The Work Begins

The presentation to the district went well, followed by a very constructive meeting. The response from the district was positive, and we're pleased to report we are now officially working with the district. Since that time, we have met several times, and as a result, have formed 3 subgroups, in order to address each area most effectively. The subgroups meet to work on their particular issues, and report back to the larger group. The 3 work groups are:

1. Personnel
2. Discipline
3. Expectations & Programs

Each work group includes an assistant superintendent from the district, parent members, and community members from organizations such as the Lynnwood Diversity Commission and C3 (Communities of Color Coalition). The Expectations and Programs work group includes a student representative, and some groups have recently added other representatives from the district. We are working to increase student, parent, and community involvement.

Each of the work groups has met now independently. The first order of business was to discuss statistics provided by the district, showing trends in each of the 3 areas. The groups are now working to clarify and interpret the data.

We also went, in teams of 2, to various high schools and middle schools in the district. Each team had a parent and an assistant superintendent. We met with the principal at each school to discuss adding staff representatives to the work groups, and to brainstorm about student and staff involvement. At one high school, the team will return to meet with counselors and involve them in the work. We're especially interested in counselors' input, given the nature of their connection to students.

We're very encouraged and excited about the progress made so far, and are looking forward to continuing the work.

Upcoming Meeting With the District

Eureka! We have a meeting date. After reviewing our document, the district has agreed to meet with us, which is very positive news.

For those of you just tuning in, the group has been working very hard toward the goal of meeting with the Edmonds School District to present our concerns. Here is the basic timeline up to this point:

1. Share our stories
2. Identify the issues
3. Prioritize pinpoint the three most critical issues
4. Determine the root causes behind those three issues
5. Create a document outlining our concerns to the district
6. Ask for a meeting with the district

That's where we are now. The next steps are:

1. Create a presentation
2. Meet with the district

According to the Lynnwood Diversity Commission, the district is very much looking forward to meeting with our group, and is very interested in hearing our concerns.

Meeting Info:

Date: August 23, 2007
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Edmonds School District building, 68th Ave., between Edmonds Community College and the courthouse.

Prioritizing the Issues

At the previous meeting, the group had worked to identify issues affecting students of color. At the June 23rd meeting, we took the next step, prioritizing those issues to pinpoint the three that we believe to be the most critical.

As before, this was no easy process, as all the issues affecting our students are very important.

We are very grateful for the students' input in this process, as their prioritized list was a bit different than the adults' list. Combining those lists, we were able to see the following three areas as the top issues:

1. Personnel (administration, faculty and staff)
2. Discipline
3. Expectations and Programs
   

The next step was getting to the bottom of these issues to determine the root causes behind them; again, an emotionally challenging but necessary task.

We believe we have identified the root causes that are behind many of the things our students are experiencing at school. This would not have been possible without the input of the students and families, and the support of various community members.

From there, the plan is to create a document to share our concerns with the district. I hope to be able to link to the document here, so that we can also share it with all of you.

Sharing Our Stories

The group meeting on June 2nd was a great opportunity for families to share their stories. It was not always easy, but the knowledge that we are not alone and that we share a desire to address these issues was very empowering.

In addition to the families and students, representatives from the following organizations were present to offer their support:

• Lynnwood Diversity Commission
• Communities of Color Coalition (C3)
• Washington Community Action Network (Washington CAN!)
• Washington Human Rights Commission
  

Sharing our stories was at times emotional, but the process showed that there are many similar experiences thoughout our communities. Our hope is to communicate that these are not isolated incidents, but are systemic issues affecting our students in many different ways.

We worked to identify some of these issues that our students are dealing with in school. Thanks to the Lynnwood Diversity Commission for helping to keep us on track and see past our emotions to the common issues at the core of our stories.

We used a "fishbone" structure to map out our ideas: a fish "skeleton" was drawn on the whiteboard, with each bone representing an idea or issue, such as confidentiality, low expectations, teachers, classes, cultural understanding, respect, dress & appearance, communication, accountability, security officers, training, parental involvement, discipline, and programs.

As you can see, there were a lot of ideas; it was one long fish.

The group plans to meet again on June 23rd to begin the process of prioritizing these issues and identifying the root causes behind them. We will dialogue about possible ways of working with the district to address the issues.

We thank the families, students and community members who were able to make the time to attend, and we're looking forward to the next meeting.

More news to follow!

The info for the next meeting is as follows:

Date: Saturday, June 23rd
Time: 1:00pm
Location: Lynnwood Main Fire Department, 44th Ave. & 188th St., conference room