WINDHAM SOUTHEAST SCHOOL DISTRICT
SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE
10:00 Thursday, August 3, 2023 via zoom.
DRAFT MINUTES
Summary:
● The committee heard a presentation from Human Resources Director Michael Kelliher on plans to increase staff diversity.
● The committee voted to recommend that the three diversity-related questions developed in 2022 be included on all applications for licensed teacher or administrator
positions, if possible on Schoolspring.
● The committee made a recommendation that every hiring committee include at least one person representing a diverse viewpoint with a preference for lived experience.
Attendance:
Committee members: Eva Nolan (EN), Robin Morgan (RM), Tim Maciel (TM),
Other board members: Deborah Stanford, Ruby McAdoo
WSESU staff and administrators: Michael Kelliher, Mark Speno, Mikaela Simms
Other attendees: Curtiss Reed Jr. (Partnership for Fairness & Diversity), Claire Halverson
(NAACP & Lost River Racial Justice), David Schoales
I. Call to Order / Introductions / Recognition of Visitors
EN called the meeting to order at 10:02 and meeting attendees introduced themselves.
II. Clerk & minutes
RM motion to approve the minutes of the July 13 meeting. All voted in favor.
III. Three Social Justice questions on all job listing applications.
The following three questions were proposed to appear on all WSESD job listings by the
Social Justice Committee in February 2022:
1. Explain your experience(s) working with historically marginalized groups. What have you learned from this (these) experiences? Include times when you have made mistakes.
2. Describe your framework for equity and social justice in the classroom (or workplace) and its origin,
3. Where did you hear about this job posting?
Committee members expressed support for these questions and the importance of being able to see how candidates responded when approving hires. Curtis Reed suggested as a follow
up to the first question asking candidates what they did to repair after a mistake. He also asked about who would judge what constituted a favorable response to these questions and
how they would evaluate that. Mark Speno agreed that the questions are terrific and he and new Human Resources Director Michael Kelliher have been discussing how to implement
them.
Mr. Kelliher related that at his previous job for Behavioral Health Network, he worked to implement social justice initiatives, hiring a VP of social justice and creating a social justice committee in order to improve representation of diverse communities. He emphasized the need to balance the importance of asking these questions with the need to create a process that’s not overly cumbersome for applicants. At BHN, after they added questions like this to applications they saw a decline in the number of applicants, and people expressed that the application process was cumbersome. He suggested removing these from applications and utilize them as interview questions instead. Or have applicants come early to the interview and have them complete these questions at a kiosk. Asking questions in the interview can generate a more authentic response.
Committee members expressed concern that if the questions aren’t asked until the interview process, the opportunity to convey the values of our district to potential applicants is lost. Having time to reflect and consider how to answer might result in more authentic responses rather than less. An additional concern was that if teachers are put off by the questions they might not be a good fit. Having the questions in the application would also allow board members to review how candidates responded when approving hires. Committee members supported having the questions also be asked in all interviews to allow for conversation and follow up about the responses.
David Schoales advocated for taking a new approach, reflecting that efforts to diversify the staff have thus far not been very successful. Mr. Reed added that the focus needs to be on staff retention, not just recruiting.
VI. Recruiting a more diverse faculty and staff
Mr. Kelliher discussed a presentation of plans for recruitment and hiring. He emphasized the importance of having a website that features diverse representation and shows applicants that this is an employer that will give them an opportunity to grow in their career. The goal is to drive candidates to the website and show them our commitment to workplace diversity, social justice,and an opportunity to grow. He is looking at other educational organizations who might have some practices that WSESD would want to adopt.
He discussed the importance of centering the candidate’s experience. Up to 40% of new hires make their decision whether to stay within the first 90 days. Making sure people feel welcomed and supported should be a priority. He named the new hire orientation as one way we are working on this
He talked about sourcing recruits. Currently the district uses Schoolspring, print and radio ads to share jobs with applicants, and has some college relationships, for example Franklin Pierce. He suggested that the district pick a number of colleges that have high minority enrollment and make relationships with them. Some that he has been considering are Boston University, AIC, UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, Anna Maria, CCNY, University of Hartford, and Western Connecticut State. This would be a twofold process – Human Resources would build a relationship with placement offices, and also have members of the educational/administrative team reach out to chairs of education departments and build relationships with them. The district has begun utilizing online job boards like Indeed. Most of these are no cost. He wants to start doing searches for candidates using networking services like LinkedIn. In addition to continuing to attend external job fairs, he proposed hosting a local job fair for paraeducators. He also suggested using social media to promote the school district and draw in an audience and intersperse job opportunities to reach candidates who might not be actively job hunting but would be drawn in by those posts.
Mr. Reed suggested that experiences working on diversifying staff in the Springfield/Boston job market may not be directly transferable to rural Vermont because of the lower rate of racial and ethnic diversity. Here there is need for more emphasis on attracting folks of diverse backgrounds to move to Vermont. He referenced his own work with the Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, working with state agencies and private companies to increasing their workforce diversity. Mr. Speno expressed interest in connecting with Mr. Reed to discuss further.
Mr. Kelliher shared an idea about Greenfield Community College’s six-week certificate program for educational paraeducators. He would like to create a collaboration with WSESU and the local Ethiopian Community Development Council branch [an organization focused on refugee resettlement] to help people from refugee backgrounds gain experience through this program and work in our schools.
He spoke about the role of relationships with colleges. WSESU is working on creating an internship with Franklin Pierce. The goal is to attract the teachers to come up to this area to be part of the WSESU team. One of the biggest hindrances to an effort like this is things that are out of our control, such as housing.
TM expressed enthusiasm for building relationships with institutions, and updating the website. He referenced the article The Diversity Test, discussed at the last meeting, and the ideas about on the spot hires at job fairs, and a banner ad on Schoolspring focused on attracting diverse staff. He also mentioned the idea of keeping resumes on file for good candidates who aren’t hired and inviting them to apply for future positions. He asked if district administrators are putting enough priority on hiring a diverse staff. Mr. Speno replied that that will be a point of emphasis at the upcoming administrator retreat. He and Mr. Kelliher will be presenting to administrators about attracting and keeping candidates and emphasizing a more diverse workforce. It will be a large element of the retreat.
Ms. Stanford brought up three issues that were discussed at the July meeting: hiring on the spot, utilizing a banner ad on Schoolspring to boost recruitment, and holding onto resumes of promising candidates who aren’t hired, and asked Mr. Kelliher for feedback. Mr. Kelliher talked about his experience doing on the spot interviews at job fairs. If his team met somebody there that they felt very strongly about, they made an offer on the spot that was contingent on background checks, credential verification etc. He agreed heartily with keeping resumes on file – in his prior position if there were three promising candidates for a single job he would try to find positions in the organization for the other two who weren’t selected. He is open to the idea of a banner ad and would need to do more research on the details.
David Schoales expressed support for strategies that rely on making personal contact with other people in the field, especially with colleges. Based on his experience that seems to be the most effective way to recruit diverse staff. He also advocated for creating a process to help current paraeducator employees become licensed teachers.
TM asked about how we can engage student voices in this process. He suggested an audit to assess if our curriculum is as diverse as it needs to be, and talked about the possibility of engaging community members as part-time staff to teach a course in their area of expertise such as Black History.
Ruby McAdoo suggested putting a plan into writing to effect the changes that have been identified as goals. She noted that the board has a vested interest in changing the trajectory of our hiring and making sure the district is focused on increasing diverse hires. She recommended engaging with Ms. Simms as a partner in this work. She also expressed support for having an outside perspective such as Mr. Reed’s organization to assess what the district could do differently. She asked to have the three application questions or similar ones in every interview process and have people representing a diverse background on every hiring committee.
IV. Ask the principals to provide CVs and applications for all prospective hires.
V. Create a proposal for August 22, the Policy and Amendment Committee meeting.
Ms. Stanford reminded the committee that as the entire Social Justice Committee is invited to this meeting, it should be warned by both the Policy and Amendment Committee and the Social Justice Committee.
The Policy Committee had added proposed language that WSESD board members should be included on the hiring committees for all WSESU administrator positions, and that those members should be chosen by the WSESD board in an open meeting. The Social Justice committee was in approval of this language.
The committee considered the recommendation that all hiring committees should include someone who represents this work, whether a person from a marginalized identity or a diversity and equity teacher leader, but recognized that having a background in social justice teaching is not equivalent to lived experience as, for instance, a person of color.
The committee arrived at a recommendation that every hiring committee include at least one person representing a diverse viewpoint with a preference for lived experience. There was discussion of whether this language should be included in D1, in some other policy, or institutionalized in some other way. This can be discussed further with the Policy and Amendment Committee and administrators at the August 22 meeting.
RM motion to adjourn. All voted in favor.
