North Slope BoroughSchool DistrictEducation Summit Summary2019
Prepared by Jered Stewart and Nicholas KrumpMay 2019
Outline
● Summit details
● Top priority themes
● Summit results
● Consultant recommendations
● Photos and back-up
Why did we gather?
● To come together as a community for our
children’s growth and future
● To set some goals as to how our communities
can support our children in their education
● To help the school district make improvements
we all can support
Focus on the system, not the symptoms
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.”
― W. Edwards Deming
Problem statement
Building a vision and strategy
There is an opportunity to
make a difference in our
school district, through
bringing the NSBSD and its
stakeholders together, to
develop a shared vision with
commitment, and to our
children’s future and growth.
System wide alignment needed
Engrained structures, layers of
management, silos have built up over
time enabling an “organization
culture” to take root that is not longer
serving us. At times, there is a climate
of resistance to teamwork and new
ideas. It will be important to use this
opportunity to align the system to the
strategy and invite our communities in
to make a difference.
Summit detail
The 2-day summit took place in Utqiagvik, AK at the Inupiat heritage center. There
were approximately 30 participants representing various organizations and villages
across the North Slope. Overall the summit:
● Garnered good participation and connections
● Generated great ideas
● Highlighted that everyone was there for the students and to develop a path
forward for their success
● Gave us some common language to use about how we can implement positive
change in the NSB School district
Summit outcomes
What’s at stake?
Survival, succession plan
Employability
Getting off the endangered
language list
Organizational history
Removal of local control to
state control
Improving outcomes?
Culturally appropriate calendar
Montessori method for teaching
whole child
Connect budget to strategic plan
Teacher support
Parenting training
Discipline
Time management
Cell phone control – screen time
What’s possible?
Success
Fluent speakers in the
classroom
Equity in culture and
education
Immersion in younger
grades
Inupiat Spelling Bee
Inupiat special events
Adopt-a-teacher
Creating a local workforce
Adult/Peer mentors
Student leadership
opportunities
Life skill classes
Parent support groups
Getting local organizations
on the slope to support
schools
What’s the current reality?
Conflicting structures and mindsets
Self-imposed limitations
No holistic approach to onboarding new teachers and employees
Not following the current plan
Lack of accountability to structures and planning
Students are tired and sleepy
Students lack vision for the future
Low test scores
High dropout rate
Top priority themes
Throughout the two days there were some themes that emerged and generated a
lot of passion and focus. They are outlined below.
1. Inupiat speaking students (Immersion opportunities with more fluent speakers
in the school)
2. Comprehensive parent involvement plan and menu
3. Clarity for college/career pathways after students graduate
4. Pay level within the district - Losing talent to other organizations
5. Increasing student performance/engagement (Proficiency, Attendance,
Tutoring)
Proposal presentations
For the final activity each team was to develop a proposal that would be presented
to the board. Overall the major themes presented themselves were as follows:
● Improving communication between all stakeholders
● Increasing parent and community involvement
● Developing plans and metrics at each site for community and parent
engagement
The “A” Team proposal
The “A” Team identified that there are site specific gaps in
parental involvement. They would like to have site mentors
and would measure the effectiveness using the school
messenger system. The goal would be to build unity and
community.
Team 2 Proposal
This team identified parent communication and involvement
as the area of focus. They created a press release highlighting
elder participation, teachers active in the community, career
opportunities highlighted in the classroom and increased
graduation rates.
Team 3 proposal
This team created the MUKLUK telegram paper to address the issue of
communication in the district. The articles included topics, such as, moving
past personal agendas, working together with the community, the
superintendent as the final decision maker, the board’s accountability to
being leaders, and clarifying the role of the SAC. The paper highlighted the
need for principals to trust teachers, to train teachers to impact student
achievement, to train the teacher’s aides with the Sylvan model and to
increase transparency in communication between the school district and
stakeholders.
Team “Talk” proposal
Team Talk, a lot focused on increasing community engagement in the
school district. The team requested that each school present a plan to the
district office on what community engagement and ways for parents to be
involved would look like at their school. They would create this list of
options with parents. They suggested a celebration of engagement with
the parents and the community. Also, there was discussion about
volunteers at the school being supported by their employers.
Open items
1. Discussion of Inupiat versus Western world views and how that is presented in
schools. This is a diversity, equity and inclusion (Unintentional, structural
racism) topic that needs to be addressed in each community for healing and
unity to be possible.a. Community healing: How do we let people process their resentment for past teachers, schools
or educational experiences? Release activity. Apology stories. Where was I let down by
education?
2. How de we develop a meaningful scorecard for the Inupiat learning framework
and show the data?
3. How do we increase immersion opportunities?
Recommendations
Recommendations
1. It is recommended that the Summit planning team partner with each school in
the district to share the results of the 2-day summit. The goal should be to let
the school’s know the district is listening to the community. It would be
possible for district employees to hold a 1-day summit at each school similar to
the 2-day summit in May.
2. It is recommended that the Summit planning team identify one of the top
priorities for immediate development. This project should be divided into 90-
day sprints with targets goals at the end of each phase. This should be seen as
a model for school site implementation.
3. It is recommended that the Summit planning team continue to meet weekly to
guide and monitor the progress initiated at the May summit.
Recommendations continued
1. It is recommended that two members of the summit planning team present
the outcomes from the 2-day summit at an upcoming school board meeting.
2. It is recommended that the summit planning team begin to organize a Fall
education summit in order to continue the dialogue with the community. This
summit should highlight progress made within the district and at the schools on
the top priorities from the May summit.
3. It is recommended that the summit planning team begin reaching out to the
for-profit businesses in the community to establish partnerships to support the
school district’s priorities. Explore a Business Adopt-a-school opportunity.
4. It is recommended that each summit planning team member chose one of the
top priorities to champion over the next school year.
Major recommendation (Address the root cause)
● Implement a slope-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program through long-
term community building efforts to heal past wounds and learn about
unintentional racism, micro-inequities, micro-aggressions with the intention to
remove barriers between school and community
Summit photos
Flipcharts
Flipcharts
Flipcharts
Flipcharts
Change methodology
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