racism principles be incorporated into UDL (Universal Design for Learning)? o MDR concerned that Black/African American and SPED students might under report bullying, harassment, micro aggressions, and feeling of fear and sadness, questioning why we aren't able to capture this concern in YRBS data? o MDR Re: bullying noting slide for LGBTQ students, is there a similar slide for SPED and Black/African American students given that LPS data shows that they are more likely to be bullied? o MDR thanked LPS for its efforts in decolonizing curriculum and hope that there will be more representation of contributions not only in history and English but also science and math. o MDR noted recurring concern about lack of access to extracurricular for SPED students and other issues surrounding SPED students but due to the time limit would follow up later. However, the committee is gratified to see this work and tremendous progress -- as I was one of the people in public on mic raising this concern four + years ago. Thank you. o Dr. Hackett noted that without the community's hard questions and pushing LPS we might not be where it is today. So as much as it's difficult and as much as we all think we're doing the very best we can do, we still need that pressure to continue, so we can do better for our students and that's why we're here. o LPS answered math and science curriculum concerns noting they are working towards more representation in the STEM fields with evaluation rubrics used in the classroom setting. o Dr. Stephens and Dr. Hackett both noted that LPS is no longer waiting until 10 days of suspension to do a manifestation determination for special education students. (i.e. - Is the conduct a direct result of the district's failure to implement the IEP? 34 CFR § 300.530(e) Does the conduct have a direct and substantial relationship to the disability) There is also more collaborative work on supporting the student during discipline (suspensions or referrals) including conversations with the entire Student Support Team and not just the identified teacher and Dean for SPED kids. LPS also now examines if the right supports are in place, asks how to further support the student, and questions if these behaviors are indicating that further interventions are needed, rather than discipline. LPS looking at accumulation of smaller offenses to determine if there is a pattern or opportunity to see the larger picture. This may not result in a suspension but instead in a team meeting. o Staff is working together as a team when there is an incident, and all students are now offered an opportunity to bring in a trusted adult for additional support. o Johnny Cole confirmed that anti-racism principles will be brought into UDL framework at some point in the future, but no time frame was given. o Johnny Cole addressed bullying of SPED students; this issue is part of the annual IEP review; concerns around underreporting are certainly valid; it's something that LPS is aware of and are trying to think about how to assess. o LPS noted that there will be an uptick in reporting as they attempt to build trust and confidence that LPS will address these harms. o Re: AP recommendations, Dr. Stephens noted that IEPs (including accommodations) must be followed. Please address any questions with the teacher and SPED liaisons and then with department heads. Dr. Stephens asked that LHRC be an ally to encourage more direct communication of concerns. He also mentioned issues may increase with de-leveling. o MDR expressed concern that SPED students in honors or AP classes—even now where these SPED students are specifically recommended for these upper-level courses —are struggling when it's time to advocate for accommodations because many SPED students are not able to advocate for themselves as is often noted in their IEPs. Additionally, many SPED students are uncomfortable asking for accommodations, as they truly do not wish to need them. As LPS moves towards a more expansive model, AP and honors teachers need to be more proactive. o Andrew Stephens (LHS) admitted that at LHS the culture is to expect students to manage LHS by themselves. LHS prefers no advocacy or involvement from parents. LPS acknowledges through the strategic planning process LHS should move away from that expectation because it's hard for some students as a function of their disability to meet those expectations. LHS does want to make sure that we're supportive, Dr. Stephens noted that these exact concerns were stated almost precisely yesterday at admin council. o Dane Depres (Clarke Middle School) also noted MTSS (multi-tiered system of supports), in looking at other accommodation or other interventions to provide students progressive supports, mentioning that LPS is trying to be vertically aligned across grades and across schools and trying to identify where there are missing interventions at each level, developing innovation plans, studying data, laying the groundwork this year and sharing out our practices, supports for students as LPS becomes more inclusive and try to encourage students of all identities to access upper- level courses. For example, changing the math intervention course to make it more of a math workshop course where any student can choose to take the math workshop, which allows students access to extra math assistance three times a week. o Chris Wai (Hastings Elementary School) In terms of just equity and diversity. I think one of the challenges is trying to move forward with the work while also developing skill for new staff. To address this the Elementary schools are documenting and tracking their work on a shared drive so there is no need to recreate the wheel each year with new programing. o Andrew Stephens (LHS) — mentioned discussions at LHS on general education teacher best practices and better access; they are trying to build a bank of best practice strategies to make lessons more accessible (e.g., teacher notes to take home) but also want to have student develop note taking skills. So, for example, providing note templates for instance for every kid, or perhaps specifically providing a student with the key the core points that they need, or some students may need more; much of this is contextual to the student, and it's also UDL at the same time. o MDR - As noted in the presentation earlier, a higher proportion of Black/African Americans students are at a greater risk of being identified with communication/language disabilities. To what extent will the literacy assessment and intervention procedures be published on websites so that parents are aware sooner and can be more active partners early on? We know that early intervention is key to long term success of the whole student. I know LPS is doing good work, but it's very important to have objective measures published so that it prevents any unconscious bias and encourages early intervention. o Dr. H Yes. part of the broader umbrella of the MTSS work is to try to flush out systems and structures and make more the work more transparent (e.g., website which parents could access which would enumerate those steps so that we can better partner). All of this is part of a bigger conversation, including the equity piece and social emotional learning. LPS also not losing sight of the district vision, and our strategic plan which talks about redefining success and so, not only prioritizing the academic pieces of an education, but also the social, emotional experiences that are important for children and how to integrate equity into the work is always part of the conversation. So awesome questions thank you. LPS need people with all the levers of change, helping to drive this work forward o MDR noted with gratitude LPS's leadership in decolonizing the curriculum o TG noted joint letter from Johnny Cole and Lexington's chief equity officer, Martha Duffield, who both wrote letter in support of the CARE act (S365) regarding the importance of inclusive curriculum where all students, regardless of ethnic background or cultural position, can see themselves represented in the entire curriculum K-12. 3. Minutes—SB motion to approve the 12/9/21 minutes; CC second; approved unanimously 4. Parent Academy co-sponsorship— Official request by SHAC for co-sponsorship will be submitted for March, but the flyer will be finished soon, and we would like to be listed as a co-sponsor. SH motion to co-sponsorship of 2022 Parent Academy; LF second; Approved unanimously 5. Workgroup Update: a. Race Amity— SH will begin forming the workgroup for this program and is looking for volunteers. b. Effects of COVID on Persons with Disabilities —SH reported the workgroup is launching their community outreach for stories and will forward the flyer and email to the committee to share. 6. Chair Report 7. Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Anticipated in Advance —Thank you to Scott Bokun for his service to the LHRC, appreciate all you have done for our community. 8. Public Comments for Items Not on the Agenda - None SB motion to adjourn; CL second; Approved unanimously Next Meeting Date and Time: March 10, 2021, at 8:30am Attachments: Chair Report Presentation - Report on Efforts to Reduce Systemic Barriers to Equity: Annual Update January 2022 Iage8of