Coalition Meeting Notes
At this month's E2C virtual meeting, we briefly resumed the discussion from our June virtual convening around Goal #1 - Create a culture that values literacy and increases literacy rates. After, we began to dive into Goal #2 - Increase equitable access to safe learning spaces that encourage joy for learning at any level (Using schools as community hubs). Participants presented great examples of other areas utilizing schools in this way. Lastly, we discussed the recent BESE Graduation Waiver Policy and why this might cause possible issues if not calibrated properly.
Notes
Adonica Duggan: I'm psyched about what's on the agenda for today. And as we think about it ties in so much to the work that David and HAWF are doing on, like, how do we think about schools and their roles in community? And so our team just had a big meeting about that this morning as we were talking about our facilities research that we're doing and this project that we're trying to lead. I am leaving with Christian on Thursday, Just really thinking about how we can be listening to community Casey, like all of this is like the convergence of how do we listen to community? How do we make sure that schools are answering needs that are really being driven by the people who are there? And that they're serving the community and the children that live in those communities. I'm excited, glad to be with everybody, glad to be re-engaging in a way that feels like I've been a little disconnected. But, brought back some really great ideas from Aspen. And I feel like some of the work that I was able to do there is really core to the way that we think about our role in community. In a really partisan moment around the politics of education. Casey Phillips: Yes, indeed. I look forward to downloading with you and I will, as a human that lived in the mountains, I will say it, I will take summer and fall in as in any of the mountain towns over the winter all day, every day for me, as that it's one of the most beautiful places to be. Okay. So let's just quickly jump in and this begins the community call and response and participation part of our program. So Jasmin, I know I don't want to have to ask you to come off mute twice. So it's voluntary Pepper, Helena as well. Anybody that was in the call last go around, Alison, I see you here again today. Thank you for sharing space with us. Last monthly check-in. We really we started with gold number one around literacy and defining you can't work on something if you're not actually having a working definition of it. And what came out, I thought was very interesting. Very interesting was that the conversation started around adult literacy and of course literacy for early childhood. For sure, that's where it started. But it quickly it quickly elevated to other forms of literacy. And by what I mean by that is Dr. Tony Robinson jumped up and said, "What about digital literacy?" And then the kind of the conversation actually took an even even a different slant once Liz jumped in and Jamie jumped in and said, "Hey, what about college literacy?" And it's just there's all these different definitions for literacy. So anybody from the group from last month really want to bring forward anything that they saw in the notes or that they wrote down around defining literacy to inform this work. Jasmin Johnson: I'll just share or re-share what I said before. I think for us to get to the other types of literacy, you have to start with K-12. Kids knowing how to read and understanding phonetics is just important. You have to start with the building blocks and strengthening that before you can focus on digital literacy. And the other types of literacy that are definitely important. Casey Phillips: Thank you, Jasmin. I appreciate you. Anybody else? Alison Bordelon: I guess to piggyback on that. So for those who didn't get that foundation in K-12, that's why I believe through our community college system, the importance of adult education and recognizing that those people need to be elevated because they didn't get the foundations for K-12. To your point, we need to elevate them first so that they can proceed with financial literacy and college literacy and digital literacy as well. Yes. Excellent. Thank you, Alison. I appreciate you. Christian, you're off-mute. Greetings, my good man. Christian Engle: Hey, man. I'm sorry. I just was off mute to be off mute. I really don't have anything to add at this time, but thank you. Sorry about that. Casey Phillips: Not to throw any shade at my friend, but is that the first time that Christian has something to say? Christian Engle: I usually always have something to say, but now everybody's on track. Casey Phillips: Nah man, I appreciate you sharing space, and I hope you and Adonica have good travels coming up here so I don't forget to say it. Anybody else on the literacy front, because this is this is an important one, it's goal number one that came from... Not only Jamboard sessions, but the launch, the in person, yeah, Martha, there you go. Greetings. Martha Moore: I didn't attend wholly the last meeting, but I just wanted to follow up on what our two speakers just immediately said. While K -12 is an essential foundational piece, Alison is exactly correct. And as we're looking, I think we as a state have some goals about 2030 in terms of how we want our Where we want to be and how we want our citizens to be by 2030 and have been helping a large group of our citizens to reach those. But one of the things that I'm thinking and have seen is sometimes we... Overwhelm one another with where we're not, rather than where we are. And I think one of the things, if we can begin to meet people where they are and take them to the next step. Sometimes I personally get frustrated with always insisting that I learn English and math first before I can touch the keyboard. When maybe touching the keyboard helps me to become more proficient. With learning that English and the math but I do agree with both Alison and the speaker from Baton Rouge Area Youth Network, I'm sorry. That we, literacy is the foundation, whether it's about reading, writing, or all of those other technically proficient. Literacy is really an essential piece. Casey Phillips: Awesome, Martha. And by the way, that is just so that you know each other in the work, that is Jasmin from BRAYN. Amongst other things too, but I said that's Jasmin. So y'all can make sure and build a relationship. Yep. Awesome. And I see that we have Tyler Litt here twice. It is officially a royalty in the house today. I love that. Okay. So let's jump in. Let's jump in folks. Adonica Duggan: Can I fly on literacy? Quick one. We are, as it relates to the K-12 space, we are going to have a screening of the film Right to Read in Baton Rouge that we're going to be hosting on September 6th. So I'll be sharing more details out with the group, but we do think this is an important space around the conversation particularly on K-12 literacy and, we see this as a really important measure of the quality of education that our city is providing its children. And Just wanted to flag that for y'all that we are leaning into the space around cultivating this conversation about what literacy looks as it relates to third grade reading and that sort of thing. And we're going to be doing some events throughout the year starting with the September 6th screening of the film Right to Read. We're going to put together also a panel discussion around that but more info to come on that. Casey Phillips: Awesome. Thank you, Adonica. I appreciate you. And I also just, I forgot to say it's like on behalf of our awesome co-chair, it's Adonica and Dustin and Tonnisha. And, at times with cameo from Trey Godfrey I said thank You'all for all of the work and the time that y'all continue to pour into E2C. I meant to start with that. I didn't want to not finish with it. I didn't want to let this meeting finish without saying it. Speaking of Dustin, so we're going to jump into today's topic, and Dustin feels really passionate about this. I'll admit I do as well, but I want to take a backseat and listen. It occurs to me that I'm going to change the way I was going to approach this conversation on the theme that's come up from today. It feels like most of you have been traveling in the summer and studying models that have been working in other places, right? And when I hear about models that are working in other places, that probably means that... There's not only people doing the work and there's not only is there community buy-in, but there was probably shifts to practice and policy that let said innovative work actually come to bear. So it, with everybody's travels in the work that we've done, has anybody like with their own two eyes and look and seen and heard community schools being, the facilities being used? outside of school hours and on weekends, both for youth and adult training purposes as either stand-alone or a citywide initiative or part of a neighborhood revitalization initiative. Anybody on this call seen it happen before I see a thumbs up with Maria, what you got? Then Camila and then Pepper, and then Patrick. Awesome. Maria, what you got? Ms Harmon?
Maria Harmon: Hi, everybody. I'm one of the co-founders and co-directors with Step Up Louisiana. And we're connected with other national groups like Journey for Justice Alliance, which is based in Chicago. But they are a national Black-led education justice group that advocates for sustainable community schools. And we get a lot of our training and insight from them and how to advocate locally out here in Louisiana. But they successfully did an effort for community schools in Chicago and also in New York City. New York City, they actually had it was the New York education New York for quality education. And the New York City communities for change, NYCC. And they led an initiative where they went through all different boroughs throughout the city with an interactive survey where they Actually cleared out of a school bus and repainted it blue and people came on and they actually did an interactive survey of what they wanted to do in their schools. And they also did a strong push for culturally relevant curriculums to be implemented as well as cultural pedagogy, which is really relative to cultural literacy and what I brought up on the chat. But, all of these things definitely contributed to a policy being passed through the school district and making school sites community schools. I believe they had about 2,500 schools established out there in New York City. And in Chicago, they also did a strong push to try to establish at least 25 schools, I believe, out there in their school district. But one school in particular that I did a tour at was Dyett High School. where parents there, they have mayoral control out there. So the board is appointed by the mayor. But it was one school in particular that high school where they actually went on a hunger strike because the school was slated to be closed and taken over by a charter. But those community members worked together to try to keep the school open and they succeeded and they were able to implement the model there and actually have a green STEM Curriculum infused at their school site as well. They definitely encourage arts and other enrichment programs. Plus they have a parent university on the campus where parents are learning all different aspects of running a household, all the way from cooking classes to money management, to even some continuing education. So these things would be very beneficial, which is why Step Up has been advocating for community schools and EBR for. At least the past four years and we're still advocating for it. We're going to bring another resolution locally before the school board pretty soon. So hopefully we can get folks support to get that done. Casey Phillips: Awesome Maria. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that in for your effort. And please let the coalition know how we can help support your efforts with Step Up. Miss Valenzuela. Hello. Camila Valenzuela: Hello. I'm Camilla. I am with the Capital Area STEM Network. Capital Area STEM Network is the LSU Gordon A. Cain Center. So we are a part of the Louisiana STEM Network. And so it's a series of networks across the state promoting STEM education, K 12 and beyond. I thought it was very relevant to chime in today because I'm actually currently at CTEC, which is the East Baton Rouge Area's Career and Technical Education Center, where we are having co. org training. So our co. org trainings, co. org is one of our partners with Capital Area STEM. So we are promoting teachings in the whole state for quality K-12 teachings in computer science. coding programs for all our public schools. There are a few private schools as well, but it's primarily public schools. CTEC is being used as a hub currently, and through our Louisiana STEM network, we have hubs throughout the state, and so that's one of our goals, is just to create multiple hubs to have schools used for trainings, for community service, all with the ultimate goal of promoting stem education in Louisiana. So I just wanted to chime in and add that we have been using this method, schools and local community centers as hubs for the community. And it has been very successful for us because not only are we able to connect people across Louisiana and communities through a shared common goal and passion for STEM, but we also get to show people all of our different things we have going on. We have people From Shreveport here, all over the state, and they're very impressed with CTEC. They're like, we don't even, we've never even heard of this place. It's just a very great program that we have here and thank you for letting me have the time and space to promote it because it's definitely very good for the community in Louisiana, especially to have these hubs across the state. Casey Phillips: Awesome. Can I ask a logistical question? Is CTEC open on Saturdays and Sundays? Camila Valenzuela: It is not open. Actually, it's not open as a school. However, for example, it is closed Friday as a school, but we are going to have our co. org trainings here on Friday. Even though it's not open and functioning, I believe it is still available to be used as a space. Casey Phillips: Cool. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks for sharing space. Christian and then Pepper. Patrick. Sorry. Yeah. Christian Engle: And I know Adonica referenced it in the chat, but These, these concepts have been going on for decades with YMCA's all around the country. You can go to Florida and find elementary schools that have YMCA's attached to them, middle schools that have YMCA's attached to them. When I was in New York, we had a middle school and a high school that had a YMCA attached to them. What that meant was early childhood education, a shared gymnasium. wellness for the facility and the community. So they were open. Basically, when the school was open, certain parts, obviously, the Y didn't have access to, but in the mornings and evenings and weekends, they functioned as, centers for the community. And these examples just exist everywhere. I know, David, it wasn't necessarily a connection, but when y'all were at Eastlake, YMCA that's right there, a part of that purpose-built community with childcare and all the things associated with supporting that community. Yeah. And I think even for Jasmin and putting the BRAYN hat on, right? It's insert your nonprofit or social service entity. And these exist everywhere, right? Boys and Girls Clubs and in schools and just shared centers. And I think about projects that are coming up and we're getting ready to invest 5 million into something or 10 million into something. And I'm like, But yet it's not attached to a school or it's not, necessarily attached to something that where kids can just walk down the hall and enter, right? Like they still have to either get bus there or walk there or figure out how to get there. And for me, we have that challenge now and we've been working through this. I know for the Y independently, but also know through BRYAN is, how do we get kids bussed to centers, right? And it's, yeah. in every community I've lived in. It's been a no-brainer in here. It is like pulling teeth and we expect kids when they get home, they'll just walk there and it's no, because they got to walk by three gang houses, potentially a crack house, potentially something else to get to that center. But yeah, we're going to go spend $10 million to build it and then assume kids are going to walk through the same neighborhood to get to the same center. And so I think it's figuring out how do you keep kids in one central location where they already are? Yeah. And again, and again, BRAYN hat and Y hat we have all the data to prove out that our literacy of the kids in our after-school programs versus the after-school programs that the schools run our literacy rates are higher than theirs.
And it's really because at the end of the day, teachers are tired, right? Like they're done, but they're doing the after-school care versus if it's the boys and girls club or the YMCA or. 100 Black Men or whoever coming in and running those programs. We're ready to go. We're energized and we're working with these kids. And I think anytime we can figure out these community partnerships is key. And for me, it's just a frustration when people bring up, oh, we should do this. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this has been going on for 30 years and other, in other states, it's this is not rocket science. This is easy stuff. We just have to work together. Instead, we end up doing 20 different things independently and then go, Oh, maybe we should have talked about that five years ago. To make sure this is coming together. Casey, you said it earlier. I applaud what Huey and Angelina are doing in the sense of trying to create these communities and this interaction to bring people together beforehand versus after the fact, right? Let's all talk about it now. But yeah, and Adonica is going to a huge conference with me this week. And she's going to be able to see all this in action just Ys all over the country that are doing this kind of work. And hopefully we can at least bring back the concepts and ideas, of kind of what's happening in other states. Yeah, so it, it exists. And probably the first one was in '94 in Orlando, Florida, where they built a school on city property in partnership with the Parks and Rec and the YMCA, right? So you got four entities that all came together to build something. So that the community would have one-stop-shop in where their families and kids could be. So hopefully we'll see them in the future. David Beach: Casey, I'll jump in right here. Just having recently returned from Eastlake, the YMCA and the elementary school coexist so seamlessly with the community. You got two big basketball gyms. Whenever the school wants to use a basketball gym, they pull the curtain down the middle. The community is using one gym. The school is using the other gym. They have a huge swimming pool that every student in the school gets access to, which is a big equity issue in disinvested neighborhoods. Yeah Christian, I would be hugely enthusiastic about exploring that, specifically at Capitol High, which we know in the next few years, there will be a new school built there. And, think about combining resources, combining forces to make that one seamless footprint with The elementary school, the high school, and the why in between the two of them that can be just, the catch everything and, just really make the use, make the most out of those assets as they're constructed. We're, we would be hugely supportive of that. Christian Engle: Yeah. And thank you, David. And, another example, a buddy of mine in Tampa is getting ready to build a public library with early childhood education in the YMCA, all in a central location with the school across the street, right? It's just all of these things, coming together and stuff, but you just, you got to get people to come to the table and have those conversations. Casey, I know something that would be special to you and you see this in other states as well as imagine cafeterias being open on weekends and kids could go there and get breakfast, lunch and dinner instead of they get it during the week that weekends come and, we'll figure it out. And again, these exist where whether it's the Y or other places are operating these venues on the weekends because we realize schools might be limited, but nonprofits aren't right. We've got a lot more flexibility than some of the political entities have to do some things a little bit differently and stuff. So to me, there's huge opportunity for us to work on these things. Tonnisha Ellis: Can I ask Christian to share about the Dow Y. M. C. A. Then the work they're having with their school districts in West Baton Rouge. I think that will alleviate that will I like how a partnership between the Y and the school district works academically and for, physical aid. Christian Engle: Yeah We have a great relationship with West Baton Rouge, thanks to Cree, who's been running that out there, has really developed some really positive relationships there, where it's a unique thing, where we're running not only after school at the Y, but we're also running it at a basically, West Baton Rouge's kind of park and rec center, right? And so the Y is operating after school, right? The school's busing everybody to that location. And within that location, we're doing literacy work and math work and different things like that with the kids after school as well. And since we launched that I think maybe in about the last eight months, it's already beginning to expand into other schools and other systems. Like the superintendent over there is really trying to grow and expand that work. So again, it's It comes back to the relationships, but it also comes back, I think, to entities not thinking they have to do everything. There are so many partners out there that can do so much, and some of us are trained for that. And I hate to pick on teachers, because teachers are trained to do a particular job, but they're not trained to do after school, and they're not trained to do summer camps, and they're not trained to do certain work, whereas we are. And again, BRAYN hat, the group that we work with, that's what we do. That sets our work. But too often, we're trying to keep people at arm's length instead of trying to figure out how do we bring all these communities together? Same conversation with Three O'Clock and the work that they're trying to do is, how do we get in the door and try to help evolve and do things that will benefit the community versus other people saying, and I'm gonna, this is my comment, not one anybody has ever said to me, but, no, this is my kitchen. You can't touch it, right? It's Come on, we can, we can all get in this together and figure out what that contract needs to look like or what that insurance needs to look like or whatever else to ensure that kids are getting what they need. But we tend to put up a lot of barriers instead of figuring out how to get it done. Yeah, but again, in West Baton Rouge, the superintendent there has really embraced the work that we're trying to do and is moving it forward And I'll share an EBR. We're making a lot of headway in, in EBR. Adonica knows how long we've really been pushing for a lot of the relationships that we're building. And we're feeling as though we're finally getting there. And I know Jasmin knows the summer we had was huge. First time ever, it's like a big thing. I think the fear we all have, and right, wrong, or indifferent, is that the superintendent doesn't come back and we sign up a new one. Then we're starting all over again, right? It's... Where do you go? So a lot of it and Adonica is the champion of this and telling me really comes back to the relationship with school board members and everything else as well. But it's just trying to knock down roadblocks so that you can try to make things seem happen.
And fortunately, West Baton Rouge and Zachary and even work we're doing in Lake Charles, those roadblocks are being taken down. Casey Phillips: So yeah, and Investing in changing systems, not propping up people that come and go. That's part of the problem in the last decade. David and Adonica, I'm sorry, Adonica and Christian, when y'all go to the conference I'd like to just throw out, go ahead and just grab three case study models. And I believe Jasmin, we just found the first partnership with BRAYN. And let's do an asset map to identify those five to ten community schools. Let's start small. And it sounds like David is spot on with capital being one of them, whether it's in, '24, '25, whenever that winds up being, and let's go ahead and push it across the finish line together with the coalitions, because that's what we can do. Adonica, I feel like I saw your finger go up.
Adonica Duggan: Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to wait two points that I have on this. Sorry, actually one Christian keeps. It's like naming me in this. I don't know if everybody knows because I'm on the Y board. And so with my Y hat on this is that's how I've been engaged in this. In addition to just like being a heavy Y user who's, focused on how we can better serve kids in the community. And then the other thing that I wanted to name is that we are currently doing some research around EBR's facilities footprint to help them understand we've engaged a consultant to help them understand what did your facility's footprint look like, where are the communities where we're oversubscribed, undersubscribed, what does this look like, and so we want the board and the community to be armed with the data to make these decisions in a way that is meaningful for communities and so like we have undertaken like We don't all know what we're talking about when we think about what are the facilities assets of the district, what are the opportunities for them to partner in certain spaces, and so we want them to have more information about this process as they start to think about how they might partner in certain parts of the community, and so we're doing that research to help provide a report to the community on here are the things. I think it's really important for the next steps of that to be, what do the communities need? And how do we repurpose or co-locate or get smarter about our facility's assets to address some of the community's needs? So I would love to see this group lean into those next steps and we'll be bringing back that data to y'all to understand what we've found. The other thing that I will name is to Maria's point around the community schools thing. I do think terminology is super important in this conversation because community schools is a model. And I think it was important for us to be intentional around schools as community hubs because there's not necessarily because there is a distinction between a community school as that term has been used and schools as community hubs and what does that entail and how do we personalize that to look different in different spaces. So I just want to name that for like the alliance. We are in support of schools as community hubs or as community centers, not necessarily as in support of a community school because that is terminology that in, the like advocacy world does have a specific set of parameters around that. That may be a good fit for some communities and we may have more trouble with another community. So just wanted to flag those things. And I think that Finally, I will say I think that this is the power of OneRouge, and this is why we are so heavily invested in the time and the work that it takes to be a part of a coalition like this, because I do think that this offers something transformative to our communities.
If we can do it. What we know is that people have been doing their work in the city and silos. And one of the things that I do want to celebrate is that We saw the silos come down when we were on the ground trying to feed kids or when we were trying to figure out like how to protect communities or how to listen to communities as a response to COVID. And I think that this is the shared power of what we can accomplish together. And we see other communities doing it so much better. And I just, I'm excited about the energy around things like this, because I do think that this offers us a chance to better serve communities holistically and to better serve children holistically.
This is why we're all in on this, and I think that this is a real opportunity. Casey Phillips: Yes, indeed. Thank you, AD. Appreciate you. Madam Co-Chair. As I said, I appreciate that. And look we're going to open up over time for one of the agenda items, because I want to make sure and dig in on this. Anybody who wants to stay on after 2:45. I want to make sure and we talk about the BESE changed on the graduation waiver. And I just want to make sure and give everybody space who asked for it. Patrick, you had said that you wanted to lift something up. Patrick Tuck: Sure, and actually Not surprisingly, Christian and Adonica have already said a lot, have already given a lot of examples of work and programs, but to lift up a couple of things that they talked about. Christian, for one thing, you were talking about different models in different places, right? And so as you were as you were describing your models, I was thinking of the program that I ran in Kentucky where I was running it differently depending on which county I was in. And with the exact same partners. So we had a half a dozen partners around the table. If we were in Scott County, we were in the school, we were teaching the school with the community college how to bring the folks from the neighborhood across the fence into the schoolyard and creating programs about reaching into the community first and then having families come into the school. The county next door, we were busing kids to reading camp after-school programs in a church basement on a daily basis, feeding them and then giving them food to take back to their to their families in the evenings. The first school actually also in Scott County also served as the summer feeding hub for that community.
So kids were also being bused into that school during the summer for summer learning programs and also to be fed. Year-round basis. But the key for me in those programs was that in each school, there was a Family Resource Youth Service Center. And at least one, usually two or three people running that center, and it was legislated in Kentucky and still is legislated in Kentucky. It's a program that remains close to my heart and Casey and I have had lots and lots of conversations about that program. Casey Phillips: Awesome. Thank you, Patrick. Tyler Litt, I wanted to see if you had the ability to come off mute and if you wanted to lift up anything that you highlighted in the chat, but also with your new role with the schools that you all are building across the nation. Is this kind of the mindset that you all are in? Is these shared community, shared-use community facilities as an asset to be shared outside of the school day? Tyler Litt: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Casey. For those of you who are not aware, I work for New Schools Venture Fund as a senior associate partner on their innovative public schools team.
Not only do they work with single-site leaders or education entrepreneurs. But also districts in order to bring about some of this work, what I listed in the Zoom or just some off of the top of the head off the top of my head and like the southern region or even on the east coast that I'm familiar with. I don't know that there are tons of additional ones that I can source a more extensive list or comprehensive list. We have some that are coming on. I'm trying to think if it's in Wisconsin or if it's in Minnesota. I do not want to lie to you, but I will double-check, but they're using an old mall, and it's a mixed-use facility.
The library will be in one part of it. The school will launch there where it's project-based learning. But we are seeing this in so many places. And one, please be encouraged that you guys are headed in the right direction. As far as, leveraging amazing spaces that we have to be, to serve as hubs in the community.
You're not alone in that there are tons of people who are doing this work. and blueprints that we can, eat the meat, spit out the bones and find, what's best to serve and support here in Baton Rouge. So however I can be of support please let me know. In the meantime, I know my homework is like to take down a list of these names, some contacts and to be able to share it back with you Casey and also AD. Casey Phillips: Awesome. Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate you. And I saw in that, that I missed in the chat Hattie was talking about the kind of more mobile function, right? To be able to go where communities are. And then I see, that we talked about the one on the North Shore, the brain food truck, which, That's brilliant branding.
It just is and the mission of it as well. But that's that's a really great example. Now I'll look into that. I appreciate that. That resource being shared. Anybody else on this topic before? And by the way, if you have community announcements, please put it into the chat. We're keeping this a limited time to honor our commitment with you all. But if you do have community announcements that have anything to do with education to career, Please put it into the chat. Anybody else that would like to add to the conversation around the, I'm sorry, schools as hubs, utilizing those school facilities as hubs of activities, both for youth and adults. Anybody else? Okay, awesome. And I saw Corey had lifted up the facility with Council on Aging, but that's another one that's really that's actually an incredible project that I'm not 100% sure people all know about.
Christian Engle: I'm just going to talk. We talk a lot about like elementary, middle, high school and stuff. Tulsa, Oklahoma actually has several where they've opened up again early childhood education and YMCA's on community college campuses. For the same reason, right? A parent's got to get to class, they need child care. A young mom or dad's got to get to class, they need child care. And then instead of the school investing in this huge wellness component, you now have this community entity that can serve. The community and stuff. So again, just another example of what's going on around the country. Casey Phillips: Yep, 100%. Thank you, Christian. I'm gonna turn it over to Pepper to close us out with the conversation around the BESE board shift. But before I go, Helena is going to put into the chat the graphic that was sent in the reminder. But just as a reminder to everybody, August 15. That would be our next in person. This one's going to be at the downtown library instead of a good book because we're going to move them around in the city to, to accommodate people's location and their ability to get there. I know that some people are like Downtown library can't park there. Come and park at the Walls. You're welcome to. the parking lot of and you just will have to stay for the whole meeting. But come to the in person on the 15th, lunch will be served. It will be delicious. And please, we would that's the work group. That's where the big work gets cut down. In May we all came together for the first time.
We introduced all of these kind of give everybody an idea of the working groups. We're going to be coming back together. Everyone's going to select the working groups and then we're immediately going to launch into the work and then we're going to continue with the monthly zooms to move that work forward and that cadence moving forward. Miss Pepper, would you like to bring light to this shift, and for anybody that can't stay past 2:45, thank y'all for your time today. Appreciate you.
Pepper Roussel: Yeah, I apologize for being off-camera. My internet connection is unstable. So short version, long story. Louisiana high school students are being now given the opportunity to appeal their LEAP test failures. Part of this is really from the perspective of non-native English speakers. The rates of, and so I, I want to, let me step back two steps. I want to say that I put the link to this particular article in the agenda or somewhere like that. But the information from the BESE board is here in the chat, so you are welcome to pull that down. The objective really is to ensure that those folks who would ordinarily be able to graduate were it not for LEAP failure, would be able to graduate. Whether it is something that you feel strongly about one way or the other, this is one of the things that our wonderful co-chair from BRAC brought up to us so that we will be able to share with y'all that, essentially, this is about having a changing the graduation waiver requirement. Entering a 90-day comment period that's intended for ELL students, but the language could be crafted in some other way. So if you give me two more seconds, I will drop this link in the chat for you so that you can have it. There we are. And that is my take on that. I'm guessing that those of you... I see Adonica's eyeballs squinting. Listen, I am just the messenger. Adonica Duggan: I was just going to give you some, more context. There are several orgs that have pressed on BESE to open up a comment period we are among those just because we feel like they didn't have as rich of a conversation around this as they maybe could have because we think there are potentially some unintended consequences I think many of us would support this for ELL students, but in its current form would not require testing for all students, and so there's some questions about whether or not that's something that everyone feels like, Is a door that we should be opening and I think that's partially where some of us are just like we haven't seen as much input on this and an understanding of what BESE has what the goal of this, what the original goal was and what the potential unintended consequences, one of the challenges with policy is sometimes when we open the door, we are trying to solve a very narrowly defined problem and we create a much bigger area of potential unintended consequences. So I think that one of the reasons why Trey may have flagged this for the group or others is that we just want BESE to fully explore the impact of this and what this might mean to our current accountability system. If kids are able to graduate without having passed the LEAP test and whether or not that's what we want to happen. So just offer more context, but not necessarily our opinion. Casey Phillips: You are so good at what you do. Tonnisha. Tonnisha Ellis: Just to add on to what Adonica said and to get some more context to what Pepper mentioned. Louisiana is one of eight states require an EOC end-of-course exam which is now LEAP 2025 and of those eight states where the only state doesn't have an appeals process, and as Adonica said, we all support having an alternative right foot route for ELL students. However, this opens up for all students. And the alternative to passing the EOC is the student will be allowed to complete a portfolio of work that is graded, I should say, by the school districts and a small cohort individually. It brings a lot of concerns to us as far as the strength of the diploma and equity and all those good things.
So make sure that if you support whether you'd like to provide an opinion for this. Make sure you reach out to your BESE board member and let them know that you want them to further to discuss this Casey Phillips: Excellent moment of education and advocacy inside of OneRouge. Love that. Anybody else feel strongly about this? Because it feels like in general, nobody's for against it. It just feels like there hasn't been a proper dialogue and vetting process and we just, so it's important to reach out to Ronnie and everybody else that's on your, Preston, everybody else that's on your BESE board just to simply ask for transparency and more robust dialogue not necessarily to stop what's happening, right? Is that kind of like the general feel? Okay. Cool. Awesome. We are actually only two minutes over. So with that being said, anybody have anything that they need to take from their mind into the collective space, pontification, rights are granted to anybody that would like it or to bring light to anything that anybody feels that the group needs to know about say all the things miss. Jasmin Johnson: BRAYN does have its monthly convening this Friday. July 21st from 10 to 11:30 The school community partnerships working group will be giving information about the next steps with piloting the model that was established last year in April in EBR for the school year, as Christian mentioned this summer, it was huge to actually be able to partner with EBR and it's something that you all have been trying to do for decades. We are going to report just a little bit on that progress because the summer evaluation is still underway, but we will have Christian, Gaye probably reached out to you, but we will have the operators sharing a little bit about that experience this summer, but overall, what everybody's looking forward to is the next steps to partnering with EBR for the school year. Please come and share your comments, ask your questions because I can't remember who shared it on this call, but really this is a process that needs to be developed by all, especially since there are so many programs, that, they experienced 50, 000 students that EBR, or I can't remember the number, but. The thousands of students that EBR serve, like the barrier for these organizations, is just access. So please join us tomorrow from 10 to 11:30. If you're not on the list to get our calendar invites, if you shoot me an email, or actually you can just drop it in the chat and I'll get that invite to you. Casey Phillips: Awesome. Thank you, Jasmin. And I also want to make sure and just say this to make sure that I don't forget again to say it to you. There has been, I know, dialogue that's been whispered over the last four or five months, but E2C is going to pick up a support role to work with BRAYN, EBR Schools, the Chamber, MYWE, and EmployBR And we starting in August to get the summer recalibrated and aligned in incongruence. And the reason why I feel that E2C could maybe help in that process, because that's all the members. Basically, all those organizations are the core of E2C. And each one of those initiatives is an incredible time suck and a tremendous amount of human hours and energy, and it's hard enough just to get it right. That's right in front of you. And I think that we could all agree that the summer is actually from the last day of school all the way to the first day of school, just in the same way that feeding programs shouldn't be Monday through Friday of the school week. Summer programming by all definitions should be at least for Memorial Day.
All the way until the first, the week before school. And I applaud what y'all were able to do with East Baton Rouge compare schools for the month of June. They're straight-up period in the sense like the fact that it happened. It was incredible. And it was awesome to watch, and I know it came with its challenges, and you do not need to vocalize all of those challenges in this moment. I am not asking for that but I am very much wanting to partner in y'all lead because there's nobody that's more aware of where the challenges of that are than the folks that were running the internship program for the chamber. for with BRAYN with MYWE and Amanda with EmployBR and everybody. And it's if this is a problem that can be solved with time and money. And that's in both of those are going to come in short supply by January. So if you're open to that convening in August, I would love to like really lock arms and let's figure this out. Cool. Jasmin Johnson: I am open for sure. Casey Phillips: Cool. Bless you. Thank you. And this is again, I applaud standing O of what y'all were able to do this summer with the school district. Y'all crack, y'all crack the code. So now let's throw that door open. Anybody else? Good people before we close the room. Hey, Dean Andrews, Bukky, I see you just want to let you know that Jacqueline friend, what's happening? Lynn Daigle. Greetings, Paul Kismet. Greetings. Good to see y'all. Alright, good people. Head on out into this world. Keep doing the good work. And we will see you all on August 15th. Live and direct at the library. And it will not be Jason's Deli box sandwiches, my friends. It's going to be good food, vegetarian food, carnivore food, everything in between. We look forward to breaking bread together and having that community together in August. Thank y'all so much for your time and your effort today. Bye, everyone.
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