Attendance:

P Christian, P Zalucha, E Grabe, M Rooney, S. Bollig, Bob and Faye Johnson, J Steinhauer, S Salerno, S Smith Jason Wright, Karla, Student Rotarians Faith Droessler and Helen Fisher. Guests Dave Reed, Sara Straka director of instruction at the school district and Brian Johnson director of student services.

 

Karla has been shopping at Wisconsin Dells and with friends, went to Waunakee for a friend’s birthday along with other Rotary exchange students. 

 

Student Rotarian updates: Faith is the wrestling team manager and will be busy with dual meet and tournament this weekend. Helenis busy preparing for the academic decathlon, essay competition, may need to go to Whitewater to compete in another competition working with the book, “Lathe of Heaven”.

 

Susan: happy for Mt. Horeb basketball game halftime Edgewood 60-12. Susan met Jocko from channel 15 who has a kid on the Edgewood team who was not very happy with the game's result.

 

Shawn: has quickbooks online is getting set up for our club!

 

Peggy: was able to send in $500 worth of checks to Rotary International for EREY. The club is on track.

 

Judy: her family was here for Christmas so she is all done for the season after a 8 day visit. She is looking forward to recovering.

 

Reminders: Holiday party is in 2 weeks. Please get your RSVP in. Fireside chat 1/31/23. Super brunch ads, we need to get on the sales.

 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) which started

with membership in the Dane County Equity Consortium in 2019.

Change takes 7-8 years, and the group is in their 6th year.

The group invited student involvement, and the board of education who gave the green light to get it moving forward.

The school district provided a mission statement for the leadership team.

Community engagement is part of the project, with outreach events informing the public on how state standards were integrated into the curriculum.

Guidelines are set up regarding negative interactions, classifying them and appropriate responses to address behavior to address the “why” rather an a punitive reaction.

Student voices have been important in forming policies. Back in the day 6 or 7 years ago the kids were not willing to interact with staff based on a belief that nothing was going to happen. Now the situation has improved as there is a student-lead leadership group with events such as a student forum with youth throughout Dane county. Students pick the keynote speakers, creating a more powerful experience. Sharing stories lead to a greater call to action.

 

By working with a district equity committee, participants are developing policies and practices group, student and community outreach groups, and events the organization hopes to bring together voices of the community. Also addressed is professional development, and developing staff to be more inclusive.

 

Next steps are to host a day of service on MLK day as a “day on” January 15th for students, and staff. Dr. Salerno brought up an event where he was a panelist with focus on the needs of changing demographics in the Madison metropolitan area. This was brought to light as “Justified Anger",  an article published in the Capital Times (see this podcast for more on the subject).
 

The goal is to be evolutionary rather an revolutionary and take many small steps. “Go slow to go fast”.

 

Question and answer period followed, before meeting was adjourned.