The Underdogs Get a Bone

Well, well, well. So yesterday was our first "working meeting" with the district. They did sort of try to drive the bus, which we expected, but I have to say this for them -- they were very open to all of our suggested adjustments. I think they actually do realize that this is a growing issue in the district, and I'm pretty sure they had long been at the point of, "Oh shit, this isn't going away, it's getting worse and our methods aren't working ... what now?" They seem genuinely appreciative and respectful of our "expertise".

Hmm.

We're kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's almost too easy. However, we asked directly what kind of training/awareness they have, and I was happy to hear that all three of the ass't superintendents have been through the Undoing Racism training facilitated by the People's Institute out of New Orleans. That's encouraging. It's some pretty intense training on institutional racism. It is most likely a large part of the reason we're facing cooperation rather than opposition.

One of the assistant superintendents worked in Arlington, VA, and said there were some really dynamic parent groups there -- she seems really passionate about getting things going here, and glad to have our input. Another, whom I will be working with on Personnel, is more quiet, but she seems on board so far, as does the last guy.

Huh.


So they were all gung-ho about splitting up into the work teams. We said we feel it's important to talk about our understanding of the issues, where do they believe these problem stem from, what training have they had, what is their level of understanding. We also said we'd like to spend time discussing how institutional racism and privilege are affecting students as opposed to personal prejudices, so that we're operating from the same base.

Once they put it out that they'd been through the Undoing Racism training, I expected them to just say, oh, you can see we're up to speed, we're good as far as that goes, let's move on. But they didn't.

When we said we believed that training for them, for the group as a whole, was important before we could move on, they suggested setting an entire day set aside for that. Asked us what type of training we envisioned. Said they'd support bringing in facilitators. Asked us what we thought would be most effective. Said maybe it could be used as a model to train teachers, counselors and other personnel later, as an addition to Undoing Racism, as that is expensive, has limited capacity, and is only offered at certain times. (that and it doesn't sugar coat it ... we figure they want to start out more warm and fuzzy. Sigh.0

Huh.


Furthermore, they asked us if we'd be willing to give our presentation (ohgawdnotagain) at one of their regular administrators' meeting. This is ALL the administrators. All the principals, assistant principals, advisors, program managers from transportation, food service ... la-dee da-dee everybody. They said our presentation was so powerful that they want all their administrators to see it, so they will know where this work is coming from.

OK ...

We were all kind of looking at each other trying to communicate "Do you believe this shit?" to each other without being obvious. One of our members said that sounds very good, but we don't believe it would be effective to just bring our dog and pony show without the express support of the top level district -- you know, looking like a plea for support from the bottom that they can buy into or not. (One of the points in our presentation was that diversity efforts are currently decentralized; each principal has authority over his/her school -- we believe it has to come from the district for consistency, so that every student benefits, not just some) Their immediate response was absolutely, that's the purpose -- it will be presented so that everyone knows we are there at the request of and with the backing of the superintendent.

Huh.

So we agreed to do that. It will happen September 18th.

Teen Demon was there, and is going to work on a project to bring the Multicultural Clubs/Diversity Clubs from all 4 high schools together in some sort of event. She is also going to share the student survey that she helped do for her Multicultural Club, and get that implemented district wide. Watching her talk to these guys, you'd think she'd been doing this for years. This is going to be great experience for her.

Now we have to figure out what we want to see for the training day --- this is a tremendous opportunity to get this info where it needs to go: to the guys who hold the power. The gatekeepers. We did not expect to have that chance.


So we're going to run with it. The other shoe may be waiting to drop, for now, we're going to run with it. Who'da thought?