How are Puyallup schools doing with equity, inclusion and climate? They’re going to ask
School climate and culture are some of the things a new advisory committee of students, parents, community and staff members in the Puyallup School District is going to be looking at this year.
The Committee Aligned for Reimagining Excellence, also known as CARE, is comprised of 20 people that play different roles within the district.
The district’s school board unanimously approved all 20 members during the school board meeting on Sept. 7, and they will serve for the 2021-22 school year. The committee will be tasked with reviewing findings for an upcoming survey, school district spokesperson Sarah Gillispie said.
The survey will be issued to students, families and staff within the next few months to ask how they feel about their school’s climate, equity and inclusion efforts, as well as social and emotional learning practices. The survey is a part of the district’s “Pathway to Recovery” plan, which is a plan required for all school districts in Washington state, Gillispie said.
“The survey is going to provide lots of data on all these different aspects in our schools,” Gillispie said. “The CARE committee is going to review and evaluate all that data and … determine what systematic changes need to be made to best support students.”
The district incorporated the advisory committee into its organization with hopes of making “meaningful changes,” according to the school district’s website.
Other school districts are also required to have a survey integrated into their recovery plan, although not all schools will have the same questions listed on it, Gillispie said. A timeline for when the committee will make recommendations to the district has yet to be decided.
“We haven’t determined the exact survey administration dates yet, but we are targeting for ... mid to late October,” Gillispie said.
Vanessa Tucker, one of the parents on the committee, said the committee is an opportunity for people in the school district to make suggestions that could improve aspects of school that may have been impacted by the pandemic.
“The voice of the constituents, meaning your parents, your students and community members is necessary in order to get a comprehensive snapshot of what is needed and how people are feeling,” Tucker said. “Every person chosen for this committee has some relationship to or is representative of our school.”
Tucker said she is excited to hear committee members’ perspectives moving forward and that having students on the committee is the “best part” in addition to having representatives from community groups that work with children.
“Putting all of these different voices together is going to be critical for determining how we can create equity in terms of social-emotional learning for all students,” Tucker said.
The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction required all school districts, including tribal compact and charter schools, to create a recovery plan by June 1, according to the OSPI. The plan is intended to identify student groups that need additional support and how a district plans to provide it.
