What topics will this process focus on?

Areas of focus for this process will be refined based on public workshop findings and on Working Group discussions. They may include:

• Admissions Policies & Access to Information

• Equitable Resource Allocation (Equitable Access to Programs)

• Academic Excellence & Student Achievement

• Disproportionality

• School Capacity

What are the goals of this process?

In addition to the overall goal of promoting school diversity in each of the districts, District 28 specifically hopes to achieve the following goals through the process: 

• Increase access to D28 middle schools for all D28 students.

• Position student voice at the center of our work.

• Find new opportunities for social emotional learning, community building, and equitable resources for students across the district.

• Foster more inclusive and integrated middle schools. 

How can I be involved in the process?

This process is for people how live, work, and go to school in District 28 to come together to create recommendations to that promote middle school diversity and academic achievement. Community members can participate in this process by attending a meeting at their local elementary school to learn about the process and by attending the public workshops.

Meetings at your local school

DOE will hold a meeting in every elementary school in D28 to provide information about the process and poll D28 community members on their key priorities. This will shape the content of the first Public Workshop.

Public workshops

There will be six (6) Public Workshops and all Public Workshops are open to the District 28 community. These workshops will synthesize data and facilitate community conversations that will help shape the recommendations that become the final D28 Diversity Plan. The six (6) Public Workshops will build through the following four (4) stages to develop recommendations.

1. Framing – Present data and talk about the multiple types of diversity; gather insights from community members that will give direction to initiatives and actions; and understand community members’ priorities.

2. Project Themes, History & Best Practices – Understand challenges and opportunities unique to District 28; build themes based on insights from previous stage.

3. Options – Present draft recommendations; gather feedback.

4. Final Presentation – Working Group will present their recommendations based on the previous community engagement. Presentation attendees will prioritize the recommendations, discuss next steps, and celebrate their community and collective work.

D28 Community

The District 28 community plays an important role throughout the planning process to create the D28 Diversity Plan. If you live in District 28, we actively seek your input in public workshops and through other community engagement and public outreach activities. Feedback collected from community members will serve as the foundation for the plan’s framework and recommendations.

Working Group

The members of the D28 Diversity Plan Working Group—stakeholders from across District 28—are guiding the planning process. They are tasked with keeping the process inclusive, accessible, and accountable to all D28 residents. This group also works to generate interest in public workshops, review and provide feedback on community findings, and, to use these findings to shape the plan’s framework and recommendations. The Working Group began meeting on December 4, 2019.

Working Group Participants:

• Mohamed Q. Amin, Founder and Executive Director of Caribbean Equality Project
• Oswald Araujo, Director of Beacon Services at Queens Community House
• Stephanie Barreto-Lastra, Community Affairs Borough Manager, Division of Community Empowerment, Partnerships, and Communication of the New York City Department of Education
• Sadio Comrie, Teacher at Redwood Middle School
• Simone Dornbach, PTA Co-President at The Academy for Excellence through the Arts PS 303
• Shavvone Jackson, PTA Recording Secretary, SLT member, and Title 1 Board member for Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School
• Mohammed Enamul Karim, Parent of a student at PS 182 Samantha Smith
• Venus Ketcham, Community and Parent Leader in Education, Southeast Queens, School District 28, parent of a student at JHS 217 Robert Van Wyck
• Seiw Kong, District 28 Acting Superintendent
• Karin Marroquin, Parent Leader at PS 349 Queens School for Leadership and Excellence
• Maureen McTigue, Teacher at PS 117 J Keld Briarwood School
• Patricia Mitchell, Principal of PS 48 William Wordsworth
• Shernette Pink, Program Manager at Queens Youth Justice Center
• Howard Pollack, Community Education Council District 28 member, PS 196 Parent/Teacher Leadership Team member
• Erick J. Scott, PTA President of PS 80 Thurgood Marshall Magnet School of Multimedia and Communication
• Vincent Suraci, Principal of JHS 157 Stephen Halsey
• Mazeda Uddin, Director of South Asian Fund for Education Scholarship Training
• Stella Xu, Education Committee Chairperson for Forest Hills Asian Association
• Student – JHS 8 New Prep
• Student – JHS 190 Russell Sage 

The following principles were used to guide the formation of the Working Group: 

District Geography – The “district’ covers a large geographic area with several distinct neighborhoods and communities. The selection of Working Group members seeks to be representative of school communities, students, and families across the district.

Experience Working on Issues of Diversity, Equity and Integration – The selection of Working Group members seeks to engage individuals, organizations, and school community members who have been previously engaged in advancing equity and integration.

Local to the District – The selection of Working Group members seeks to engage individuals, organizations and school community members rooted in the district. The work of citywide organizations and coalitions will serve as important assets to the community planning process and will be incorporated through other mechanisms.

Diverse Representation – The selection of Working Group members seeks to include members of the school community across a wide range of races, ethnicities, cultural identities, abilities, educational backgrounds, incomes, languages and life experiences.

Anchored in History – Commitment to utilize history and the best possible research available as a tool to anchor and understand our current context and create future policies.

What are the District Diversity Plans?

District Diversity Plans are community-driven efforts to help advance equity and accelerate learning and instruction. Each District Diversity Plan is supported with a grant that will provide technical assistance and help to five Community School Districts (9, 13, 16, 28 and 31) to implement a community engagement process and eventually develop a plan. In District 28, the public community engagement process has not yet begun so no proposals have been put forth yet.

What is the D28 Diversity Planning Process?

The D28 Diversity Plan process is a process where community members who live, work, and go to school in District 28 will create their own recommendations for how to promote middle school diversity and academic outcomes. Diversity has a broad definition, so recommendations can cover a wide range of solutions.

Recommendations will be created through a public community engagement process which will include workshops, small focus groups, and more. At the conclusion of the process, there will be a D28 Diversity Plan. The D28 Diversity Plan will list the recommendations that are a priority to D28 community members that were made throughout the public community engagement process.

Why is D28 doing a Diversity Plan?

District 28 (D28) was one of 17 districts who applied to the NYC Department of Education for grant funding. D28’s application stated, “In addition to considering enrollment, we hope that this funding can help the school communities in D28 develop strategies for us to connect students with different backgrounds and celebrate what they all bring to our community…This grant could give us the resources necessary to have a meaningful conversation with our entire community, hearing the voices of families from all across the district.” D28 is also participating in New York State’s Integration Project grant program, which gives districts funds and training to begin to develop integration plans.

What does the DOE mean by “diversity”?

Diversity comes in many forms, including: racial background, cultural identity, socioeconomic status, home language, country of origin, immigration status, ability, special needs, religion, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, housing status, and life experience.

How was WXY selected to do the D28 Diversity Plan, and what is the nature of their contract?

The Full Request for Authorization is posted online.

“Based on their experience in District 15, as well as their experience in the planning stages of supporting Districts 9 and 13, this vendor’s specific services are deemed critical to supporting the success of the new districts. WXY will support these districts in a community engagement process that relates to diversity and integration requires a variety of skills, such as: stakeholder analysis, facilitation of community meetings, synthesis and presentation of information gathered at meetings, data analysis and project management skills.”

After the process concludes, how will DOE implement the recommendations of the Diversity Plan?

Recommendations are submitted and approved by the Mayor and Chancellor.  A Department of Education representative is on the working group to be a liaison with the Department of Education. They will make sure that the Department of Education is aware of the recommendations that are priorities for the community and make sure that funding and support will be available to make these community priorities happen.

Has the process started?

The work to-date has been focused on background research about D28; forming the Working Group based on the recommendations that WXY has been given by the D28 Superintendent, D28 principals and parent coordinators, and others; responding to questions about the process and incorporating feedback about the process; conducting initial data analysis; and preliminary Working Group meetings. 

The public community engagement process hasn’t started. The public community engagement process is where the community comes together to build out the recommendations. This has not started yet.

Why is there a Working Group?

Working Group or Steering Group processes have been used in New York City to create locally-based plans around challenging issues. The idea is for the Working Group to be responsive to the feedback from meetings and workshops in order to generate ideas and recommendations from people living within the district and working within the schools, as opposed to shaping policies that come from a city agency.

How was the Working Group selected?

Members were selected based on recommendations from the D28 Superintendent, D28 principals, D28 parent coordinators, the teachers’ union, and the school administrators’ union. In the case of parent members, we received feedback from community members and elected officials that we should expand the number of parent members. We increased the number of parent members from three parents to six parents. All members were selected to create a group that best met the Working Group formation principles as a whole. These principles are listed on this website.

How was the diversity of the Working Group determined?

D28 is diverse with hundreds of different kinds of communities. Geographic and racial diversity were our starting points in forming the Working Group. In terms of racial diversity of the Working Group, we used the basic categories that the DOE uses for students. We realize that these categories don’t include religions or ethnicities. In keeping the Working Group to a manageable size, we understand that the Working Group cannot capture all of the diversity of D28.

Will this D28 Diversity Plan be like the D15 Diversity Plan?

The final D28 Diversity Plan will be different from the D15 Diversity Plan. D15 started out with very different issues, they have a very different geography and demographics, and they had a very different set of admissions policies. For example, D15 has middle school choice across the district and no zones. D28’s plan will be unique to D28.

What is the format of the workshops?

Different workshops will have different formats. Some will include a presentation and then include smaller group discussions where notes are taken by a facilitator. Having smaller group discussions in breakout rooms means that it will be easier to discuss ideas and information. People may be randomly sorted when you check in in order to encourage people to meet new people and hear the opinions of different people. Later meetings might be open-house style where you can walk around and provide direct feedback to potential recommendations.  

Who can participate in the workshops?

The workshops are for community members of D28. This includes D28 residents, students, teachers, and principals, and also community-based organizations that have education related work in D28 schools.

Is community feedback only for the first and second workshops?

No. Community feedback will be collected throughout the process.

Will there be interpretation at the workshops?

Yes. In order to help us make sure we have the correct languages for interpretation, we encourage everyone to RSVP to the workshop using the link on Eventbrite and a phone number that will be posted on the website and in paper flyers when workshops are announced. The RSVP link has an option for you to choose what language you will need interpretation in.

How else will you make the workshops accessible to people?

We will also have childcare and two-way MetroCards for people who need it at the workshops. We will also provide food.  We will also provide printed copies of materials for those who do not have access to the internet. We will also try to have workshops at various times to accommodate different kinds of work schedules and personal schedules.