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OneRouge Community Check-In: Week 234

Transforming Education in Baton Rouge


Baton Rouge education leaders are working to enhance the local education system by improving school quality, expanding career pathways, and fostering collaboration across the community. Efforts are underway to raise the performance of charter schools and implement teacher residency programs in partnership with LSU and Southern University, aiming to ensure students have access to high-quality education regardless of their neighborhood. Central to these initiatives is empowering educators, engaging families, and providing resources to drive student success.


A key focus is workforce development, with programs designed to connect students to career opportunities through internships and technical education. By collaborating with local businesses, schools are creating pathways for students to earn certifications, gain real-world experience, and make informed decisions about their futures. These programs aim to ensure students are not only prepared for academic success but also equipped to thrive in competitive industries.


Looking ahead, Baton Rouge leaders are uniting to address systemic challenges and ensure equity in education remains a priority. By fostering partnerships, expanding funding opportunities, and creating sustainable systems of support, they are working to build an education ecosystem that meets the needs of students, families, and the broader community. These efforts aim to transform lives and create a more vibrant future for Baton Rouge.


Thank you yo our guest speakers, Noemi Donoso, Dr. Ashlyn Harrison, and Dr. Ni'Shawn Stovall.


 

Notes

Casey Phillips:  It's really, that's so fascinating across the board. It is interesting that how you land in places the thing about this city versus,  versus Los Angeles, right? Because both you and I had that's my last frame of reference as well. You can really put your arms around the ecosystem here. It's impossible to do so with something the size of Los Angeles. Now, I do agree with you that proximity to LAX and the rest of the world's a real thing, right? But it's interesting that, I always, people ask, they're like where do you live? And I'm like, LAX, right? For the years that I was in Los Angeles, I was just at LAX probably more than anywhere else. I was always there and and always moving and it's been really interesting to be rooted down for such a long period of time. And it being also my hometown, like it's it's been very interesting on a lot of different levels. And even though the tree is slightly different, I feel like you and I are growing in the same grove. And and just know that any kind of way that I can help you on a human level for that transition, if it's, if the helps wanted I know I speak for all the people on our team, and I've seen Adonica and really going out of her way to also make you feel welcome and introduce you to people. We would love to help you with that so that you find your own way. Welcome to Baton Rouge, my friend. 


Noemi Donoso: Thank you. Thank you. Happy to be here. 


Tia Fields: Good morning. Perfect transition into today's conversation. As I promised last week, guys, that the last few weeks of 2024 we're gonna keep our Friday calls real light and breezy. Good morning and a happy Friday One Rouge. So this Friday, we're just sharing an opportunity for you guys to get to know who's who in the community and new positions this morning. I have Ms. Noemi Donoso with New Schools of Baton Rouge, Dr. Ashlyn Rae Harrison and Dr. Ni’Shawn Stovall representing their organizations. Just a little bit about who they are in the new roles that they're serving and why it is as community partners we need to know who they are and what they do. I know a few guys hopped on the call a little late. Each panelist will have five minutes to tell us who they are and what it is that they do and we'll just go into some conversation. So I'm going to kick it off with Ms. Donoso. You have five minutes to tell us who you are and what it is that you do. 


Noemi: Hello, everybody. Exciting to be here this morning. My name is Noemi Donoso and I am the new CEO of New Schools for Baton Rouge. I have been here on the ground for three months and moved to Baton Rouge from Los Angeles. And just a little bit about me I've been in education for 30 years and started as a high school English teacher in South Central Los Angeles in 1994. Since then have opened and turned around charter schools throughout California and New York. And then became a district administrator and worked as the chief education officer. For Chicago Public Schools and the Chief of Innovation for Denver Public Schools. And so I am not new to the challenges of education and what it takes to create a really strong, high performing educational ecosystem in a community. I've lived in different places, mostly big urban cities and I've found throughout my career that actually my favorite place to be is in places like Baton Rouge, where you have such a strong and healthy ecosystem and you can just get so much more done. I my hypothesis is you can get so much more done in small and mid sized cities. So it's been an honor to be here. In terms of New schools for Baton Rouge. It opened in 2012. So it's been now 12 years by a group of community members to ensure that every student in Baton Rouge has access to an excellent education. Since then New schools has raised a total of 92 million dollars brought in a total of 92 million dollars  to open and build great schools 77 million came from national funders. And the rest was locally fundraise. And that's just to say. What a huge investment has been made over the last 10 to 12 years to open great schools. We have 26 charter schools that are running now in Baton Rouge. And they are some of the highest performing open enrollment schools here in East Baton Rouge. Happy to say more, but I don't want to, I'm not keeping track of time.


Tia:  Listen, I wish I knew how to do it without having to share my screen. Casey put a backtrack for your intro is Tupac's California love. I'm over here beaming with pride as I love it. Love it. Myself. We're so excited. I'm glad to have you in doing this amazing work in the education atmosphere, and I really look forward to hearing more from you. I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Dr Stovall so she can introduce herself and tell us about some of the amazing things that she's doing in her new position. Dr Ni’Shawn?


Dr. Ni’Shawn Stovall:  Hello, good morning, and I first want to apologize for not having my camera on, but I'm driving and so the option is not available. I'm headed to my next meeting while we are talking. So thank you so much for just having me on the call to talk and introduce myself, but also to learn more about what the others are doing and their roles and how we may connect. And with our transition with our new superintendent, we have revamped where workforce development looks like, and we have merged in him, creating his new organizational chart. And so currently, I'll say previously, we had career and tech education, workforce development, our career and tech at center and ROTC as silos. Now we have all of those under 1 umbrella under workforce development. So a little bit about my background and my education started out very similar as a classroom teacher, secondary education, mathematics and transition from there to an instructional specialist. For mathematics and then to an instructional specialist for stem, my doctoral degree is in science and math education. So I'm very passionate about science and math and equal bits about stem and stem careers and making sure that our students are exposed to the gamut of careers that are out there. And so being able to be afforded an opportunity to work in this role with this position  has been very rewarding. So I transferred from doing more of research and development for the superintendent with the last administration to workforce development, maybe about 8 months ago. However, once we had the new superintendent to come in, as I stated before, he transitioned us into more of a streamline process organization. So we now have again, CTE, which is career and tech ed. And so that's all of our high schools. And then we have the career and tech ed center where we're able to have students come from other high schools to the center to take courses where they're earning IBCs, which is industry based credentials or certifications in a number of areas. So if the school is not equipped to host those type of programs and the students are able to leave school, come to the center to take those classes and then they return back to school and they're able to earn a lot of different certifications and some of those certifications also count as dual enrollment credit should they not go straight into the workforce if they want to go into post secondary, whether it's a two year or four year program. So my specific role gets down to that is working with our business partners for internships. Initially, we were looking at how do we afford as many students as possible and opportunities to intern in a career area that they aspire to go into at least their 1st, or maybe their 2nd career aspiration. And we wanted to get as many businesses on board. We were offering paid internships, and we were looking at how we possibly do unpaid or non paid internships just to get the students the experience. However,  while we were trying to brainstorm how we could do that in. How we would present it to parents so that parents and students would not feel like their experience was less than if they were not in a paid internship opportunity. And then we had a little law that passes that all opportunities had to be paid. So we had to scratch those ideas and go straight to how do we change our model? How do we change our structure? So that it. Is appealing to our business partners so that they will want to pay high school students to come and intern with them. And so that's my goal building relationships with the community and basically soliciting partners to host paid internships. Currently, we have nearly 200 right now in our school year implementation. We're looking to increase to 300 for the summer. So we've got a lot of work cut out for us. In terms of getting businesses on board, and we'll also be hosting some in some internally as well. We have an option for businesses. They can pay a 2,000 stipend to the students, which will be awarded over for distributions as a stipend to the students, or they can pay the students an hourly rate if they want to do direct if they do the stipend, then they would pay us and we would in turn pay the students out of our payroll with those funds  and the students would essentially be our employees. However, we do have the option and the flexibility to offer the business partners an opportunity for them to pay the student an hourly rate. Of their choice, as long as it is above the federal minimum wage. And so we do have Exxon Mobil as a partner that has taken that route. They pay the students directly and they pay them a little bit more than what the average for hours for the 2,000 would be about 17 an hour. And so we give the partners the flexibility to do either one. So in my role, like I said, I am currently working to increase the number of business partners that we have, and for the ones that we currently have, increasing the number of students they are wanting to host and share an opportunity to experience what it is that they do in hopes that the students will learn, yes, this is definitely what I want to do. I'm passionate about this, or I thought I was, but no, I really don't. So that's where I am and what I do in a nutshell.  


Casey: Dr. Stovall, I'm sorry, Tia, can I jump in on your idea, Tia? So as I give everyone, Tia, the the credit. Dr. Stovall, it's good to reconnect with you. Thank you for sharing your space today. 

And Yeah, it's really good to reconnect with you. I would like to just you and I don't always get to run into each other in text. But we would love to invite you to the One Rouge education to career coalition to be a leader in the continuous learning working group so that we can help assemble additional partners that you are also already bringing to the table, but also our partners with BRAC. That your partners with and really figuring out this summer play together and then and then also continuing to be a conduit would be RCC Southern and LSU. If you're interested in that conversation, I would love for us to wrap our efforts around what you're wanting to do and amplify them. And I think that we can all kind of work on that continuum together because y'all are, y'all have some pretty, as always, you have a lot to do, and we'd love to help.  


Ni’Shawn: Absolutely. When I was invited to this call, I reached out to Dr Harrison and I said, you know what? We had a call. It was maybe back in February. We were trying to wrinkle rangle everybody together to say, how can we do this together? How can we bring more people to the table to streamline the opportunities that we have? And we are specifically talking about summer. But yeah, I was like, I'm definitely interested in reengaging and picking up that conversation to see how we can all work together. So I'm definitely on board. 


Casey: Yes. Yes. Dr. Stovall. First of all, Dr. Harrison's a good person for you to reach out to all the time. And and then I, and I'm happy to say things in public because it helps us build it. We wrangled all those tried to wrangle all the cats in February. There was too much politics. I couldn't get through it. I didn't have the juice to mediate all the politics, but all the landscape is shifted. Mayor's office, BRAC, and EBRPSS. This is the time to align. And I don't have the vision. I just want to be a part of the bigger vision. 


Tia: Yeah, the power of connection and partnership is so essential. No more time than now. And I'm just grateful that Dr Harrison was able to reconnect you all to this program. Speaking of Dr Harrison, she is our third panelist for today. So I just want to share some. space with my wonderful sister in this work and give her an opportunity to introduce herself in a more official capacity to the one Roots family and Dr Harrison, you got it. 


Dr. Ashlyn Harrison: Good morning. I even wore my One Rouge shirt today. I'm repping. Good morning, everyone. My name is Dr Harrison. I'm deeply honored I'm so honored to serve as the new senior director here at the walls project. This role really aligns with my lifetime passion of uplifting the community that I live in. I love to say I'm born here, raised here and still here. A lot of times people have asked me once you get your doctorate, are you going to leave? And I said, no, I want to make sure that I build my city. To be better. So I want to be a part of that work. So growing up right across the tracks from Southern University, I've experienced firsthand the power of strong, supportive communities. I grew up in that Southern that I used to ride my bike down the street with my friends growing up. So those early experiences really instilled in me the love for the people and the culture of Baton Rouge and how that deep desire contributes to that growth. I have over a decade of experience in mental health and education similar to Dr. Stovall and Dr. Noemi. I started off as a second grade teacher and I worked my way up to work at LDOE for a few years and now I'm doing the work on the ground with the people here at The Walls. It's my privilege to lead these initiatives to secure the resources and break down barriers. and inspire that resilience within my community. In this new role, I'm really excited about the collaboration that's going to happen with all of these different individuals. But I'm also excited about the program designing and reflecting on the needs, the dreams and the voices of our local communities. So my focus here in this work will be not just to build on the mission that the Walls has already set out, but to expand that access to education, mental health resources. That is my jam and those creative opportunities like Dr. Stovall said to make sure that we're connecting our students with these opportunities moving forward. Because I truly do believe that the Baton Rouge that I know and love is. The place to live. And I think that other people need to see that as well. So believing in that power of collaboration and voice, it is my hope to build that resilience and potentially make our community the best. So yeah, let's create an extraordinary work together. Let's do it.  


Tia: Casey, can you hit a backflip for me? I absolutely love and appreciate you, Dr Harrison and truly honored to be in this work with you. And I'm looking forward to 2025 to start with you. I do have a question that I want to kick over to Ms Donoso, you talked heavily about your background and education started in California. What motivated you to take this new role and how is it aligning with your personal values?  


Noemi: Sorry, did I unmute? Okay thank you. When I think I had said at the beginning, I, this, the posting for this role just happened to fall in my lap at the perfect opportunity. My kids had just, I just sent my last child off to school college and was in Los Angeles at a point in my life where I wanted to get back to really doing more meaningful work on the ground for Children and families. And when I learned about this role, it just had pulled together all of the different sort of experiences I had, and I was most compelled by the commitment of NSBR's board. As I went through the interview process and was getting to know member leaders in the community, getting to know the board more, understanding their passion and the commitment that they have already proven and what's been accomplished here was I think initially what was inspiring to me. I also just really feel committed to building on the legacy of what's been created here. So while in the last 12 years, as I said, 26 charter schools are now running today as a result of NSBR's work and not all. There are some amazing schools and charter schools have such an opportunity to have unique offerings for families and for Children. But for me, it was really just the commitment that every single child in every single neighborhood should have access to a high quality school. That is really what drove me to come here. And then, like I said, the ecosystem here, the ability. To be able to work with funders and such strong community leaders and civic and the high level of civic engagement here just creates the perfect opportunity to be able to continue to grow that legacy. 


Tia: Amazing. Just out of curiosity, prior to applying to this position, how much did you understand or know about the educational landscape here in Baton Rouge?  


Noemi: So to be honest, I knew a lot more about Louisiana and its state accountability system. As someone who was working in Denver and Chicago and were revamping accountability to try to make schools, make sure that the public and that parents knew, Where, who are the high performing where are the high performing schools and their community? Louisiana's accountability system had always been one that was that other states were benchmarking with just let's make it simple for parents. The schools are rated A, B, C, that kind of thing. So I knew a lot about Louisiana and then obviously post Katrina,  the work, the charter school work that was being done in New Orleans. Is something I was very knowledgeable about. Many of my friends moved to New Orleans from all over the country to start schools, et cetera, less about Baton Rouge specifically. But as I said, as soon as I was learning more about it through our board members and the leaders involved in the search process, I just became more and more excited about the opportunity. And almost at the end of every interview, the question would be like, why would you want to, why would you want to leave Los Angeles and move to Baton Rouge? And it just, at first I answered the question honestly, but after I kept getting asked the question, I was like, is there something that I should know about that I'm not understanding?


Because I think this is like such an amazing opportunity.


Tia:  I think it's fair that I've heard it more times than I can count when I tell someone that I'm originally from California. And the question is why did you leave? So I shared that sentiment with you. Thank you so much for sharing. My next question, I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Stovall with your deep commitment to making sure that students have equitable opportunities in to make a living. Can you talk a little bit how your personal journey in education shaped your passion to help students go past just education?  


Ni’Shawn: Absolutely. One thing I will say people don't know about me, and it's a fun fact. When I graduated high school, I graduated as a junior at 16 without a desire to go to college.  And so many people find that interesting with me having now a terminal degree, which I'm at that time at that age Didn't see for myself at all. And so you would think with you being an honor student, the natural transition and progression would be you going to college. However, I did not have that desire. And 1 of the reasons why I believe I didn't have that desire is because I didn't truly understand the opportunities that were out there. So while I was I was great at school. I didn't know anything about my career options or aspirations. Possibly I would have gained some more insight during my senior year. But I didn't have that opportunity since I decided to graduate early and my mother allowed me to do however, she did not allow me to continue on with what I thought would be just being a regular person and getting a regular job. I was required to go to college. And so after I graduated, I worked for a year and then I started college with what would have been my graduating class. And so even then entering college, I changed my major three times. I really, truly didn't know what it was that I wanted to do. So I started out wanted to be an architect. Then I transitioned from architecture to computer science because it was really popular back then. But then I didn't know anything about computer science. And then there were just different, like different options, even computer science that I knew nothing about. And so I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna do education. And I thought I don't have a lot of patience, so I think I'm going to do secondary education versus elementary education, because I don't know how to deal with little kids, crying, whining so I was like, no, I think I'm going to do secondary.And so then when you do secondary, you have to declare a content area. And so I even thought about that very strategically. I didn't like the literature we read in high school in English. So that was out with social studies. I was like, history is made every day. So even the knowledge that I have now, I'll have to continue learning. So I was like, social studies is out. Like the books are thick and they're going to get thicker. And even with science changes. We lose planets, we gain planets, we can clone people. It's too many different things that I would have to continue learning. And even as an educator, we all know that we're all lifelong learners. But at that time during the decision making process, I wanted it to be finite. And so I said, you know what, with math, it doesn't change. Two times two will always be four. They're not going to create new numbers. Even though we have this idea of new math, it's just a different way of thinking about how to, combine numbers and things of that nature. I stuck it out with math. But even as I graduated I had a job, and so I didn't have the passion at that time to go into education, so I continue working until I got a letter that reminded me that I had agreed to teach with this grant that I received. So last was sent me a reminder. If you don't go teach, you got to pay this money back. So I said you know what? I think I'm going to go teach, but I wasn't certain if I was going to like it or not. So for three years, I held down two full time jobs. I taught. The first half of the day. And then I transitioned my schedule and my then job for the second half of the day. So I was working 16 hours, like in my twenties Monday through Friday, and then had a part time job on the weekends. I was a worker. Now don't ask me to do that now. Cause I don't know that I would be able to do it, but I look back and I think I didn't know the opportunities that were out there for me. Even though I was like a model student, I didn't have anybody who presented the opportunities to me. My father passed when I was two years old. And so my mom really had to figure out how do I manage life and raise kids without their father. And so she worked a lot. She remarried and I had a stepfather who entered my life, but they both worked a lot to provide for us and to make sure we had everything that we needed. And so they did not really concentrate on exposure experiences and opportunities to help us to determine what our career aspirations were, even though my brother and I were good students. So that's where my passion lies now. Even when I started educating, I mentioned that I was working two jobs, Monday through Friday, so I had no opportunity to really connect with my students outside of when I had facetime with them in my classroom. I wasn't able to go to extracurricular events in the evenings because I had to go to work, so I didn't have that connection. It was when I only started teaching that I was able to develop the connection with my students and start and begin to experience  opportunities. And so that led to my passion with STEM and being able to connect to industry and show the students that it's more than just Doctor, Lawyer. No offense to anyone on the call,  but it's more than just Doctor, Lawyer nurse, or teacher. Out there, and I'm still learning. If I had to do it all over again, I tell people I would absolutely be an air traffic controller. I feel like they're the anesthesiologist of the air. So I'm just passionate about making sure that students know what's out there, whether you decide to stay in Louisiana and we retain you with this talent here by exposing you to these business partners that we have. And the different career opportunities we have just right here in Baton Rouge, because it's a plethora that we just don't know about. I've learned so much being in this role about these in the industries and the companies that we have that have developed their own niche, and they are producing and manufacturing parts for distribution throughout the country into other parts of the world right here in Baton Rouge. And so I want our students to be able to learn and understand that they have these opportunities to know the amount of money that they can make. We're dealing with a different generation, I know, where they're focused on being passionate and just, they'll room with 10 people and just have a great time coexisting and going after their dreams and what they're passionate about. But we also want to make sure that they can live successful lives in. In many cases that does require a decent amount of money to be rolling in. And so I just want our kids to know what's out there and what's available to them. So that's how my journey influenced my passion of helping kids today. 


Tia: Thank you so much for sharing. I think it's amazing when we could take a moment to reflect what where we've been, where we're going and where we plan to go and just keeping at the forefront that our experiences ultimately shape on how we're going to impact, the people that we are leading. And as I'm talking about impact, I know Ms. Donoso you've been here in Louisiana for 90 days. Ashlyn, it's what week three for you. Week three. And this is an open question to any panelists that wants to answer. So as we're ending 2024 and going into 2025, what are some of your goals for the first few months of the of the new year that you want to implement in your new role? And either of you guys can take the opportunity to speak.  


Ashlyn: Oh my goodness. My notes are right here. So funny. Yes. So  As I was brainstorming last night, I called my favorite thought partner, my mom and we discuss. And the reason why I call my mom is because I feel like she's led large organizations. She's done this work for many years. And I always lean on people in the community that I feel are current leaders to see like what they've done and how they've built their amazing organizations to be where they are. So the first thing that I wanted to ground myself in was the mission of the organization and the work that's currently being done and how can I expand that and make it better? My first thought was how can I make my team just stretch their chops a little bit. So I wrote down on a sticky note, that's all I'm like, it's literally right here. How can we secure more federal funding to ensure that we have longevity in our programs, right? So not just me being and holding the knowledge and being the gatekeeper of how do we do this, but how can I teach? My senior leadership team and the team around me how to do the things that I'm good at. I don't want to be the hoarder of the knowledge. I want to be able to train the next person that's coming behind me to know how to do all the things I know how to do. Plus some so I think that the one thing that I want to do in this new year is to. Expand my team's knowledge to make sure that  I, first of all, understand what they need and listen to them. So being an active listener, but also figuring out how to make sure that. We can move forward as a team to change the trajectory here in Baton Rouge to make the most impact with our programs. So analyzing all the programs within the walls and determining how we can build on what's already happening to make it better. I think that's going to be my main focus in Q1 and then going into the other quarters one step at a time. 


Tia: I hear you. I hear that as we'll get there when we get there. What about you? 


Noemi: Yes. Very similar actually to dr Harrison's Q one. I think our Q ones are going to look very similar. So I think number one, I started with, we have we've been growing many charter schools over the last 12 years and our focus right now, while we will continue to grow and we're continuing to talk to our Highest performing operators and asking them whether they're they want to grow additional seats on their campuses or build new schools. Our focus really in the next 6 months is on quality, making sure every single charter school is a high quality charter school, which for us means rated A, B, or rated C in the highest in 10%, a 90th percentile of growth for the state. And so our focus is on quality and we are doing two major things with that. One is really talking about how to completely transform any F rated charter school. That is in Baton Rouge. And those conversations have been happening. There are some really exciting things down the road that we think will make a big difference for any of our schools that are not high quality. Number two, we have school improvement grants. That we are getting ready to launch in January for our low what we think are low quality or mid quality charter school so that we can help them grow and becoming, like I said, an A, B or C and the highest percentile of growth. And the third thing we're doing, like Dr. Harrison. Is actually applying for federal funds that new schools has never received before to launch new teacher residency programs with LSU and Southern University. Because at the end of the day, what is going to drive quality schools throughout Baton Rouge, whether they're public, private, charter, et cetera, is you've got to have a really high performing leader and the best teachers you can have. And that's really this. The magic sauce to having high performing schools. 


Tia: Come on. There is a question in the chat that I want to get to. But first Ms. Donoso so I want you to express what does the assessment look like once you guys determined a school is a B or C? What are the metrics that you all are using to to give that school that rating? What is it based upon? 


Noemi: That's the state accountability system. So that's based on the state rankings, and it is two grades. One grade is really just pure performance. How many students are performing on grade level and above right? That's in math, in all subjects. They have math, reading, literacy, statistics. Science and social studies. And so the first letter, the one I was referring to there's multiple metrics included, but it's really, are your students in your school performing at grade level? And that is what determines your, that first rating I was talking about. A, B, C, et cetera. The second grade is for growth. And so that's what I'm saying. I think that just because the school is rated a C or D does not mean that it is a low quality school because oftentimes kids are coming in three, four grade levels below and the school is actually doing a phenomenal job. Job growing those students, but it takes a few years to catch up where all students are on grade level. And so that's where we look at both. How are students performing, but also year over year are students growing are the majority of the students growing so that you start to see that movement is in fact happening. Learning is happening in the classroom and kids will catch up. 


Tia: What I can say to that is thank you for your dedication to making sure that students are growing and having the best quality education possible. I do want to flip over to the chat. Sharita has entered in and the question is, can you all discuss the pros and cons of having student choose career paths early in their educational journey? An example in elementary and middle school versus the prolonged exposure to different career options. She's thinking about how we prepare students for careers in the workforce without limiting their general development. That sounds like a question for Dr. Stovall, but anyone who 


Ni’Shawn: Sure, I'm happy to, I'm happy to jump in. So I'll say one, we focus on career exposure. We have a lot of schools that currently have be able, which they they take an assessment in based off of things that they are, that they like, and they're interested in. It shares a number of different types of careers based on their interest and also based off of where their Lexile level is in reading. And it says, if this is what you want to do, then this is the level that you need to get to in reading. So it's attached to helping them with their reading and increasing their reading levels. And so with that program, they're able to. look at different careers and not necessarily make a decision on their careers that day. Now, we do have some schools that are magnet or focus choice schools where they have more dedicated focus for career pathways. However, most of our high schools have a number of different pathways that students can choose. So between Elementary and middle is where we are focusing on exposure and the students get an opportunity to start to make those decisions as to where they believe their career aspirations are. I think that it's critical to have these kids exposed to these things early and then once they start to hone in on where their interests are to then. Concentrate it for those areas because we think it's too soon for it to happen in elementary and middle and high. I'll get a personal testimony. My godson is a pilot. He's wanted to be a pilot since he was 7. I was on an airplane a flight with a pilot with a commercial, not a commercial pilot. He just happened to be a pilot. He did a run from Baton Rouge to I think South Carolina and I usually get on the plane and go straight to sleep. Sorry, I don't listen to any of the instructions. I go straight to sleep. This day he wanted to talk and I was just sitting there talking to him. I found out that he was a pilot. I told him my godson was interested in becoming a pilot. He gave me his number. I connected them. He's he became his mentor. He helps him go. He took him out to fly to help him to get his hours help him to certify. Even when my godson moves away, they still keep in touch. So I think exposure is key. Mentorship is key. And we cannot assume that when students say, this is what I want to do, that they don't know. But we can assume that in some cases they may not know. And we have to expose them as a high school student. I was at Baylor high school in the medical magnet program. I graduated early with the certified nursing assistant certificate. However, I never wanted to go into medical profession and that sealed the deal for me by being exposed. So I think even as we have students who start to make decisions early, if we expose them and put them in job training, job exposure on the whether it's on the job training or if it is them getting the opportunity to just go and observe. They're able to start to see, okay, yeah, this is really what I want to do or no, this is not what I want to do. And they haven't gone through four years of college and loans or somebody paying for it, whether it's scholarship or parents to figure that out at the end of four years, this isn't what I want to do. And they've gone from being a four year student to an eight year student, or have decided, you know what I really want to do, I don't even need To go to a four year institution, maybe it's associate degree, or maybe it's a credential. So I think what we're doing in the school system allows the students to follow their passions early and to start making those decisions early. So if they want and choose to pivot, they still have time to do so before they have questions. Made a commitment post secondary. So I think that's where our focus lies. And while students are concentrating in these different areas, it's not an end game for them at this time. They're still just starting and we recognize that. 


Tia: Thank you. I recently did a school tour at Scotlandville high, and that was the first time that I was able to see the career pathway assessment in place. And I was like, honestly, blown away at the opportunities that these young students have to get. On the job training and become certified in a certain skill or trade or just be on a pathway can you tell me if there are what other schools I just know of Scotlandville or anybody can share what other schools have these career pathway assessments embedded into their school programming. 


Ni’Shawn: I can't tell you most of them. Most of our schools have them. I can't tell you which ones like give you a list because I don't have it on me right now, but most of our schools have them. Most of our middle and high schools have them. Utilization is different on every campus. We can monitor utilization because it's also a reporting mechanism that goes along with it. All of our high schools have at minimum 3 pathways that the students can choose from. And 1 of the pathways that all of the high schools have is liberal arts, which is, like an open pathway for students to explore. So while for instance, Scotlandville has an engineering pathway, they have a medical pathway, they have a law pathway, they have an entrepreneurship pathway some schools have more than others, but the students are able to choose those pathways. They take courses within those pathways to get them certifications. So again, it's something that they are able to use right in some cases while in high school and in other cases. Once they graduate. And so even if I like to bring this out there too, even if it's not something that the student wants to do for a career, it is something that they can do once they graduate while they are gaining the credentials that they need to enter into their career. So if you need to work part time as an EMT, you've already been certified as EMT in high school. So you can do that while you're going to school, right? While you're going to post secondary. So we have that. 


Tia: One of the reasons why I really love that style of programming is because I know coming fresh out of college and applying for positions that like you have the educational experience, but you don't have the actual professional experience to fulfill the job. So giving these students an opportunity to come in not only with the education, but the knowledge and experience to be efficient in that position is key. I wasn't sure, I heard you spoke a little bit about the liberal arts aspect of it. There was a question asking where arts included in any of those assessments because Louisiana is renowned for its culture and really cannot continue without culture bearers and stewards. There is a sigh of relief to know that there are schools that have a pathway for liberal arts. The next question I want to touch on is going to be community collaboration. Ms. Donoso, how do you plan to engage families, educators, and stakeholders in your work? 


Noemi: So we so first,  New schools launch teach 225 specifically to engage educators. That was a big initiative to and continue. We continue that in order to celebrate teachers elevate the teaching profession and be a source of resources for teachers, whether they're charter school, again, private, Public school teachers throughout Baton Rouge. And so I think really continuing to bring visibility to teaching how important it is and also to attract young people and build a stronger talent pipeline for teaching in Baton Rouge because that is core to having great schools. In terms of families, we really focus on making your families know I'm trying to get the word out for the families know what are all of their school choices. What are all of the schools that they can have access to. I think sometimes parents think it's just the school down the street, and that is where they have to go if they don't. Apply to a private school, but actually charter schools are free public. There are public charter schools that are free and open to everybody. It doesn't matter where you live. And so it's really important for us to make sure that parents understand what are all the school choices for their children. That they have access to and what is the quality of the performance of those schools so that they can make really good choices. And for some also it's what are the different offerings? Are there schools with different career pathways? Are there, elementary schools focused on the arts, focused on stem, et cetera? And that's important too. For students and families who have particular, who want a particular type of school.  


Tia: Thank you. Which ways can you envision that organizations  such as One Rouge or other partners on the call that can actually support you? What kind of support could you  use from us? 


Noemi: Yeah, I think first and foremost what I have seen that's very powerful and really transforming school systems and the quality of schools is just we all need to demand excellence for our children and believe in our children that they actually 100 percent are capable of achieving at the highest level. And I think that is foremost if a community believes that. Really truly believes that then we can make, we can deliver on this promise of excellence throughout Baton Rouge. And I really believe that's possible. And so I would say that's number one is let's continue to demand the very best for our children. Help parents understand that there are choices out there. Like I said, it's helpful to just let parents know that consider serving on a local school board. Charter school boards have their own local school boards and those school boards are made up of residents of Baton Rouge who are involved and invested in making sure that is a great school. Some of them meet, some of those school boards meet monthly. Some of those school boards meet quarterly, but every charter school has a local school board. And so there's definitely a need. I get requests all the time from charter schools. Do you know anyone who could serve on our board? So if you're interested in that, you can reach out to Adonica at the Alliance. You can reach out to us at. New schools. And then the last thing is, if you know any funders who want to support this kind of work, send them my way. If you want to donate, to the charter school of your choice or to new schools to continue to support this critical work.  


Tia: Thank you so much for that. We are just hitting up on time before we go into our community announcements. So I'm just going to leave a question for all three of you guys surrounding around, how do you want to leave your legacy three? Through this work. You can be as short as brief as you like. 


Noemi: I think for me, I got into education as a teacher to  really create life changing, transformative  opportunities for Children and young people because the power of education and the role that it played in changing my life and putting me on a completely different trajectory for it. So for me, it was Every time that I touch a student directly or indirectly in the work that I do and create an opportunity and a path for that student to have choices and break the cycle of poverty for themselves, because that breaking that cycle, I know firsthand, breaking that cycle of poverty for yourself creates multi general, a ripple effect multi generationally. And so for me, that. Is what matters to me. That is what I'm all about. That is why my work is everything to me. And so I, I don't really talk about legacy, but I guess that's the legacy I want to leave is that do education, you can break the cycle of poverty and you can create life changing opportunities for young people. 


Tia: Beautiful. Dr. Harrison. 


Ashlyn: I  think I want my legacy to be rooted in one of my favorite quotes that has been told to me throughout my life. Don't be a product of your environment, make your environment a product of you. And I want to change my environment that I see around me. So I think my ultimate goal is to create an uplift the community. That's going to impact them long after my 10 year. I feel like that is breaking down barriers. That's creating opportunities to create sustainable change. But that's also creating a culture of hope and possibility. So above all else, like. Where a community believes in itself they can overcome challenges. So creating that brighter future for the hope for the next generation and continuing to make a lasting difference. Not just in my community, but beyond that can be transformative. So that's definitely where I think unlocking that, that hope and that potential of this community to be brighter in the future. 


Tia: You are a great orator.  Dr. Stovall. 


Ni’Shawn: Yes, I think I would want my legacy to be focused on me being an opportunity multiplier for both education and industry to create a better Baton Rouge that could lead to a better world. Just like Ashlyn, I'm born here, raised here, still here. And I'm also a product of the East Van Roos Parish school system. And so I'm very passionate about being a catalyst to helping the community to reimagine the students in our school system and our school system alike. And so I just want to make sure. That I am exposing the opportunities that we have within the school system, but also exposing the opportunities that are here in Baton Rouge so that we can keep and retain talent. 


Tia: That's beautiful. Thank you ladies so much for sharing. Before we end the call, I do want to open up space for anyone to share any community announcements needs that they need or things that they can give. So now's this time.


Casey: Hey, can I preempt that just for a quick second? Because I'm going to ask for a moment of candid sharing, and I'm not sure anybody on the call is going to want to jump in on this. And I know we're trying to keep it light, I don't. With Linda McMahon. And Trump coming into office.  Um, any crystal ball insights from folks that I know way more than I do in the education space. Like, what's, I know everybody's we have to wait and see, I get that, but you also have to play chess as a leader, right? And you're thinking about scenario one, two, three, four, all the time. Does anybody have any insights on what's going to like, what could really significantly shake? 


Ni’Shawn: I'll jump in and say that we were just talking about this literally yesterday, and it's just an unknown because especially she's, I don't have the words and usually I do, but we have a, so we have someone who is  being appointed as a secretary of a department that we're saying we're going to cancel or eliminate. And so it's really in, without much of the background to support without having the support of having a department. So we are living in a time that's unknown. I don't have more information to speak with my executive director yesterday about this. She doesn't have any more information. So maybe there are some, I don't know if there are others on the call who have better insight, but I'm interested in hearing more too, because it's  very interesting times for education.  


Casey: Is that, and just to clarify the same words, are you using the word interesting, like when people describe me, Casey's alright, but he's very interesting. Is that what that is? Because I don't like to refer to myself as a third person, but I feel like I hear that whispered from time to time. Is that Dr. Stovall? Is that the tone that I'm catching? 


Ni’Shawn:  No, it's not. It's not the same tone. It's not the same tone at all. My interesting is like fear of the unknown. Interesting. But I don't have the words for it that not you're interesting. But I will say this, I do know that at our state department that they're looking at making some changes and going back to heavily focusing on math and reading and improving in those areas, where we were some years ago. I don't know if that's true. If that's going to work or not, but I do know that there's a little bit of focus there. With the new administration coming in, I believe there's a focus on shifting everything back to local state departments. So with that, it will be interesting to see just where our state superintendent is guiding us because it looks like that's where the majority of the work will fall.


Casey: And is it Dr. Donoso so I saw that you didn't claim or coming off mute very fast and national. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were coming off mute. 


Noemi: But yeah yes, I'm Dr. Donoso. No, you're asking if I have an opinion on that. If I don't have any inside knowledge I think everybody's just bracing to see I hope that whatever happens, it continues to center equity. And I think the fear, a fear, maybe that I have it not a fear, but what I have seen happen before is that I think the block granting, for instance, if they go with block granting, which has been discussed and it isn't focus on student needs. That money isn't always spent on the Children who most need additional support and resources. And so I hope that is not what happens as a result of more  state autonomy with federal dollars.


Casey: Well said, and honest. Thanks for that. I appreciate that. Yeah, the fear of the unknown is one thing. The fear of bad policy is real, right? And the implementation of it with. A political agenda in any direction, and I do mean that in any direction and be can steer the ship away from actually students and what's best for students. I just really, now that you just said, and know me. We have a trifecta today on the call. PhDs who do, who studied this, that dedicated their life to study this and to ascertain the level that y'all have. That's why I always throw the doctor in front. It's just more of a respect for what you persevere to get it. As an outside of the the social class thing. Dr. Harrison.  Ashlyn, actually, let me see that, Ashlyn, from your perspective, your personal crystal ball. 


Ashlyn: Yeah. Yeah. So if I say I grabbed my crystal ball and I saw that we 47th in education, but the people on this call are going to continue to work to make sure that what is needed for our students in Baton Rouge is done. So that's what I think is going to happen. I have no doubt that things are going to shift, but I know that the power of collective thoughts and power of people is real, and that I want to instill that in us that no matter who is in office, we are still going to do what's best for the students here in Louisiana and beyond. That is what my crystal ball said.  


Casey: That almost felt very like in the spirit of Christmas, those magic eight balls that you'd get in your stockings back in the days, right? Like I felt like I just got one of those and I'll go back to it all the time when you say 47th and education. I throw out the two peace signs. Let's get to 22nd. Let's just, that's what we've always said with this work for the last 10 years in education. Let's get to 22nd so that we're in the upper half of the United States in educational outcomes for young people. That feels doable. And hard, but doable. So thank y'all for your honesty and y'all's feedback, and Tia, I will lean back out and allow all the amazingness of community announcements to pop its way back to the top. 


Tia: Thank you so much, Casey. Marcela, good morning.  


Marcela Hernandez: Hi, good morning, everyone. I hope you guys are doing wonderful today. I am here to invite all of you guys to. It's going to happen next week, next Friday. I put the  flyer on the chat and also the link for you to register.  It's going to be very important for us, your presence. This is a banquet that we're doing every year to thank our community partners, our community members.  About their presence and support throughout the year. So I really want to extend this invitation with all my heart to all of you guys. And I hope that you can come and celebrate with us.  We're also going to have a silent auction. The event is next Friday, December 20th at 630. You can come and dress with your cultural dresses. We're going to have a time full of love and solidarity. So please RSVP, I put the flyer and also the registration, please come and join us and celebrate with us and you have a wonderful day. Thank you so much. 


Tia: Thank you, Marcela. So that's December 20th. Lori's thank you banquet for all community members and partners. I know you guys see that I have dropped a plethora of community events in the chat, but I'm so sad because I see that there was dog therapy yesterday at LSU that I missed. So if anybody has any pooches, they would like to let me foster over the holidays so that I can get my cuddles. I'm available. If anyone, does anyone else have any community announcements they would like to share? Okay, hearing none, that will conclude today's One Rouge Friday. We will see you guys all next week for the last One Rouge call for the year. Keep it light and have something fun and festive to talk about an experience. Much love, all light, and we will see y'all next week. 

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