The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education reconstituted the Intercultural District Advisory Committee (DAC) at its Nov. 17 board meeting and directed the superintendent’s office to solicit applications for community members to serve on the committee.
Reconstituting the Intercultural DAC, which has a temporary name of the Intercultural Equity and Excellence DAC, is part of the school district’s response to the May 2011 racial incident that took place at Santa Monica High School.
The board charged the committee with the follow directives:
— Support the district’s work of closing the achievement gap by assisting in the identification and elimination of inequities in educational processes and outcomes of underserved students in district schools.
— Serve as a vehicle for parents, community, and students to communicate with the Board on matters related to the successful participation in the educational process of students and parents who come from diverse socio-economic, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds or from the LGBTQ community.
— Provide a forum for the articulation of ideas and activities being implemented in the district, school sites, and the greater community that are successfully meeting the needs of our diverse student and parent population.
— Provide input on district and school site efforts to facilitate the building of bridges of understanding between diverse student and parent populations so that all groups feel connected to, and part of the school community.
— Work collaboratively with other advisory committees as appropriate.
— Report to the Board annually on the scope of their work, and recommendations that are developed relative to their charge.
Additionally, the board provided staff with the following guidelines for the committee’s composition:
— In accordance with District guidelines, there shall be a minimum of seven and maximum of nineteen active members.
— Up to three positions will be held by site staff. The Superintendent or designee will work with site administrators to encourage district employees to apply to serve on the committee. The board will appoint employees to the committee taking into account school levels, experience and/or expertise, and diversity of geographic location.
Community organizations whose charges intersect directly with the core work of this advisory committee will be invited to designate a representative to serve. These organizations include, but are not limited to, the Santa Monica-Venice Branch of the NAACP, Virginia Ave. Park, and the Westside Chapter of the Association of Mexican-American Educators.
The DAC will be governed by the guidelines prescribed in Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 1220.
Applications to serve on this committee can be found in English and Spanish at http://www.smmusd.org/DAC/index.html or in the superintendent’s office (1651 16th Street, Santa Monica).
The deadline to submit applications to the superintendent’s office is Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011.
The goal is for the Board of Education to review the applications and appoint members to the committee at the Jan. 19, 2012, board meeting.
