Working Meeting — advocacy priorities and meeting design

9/22 Working meeting agenda draft

• Welcome and introductions were held; individual attendance and personal icebreaker details were omitted.

Breakout groups: How are you coming into the meeting tonight?

Color Brave Space norms reflection: @Carrie Sekijima Lam

• Examples of the color brave space norms, noticing that the open house table was mostly white parents, and recognizing that as an issue. Looking at our group and recognizing that working with the faces that are here is not good enough, and we need to examine how to ensure that all of the members of our community are represented and feel comfortable in the meeting. Noticing the privilege of being white, and links to the challenges Metro faces with brining in diverse voices. These are heavy and have a lot to be considered.
• Does the group that created the color brave space norms have deeper discussion on these norms? Answer They have a blog with some additional information. https://fakequity.com/2017/05/26/color-brave-space-how-to-run-a-better-equity-focused-meeting/
• Consider reaching out to talk to members of the meeting to build community
• The group discussed maintaining a sustainable pace for PTSA work.

Breakout groups: Con

• Group 1 for Charissa, @Deb Bartley, new folks (anyone else want to help welcome? @Jen Mayer - just remembered your willingness to help facilitate this meeting; want to help welcome new folks with us?)
• Hear what people are excited to try at Kimball / what skills they want to bring to the community
• Share list of ways to plug in
• Group 2 for everyone else, facilitated by @Kelly Sommerfeld

Notes: Last weeks advocacy meeting. Grounding in values and using those to guide our choices. How to prioritize the different activities of the PTSA. Thinking of some of these as generational work, we need to further the cause, but it will not be completed.

• Discussion included remote access, transportation, quarantine impacts, and ways to remove barriers to daily education.
• Carrie Sekijima Lam - Funding Family Support Worker for our school and all others in D7. Interested in advocating for this at the district level.
• Tracey - What is the role of the family support worker? - Carrie - can vary from school to school, previous helped students get uniforms. Helped connect families to resources. Has more access to families and confidential information, and can access a cohort of other support workers.
• Tracey - Family support worker has the power and voice to lift up the most marginalized communities including being plugged into translation and interpretation.
• Alaron - Involved again in the move-a-thon and “equitable fundraising” across D7. Excited about doing this again, but does not need to be a priority for all PTSA
• Kelly - Family support worker a priority - helping support and empower those farthest from educational justice, and a group that the PTSA does not always easily connect with. System currently funds family support for schools with a certain number of free and reduced lunches families, and kimball has been just under this limit, why have a limit? If there are families that need this support than schools should have this.
• Michelle B - Agrees on the family support worker and interested in helping support equitable fundraising.

review possible advocacy priorities

• Any others to add?
• What is your top priority issue? How does that align with your individual values and PTSA collective values?
• How to get further input from community / BIPOC parent reps?

1. fully funded Family Support Worker,

• 1. fully funding education,
• 1. translation/interpretation,
• 1. winter gear,
• 1. transportation,
• 1. outdoor lunch,
• 1. healthy and adequate breakfast/lunch,
• 1. library book fines,
• 1. ventilation (at OVA and at new Kimball building – wildfire smoke),
• 1. equitable fundraising,
• 1. timely and informative communication to families (centralized approach so admin does not have to answer hundreds of individual emails about similar issues)
• Vote on which seem the most important to focus on this school year

Classroom budget for Special Education question (@Adi Maxwell) - Ask at a future meeting.

Thoughts about future meetings (@Charissa Pomrehn)

• Meeting formats, delegation, and sustainable facilitation were discussed.
• -Let’s do less than last year (6)
• -Another parent/s can take point
• -We can try to piggyback off what Ms Gray and Mr Luis organize
• -Let go of the idea until someone has energy and inspiration
• -Accept that gathering our community will happen in working meetings and affinity group meetings (Black, Asian, Latinx, White affinity)
• -Other ideas?

What has been the purpose of community meetings in the past? Bring community together and tell them what was going on in the PTSA. Also allowed the parents to talk to the administrators at the school.

• KT - important to keep the piece allowing the PTSA members to talk to the administration at the community meeting. Giving parents and students the opportunity to voice concerns and potential changes to the administration.
• Kelly - interested in the community building that can happen in working meetings, and interested in how to bring the administration in to the working meeting
• Jen Mayer - Combined events and information about classroom activities and gave kids prizes when families attended.
• If anyone wants to help with working meetings or facilitate a community meeting please let Charissa know.

Next working meeting October 13th.

One-word checkout: What's one thing (a feeling, a thought) you're leaving this time with?