[Dr. Mary Bone]

Trustees,

I would like to start a discussion on Constituent and Stakeholder Groups for the Superintendent Search.

The firm mentioned six main groups we should include: 1) Students, 2) Parents, 3) Support Staff, 4) Teachers, 5) Administration, and 6) Non-parent community groups.

To get us started here are some groups that I would like to also see represented in these discussions that are not directly listed above: 1) Religious organizations, 2) Chamber of Commerce, 3) Volunteer Organizations that work with our district (PTA, PIE, etc.), 4) Business Leaders (especially ones that are involved with our district through CTE or other courses), and 5) Non-profits that work with families in our district. I know there are many more so please add them to this thread.

The Meetings with constituent and stakeholder group representatives is currently slated for March 30 to 31st per the schedule.

[Danielle Weston]

Thank you Trustee Bone for getting this started. I’d like the parent leaders of the Booster Organizations throughout RRISD to be specifically invited to participate in some capacity if they are interested. These organizations are comprised of armies of parents who collectively volunteer tens of thousands of hours and raise millions of dollars every year for the direct benefit of RRISD students.

I’d also like to see an opportunity for students to be heard and am glad you listed them first. I’d specifically like for interested members of the class of 2021 to be included but other grades too perhaps. I believe it’s important to capture their thoughts before they leave. Listening to their feedback on what RRISD does well and where improvements lie is incredibly valuable to capture as this board and the next superintendent move forward for the benefit of future RRISD classes. I’d like to see a broad diversity of students represented including but not limited to those at all academic levels, those highly engaged in extracurriculars and those who are not, those who are headed to higher ed and those who are not, racial diversity as well as geographic diversity with students from all 5 comprehensive high schools, ECHS and Success HS. The student group should be broad, but a size not so large that the variety of student perspectives would be lost.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Trustee Bone and Weston for starting the discussion. The only comment I have for now is that we need to make sure that groups that not traditionally well-organized or funded also have a seat at table. If anything this is the time to hear people out who don’t have access to speakers.

[Amy Weir]

Thank you Dr. Bone for starting this discussion.

We will need to get clarification from the search firm, but my sense is that when we list these groups, (give them to Ray & Associates) the groups will be getting a special invitation to engage, but not necessarily their own, individual meeting with the consultants. Some of these groups may be combined when they give their feedback on the search.

When we say Chamber of Commerce I want to make sure we include Austin, not just Round Rock. We also should include city council members from both Austin and Round Rock. And the county commissioners, both Williamson and Travis that are elected to serve the areas that overlap with our district.

I agree with Trustee Weston that Booster and other parent groups (Round Rock Dyslexia Group, Round Rock Black Parents, etc.) should all be invited to contribute, as well as PTA and PIEF. I also agree that we need a broad selection of students to provide feedback. Thank you for your comments on the student groups Trustee Weston.

I love the idea of non-profits that serve our students and families. Thank you for including that Dr. Bone. I wonder how we find the contact information for those groups. Maybe our social workers can assist in creating that list for the consultants. I would like to include those Pre-K providers who are part of RRock Ready.

Also service organizations like Lions, Rotary, El Amistad, Undoing Racism. I know I’m missing some from various other communities and areas of our district. I will try to find the business cards I was given in 2018 during that campaign for more service organizations in the area, both Austin and Round Rock.

In 2013 there were open invitation stakeholder meetings at all 5 of the comprehensive high schools. I’m not sure how that would look this year and how parents and community members in each feeder pattern could be heard most effectively. But I think it’s key to have at least 1 open invitation opportunity for each feeder pattern to provide feedback on the search.

[Cory Vessa]

This is a really great discussion and I think there are some superb suggestions here.

In regards to engaging the faith community, what about approaching Austin Interfaith Alliance? We could invite those member institutions that are in our district boundaries. I like that Austin Interfaith includes a really diverse faith community. We also partner extensively with Education Connection, which is also faith based. I’m sure they would have good insight. I will continue to think on other faith based groups that could be part of that stakeholder group.

But in general, super impressed with all the comments above.

[Dr. Mary Bone]

Thank you to all the Trustees that have responded. I have compiled the groups below and attempted to incorporate everyone’s input along with some more I have identified. The search firm mentioned that these groups will contain 7-20 individuals but we could break some of these categories below up if needed.

1) Teachers
2) Support Staff
3) Students – ( broad diversity of students represented including but not limited to those at all academic levels, those highly engaged in extracurriculars and those who are not, those who are headed to higher education and those who are not, racial diversity as well as geographic diversity with students from all 5 comprehensive high schools, ECHS and Success HS.)
4) Parents – (Round Rock Dyslexia Group, Round Rock Black Parents, Booster Clubs, PTA, SEPAC)
5) Community Leaders – (Austin & RR Chamber, RR & Austin City Council, Business Leaders, Religious Leaders, Education Connection, Austin Interfaith Alliance)
6) Service Organization Leaders – (PIEF, Backpack Coalition, Lions, Rotary, El Amistad, Undoing Racism)
7) Administrators 
8) Education Partners – (ACC, RR Ready Providers, YMCA, CTE Partner Businesses)

Please comment if there are additional specific organizations you think should be included. The next step will be to reach out to these organizations to select individuals for these focus groups so we will need specific organizations identified.

[Dr. Mary Bone]

I have a couple of updates to the list (adding Austin Chinese-American Network & CVMS STEM):

6) Service Organization Leaders – (PIEF, Backpack Coalition, Lions, Rotary, El Amistad, Undoing Racism, Austin Chinese-American Network)

8) Education Partners – (ACC, RR Ready Providers, YMCA, CTE Partner Businesses, CVMS STEM)

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