Minutes-03-09-2023-Joint Meeting with School Boards

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3 Chair Atherton expressed the importance of kindergarten readiness because it is a strong indicator of future education success. He said based on the system's demographics, it is important that students are being taught by teachers that also reflect the diversity of the district. He said they are also looking at ways to incorporate cultural responsiveness and have healthy conversations on equity across the district. Sarah Smylie, Orange County Board of Education member, discussed the challenges of recruitment and retention of staff. She referenced the following handout: Outcome Goal 3: Exemplary Staff N�0—ge Ca..ty EQUITY EMPHASIS:Hire and retain staff that reflects the diversity of the district,mirrors the demographics of the OCS student Schools population and who are committed to becoming culturally proficient_ STRATEGIC WHAT DOES THIS OUTCOME GOAL MEAN? HOW WILL OCS EMPHASIZE EQUITY PLAN THROUGH THIS OUTCOME GOAL? 1 OCS will recruit,hire,support and retain culturally proficient OCS will hire and retain staff that reflects the diversity of the and high-quality staff committed to providing all students district,mirrors the demographics of the OCS student with an excellent education in a welcoming environment. population and who are committed to becoming culturally proficient. HOW DOES THIS OUTCOME GOAL ALIGN TO THE OCS EQUITY PLAN? This Outcome Goal is aligned to OCS Equity Plan Goal 3 and Goal 4. © _ GOAL 3:Build the equity leadership capacity of district leaders,administrators,teachers,staff and the OCS School Board by developing equity-oriented leadership skills,mindsets,and knowledge. ©% GOAL 4:Recruit,hire,support and retain teacher and staff that reflect the racial and language diversity of the student population. WHAT PROBLEM IS THIS OUTCOME GOAL TRYING TO SOLVE? Q • OCS teachers currently do not mirror the demographic and linguistic makeup of OCR student population. • Ensure students receive high-quality instruction from teachers who are culturally proficient and feel supported and valued in OCS. WHY IS THIS OUTCOME GOAL IMPORTANT? ■ a "A school staff that believes it can collectively accomplish great things is vital for the health of a school and if they believe they can make a positive difference then they very likely will"(Hattie,2018). • "Models of student achievement indicate that assignment to an own-race teacher significantly increased math and reading achievement of both 81ack and White students"(Dee,2002). Sarah Smylie said research shows that teachers of color help all students succeed. She said the recent Drive Task Force indicated that in North Carolina, teacher candidates of color are less likely to complete educator preparation programs and those that do are less likely to be teaching after two years of completion. She said aiming to match student application is very ambitious when the percentage of Latinx students in OCS (27%) is much higher than the percentage of Latinx teachers in North Carolina (3%). She noted that through the focused work of many staff members, OCS has increased its percentage of teachers of color from 13.3% in the fall of 2019 to 20.3% in the fall of 2022. This includes an increase of Black teachers from 8% to 12%, and an increase of Latinx teachers from 1.3% to 5.7%. She said there is a national teacher shortage, with 300,000 fewer teachers than in 2020 and fewer people studying education in college. She said that OCS is competing against other districts more than ever. She said the UNC study also showed that more teachers are leaving in the middle of the year and are often leaving the field entirely. She said the hard to fill positions are becoming even harder to fill, including math, science, exceptional children's teachers, and CTE programs. She said this issue is exacerbated by the fact that several local districts pay more than OCS. Sarah Smylie said that for retention, OCS was able to give teachers credit for all of their years of teaching and not just in OCS. She said that this helps with retention but also recruitment. She said that compression was bad for hourly staff and have been able to implement a 3/8% increase a year, which is a start, but they still have a huge gap. She said the strategy is listening to staff. She said each school's school improvement plan includes strategies that target areas of concern from staff surveys. She said that they have added a district mental health role to support the well-being of staff and students.