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6. Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Proclamation— • In 2010 it was 1/125 children identified with Autism, 2020 1/54 are identified with Autism. The reason for bringing this forward at this point that we are changing the language from Awareness to Acceptance. • MI -Moved to adopt the Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Proclamation; TG Seconded—7 yea, 0 nay, JB abstain • SB will take to School Committee. • MDR Will send to Select Board. 7. Racial Disparities in Lexington Work group presented by Work group Members Matthew Cohen and Manasi Singhal • The information in this presentation was gathered from Town wide surveys and a 2019-2020 Employee Diversity Survey and is publicly available. • The goal of this presentation is to look at where we are and how we can move forward toward more diversity. • Key Suggestions for Areas of Growth • Employ the "Rooney Rule" in interviewing/hiring process. Making sure for every available position we are interviewing one or more POC. • Work on increasing Lexington's attractiveness to people of color. • Foster cross-cultural connections and events. • Increase diversity in Town leadership. • Provide regular data collection and analysis so that we make sure we are making continued progress. • Remember"Nothing about us without us" —that we need listen to minority voices when making decisions. • Committee member questions/comments • CC—Would like to see a breakdown of the municipal employee demographics. • SB —LPS is making great strides with the hiring of Johnny Cole as Director of Diversity and Equity. • FY—Disappointing that we haven't made more progress in hiring diverse staff in the schools. Why don't we get a larger pool of candidates? We need to have more diversity in our town staff. Disclosed personal story of how, as a CPA, she applied for a town position and never even got an acknowledgement back, and that her daughter has also applied for a position and never got a call back. Also shared how excited her daughter was when she came home from school one day because her teacher looked like her. How important it is for our teachers to reflect the race and culture of our children. • SH—How do we encourage or advertise to our minority community the importance of engaging in town committees and boards. We should reach out to our METCO parents to get more involved and that we want them involved. • TG mentioned the Asian Communities report titled Civic Participation by Asian Residents of Lexington: Experiences, Findings and Recommendations provides great suggestions.