Welcome to our board meeting! The Board of Trustees and I celebrate each time you choose to attend one of our meetings.
Happy π day! Not edible pie, but the numerical value of p-i = 3.14 As you may recall, pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. How fun is that!
At our last meeting, I shared with you about the Pygmalion Effect – whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. I talked about how teacher expectations influence student performance and leader expectations impact adult performance. When we value our students’ and staff abilities, this helps create that positive climate and culture, that culture of success.
Tonight I want to start with the message I communicated at the Adelante Mujer conference on March 5th. I wanted our young women to think about how we are all connected…that everything we do and think impacts the people in our lives and their reactions in turn impact others…like a ripple effect. Just like one drop of water creates countless ripples, so does one gesture change countless lives. Each of us carries within us the capacity to change the world in small and sometime big ways.
The impact we have on our world is greater than we could ever imagine, and the choices we make can have far-reaching results. One act of charity, one thoughtful action, or even one positive thought can pass from one individual to another, snowballing until it becomes a group movement or a ray of hope that could even save someone’s life. I shared that every ripple in the water has a point of origin and that each young woman present that day, and all of you here, must believe in your ability to be that point of origin to use the ripples you create to spread goodness.
Smile at a stranger, give a compliment to a friend, and generate an attitude of laughter. That thoughtful gesture can send ripples that spread among your family, your friends, your school, and our community all the way out into our world. This can be done and it starts with ME…and it starts with YOU!
I wanted all our 760 young women and adults at the conference to know, and I want all of you to know, you can make a positive difference in our community. The momentum of your positive influence, your kind word or your donation of time and energy, will grow as your ripples move onward and outward. And as a reminder, I shared a bookmark (Keep Calm & Give Back) with the hope that our students remember as they finish middle and high school that they can make a difference in someone’s life everyday; that when they go off to college or into that career that they continue to make a difference in someone’s life everyday; and, that my hope was sometime in the future, they return to our community and give back… because everyone can be great at giving back. Let’s all of us remember the ripple effect to be that point of origin to spread goodness and positivity in our world.
Secondly, tonight Dr. Fulcher will be sharing the results of his Equity Listening Campaign and the work engaged in with the Equity Roundtable and Equity Steering Committee. In preparation for his presentation a little later in the meeting, please know what he presents tonight is integrated with all the work we engage in together in our district. As background, in 2010, I completed my dissertation on the topic of a district’s role in systemic reform. I used a framework where the research supported four essential district roles matter in improving student and staff performance.
These four essential roles are: providing instructional leadership, reorienting the culture of an organization, establishing policy coherence, and maintaining an equity focus. Hopefully, these four roles help explain how we have organized our district leadership team…Teaching & Learning – Equity, Culture & Support Services – Leadership Development & Systems Innovation. Addressing the role of maintaining an equity focus involves districts owning or acknowledging past inequities and keeping equity in the foreground. So, you see, maintaining an equity focus is the pivot point for transformation here in Sweetwater.
What we have been working on these last 8 months is assessing the roles of instructional leadership, reorienting and aligning organizational structures and processes, and establishing policy coherence with the fundamental goal to ensure educational equity across our system. With our new leadership direction we are developing those systems, in collaboration with all stakeholders, to make equity our focus every day for each student.
Since July, you have heard from district leadership about efforts in teaching & learning, finance & audits, business & operations, professional growth & development. Tonight you will hear our thoughts and ideas going forward about equity and culture. Tonight is when all our work, conversations and researchintersects, interconnects, and transects with our focus on equity.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and thank you for the opportunity to support our students, our families, our staff and our community!
Sincerely,
Karen Janney, Ed.D.