2022-09-23-minutes.txt

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Puyallup School District
Special Board Meeting - Board Study Session
Kessler Center and Livestreamed via Zoom
Friday, September 23, 2022
    1. Opening
A. Call to Order
Director Maddie Names called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. In addition to Director Names, in attendance were Directors David Berg, Michael Keaton and Turan Kayaoglu as well as Superintendent Dr. John Polm. President Joseph Romero was excused. 
  B. Pledge of Allegiance
Director Names led the Pledge of Allegiance.
  2. Board Study Session
A. Equity and Instructional Leadership - Since Time Immemorial and History of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians; Dr. Gordon Brobbey, Director of Cultural Competency, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Archie Cantrell, Native American Education Liaison, Lisa Rowan, Director of Instructional Leadership, Jeanna Kooser, Social Studies Teacher, Chelsea Chandler, Elementary Social Studies Instructional Coach, and Leslie Snyder, Secondary Social Studies Instructional Coach.
Executive Director of Instructional Leadership Amanda Kraft began by thanking the board for providing the opportunity for us to share the history of our relationship with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and the implementation of curriculum that honors tribal history and recognizes that the people of the Puyallup Tribe are still here and thriving. It is important to note that our relationship with the Tribe goes back a long way. In fact, far longer than she has been a director. She said there has been a concerted effort to engage in meaningful collaboration with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians since 2019. Specifically for the planning of the 2021 - 2022 school year, ongoing two-way communication has occurred including a consultation meeting held on November 29, 2021, and March 7, 2022. The purpose of these consultation meetings was to collaborate on various academic and cultural topics including Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction requirements for local LEAs and tribal communities, supporting students served in the district's Indian Education program and professional learning and implementation of the state-approved Since Time Immemorial curriculum. In addition to the November and March consultation meetings, ongoing two-way communication and collaboration continued throughout 2021-2022 via email, virtual meetings, and professional learning.  It is important to note that in addition to our efforts we have trained many teachers in STI through OPSI and have worked in collaboration around the design of GLAD units that specifically focus on native American history, culture, and government. Later in our presentation, Lisa Rowan will elaborate on this partnership and continued collaboration.
Our goals for today’s presentation are for you to meet the key stakeholders that support our Native American students and to curate and provide curriculum implementations.
They will also provide:
An overview of Tribal History
Legislation on Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State
The importance of Land Acknowledgement
Our Past and Current Work
At the end we will discuss Next Steps and answer Questions you might have.
We respectfully ask you to hold your question to the end to ensure each person has adequate time to share with you. Director Kraft then introduced each person on our team today:
Archie Cantrell, Native American Education Liaison
Lisa Rowan, Director of Instructional Leadership
Dr. Gordon Brobbey, Director of Cultural Competency, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CCDEI)
Jeanna Kooser, Social Studies Teacher
Chelsea Chandler, Elementary Social Studies Instructional Coach
Leslie Snyder, Secondary Social Studies Instructional Coach
Archie Cantrell, our Native American Education Liaison, kicked off the presentation. At times, Cantrell spoke in both txʷəlšucid (Twulshootseed) followed by the translation to English (text courtesy of Archie Cantrell):
haʔł sləx̌il txʷəl gʷəlapu siʔiʔab. ʔəsbutbutlačibitubułəd čəd bək̓ʷ gʷəlapu. 
Archie Cantrell ti dsdaʔ. spuyaləpabš čəd. ƛ̓uyayus čəd txʷəl ti syayusadiʔ ʔə ti ʔaciłtablixʷ.
Good day to you honorable people. I raise my hands to you folks in deep gratitude.
Archie Cantrell said he is a member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and he works as the Native American Education Liaison for our district. He is also a graduate of Puyallup High School, class of 2004. He has three children, two of which are also in the Puyallup School District. As a member of our area tribe, an alumni, and a father of students here, he said he has a large interest in ensuring our Native American students achieve success. Today he will be speaking on some of the history of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, where we are located, information about our people, and why land acknowledgments are an important step towards strengthening the relationship between the Puyallup School District and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. The following information is not the only way in which our history is depicted. He said he is not a historian, but a tribal member who is extremely passionate about ensuring our story is told from our perspective.
ʔiišədčəł. Our People.
Before we get started on our discussion on history, let’s talk about the number of Native American students in our district. 
We presently have 1,296 self-identifying Native American students, overall. 147 of those students are members of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. The Puyallup Tribe is one of 29 federally recognized tribes in the state of Washington. The Puyallup School District services students with tribal ties from all over our state as well as the nation. 
spuyaləpabš  ʔiišəd. The Puyallup People.
The name spuyaləpabš means the people from the bend in the river or the people from the river with many bends. Prior to the straightening of the Puyallup River, it wound all through the Puyallup Valley. The mouth of the river used to curve (or "bend") toward the present-day city of Tacoma near one of our main village sites. 
Because of the reputation our people had,  we were also referred to as the people with "generous and welcoming behavior to all people who enter our lands.” Today, we are simply known as "The Puyallup Tribe of Indians".
Therefore, the Puyallup School District is named after the first people who inhabited the lands that our schools are situated on. sxʷatxʷixʷtədčəł. Our Land.
Our people lived in villages from the foothills of təqʷuʔbəd, along the rivers and creeks to the shores of the Puget Sound. The red border that you see identifies what is considered to be our historic and usual accustomed areas. The purple border identifies the present-day Puyallup Tribal reservation as established by the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854. The Puyallup Tribal reservation as established by the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854, is just under 30 square miles.
sxʷnanəm tlliti. 
The Treaty of Medicine Creek was signed in 1854 by Chiefs, Headman, and delegates of the Puyallup, and adjacent tribes, along with Isaac I. Stevens, Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs of this territory. The treaty essentially traded native lands for established reservations and promises of money and access to traditional fishing and hunting rights. Since many Native Americans felt the treaty was not honored and reservations were unfit, several battles ensued.  The Medicine Creek Treaty remains the supreme law of the land and establishes the sovereignty of the Puyallup Tribe, among others.
So, what does sovereignty mean?
Inherent - existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute vested in someone as a right or privilege
Native sovereign nations are recognized by the US Government
Our tribe existed before the establishment of the US Government. Therefore, we have pre-constitutional rights.
Sovereignty plays out in many different ways—most basic, but still complex. For example, our right to hunt, fish, and gather in traditional homelands. But there are many other examples today…
spuyaləpabš ʔal ti sləx̌il. 
Today, the Puyallup Tribe continues to grow and flourish. We currently have over 5,000 enrolled members. Our people live both on and off the reservation and quite frankly all over the world. The tribe operates multiple entities throughout the areas of administration, education, healthcare, gaming, and economic development. Perhaps most importantly, the Puyallup Tribe prioritizes the protection of our land, resources, culture, and sovereignty. We are a proud people, we stand together in the face of adversity, and we will continue to fight for the rights of our people as well as Native Americans throughout the nation.
ʔiłq̓ič ti sxʷatxʷixʷtədčəł.
To our people, our land is invaluable. It has supported and sustained our ways of life since the beginning of time.  Our language comes from the land. Our songs come from the land. We hear them every day. Our elders would say that our strength as people comes from the land. The land has always and continues to provide for us. This includes foraging in our woods. Gathering our traditional medicines. Harvesting and traveling in our waters. Our land is of the highest importance to our people. 
Cantrell said in his short time here, he has come to understand that there is contention surrounding the process of doing a land acknowledgment at the Puyallup School District. It seems that inconsistent policies in the past have led us to the point of putting them on pause. It is his hope that we can work together along with our area tribe, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, to ensure we can positively collaborate and the relationship between the District and the Tribe does not sour.
During this presentation, we have discussed a bit about the history of the Puyallup Tribe and how much the land means to our people. Doing land acknowledgments has become an increasingly common practice. Many of the school districts who partner with the Tribe do land acknowledgments. This week I participate in the National Johnson O’Malley Association conference and had the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues around our state and he does not know of another local district that does not use Land Acknowledgements in some capacity.  
As a district that focuses heavily on diversity, equity and inclusion, he said it is important to consider doing land acknowledgments as well as inclusive practices for all ethnicities to ensure our students feel represented. Simply put, doing a land acknowledgment would allow the opportunity for our Native American students specifically to feel like they belong. He displayed a slide showing some progress toward Native American inclusion at a couple of our schools. He said that on Tuesday, September 13th, we hosted our first Native American Family Night of the year at the Karshner Museum. We had the highest attendance on record with over 100 attendees. It was standing room only. These are the students and their families that can be positively affected. Something as simple as a short land acknowledgment is huge to our people.
ʔiłq̓ič ti sxʷatxʷixʷtədčəł. ʔəsbutbutlačibidtubułəd čəł. Thank you for your time.
Next, Director Lisa Rowan said the partnership between Native American tribes and Washington State began long ago and said today she is going to highlight the origins of the state’s commitment and responsibility to educate all students about tribal history, culture, government, and the contributions of Indian Nations to the state of Washington, a promise that began with the Centennial and Millennial Accords.
The 1989 Centennial Accord and the 1999 Millennial Accord brought together the federally recognized Indian tribes of Washington and the state of Washington, through its governor, to better achieve mutual goals between their sovereign governments. These agreements provided a framework and partnership to achieve shared goals, and more specifically, improving educational opportunities, through educating the citizens of the state, particularly the youth, who are our future leaders, about tribal history, culture, treaty rights, government, and the contribution of Indian Nations to the state of Washington.
Following the memorandum of agreement, In 2012, the progress report on HB 1495, submitted and shared by WSSDA, found that most schools and districts in Washington were not educating students about tribal history culture treaty rights, and the contribution of Indian nations to the state of Washington and that that the lack of accurate and complete curriculum may contribute to the persistent achievement gap.  HB1495-Tribal Project Report-feb2012 doc.pdf
These findings amended the RCW and in 2015, The legislature recognizes the need to reaffirm the state's commitment to educating the citizens of our state, particularly the youth who are our future leaders, about tribal history, culture, treaty rights, contemporary tribal and state government institutions and relations and the contribution of Indian nations to the state of Washington. The legislature recognizes that this goal has yet to be achieved in most of our state's schools and districts.
The legislature finds that more widespread use of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum would contribute greatly towards helping improve the school's history curriculum
Accordingly, the legislature finds that merely encouraging education regarding Washington's tribal history, culture, and the government is not sufficient, and hereby declares its intent that such education be mandatory in Washington's common schools. 5433-S.pdf (wa.gov)
The Summary modifying the original legislation states that when school districts reviews or adopts social studies curriculum, it shall incorporate curricula about tribal history, culture, and government of the nearest federally recognized tribe and work with tribes to develop such materials; collaborate with tribes to create materials, programs, and cultural exchanges; and collaborate with OSPI on curricular areas of tribal government and history that are statewide in nature.
School districts must meet the requirements of collaboration and incorporation of tribal history, culture, and government by using the curriculum developed and made available free of charge by OSPI but may modify the curriculum to incorporate elements that have a regional focus or to incorporate the curriculum into existing curricular materials.
Dr. Gordon Brobbey said that according to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, a land acknowledgment provides an opportunity to come together and recognize the land we live on.  In a school setting, land acknowledgment is important in several ways: 
For our Native students and their families, a land acknowledgment is not necessarily about land ownership, but more about what the land means to me them and stands for.  To Native people, a land acknowledgment is about representation, relationships with people, the enduring connection to the earth - and all that it gives such as water, the food chain, medicine, etc. – the wisdom of the tribal women and their elders, as well as the resilience of the people, against the backdrop of the brutal colonial history of dispossession and displacement. It is a way of honoring their spiritual relationship with the land. 
For native students, in particular, land acknowledgment is a powerful way for them to feel recognized and seen. It validates their lived experiences in the district, honors their contributions, increases their visibility, and makes them feel included and accepted. 
For our non-native students, a land acknowledgment provides an opportunity for them to learn about the history of Native people, show respect and honor the histories of the people on whose land they live with their families, attend school, and work. 
For the district, a land acknowledgment presents an unmistakable opportunity to deepen our resolve to make every student feel that they belong in our schools, as this year’s theme, ‘We Belong’ suggests. It also has larger implications in terms of validating lived experiences and improving the emotional well-being and educational outcomes for our Native students. A land acknowledgment will serve as a catalyst to foreground the district’s commitment to a long-lasting partnership built on mutual respect and shared interest in closing the opportunity and achievement gap for our Native students. 
Director Lisa Rowan added that over the years, our district has committed to growing our work to educate all students pre-K through 12th grade in tribal history, culture, and government. We recognize our role and responsibility in this partnership with the tribe, and for educating all staff and students and have worked to:
Create systems for sustainability  
Systemically train and educate all staff
Build systems of support for principals and teachers with the implementation
Develop partnerships with local tribes and neighboring school districts
Examine existing resources for bias and be intentional when considering new resources for areas of needed support.       
Teacher Jeanna Kooser explained their coaching goals were threefold. First, we knew our guiding goal was stronger, systemic compliance with Senate Bill 5433. As a result, we narrowed our focus to identifying actionable STI lessons, creating partnerships to strengthen the authenticity of our work, and crafting lessons that could readily be integrated into existing content. Secondarily, yet related to this overarching goal, our team recognized the clear need for stronger common alignment in the Social Studies content areas. This alignment promotes equity for students which leads to our final goal, cultivating stronger Social and Emotional Learning Experiences in the classroom. These experiences serve to increase a sense of inclusiveness and belonging as a broader range of students see themselves reflected in the curriculum. As we worked to realize these goals, some of the more gratifying moments came during our guest teaching experiences in junior high classrooms when Native students shared such anecdotes as ‘I’ve never heard anyone talk about my language before’ and ‘yeah, those signs are in Twulshootseed and my Aunty speaks that!’ These words served to energize us as we continued working towards our goals.
Our resource development started with vetting STI materials and meeting with Social Studies teachers to determine and communicate actionable steps. The next step of our plan was to craft and refine one lesson for each junior high content area. These areas included Washington State History, US History, and World History. The team identified classrooms willing to host us as we piloted the lessons. We received feedback from students and staff which allowed us to refine the lessons and pull data from students. Finally, we collaborated with Tacoma Public Schools and integrated our materials into a tribal notebook the TPS team had vetted through the Puyallup tribe. Once this work was completed, our team shared it with our tribal partners, and district administration and prepared materials to share during the August supplemental day. We have since delivered this material to the district Social Studies team. The district teacher team has identified and committed to lesson completion by grade level.
The list of partnerships we developed continues to evolve. Our key partners include Puyallup Tribal Members Amber and Charlotte, Indian Education Specialist Michelle Marcoe’s work connecting us to the Native Educator Conference, and our curriculum connections with Tacoma Public Schools. In the district, the work done by Waller Road, Aylen, and PHS provided models for other schools. District teams such as the K-6 Social Studies cadre helped us to identify appropriate lessons from the STI curriculum resources. Our mentor coaching counterparts shared resources and materials as we refined our work. Finally, we benefited from the willingness of secondary classroom teachers (including the mentees we coached) to host us in the classroom as we piloted our district-crafted lessons.
Instructional Coach Leslie Snyder said the primary product and pinnacle of our work thus far are the foundational resources from our partnership with TPS, the Tribal Integration Resource Binder.  The “creation”  and subsequent sharing of this resource with teachers, moved the work forward at an exponential level. She said they are very proud of this work and are excited to share it with the board.  Her intention here this morning is to give you an overview of this supplementary resource, focus on some highlights and share some data. If you would like a deeper dive, she is happy to set aside time to orient you to the entire K-12 collection. It is housed in the new Curriculum Repository (SharePoint)/Social Studies/ Tribal Integration/Secondary or elementary) and easily accessible to teachers.
This collection offers an exciting opportunity for teachers to have resources packaged and ready to build rich, lessons that can scale for our Highly capable students and be scaffolded to fit the needs of all our learners.  We are confident that this collection has already increased student learning (and I will show you some data around this) and aligned us with the state requirements in a meaningful way. Teachers have expressed appreciation for this collection of lessons and resources.  It has made the effort of integrating the OSPI Since Time Immemorial Tribal History, Govt and Culture resources & requirements much easier, more user-friendly, and yielded much richer, integrated tasks for our students. These resources are:
Based on Inquiry—Critical thinking practice used often in Science and Social Studies, promoted by educational researchers from John Dewey in the 1800s thru the currently active Harvard Social Studies project.
Inquiry …
Is naturally student-centered. Allowing for meaningful student discourse and Socratic thinking
It focuses on questions and rich and varied sources of content –such as Primary source documents.  Included in our collection is content from Native Knowledge 360 (Sponsored by the Smithsonian).   QUESTIONS and the process, tasks, and projects utilized in the answering of  those questions are at the heart to encourage critical thinking
Inquiry promotes depth of knowledge and understanding--- proven by research--- which supports student success on assessments
The binder is:
Divided by grade band into two chunks, K-5 and 6-12
Tabbed by grade level to support specific content threads and a variety of experiences for students
Includes introductory tasks designed to support the purpose and engage students in the learning,
a variety of learning tasks to choose from
and formative assessment tasks to help teachers build coherent instruction.
She added they would like to build out the strategy section to include more GLAD and AVID strategies and add exemplar lessons created by PSD teachers in the future, and collaborate with teachers to craft common assessments, which Jeanna will address that later in our presentation.
As she mentioned before, the Heart of the binder is the Inquiry Questions / supporting questions and the vetted featured resources, from which layered, engaging learning experiences can be built. She selected one grade level to share with you today, and she is happy to unpack more at your request in the future. She has selected the 7th-grade collection to share.
Utilizing inquiry and supporting questions creates opportunities for students to explore prior knowledge and utilize collaboration & discussion techniques to interact with their peers.  She directed the board to the second Inquiry question. As you can see in this 7th-grade example, the Inquiry question is targeted to the content, but open to perspectives.  The supporting questions narrow the focus and are answerable through engagement with the curated resources and the listed sites.  It is important to note that the topic of WA state economies and the fish industry is addressed in the current text.  (Chapter 12 emphasis on commercial fishing) . the Tribal: History, Culture, and Govt. resources are integrated into lessons to offer a broadened perspective from multiple points of view.
Using strategies in the binder or from other sources, activities, and assessments which answer the questions can be crafted to fit the culture of the classroom and the needs, age, and stage of the students—perhaps a project-based display, or a presentation, or a more traditional test could be used as assessments. Several grades include lessons that are complete from start to finish.  This especially supports our new teachers and is an area we would like to build out in the future. Embedded in each binder are Microsoft Forms designed to be a pre and post-reflection for students.  Additional data will be collected by teachers this year. As Jeanna mentioned, they had the opportunity to test some of these packaged lessons in classrooms.  As part of their visit, we collected student data:
581 students  engaged with the Pre Lesson survey
510 students engaged with the Post lesson survey
3 basic questions were asked both before the learning experience and after.
How Familiar are you with Tribal
History  2.7—3.49  about 20% gain
Culture  2.19---3.32  about 29% gain
Government  2.87—3.44  about 15% gain
Leslie Snyder said when asked, "What new knowledge stands out after engaging in the lesson," that student replies generated the visual shown—this is part of Forms data. She noted some key new ideas that arose. Additionally, she shared a few of their responses regarding that new knowledge. Examples include statements from students such as:
29 sovereign nations in WA
Tribes have their own government
How similar the bill (s)of rights are and the importance of the rights the tribes want
I know what tribes’ land our school is on and what treaty was signed here
I have lived on tribal land my whole life and I understand my community better
Tribal languages were important to winning WWII (referring to Code Talkers)
The code talkers and soldiers helped the army even though the same government did horrible things to them (making a connection between Indian Boarding Schools and Code Talkers)
Once we had tested out several lessons and included those and other previously designed lessons, in the Tribal Integration binder, we sent this work out to a small group of teachers to review and offered “office hours” for any K-6 teachers to pop in a learn more.  We had a few takers who were very excited and extremely grateful to have rich resources curated and organized in this easy-to-use format.
In June we started to plan how we could utilize the August/Sept supplementals days to provide Professional Development for our teachers. She said next Chelsea will detail the work done with 6th-grade teachers and Jeanna will explain what the day with secondary SS teachers entailed.
Chelsea Chandler introduced herself and said she is the elementary social studies, instructional coach. Last month, Leslie, Jeanna, and she had many opportunities to train Puyallup staff members on the tribal notebook. During one of the supplemental days, we provided 6th-grade teachers with the integration template you have in front of you. This template was designed to build a Bridge between the Ancient Civilization Textbook and the Tribal Binder. To create this template, we started with the 5 inquiry questions from the Tribal Binder and we essentially used those as our  "Scope and Sequence" for the year. From there, we selected Ancient Civilization Textbook lessons and Tribal Binder featured sources to support student understanding of the inquiry Questions and build meaningful connections between the past and present. For example, Inquiry Question #1 asks "How can a road system be an example of Innovation". The ancient civilization lessons selected show how 5 different communities within the Ancient Civilization textbook used road or waterway systems to overcome natural barriers and create sustainable methods of trade. 
That same inquiry question is aligned with the following social studies report card standards: 
E4.6-8.1 Explain the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in the world. (Economics) 
E4.6-8.2 Explain barriers to trade and how those barriers influence trade among nations. (Economics) 
They finished building this template out at our 6th-grade job-alike days. Educators collaborated to complete the last column – What supporting questions are needed for students to make meaningful connections between the Ancient Civilizations textbook and the Tribal Binder?  If following the integration template, the 6th-grade teachers will cover all 5 tribal binder questions for their grade level and study 10/14 chapters of their Ancient Civilization textbook. Further, as Lisa mentioned earlier, we had the opportunity to present the tribal binder to the administration.  Finally, at the 7th – 12th grade Job alike, grade levels had the opportunity to work on social studies pacing guides. Grade level teams made a common commitment to Tribal history, culture, and government. Each grade level successfully selected and committed to covering one inquiry question per semester. The 7th Grade Pacific Northwest Studies teachers committed to covering two inquiry questions per semester. 
Switching gears, next she covered the work that we have recently completed at the elementary level.  First, we have decided on one to two social studies report card standards for our kindergarten through sixth-grade students. Throughout the selection process, we remained committed to meeting Washington State learning standards as well as meeting the legislation specific to Since Time Immemorial. We are looking into the future and believe that with students’ long-term exposure to the info text domains in CKLA and Tribal Binder that they will progress to 6th grade with greater familiarity with social studies content and a more nuanced ability to make those cross-content connections. These report card standards will help hone that focus for both teachers and students and ultimately support students as they move into their secondary coursework, and as she stated earlier, at the 6th-grade job alike we completed, trained, and pushed out the 6th-grade integration template.
Chelsea's last piece for today is what our next steps will be at the elementary level. To begin, we recently invited each elementary principal to sign their school up for a one-hour training with me and Leslie. During the next few months, we will be training every elementary school on the Tribal Binder. More specifically, we will cover how to use the binder, how to integrate the binder into your class, and of course help, teachers find connections between their tribal binder and preexisting district-adopted curriculum. After the roadshow, we will continue to offer small group building support as needed for all K-12th Grade teachers and administrators. Finally, we plan to continue to build cross-curricular connections between ELA, Social Studies, and the Tribal Binder. As mentioned earlier, the CKLA learning domains are rich with authentic social studies information. Therefore, we will continue looking for authentic ways to integrate with that content. 
Next, Jeanna Kooser explained their team’s current work includes refining the pacing guides created during the August 2022 supplemental day and maintaining a close connection with the grade-level teams that committed to these guides. Specifically, we will create a support system for teachers that provides reminders and includes continued virtual or classroom visits dependent upon the needs of teachers. The tribal notebook will be a working document. As such, the team recognizes the need to refine it based on feedback from teachers, our partnering school districts, and other groups as they emerge. We look forward to growing the capacity of our teachers and enriching our content with some of our newest partners, tribal curriculum specialist Jennifer Vasalez and the PSD Indian Education Specialist Archie Cantrell. Of course, given our role as district mentors, our work will include the newest members of the Puyallup School District staff, and the teachers we mentor.
What are our next steps? As previously mentioned, the binder is a working document. We will continue to add enrichment pieces including teaching strategies such as AVID and GLAD approaches, natural cross-curricular connections, and additional content as it emerges. Specifically, the tribal curriculum specialist, Jennifer Vasalez, has expressed a desire to craft Puyallup tribe-specific, modern content. As we move to refine and enrich the binder, the natural progression of this work is the creation and implementation of common assessments with the collection of data. We look forward to this natural progression.
Amanda Kraft thanked them and said we appreciate your intentional focus on creating a comprehensive resource that addresses the requirements of STI coupled with the history of the Puyallup People. Your leadership as instructional coaches and ability to model lessons with teachers has increased the implementation speed considerably. As we consider our next steps, creating a sense of belonging is critical for and Native American students.
There are two images on the screen, one comes from a book titled, Sense of Belongingness Through a Culture of Dignity, by Knownapple and Kobb. Showing that without belongingness it is difficult to reach achievement and self-actualization. The other is our district data. The first highlighted area represents our Historically underserved populations, and the second highlighted area represents and low-income historically underserved students. The arrows identify the data points for their white counterparts. These demographics were chosen because they show the disparities between our highest-performing groups and our lowest-performing groups. The disparities for our historically underserved students continue to concern us.
When students feel a lack of belonging, a barrier gap most often presents an adversity that is hard to overcome. Basic needs and safety needs are very important and necessary for survival. So is a sense of belongingness. There is a high likelihood that students will struggle with achievement and reaching their full potential if isolated, devalued, and shamed simply because of their identity.  In partnership with the Board of Directors and the Puyallup Tribe we are hopeful through strategic planning we can create a sense of belongingness for our Native American students that results in a strong sense of self, community, and academic achievement.
She thanked them for the opportunity to present and said it was a pleasure sharing the work that they are doing with the board, She asked if they had any questions.
Director Berg said he had an opportunity to look through those resource binders after the admin training that was done at Kalles the summer, and it was phenomenal; he really appreciated those. There were a couple of things that I was going to point out from those but his computer threw up errors when he tried to open it up so he won't go further into that this morning. What he really appreciated seeing some of the pre in post evaluations from students on things, the responses from students on general awareness topics really jumped out of him from the information that you presented there. He asked about how many schools have you had a chance to meet with and do the training on so far and how long do you think it's going to take you to get through the district as a whole? Leslie Snyder replied that last year, Jeanna and she we're in a classroom in every junior high except one and they know that some of our high school teachers engaged with some of it on their own. So almost all of our junior highs. So this year, no one that they are aware of has started any of the tribal resource teaching because it's not part of their scope and sequence quite yet. But the ninth grade one is coming up. For the elementary,  she believes the sign up sheet will go out today and we hope to get into every single one. We're offering every Monday morning. We haven't engaged with any of those elementaries yet, but we have met with most of our sixth-grade teachers in one job-alike. Jeanna Kooser added that training for secondary has already taken place as a whole group, because we had a supplemental day in August so we formally took them through the tribal curriculum binder, and then they work together to create pacing guides, and commit to different lessons throughout those pacing guides. Then we come back together in October. That will definitely be a focus of our work. So in secondary they were able to  catch them all at once, but with elementary it's a little bit more challenging.
Director Names said this is very robust curriculum and supplemented curriculum that we're using, and we're working hard to integrate. She said she knows that some of the concern had been that since the House Bill was put in place we were not ramping up as quickly, and also coming out of Covid and adopting curriculum has made it challenging. She asked them to give a little bit of where we were just a couple of years ago versus what this looks like right now. Amanda Kraft said she would say that we have made a lot of progress since the House Bill and first she is a state trainer with Danielson framework, and as soon as the mandate came out, it became part of the principal mandatory training. So when they become a principal, to evaluate teachers they have to go through a whole day of STI training. They're aware and then hopefully those conversations take place in school right when they're walking through, and they're talking their teachers about curriculum. Second. we have had at least 5 to 10 teachers trained in STI since then, through OSPI specifically are GLAD trainers, and we have a team of 5 right now who went through STI training. Before that there were 3 GLAD trainers who've since moved on that developed our third grade Native American unit. So every third grader, since before really 2015 was exposed to an entire unit. Then they also were required to visit the Karshner Museum to learn about tribal history and participate in that field trip. So those were pieces that have been implemented prior to really digging deep into the curriculum and STI. It was implemented in 2 units that were required by teachers to teach students and then visit the museum, or recently we've also had a fifth-grade unit designed for guided language acquisition that teachers will be using very specifically on Puyallup Tribal history and Washington Tribal history. So that's in progress also and how that might be implemented as a field trip too, she believes, since then. Kraft now passed the mic to Lisa Rowan because we've done some work in secondary and this was before they were directors, but there has been some work done. Lisa said that at the secondary level, the components that she was aware of before stepping into this position was the seventh grade specifically had a unit that they taught as well, in addition to the third, the fifth, the seventh, as well as OSPI has offered the Since Time Immemorial trainings for a number of years and so that communication was shared and a number of our secondary social studies teachers have attended. Since COVID in 2019, 2020, really is the progression of all of the work that's been highlighted here today.
Director Kayaoglu thanked them for the presentation and said it was it was an amazing experience. He said he is glad to see that we are doing a lot in terms of incorporating the teams from the Native American history and culture into our curriculum. He said he is taking Archie's comments seriously about it's not just necessarily about the parts of history, but Native American perspectives. How good that we are able to achieve that and thinking about the perspectives, some of their perspectives will challenge some of our own perhaps white or dominant sensitivities about disposition, colonial histories that they passed, and contemporary discrimination exclusions that the people with Native backgrounds are facing. Do our students face these kind of issues and in the class do they have the opportunity to reflect and think about that?
Jeanna Kooser replied that she thinks the resources provide the latitude to move forward towards that as a goal to infuse greater perspective and authentic voice in the classroom. Right now our goal is to get a systems approach so we have some consistency between grade levels. But our hope is that when we get our secondary folks back together we can, in our job-alike groups, be able to integrate that more authentically but it's a process right? So just getting everyone to do it across seventh grade is the first step, and then coming back and having conversations about how effective it was what student feedback was and some of the forms data will help us to look at that. So we're in the process, is the answer that she has to give you at this moment, and she thinks the Tribal binder has enough meat to it that it can support teachers as they move forward with it.
Leslie Snyder added that the inquiry questions is they are open-ended questions that are answered through all the resources, and so, as the students are reading the inquiry questions, the supporting questions, and going through those resources, they start to form different conclusions that are not necessarily down a traditional path, so supplementing what our traditional textbooks say with these other resources is where we get that integration and that ability to expand our perspectives.
Director Names asked if some of the next steps anticipated looking at the curriculum and adopting more curriculum that integrates well with what we're creating in these supplementary materials? Lisa Rowan replied yes, and said she also wants to expand on what she thought was Director Kayaoglu was asking, which was have our students expressed a lack of connection as well. Connecting to some of the things that Archie was sharing and having conversations with families as we highlighted earlier, Michelle Marcoe, and now, Archie Cantrell, have these connections, with our community, and having those conversations with our families, they have expressed that there is a need for this instruction, and there is a need for this work, because sometimes our textbooks, which are dated and we're working to improve and we're vetting really great new resources, that those perspectives weren't always included or that they weren't fully accurate and so that's the work that is next, to answer your question.
Director Berg said it is really difficult to do in the thirty-second look they got it that pre- and post-student evaluation but one of the things that jumped out at him is a lot of the post evaluation. Their language seemed to be a lot more about awareness kinds of things, and there wasn't anything up there that struck him as a negative response that it wasn't that any of them were made to feel any particular way other than becoming more aware of all of these different aspects of the local history, as well as the national history so he found that interesting. It would be something to investigate further going forward. 
Director Names directed a comment to Dr. Polm, and said what she is hearing a little bit today is we have House Bill 5433 that has given us direct guidance for adopting curriculum and supplemental materials, but she's also hearing today about the land acknowledgment piece, so do those go together? Was there a requirement with that that we're not adhering to, because there's been some confusion with that right? Dr. Polm replied definitely and there's been some practice in the district... Director Names said to the presenters that she appreciate their statements today, you were very enlightening and it was incredible to hear the language, it's very beautiful. but I’ve been doing research on really the premise of where it comes from, and there's a lot out there to read and to soak in, and in her role she always tries to dig in and try to research a little bit. She said Dr. Brobbey's statements are really enlightened today, and she appreciates him explaining that perspective of what that means so if he wants to jump in before Dr. Polm, and then Dr. Polm could comment about how these parts play together, or are separate entities, just to clarify for us.
Dr. Brobbey said he doesn't think we necessarily require the legislation to explicitly say you have to do a land acknowledgment, but it's a practice that is almost like the unwritten piece of the curriculum if you wish, or the unwritten piece of the legislation. So if you look at all that we've talked about, all that we've shown, the curriculum we've adopted, how we've embedded it, how we want to continue to improve upon it, the land acknowledgment piece gives a visible commitment to that practice so we've been making progress. He used this illustration few days ago: the vehicle is in motion, or has been in motion, as suggested by the history of our work with the tribe, but we've come to a point where we're almost like stop temporarily because the Tribe is saying, "Now, wait, you took land acknowledgment off the table."
So that means that you're not necessarily committed to the work that you've been talking about because that is very important to us and so this is a moment for us to now listen to the Tribe and say, "What does this mean to you? How does this piece that we thought we should really look at again help us to show that we really committed to this work? So he thinks it's that third piece and what it comes down to now is adopting a statement that makes that is uniform for all sites that is representative of the district commitment. What he has found so far is that it was in place but it was not uniform, it was not consistent and so you don't want a situation where one school site adopts a statement that's not necessarily reflective of what the district is doing or where we're going versus another school site doing something different. So this presents an opportunity for us to adopt a statement that is uniform, that is consistent, that can be applied. That also looks back to this to the Tribe to say that yes, we're really into this work now, and into the future.
Dr. Polm said he had a couple of things to add but thanked Dr. Brobbey and said he did a nice job reflecting that, and in some of the communication that he has received as well has to do with the idea of commitment and action, because what he thinks the inconsistencies that we had discussed were around a collective commitment to action, you know, to make sure we're following through on not only curriculum elements, but also a focus on sense of belonging and a response to data, and so two of the things that came up today, he thinks we mentioned sense of belonging quite a bit. We didn't mention the Panorama survey however, which if we drill down into there we have concerns in that area that are acknowledged by our students in their responses to some of those questions so that's a key element. We want to make progress there and then we also have the data showing our most extreme differences between our higher achieving students and that was in ELA  over grades 3 through 8 and our Native kids. So those are a couple of things that, as educators, we're always drilling down to the data asking Where are the disparities? Where are we doing well? What do we know to address issues?
The thing Dr. Polm wanted to make sure and bring into the conversation was around timeline. So, even though our legislature took action in 2015, based on inaction around the State from 2005. Now he has been in this as an administrator long before that so, seeing this evolution, and in different areas of the State, so there is different level of commitment around our state to this work, and so having direction from the legislature was strong and OSPI certainly motivating a lot of that, but then there was no timeline, there's no accountability, there's no "you need to do this by this date" or "here are the resources we're going to provide or any follow-up" so I think it is still left it up the districts. But you're kind of in the cadence of your curriculum adoptions. When you do an adoption, then you need to address this. So some districts take 20-plus years to do an adoption so it's not going to be addressed unless we prioritize it. So that's one of the reasons he thinks this is before the board today is because, first, there's a little bit of a false narrative out there because we haven't done a good job sharing the work that has happened over the last few years, and particularly he would like to credit Dr. Vince Pecchia and Amanda Kraft for really driving some of that work back in 2019-20 before he arrived. And then, since he has been here, really the focus on partnership that Lisa Rowan has helped foster with the Tacoma Public Schools and their willingness to really support our work as well as been really positive.
Dr. Polm said from a structural standpoint, we have revised our expectations of our liaison position, and elevated some of that work and just the first example of that would have been the family night where we had 140 people, I think, which is probably 4 or 5 times the number of folks that have been attending so he is eager for next steps, and where we're headed moving forward. 
Director Berg said that that family night was absolutely outstanding. He said he was fortunate to be able to be there to witness some of that, and it calls out a couple of things that Gordon Brobbey said that this was about representation, relationships, and resilience. If there was an example of a representation in relationships, Archie's interaction with everyone there that Tuesday night was a perfect example, and it was very exciting to see. It was great to interact with the families that were there. He was able to sit down at some of the tables and talk to the students, talk to the families, that was great, but it was even more fun to just witness the interactions and the sense of connection that was clear from the get-go that they came in and they clearly had a lot of respect for Archie, and a lot of trust and confidence in him. So that was really fantastic to see. The other thing that he just wanted to call out was the lack of a land acknowledgment makes us an outlier. Yesterday he was part of was to conference call for WSSDA, and it was on the topic of equity policies and for that little conference call even had a short land acknowledgment to it, too. It's similar in language to what we had in those resource binders and to him it really is a way to set the tone. It's an underlying commitment establishing where we what we believe.  We are the Puyallup School District in Puyallup and he thinks it's pretty clear that we owe it a bit of gratitude, and it's an important step towards rebuilding reconnecting and moving that relationship forward.
Leslie Snyder said she'd also like to address that a land acknowledgment, from the standpoint of a teaching unit, that land acknowledgment acts like the "why" in a "what/why" situation, what are we going to teach them, and why the land acknowledgment sets the tone for the importance, as we heard from Archie today, and it helps our students understand why this is being added into our curriculum, and why it's integrated into the text that they have. So it really lays the foundation for the importance.
Director Names said today this study session was so important for this reason, because we needed to hear about the work that had been done because we have been doing good work. Dr. Pecchia and Amanda have done a lot through the direction of our superintendent. The board, a few years ago, which is one of the reasons why we transition into a new superintendent, was to be more collaborative in that work, and understand it. She said there weren't any policies and that was partly why there was a pause, Not that we wanted to take away, but the board wanted to research and understand and make sure it was doing it was being done with a 100% integrity and how it was intended. Your perspective is incredible, and she appreciates their passion and the work that they are doing so, kudos to both of you. She is sure there's a lot of partnering that goes on and then, of course, Vince and Amanda, it goes without saying how amazing you are in the work that you do. She just appreciates their perspective in the classroom because how it's delivered to our staff, and how they have the opportunity to teach, because our staff strives to do things with paramount integrity all the time, they want to do good work for our students, which is why we're one of the most successful districts in the state of Washington. So you know, understanding cultures and being collaborative and doing it with a really deep dive is excellent but we wanted policy and this is why we're here today, because there wasn't any consistency in policy, we just simply don't have something in place that allowed for consistencies and so she is grateful to hear the work being done today. Also for her, when something's mandated, that is where she rests her decision-making, just as a director, just how she views her leadership role because she said it's not really about her opinion, it's about what this community wants. That's what drives her thinking, that's what drives where she puts her attention, and that's what drives me to say yes or no. When it finally comes down to an action item it's challenging when you have a mandate, and you have a piece that isn't completely required because it becomes a gray area, and she has always said, she is going to make a decision based on what is required, and that we're doing it to the best of our ability, because we're do you then decide what you do want to do, and not want to do. So to hear that the land acknowledgment is actually a really paramount and key piece to that is good news. She is grateful to hear that and have it said out loud and have it all come together from the classroom, from our cultural partners, from the office of diversity and instruction and leadership. She values that and appreciates all of you for really digging deep and helping to explain it so the community can hear it and understand what's going to come behind our decisions.
Director Berg said one of the things that he regularly did in advocacy for highly capable programming was trying to increase access to programming when highly capable became part of basic education. One of the things that didn't come with it was any requirement for transportation. So, even though the law said that students were supposed to have access to it there was no mandate any place that said you actually had to transport students to it. So you were effectively both saying that it was important and then also saying it wasn't important enough to actually get kids to it. We've got the Since Time Immemorial curriculum, which you know is important. But we need to go beyond sometimes what OSPI says because there's more to get kids to it.
Director Keaton said he would like to ask a few questions, and also share his perspectives in where we're at with all this. First of all, he concurs with what Director Names was saying about hearing the language blended and he really appreciated that. He said he grew up in the Northwest, went to Chinook Junior High and then was a Tyee Totem in high school, and said he was also an Eagle Scout in the Order of the Arrow, so was brought up to respect the Coast Salish culture and whether he deserved it or not he has always felt a connection. He enjoys the Karshner Museum and is so thrilled that we actually have a museum where all the artifacts have been vetted by the Tribe, and that it's a place that we actually walk the walk, right, we're not just talking the talk, we walk the walk. He has a couple of questions first on the supplemental days for Chelsea. He asked how many days it takes to implement the notebook, like how many days would that be part of the curriculum?
Chelsea Chandler answered for grades K-5 because 6th grade is a little bit more complicated, but they are working with Gena Vincent on the CKLA integration and so we're pairing those Inquiry questions up with lessons that are already in CKLA, and they match up really nicely, so if you were teaching your entire learning domain for CKLA, it's different for every teacher, you could go so deep into it, or you could do it quickly. She asked Lisa if she could add to that.
Dr. Polm said there's going to be an expectation of a minimal amount of lessons and then there's going to be an opportunity to probably integrate more of that over time.
Lisa Rowan said it isn't necessarily a time-bound it's more of a lesson-bound. So there are a number of lessons and we're trying to integrate, as she said, with elementary, kindergarten through sixth grade. There are opportunities to integrate and so it's throughout the year. It isn't 5 lessons or just in November, it's every time the opportunity comes up where you have a natural connection you are teaching.
Amanda Kraft said she wanted to make sure that Director Keaton's question is answered so was he asking how long is it going to take to train teachers to be able to implement an STI curriculum?  He replied no, he was more concerned with the timing of it, because the idea he has in his head is that for reinforcing things when you're actually doing this kind of instruction. From personal experience, like when his daughter just finished up a paper at the end of eighth grade like when they had to do something on a disaster, and she did it on Mount Saint Helen's. He likes to reinforce what's being taught by taking her there or go do something with it, so the very next day after, because it was right at the end of school, he took her there, and it just reinforced everything that has been done. So he was looking at timing of when we're going to teach these classes, and in this instruction we need to either tie it to one of two possible ideas he has, first, with the Karshner Museum, that we do that there, so they actually get a hands-on after hearing the lesson. To Archie, he said he doesn't  know if the Tribe would be willing to do some sort of assembly that, you know, that could be rolled through the different schools, you know, to reinforce it during the timeframe. We do Veterans Day assemblies which he's very honored to be at being a veteran. and he thinks that would be a great way if the Tribe has the time and effort to want to dedicate that to be able to come to an assembly and time it with when we're actually doing the instruction to make it important.
Amanda Kraft said he brings up a good point: How do you bring that perspective and the experience to the learning. So they are going to note those ideas and think about how can we integrate that into the work that we're doing, and it might look different at every grade level, so thank you.
Director Keaton also said to Archie, on land acknowledgment, his biggest concern is to take something, and he asked him to correct him because he wants to hear his perspective on the history of it. What he has studied on websites, he doesn't have as many resources, or from people that have talked to folks within the Tribe and also on Tribal websites is that the land acknowledgment is a very sacred thing and that this sacred event that we that has happened was mostly throughout history. It looks like the Coast Salish people's came from the Great Basin across the Great Mountains, and then settled here and became very much a part of the of fishing culture. From what he heard and that this is where he would like to be corrected, because from what he can find on the Internet, and what he has heard from other people is that it's a very sacred granting, coming back to the land, usually from fishermen when they would return. Is that correct? Or is there other parts of it that he is missing?
Archie Cantrell said he is on the right track absolutely, but again, Archie said is not quite the expert historian on everything, but the land is absolutely of the highest importance to our people, as he tried to his best to explain earlier. Our elders talk about the strength of us as our people, we call it our "x̌əč"; in Christianity it would probably be like a soul or a spirit, or something like that. The x̌əč connects us to the Mother Earth so what he is talking about with fishermen or things like that coming back. When they travel by water, when we're in our canoes, when we're going through Puget Sound, or all over the place anytime we stop at somebody's land, or we stop at a location along the way, that canoe journey, we always give the land that respect by asking its people if we can come ashore, and if we can gather, and if we can share gifts or barter, or whatever is going on, so he thinks what Director Keaton is saying is in that same vein but when it comes to the land acknowledgment itself it's just because it's such a growing practice it is an act of good faith. He is very new so he thinks it is a very interesting question from Director Names about if it is required by law. He doesn't think so but he does think that, as Dr. Gordon was saying, it's the connector. We're not just talking about it, we're being about it. We're doing action. To get back to what he is asking, he absolutely thinks it's appropriate for the land to get the respect that it deserves, and even with a very brief landing acknowledgment. It doesn't have to be a huge thing in his opinion. It doesn't have to be a grand thing outside of we just want to acknowledge that we're on ancestral lands of the Puyallup Tribal people, and he thinks that would be a good start. He hopes that answers his question. Director Keaton said yes, it does.
Dr. Brobbey said he thinks about land acknowledgment this way. A lot of us, perhaps, in the room may identify as Christian or other religions. Every religion has prayer as a practice. Now for those who do whatever kind of prayer, you don't do it at one time, you do it when you eat, when you sleep, when you get up, when you travel, when you get in your car with your children, and so, if you have people who visit you, they may not share your faith. But they still want to show respect for the fact that you pray as part of your culture, as part of your life, as part of your history. So we could view a land acknowledgment in that respect. So when Tribal people meet, that land acknowledgement is part of them, with that dinner, where they're fishing. Fishing is just an example, but it also goes to the heart of what it means to them. Acknowledging. You know the people acknowledging the land, acknowledging what it stands for, and therefore, as a district that works, lives and operates on an ancestral land, a land acknowledgment is our way of telling them that we know you're here. We value your partnership. We value your relationship, so that at the core of the land acknowledgment.
Director Keaton thanked him and said he also just brought up what actually his major concern is and that is the fact that, for example, we went to the National School Board Association Meeting, and it would happen during Ramadan, and he did his best for Director Kayaoglu, since he spent some time in the Middle East to give him a proper greeting during Ramadan. But he said he would not lead him in prayer because it would be an insult as he is not of his faith or his religion. It would be an insult for him to do that and what he is worried about is that this is a sacred land acknowledgment, and he would be happy to see it during assemblies and written during coursework, but to the points Archie brought up that he completely concurs with, one thing you said was to increase, but without doing anything that will sour the relationship because we don't want to do that. We want to properly show the right respect for the lands that we're on. And also to grow together to learn with the Tribe. But what he is worried about is Archie also mentioned that we want to be inclusive for all ethnicities and for all included. And the whole purpose of what we're doing is belongingness, so if we make a land acknowledgment mandatory for every day, it's basically the same as a prayer, and it would be something that now we have Muslim children that we need to offer a Muslim prayer, and then we have our Christian children, we have to our Christian prayer, and it just opens a can of worms where we actually could divide people instead of bringing people together. So that is why he has a big concern if we make it a daily practice, that we basically take a sacred land acknowledgment. Just like he can't give a Muslim prayer because that would be disrespectful, he think it's the same thing if he was to give the land acknowledgment as not being a member of the tribe that it's basically taken away from what they're doing. So he has a big concern about just doing a land acknowledgment, because it is, you know, offers some nice words, but it's not the same thing as coming from what a real land acknowledgment is. 
Archie Cantrell replied that land acknowledgments aren't something that are specific to Native American cultures. It's, for example, like you don't have to be Native American to acknowledge the land, so he doesn't think it's in the same vein as like a prayer or something like that. He said he's thinking about when we started it was like we do the Pledge of Allegiance every day. Why do we do that? It is not a spiritual, we're just acknowledging the fact that the flag is important, and we stand with the nation, and we're all part of it, and we all belong to it. He said he thinks where he was going, when he was talking about all ethnicities, he was thinking because we have this big push for, "we belong," we even got the T-shirts that say it, that maybe the board might consider doing some type of like inclusivity statement, like if we're going to acknowledge that we're on the ancestral lands of the Puyallup Tribe but, man, the Puyallup School District is also proud they have this many ethnicities that are represented, that we have this many languages, that have that we service this many people so that way everybody can feel a little bit involved in and feel like they're seen. But because landing acknowledgments are becoming more popular, it's happening all over the place. He has worked closely in the past with the people from the City of Tacoma, and these  are nonnative folks that are doing this.
Director Keaton said he understands but becoming more popular doesn't necessarily mean that's a good thing. He is trying to avoid tearing people apart. He doesn't want people to not feel that they belong and so that's more where his concern is. Because every time we try to, this is something that he's just learned from being on the board, every time we try to make a really big effort to call out one particular group and like he said, he is all about bringing this in, and making sure that the curriculum is good and really enforcing it properly. But he want things done properly. He doesn't want to take something that is sacred to the Tribe, and then turn it into something that sounds like politics. He is worried about that. We're trying to get politics out of the schools because politics is divisive. We've really torn people apart, we've torn families apart. He doesn't want a child of a Christian family coming home and say when asked what did you learn today, well, we learned this land acknowledgment, you know we do this every day, and then, all of a sudden, their parents are asking if they let them pray? It's just things that divide people is what he is trying to avoid. He wants to make sure that we do this the right way and not do it just because it's a political statement; that is his concern, and like he said, he'd be happy to have a policy in place where we do it at the right times, but he is just worried about it becoming a daily practice, then it gets watered down and you lose what you're actually trying to do, and you actually divide people instead of bringing people together.
Jeanna Kooser said she is just thinking like as a government teacher, and the sovereignty of tribes is a huge piece. So when she hears us talking about land acknowledgment, she hears it, and she is not a tribal member, so she don't have that same deep emotional connection necessarily. But we just have this unique thing where we have sovereign nations existing within another sovereign nation, and we have dual citizenship between these nations. So in many ways it's acknowledging that we share this territory together, and so for her it doesn't have that religious connotation. But again, that's probably that filter of teaching civics and how she would introduce it to kids. We're doing this thing, and yes, we have many ethnic groups, and we acknowledge and we value and there are many beliefs and we're making space for that. This is something that's truly unique because this is a nation that continues to have sovereignty that exists within our land, and these students have dual citizenship. So in much the way that we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we're giving honor or we're paying homage to that, so to acknowledge that this is another community, this is a cool deal that they have sovereignty, and they are nations that have a degree of autonomy, and that is different than other belief systems that we might be referencing here, because she believes her lens didn't go directly to religion but that's more that's just her temperament. She looks at the world through that filter of so where is that civically, hey, it's a sovereign nation, there's a treaty there, you get to do fishing and kind in common so 50% of fishing just to go to the tribes for the State, and 50% goes to the rest of the residents. So like this very clear delineation, for her that's a unique piece for that reason, so that's just her teacher thinking. Director Keaton agreed that is a very good perspective.
Dr. Brobbey added he doesn't think a land acknowledgment necessarily has religious or political connections because when he think about politics, he thinks about two things: power and influence. That's what politics comes down to. Now when we talk about land acknowledgment where are we going to put within that sphere. We're already doing the work, as we've already heard, it's already part of it. So, in fact, we are doing the land acknowledgment by teaching the STI Lessons. This is just a statement to solidify, to make it more visible. That to him is what it is about. He used the prayer example to say something that's dear to you. He was saying the land acknowledgment as being dear to the heart, to the Tribe.
Director Keaton said that is what he has seen when he has studied it, that it is sacred, it is similar to a prayer, and that opens up a big can of worms, and it opens up a chance that we end up getting blowback from the community. Also, there's a big risk that we lose our ability for belonging and for being able to bring people together. Like he said, if we have assemblies, and we have Tribal people that can show us that land acknowledgment and say it using the blended languages, and do it the right way as opposed to you just saying it, because you want to say it. During classes that are focused on that, no problem during the classes focused on it. Let's teach the culture as best we can, and make sure that our teachers are qualified to teach it correctly. But he doesn't want to just say something just to say it because that just tends to be divisive, and you are going to get perspective that it's politically driven and we don't want politics in the schools. All that's done is to divide people and we want to bring everybody together, so that everybody feels that they belong.
Director Names said Dr. Polm is going to give us some second steps, and she also would just like to add a little bit to his comments. She said she thinks when you have an understanding of the premise, which is what today has shown us, a deeper understanding of why we're doing something, it might be prudent to make sure that every year we have those conversations about the "why" and how it aligns. If we do have a statement the board, chooses to move forward with, which is still being vetted so she is not speaking on behalf of the board, if that were to be incorporated in it as a piece that adds to what is being learned in the classrooms, that there is that constant level of understanding of the "why" in the background, so that 2-3 years from now, with policy in place, that there's still a level of understanding as to what is happening here. Not just the Pledge of Allegiance that is being recited, but something that is adding substance to the curriculum, because that is the part that she is hearing.
Dr. Kayaoglu said he would like to offer some comments. He thanked Director Keaton for recognizing his Muslim identity, and his fast. and yes that day he is looking forward to Ramadan, not looking forward to Ramadan I will miss a lot, particularly coffee and when you are  traveling, some nice restaurants, that you know that you need to wait until 7:30 p.m. The concept of course the sacred history and religions are very complex. He feels that they are going to be imposing some of their own definitions of what constitutes religion and religious practices. But land acknowledgment is not the Lord's Prayer or Fatiha in some traditions, it has a totally different understanding that it may dear, but not necessarily in a  religious sense.  Talking about the equality, you know that today is Friday, and he will probably miss the Friday prayer because it's the work day, and maybe we should just think about rotating it, so that it's not that Sunday that our Christians friends and family members are going to be enjoying the opportunity to go to church without thinking about the work schedule. But what about Fridays too for Muslims, but there are the rules, and this society has been shaped by particular cultures and particular institutions, and that creates some difficulty for some folks, and some folks are just trying to bring their voice to the table.
Director Kayaoglu said he loves to hear Lushootseed, but it also gives him some pain, because he knows the ancestors were shamed and abused just because they wanted to use Lushootseed. We told them they cannot speak it there. They cannot talk here, they cannot talk in school. We try to integrate the children into the schools and teach them proper language, which was English, and for some time no one in the Puyallup Tribe spoke Lushootseed and now some people in the Tribe, like Archie and his colleague, Danica Miller, are fighting back and make sure that they being told and honored in a particular way. So your resistance and your struggle, he sees that and acknowledges your pain, and the fact that you are struggling here just with the land acknowledgment, some of that struggle continues. He very much agrees with his colleague, Director Berg, that we are outliers at this point and are not doing it is like another statement that we don't care. He doesn't feel that that is the right thing to do. We are educators. We need to think like educators. To still be thinking that we are waiting for Olympia to tell us something and mandate it so that we can just do the right thing, that seems wrong to him. He said at what point are just elevating politicians voices over our own voices as educators and it makes him uncomfortable. We should be better as educators, and we should be better as Puyallup Schools.
Director Berg said he has heard in some of the comments from the board some justification for us to investigate an equity policy as a long-term task because there seems to be a lot of foundational work that can be done. It's broader than just this issue. One of the things that Dr. Polm mentioned earlier is being able to do a better job of communicating our own story about the work that we are doing, and the great work that's been done. Because there has been a misunderstanding of that. One of the things that came back to mind was something that he heard during that administrator training at Kalles JH in reference to the number of different departments there are in the Puyallup Tribal government, the number of different groups that are working on the massive number of different tasks that comes with that and that being able to tell our story to a person in an area doesn't mean that everybody has heard that, that it's been communicated, and it's not their responsibility for sharing that message; it's our responsibility for sharing that message. The land acknowledgment to him seems to be a good introductory way of sharing that message, because we've seen the level of detail that goes into all of these different lessons; that's not something you can casually work into a discussion with 30 different departments on a regular basis. So what we can do is establish  that basic foundational information. Lastly, as he mentioned, was that WSSDA had their land acknowledgment and he shared what they had written for theirs: "We would like to acknowledge that our public schools and facilities operate on the traditional lands of indigenous peoples, who make this acknowledgement to open a space of recognition, inclusion and respect for our sovereign tribal partners, and all indigenous students, families, staff, and board members in our communities." It's very simple, it's very straightforward. He worries that there are so many different groups in our schools that absolutely need to be recognized, need to be embraced, and he heard some great references there in Archie's suggestion of embracing the diversity in our district. Our district has become more and more diverse over time, it's going to continue to become so. It's important that we continue to do this work so that's the framework in which he's operating.
Director Keaton said to Archie that he just heard the WSSDA land acknowledgment that was put out and he doesn't know how his elders think within the Tribe, but he think that's watered down to nothing. He said he thinks that takes away from the whole meaning and the whole purpose of why the Tribe did it in the first place and he doesn't want it to just be, like he said, a political statement. He wants it to mean something if we do it.
Amanda Kraft said they have been doing land acknowledgements for many years now, five, six, seven years almost, ever since Vince and she started leading professional learning together, and one of the references they often use is from the Duwamish Tribe. They have one on their website, we've used it, and then we've added our additions to make it appropriate for Puyallup. She said she has worked with Amber and Charlotte they've looked at different scripts we've used and one of their call to actions is they want us to do it. They don't want us to ask them to do it. So she doesn't want to speak for Archie, but the WSSDA one is very appropriate for the purpose in which it serves just to acknowledge that we recognize that we sit on the land, we live on the land, we teach on the land that are Puyallup Tribe ancestors do, too. She asked Archie if he wanted to add anything.
Archie Cantrell said he honestly really did like that land acknowledgment, him personally. He is one Tribal member and he doesn't speak for the entire Tribe, but he can say in his personal opinion, if he was a student, and actually he has been a student in our district, so now if I was a Native American student and I heard that, I would think, "Wow! They seem like they are acknowledging the land of the indigenous people. The first people of this area. He personally thought that was awesome.
Director Keaton thanked him. He is just worried about that Muslim kid, the Christian kid, and everybody else, to make sure that we are equitable in how do acknowledgements. He wants to make sure that we really embrace all the things that were brought forward, and that we continue to take advantage of the wonderful Karshner Center we have. What Amanda just brought up, you know we stole something from the Duwamish Tribe, and it was not not formalized, it was not something that was happening all the way through. You say we've been doing it for 5-6 years, well, not consistently. So he just wanted to bring that up that whatever we come up with, there needs to be a policy in place, and we need to do it the right way. And we need to make sure if we're going to put a policy in place where we do this, that we're ready to communicate it properly to the community, and ensure that the blowback that we're going to receive from all the different groups that will feel that they're not being properly acknowledged, that we're ready for that.
Amanda clarified that it is the Duwamish Tribe that put it out for educators to use, so just we didn't steal it; they actually say, please use this one, so just to be clear.
Director Berg said just at this last board meeting, we adopted policy that made some changes in language: we made sure we refer to what each student needs and not phrasing it in in terms of "all students", because the "all students" creates this average as opposed to "each" which we recognize the importance of each of the students in our district. He thinks it's very possible to do a land acknowledgment, and still recognize the value of each of the communities in our district that contribute. He is looking forward to the work we'll do on this to figure out when it's appropriate to do land acknowledgments, and exactly what that would look like.
Director Names said in the interest of time and respect for everyone in that regard, are there any more questions from the board? 
Director Kayaoglu said he knows we are focusing on issues about curriculum and land acknowledgment, but he wanted to acknowledge at they are our employees, our teachers, staff, administrators and Tribal members and we should be acknowledging the issues that they are facing, and ensure they are being respected in the district.
Dr. Polm said first of all, he wants to express publicly that he is proud of the School Board for having the courage to have these conversations, because these are not easy and you know these are challenging issues, and they have not skirted that, not only obligation, but opportunity, today, and he knows that Joseph Romero wanted to be here as well. In fact, he was one of the ones driving some of this to get it on the agenda and have us address these issues. Dr. Polm also shared some of his personal experience. He has actually supported a Canoe Journey and Landing, and he was a superintendent previously in Port Townsend, and we partnered with Ron Allen, the chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, and also, he believes, Federal Representative of Northwest tribes, that he became pretty well acquainted with, and we actually used our student body, mostly athletes, because those canoes are heavy, and after the landing and acceptance, and then welcoming of the canoe journey participants, we actually carried for them those all up onto the beach before the evening activities. Just being a part of that, and being welcomed into that culture, the whole experience was pretty powerful. And so that's just his personal background there. He is also just very sensitive to all the concerns around religion. For those of you who aren't aware, the recent Supreme Court case, Kennedy versus Bremerton, he was the principal of that school at the time. So if you want to look into that case it was pretty challenging to navigate. But he thinks honestly, successfully, and he learned a lot through the years in this. When you get have high emotional issues, he thinks the foundational thing is it's around education. It's around sharing information, sharing experiences, sharing life experiences, of course, and then learning and being open. So he thinks that's what's happening today. He really feels positive about that moving forward. What he is hearing really, and I think the recommendation he would glean from the discussion today is that overall, this board has affirmed their commitment to having a positive collaborative relationship with our indigenous people, specifically the Puyallup Tribe because there are assigned tribe from through OSPI, and then our namesake with Puyallup as well, so he thinks that that is important, this idea of a meaningful relationship and having meaningful consultation through the process. He knows that the tribe has about 12 school districts that are under their purview that way, so the time factor, he is sure that they're stretched and so we're fortunate to get time when we can, because they're not overstaffed, you know, with people that can just take off and come to review curriculum.
He said what he is also hearing is we are affirming our implementation of STI curriculum. What needs to happen is we really need to audit ourselves. We need to determine what we've done, what we said we're going to do, whether it's been done with fidelity, the commitment to the lessons taught, and there is going to be a minimum baseline expectation, and then there are going to be teachers that go beyond that, we know that, that integrate things, etc. So some sort of audit. He likes the idea of establishing an annual check-in or annual report that we come back to the board with. He has heard that number of times. Then prioritize some written guidance for land acknowledgments, specifically focused on respect for the Land of the People, and so hthat is what he is hearing, and inclusivity is part of that. So that's what he'd like to bring back to the board in October. I think our team is poised to do that work and I think we can easily do that, taking into consideration some of the concerns we've heard, understanding there's a difference between a daily, kind of non-meaningful recitation, to when you're talking about assemblies, or you are talking about maybe November being recognition Native American month or other large-scale events might be other opportunities. He asked the board if that adequately captured the next steps.
3. Closing
 A. Board Comments
Director Names asked the board members if they had any final comments and reminded them there were 14 minutes remaining.
  Director Keaton thanked everyone for the presentation. He said it was very enlightening and he appreciates all your perspectives. He requested they please look into that assembly thing on both sides there because he thinks that would be really awesome for our children. 
  Director Berg thanked them all for being here and for your time in preparation and your time with us here. He also pointed out that the Puyallup Tribe has a fantastic educational resource on their website which has some absolutely phenomenal information there; their historical department, again, has some fantastic information there that provides a lot of information about the kinds of activities that do happen in this area that we can participate in and can connect to outside of schools. If we're interested in bringing students to see those things or parents are interested in those things, there are a number of fantastic activities that are available to us, and he would encourage us all to look into that and to participate in that.
  Director Kayaoglu said for him, learning about Tribal history and integrating curriculum is just his philosophy that aligns with his philosophy of education. He can tell his kids that they he likes when they do a math question right but he likes it more when they do it wrong for the first time, and they figure it out what they did wrong, and they learn from their mistakes. We need to learn our mistakes as a society and we did lots of mistakes, and that's the sign of the major societies. We look at our history and just  try to  understand, so that we are going to learn from the mistakes, we are going to try to repay for some of the mistakes that we have done and it will give us a sense of being humbled, who knows? Maybe some of the things that we do now, a generation later, people are just going to say, "Oh, my God, what were they thinking?" So that's the a part of education, right? We learn. There are other issues for him such as LGBTQ rights, issues about racism, issues of Native Americans reflect that. In his other country he cannot talk about the Armenian genocide as a Turkish citizen, because he would be in trouble. He looks at this society and says that society is not a mature society. This is a mature society because we can talk about certain mistakes that we did in history, and we are improving ourselves.
  Director Names said we have made mistakes but we've also done things really well, but in doing things well there is also opportunity to improve and recalibrate, so that is what she's looking forward to: taking what we've done, and making it better. 
   B. Adjournment 
Director Names thanked everyone for their time and the excellent presentations and depth of information and passion. She adjourned the meeting at 10:49 a.m.
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Dr. John Polm, Superintendent                                    Mr. Joseph Romero, Board President