Reginald Hardwick: from Illinois public media, this is a special edition of news brews and beats.

Tonight, a conversation with three local superintendents.

Unknown: This is where we can change the trajectory of so many lives in so many different ways.

We're preparing great citizens and that makes me really proud.

Reginald Hardwick: Learn about the challenges.

Unknown: And my children, particularly as a result of the pandemic, my babies are suffering.

But now we've experienced loss in our district, and those lost lives.

You can't get back Reginald Hardwick: the triumphs Unknown: every day that you are able to transform the lives of children and my staff and just there is no greater feeling Reginald Hardwick: the barriers broken, Unknown: that don't want to be the first and the only.

I want to inspire young girls, young boys who who look like me, Reginald Hardwick: and a wide ranging discussion with the leaders of the Champaign, Danville and Urbana school districts.

Hello, I'm Reginald Hardwick news and public affairs director at Illinois public media Welcome to News brews and beats.

In 2021.

We teamed up with the champagne community coalition to hold these important discussions.

Our first programs at poor brothers tap room in downtown Champaign, focused on reducing local gun violence.

We heard from experts on mental health youth programs and more.

On this program, we have a special some say historic conversation with the leaders of Champaign Danville and Urbana school districts here at the Illinois public media studios, and we're joined by an audience of 50 community members.

This show by the way, was pre recorded on September 28.

And now let me introduce our news brews and beats co host Tracy Parsons, community relations manager and facilitator at Community Coalition and champion Tracy, why are these discussions important to you?

Tracy Parsons: Well reginald, thank you for doing this and WRAL This is such an important time and period and our community, but across the nation, and to be able to have this space to talk about these issues and address these issues in a very intentional way, is really important.

Reginald Hardwick: Let's now introduce our panelists.

Dr. Alicia Geddes is marking her eighth year as superintendent of the Danville school district 118.

Next to her is Dr. Sheila Boozer, who became superintendent of Champaign unit for schools in 2020.

And next to her Urbana school district 116 superintendent Jennifer Ivory Tatum.

And we want to mention again, Decatur district 61 superintendent, Dr. Rochelle Clark was scheduled to take part in our discussion but was unable to attend to due to a medical emergency.

So our thoughts are with Dr. Clark, and I want to welcome all of our wonderful distinguished guests to newsperson beats.

Tracy see that's our first question.

Tracy Parsons: So Dr. Tatum, I'm going to ask you to start off but all three of you this question is for you.

So please share three things about your district you would want us to know and the audience to know about first Urbana schools, Unknown: three things.

So one, our diverse community is something I'm really excited about.

I've been a resident in Urbana for a very long time.

Also, I know being a parent, I have two recent grads.

And our diversity is something I think that makes us very special.

We are able to educate students from all different cultures, different language groups, all different walks of life, we send students all over the world and all over our country to prestigious universities.

But we also prepare students for life.

Like you were saying, Tracy, we get them ready for careers.

We get them ready for we just we're preparing great citizens.

And that makes me really proud.

I'm really excited about our teachers, we have some of the most committed teachers I'm you know, I've been a deputy superintendent in our district, I was a principal and I am really proud every day that I get to work shoulder to shoulder with some amazing educators who are just doing great things every day.

I guess I'd also say I'm really proud of our community partnerships, like the community coalition is one of the groups that we're really excited to be able to work with.

I know we have some of our partners in the audience, NAACP, I'm not going to start naming people because I can't see all your faces, but our partnerships and the work that we're able to do.

I mean, we're small, we're smaller than both of these districts.

But I feel like mighty in the work that we're able to do in the lives of our youth, and we would not be able to do that without some of the amazing community partners that we work with every day.

Dr. Bucha Great question.

I do want to start by saying I wish I were the superintendent since 2020.

But I actually started in 2021.

So yeah, I don't want to take anything away from my predecessor.

So, but anyway, 2021, I joined this amazing district champion unit four.

And as Dr.

I retain them discussed already, I am really excited about the diversity that is in Champagne unit four, and how we embrace diversity and embrace equity.

And to the point where equity is because is an action, not just something that we just throw out there.

I have a board that is very forward thinking and a community that's very forward thinking and we have an anti racism resolution that drew me to champagne unit for to work in this amazing district, I have we serve over 71 different languages that are spoken in our community in our school district.

And so that is, in itself is amazing.

I also like to let everyone know that I don't think people understand that when you are in a school district such as champion unit four, we do everything, we have our own transportation, we have our own food service.

So we don't start we don't contract out, we take care of all those things in house.

So it makes it a great place because you are able to bring in so many different facets from the community and people to help us get the work done.

And I too am excited about all the partnerships, the community partnerships unit for has so many partners who pour into our system, because they want to make sure that our kiddos and our staff are getting everything they deserve.

And they need I think that we we do a great job of making sure that our our student's needs are being met from feeding them to if they need a place to live, if we just need to give them some love, on top of educating them and getting them prepared for the next stage in life.

And I also the final thing I want to say about unit four, we pride ourselves on the fact that we don't want to say Unit Four is the end of the road for our kids.

When our kids graduate, we're trying to make sure that they're ready for the next portion of their life, because that's when their life really begins.

And so we want to prepare them.

So when they leave Champaign unit four, we want to follow them and say, Okay, how are you doing, and we want to pour into them and make sure they're ready for whatever happens next, and so graduation is not the end, for us is the beginning for the rest of our students lives.

Tracy Parsons: Thank you.

Dr. Geddes.

Unknown: Good evening.

Thank you.

So I can piggyback on everything that you've said which they did.

Right.

That's easy.

But what I would highlight most would do you want a team?

I know we all think we have a great staff.

But mine is truly the best.

My folks, they are resilient, they will get it done.

They will figure it out we will make a way that's just called a D 180 thing they will figure it out.

And although we don't get along all the time, we have each other's back.

We are family and I love that about us.

That entire community as Danville Truitt, you know, the New York of the group.

So my perspective was a little different and Danville gets a bad rap because it but it's not what people think it is.

It's the best of everything that everybody ever wanted.

But we don't highlight any of it.

And we need to do a better job.

I have swimming pools, I have golf courses, I've you know all these teams that never get any any shine.

And so I'm trying to do a better job.

But what I would like to say on that community piece.

Never before have been in the community where I can sit at the table regularly, at least three times a month.

I'm with the president of ThyssenKrupp Presta, Danville metal stamping and we are trying to figure it out.

We are coming together week to build the clinic to do you know hospitals, mental health things and they will all get in the boat together and we will figure it out.

I love that place.

I really do.

Tracy Parsons: Thank you for that.

Your responses.

So according to the Illinois Association of superintendents, 90% of schools and school districts in the states are experiencing staff shortages.

Can you address staff shortages in our district and what they are districts?

And what that looks like and Dr. Geddes, we'll start with you.

Unknown: staff shortages.

For Danville, it is in the area of mental health, I'm sure at sites, social workers, counselors, and my children particularly as a result of the pandemic my babies are suffering on the ONS with social emotional issues.

And I need to address that first.

I have to make them well before I can educate them there until I get them into a space where they can hear me.

I can never teach them.

You know what I mean?

So I need Sykes I need social workers and they are not there.

Right.

So I had to do things like call them friends.

I was blessed enough.

I have a friend who was a child psychiatrist, Dr. Islam home I made to get in the boat.

You know, come on down.

She has come down, down 57 Twice a month to come help my babies.

And so we're having to be creative in what we do.

There is definitely a teacher shortage, but I need us to And when we say teachers, I need you to also think of sites and social workers and counselors, because my babies need help.

Dr. Bowser, I have to echo what my my friend here saying, Shepard Unifor is no different than anywhere else.

We are facing teacher shortages.

Bus drivers, monitors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, you name it, we're looking for it, but are just as she was talking about it, but our staff too, is resilient.

That's the one thing I have to say about educators across the country, but especially in champion Unifor.

If there's something that needs to be done, we're going to figure it out.

It might not always be pretty.

But we're going to do the job that we were hired to do.

And I think this teacher shortage is nothing new is was it's been there.

Just with a pandemic, I believe it just really was able to shine a spotlight on something that has always been there historically.

And it's gotten worse, I should say.

And so with a pandemic, and with all the different things that came with it, the trauma, and I have to say this trauma does not have a zip code.

So where it doesn't matter what our kids look like, or where they come from every zip code in Unifor, is experiencing some kind of trauma.

And so but we don't want to just stay there, we want to help bring our kids through that teach them to be resilient even more and to work through what it is that they're that's happening in their lives, and to bring those things and get to the root cause of what's happening.

And so in order to do that, we need to have more community members.

So some of the things that are happening, that we don't have enough teachers or staff members to take care of.

That's when our staff, our community members step up.

How can we help you Dr.

Boozer, we have this program, how can we get into the front of some of your kids and help your teachers because just as Dr. Get us mentioned, there are things that our kids are experiencing, that adults can't even understand.

And but we're expecting our kids to come to school, and still learn, and we're expected to still teach.

But we have to have our community to help fill some of those voids and some of those gaps.

And so we need our kids to get to school, we need them to when they get there to be fed.

So we can feed them, we need them to come into a space as open and welcoming and loving.

And so that means from our security to our secretaries or teachers, we need all of those roles to help us get this job done.

And most of all, we need to empower our families and our communities to partner with us to get it done.

Because we're not I don't see us ever going back to how school used to be.

It's a new day.

So how can we take what we have and build upon it and do something and build something even greater and better.

And so with that being said, Unifor ship and Unifor schools is the amazing place to be if you're looking for a job, yes, I'm on be this.

Champagne seriously, that we have to help speak up and talk about the importance of being an educator.

That's an amazing role that people take it for granted.

But we need our teachers and we need them to be loved, and to be nurtured and to people to respect and honor them.

And we got to pay them better.

But anyway, so that's the way we're going to address the teacher shortage.

So yeah, Dr. Bruiser brings up a good point, you know, the, everyone's talking about the teacher shortage now because we're, you know, kind of coming off the tail end of this pandemic, but it was here before.

You know, prior to the pandemic, we were already experiencing some of those shortages.

And I think part of it is we have fewer students going in education, which I think all of our districts are trying to address that with Grow Your Own programs we're doing we have some partnerships with Eastern, we're trying to work with our universities to definitely get more teachers of color in those spaces, but also just recruitment and retention of like starting at our high school level.

We've built some programming and coursework that our our high school students can start earning classes, earning courses through dual credit through some of these other creative programs at the university level, to get them already in in the path to becoming teachers.

So I think that's something that all of us are doing.

It it is real.

You know, we are short special education teachers, we're short teaching assistants, we and I mentioned our amazing teachers.

And I have to also mention that our amazing administrators because our our administrators on any given day are subbing in classrooms, because we don't have enough substitute teachers.

And so that is another area that I feel has has really been impacted.

Definitely by COVID.

I mean, we didn't feel that much loss prior to that prior to the pandemic but since we have fewer and fewer subs, so our administrators are subbing when they need to be leading their bill buildings, we have teachers who are covering other covering one another's classrooms and giving up their breaks giving up their lunches.

And, and as Dr.

Boozer said, you know, we are one of our mantras and our band is are being a better together, and we really are a family and we have been taking care of one another.

But it's hard, because people are burning out faster.

We have been promoting and talking about self care.

But it's hard to say take care of yourself, rest have that downtime when we're asking people to cover one another's classrooms because we just don't have enough bodies to to put in the space.

Which, unfortunately, who is that going to impact the most, it's our students when we were there losing instruction, because we don't have certified licensed innovative creative people in that space every single day.

So it definitely is something that we need to.

I know we're coming up with a lot of solutions, and we're trying to brainstorm, but it's something that our legislators, our, our state, our our government, we just need to figure out a way to one, value teachers more so we have more people just going into the field.

And I know that's not going to help us right now and this year.

But however we can fill that void, and the weeks and months to come our students really need it.

Reginald Hardwick: Is it tough to recruit teachers and other staff to Central Illinois, we know some communities are growing a little bit, but some communities, you know, we know Danville has decreased over the decades?

Is it tough?

You know, when you're trying to get people to come move here, Unknown: I will say the recruitment piece is not the hard part is the retention.

So recruiting you can be we can be extremely creative with recruiting, and especially when you have a world class university right here in your backyard.

And there's so many different things for young people to do.

But the retention piece, what how do we connect them to the community?

How do we connect them to each other within the building?

So that's, that's the difficult piece.

And so it can't just be the school, doing the retention, we need everyone to kind of wrap around to help keep people here help draw them here first.

And then how do we keep them in the position.

And so with all the things we talked about what teacher shortage, and so many different things that our teachers and other educators are doing, taking on more and more and more, and then when you may be excited about coming in to be a teacher, because I'm excited, I'm going to change lives and, and all those things, and this is my passion.

But then when you get in there, and you find all the things going on that impede your creativity, sometimes it that makes it difficult.

So again, I'm gonna say it's not the retention, it's not the, the, the recruitment, it is more of the retention piece in Danville is a little different.

There is a narrative about how unsafe it is.

And that was dictated by a one mile by one mile section of town.

And it has, it's not the reality.

And so we have to do more I actually have when I'm recruiting administrators, I've recruited a few of them, who've been with me now for eight years.

I've moved them down here, I have moved people down here, but I have to do the tour myself, I have to take you and show you the lake, I have to show you the golf course as you know, and I'm like, Oh, this is not what I knew of Danville.

No, because that's not really the truth of our reality.

And so we have to work to change the narrative.

And then in Danville, we have to do something, you guys have lots of housing here, we do not have that here and dent in Danville.

And so there must be something that my teachers can afford in the neighborhood where they want to live, right?

And so we actually have to create that and so you know, great people on my team, you know, get my boat like you know, Heather Cunningham from classic Homes Realty and get my boat.

I need you help me recruit like what can we do about changing that narrative with with housing and stuff.

So it's a little a little tougher for me in Danville.

I just want to add something to that, you know, when we talked about recruitment piece, we got really creative this year.

And so you know, how you have that signing time when everybody's excited for the sports, you know, the Signing Day, you got your football players or basketball players, and everybody's all whoop and all excited about it.

Well, we did that in Champaign Unifor.

We had a signing day for all of our new teachers who were coming in and we had the cheering and the clapping and the the big hands, the palms, and the administrators were there to welcome and cheer those kind of things.

And then we had each person signed that they were committed to unit four, and then they got their certificate.

We took pictures, they brought their family members there.

It was just it was awesome.

So you just got to get creative.

Now we got to keep them.

Yep.

And I guess I would say kind of what you were alluding to reds on a little bit.

We're thankful to be in Champaign County because Champaign County is one of the the few counties in our state that is thriving and you know, people are moving here, partially because of the university, but partially because of housing, and Dr. boozers, right I think retention is one of our biggest concerns, especially retaining our teachers of color.

I love Champaign County, I love her being up.

But you know, if you're a young African American male or female, this may not be the most attractive place for you to stay in and in stay for your whole career, we're really close to Chicago, I'm from Chicago and matriculated here and stayed, but a lot of our young people want to be in a booming, thriving, you know, space.

And so however, we can incentivize, and we've been being very creative, trying to incentivize, however we can, once we get people here, so they don't leave, it is hard.

When you have amazing districts so close to one another, we're all fishing out of the same pond, so to speak.

And, you know, Rantoul is part of that Decatur, there are just a lot of options for teachers, and because of the shortage, people can go wherever they want to go and have a make a really good living and have a great job in any of our districts.

So I think the key is really keep getting them, keeping them finding, finding, helping them find their niche, you know, where they can excel and thrive and, and a home a family and just kind of wrapping around them when they're here.

But I think that is something we've intentionally really gone out and tried to recruit more staff of color.

We want our students to see people who look like them every day.

And so that has been hard getting them here keeping them here when they can go to you know, we lose people to the suburbs, and Chicago and other bigger cities.

So I think whatever we can do in this room to really keep Champaign County thriving and growing, for the for our young millennials, and for that group, we want them, we want them to come here and stay and raise families here, this is a great place to raise a family, and we want to share that message.

So Tracy Parsons: you all are taking me in a bunch of different places as you're talking, right.

And so when you think about really the strengths of our community, and you talk about the partnerships, especially as we talk about retention, we have to do a better job as a community of connecting the pieces.

And as I travel around the community, making sure people are aware of what we have often talked about the fact that we have Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, one of the premier places of its kind, right here in our community.

And so many people come here are not aware of it.

So I'm getting sidetracked.

But I wanted to get that out that we we have a place that we have to do a better job of selling.

And I include Danville indicator in that, as well.

So as Reginald mentioned in the introduction, we last year really focused intensely on the gun violence issue.

And we're continuing to address that as a community.

But we had some educators talk to us about the impact of gun violence on the kids and on the students.

And one of the educators said, you know, we have kids who want to stay at school.

And the school is that safe space for them, as we are dealing dealing with community challenges and issues.

And I'd like each of you to kind of talk about the schools as a safe space when we think about kids and society and the challenges we have in communities.

Dr. Booz Allen, I'll start off with you on this question.

Unknown: Sure.

When we talk about schools being a safe space, to me, it's not just the physical safety, but it's the psychological and social emotional safety as well.

And so when my husband and I moved here last year, we were experiencing a lot in Champaign, a lot of gun violence more than I've ever expected, in such an amazing town.

And so I don't, I'm not casting blame, I don't know where it was coming from, or but it was happening.

And so it was starting to have an impact on our schools, and to the point where we began to feel like we owned it.

And that's not what a school system should have to feel.

We shouldn't have to feel like it's our fault that this is happening.

But we're situated in it.

So what part can we play to help address so that our students and our staff members feel safe and secure in the schools?

So so in order for our students to thrive in the classroom, they need to be able to come to school and feel safe.

And I will say a lot of things were happening because of things in the community, kiddo, kids were bringing things to school attitudes, issues, weapons, what have you into the school because that they felt like this was the only way they were going to be successful, or I should say not success, but successful survive.

So we had to address that.

So in order for us to address some of the things we We had to do some of the physical things first.

So we brought in some security, we hired a security firm, because at the time, our city police didn't have enough for the SRO piece.

But our police officers should not be the first line when it comes to things happening in the school anyway.

So we knew we weren't going to have that partnership.

So we did hire an outside firm.

And it was a firm who were people of color, majority black, because our kids needed people who look like them, who could relate to them to help them through and understand what they were experiencing.

And then we also purchased and evolve weapons detector, so that, you know, students can come through and get into class and not worry about if somebody is bringing something because I gotta watch my back, I can't learn, I can't pay attention, my teachers need to know they were in a safe environment.

So when we took care of that physical safety piece, then the psychological safety portions would begin to come into play.

And not that everything is perfect.

But with the different we went to a contract with a entity called care solace, so that our students, staff, their family members, if they need in our students, families, they're experiencing some kind of some kind of trauma, or they needed some, some help their mental and emotional stability, they had a number they could call and get some support, they could get them in to actually see and speak to a therapist if they needed to, they looked at the sliding scale, different types of insurance.

And you know, a lot of times people don't understand this.

But basically black people, we don't like to talk about our mental health, because it's taboo.

So that you can you can do it anonymous, and nobody needs to know that you're going to get in some help.

So that was another piece that we worked toward.

And so the beginning of the last school year is nothing like the beginning of this school year is nothing like it was last year.

It's it's more peaceful.

Students are saying thank you for bringing in the detectors because we feel like we are safe.

We want to be able to go to class and do and we need to do so now that we kind of worked through those pieces.

Now how do we continue to address the trauma that is extremely real, and get to the root cause we have some angry children, some hurt children.

So how do we get to that and support them without them making them feel like you don't have a right because our kids have been through some things that some of us don't even understand.

I'm glad I'm not a child, in this day and age, because there's so much they have to navigate.

And then we want them to come into school and learn.

So we have to get to the root cause and provide them safe spaces.

And that means adults, we need mentors, we need people who understand when he volunteers, we need people who are not going to judge our students about because of where they come from and what they're experiencing.

But help them wrap their arms around them, but at the same time, hold high expectations for them.

Just because you're going through this trauma doesn't mean you have to stay here.

And just because you're angry doesn't mean you have to throw your life away.

How can we help you get through this situation and through this piece?

Work through it so that you can we can break the cycle?

So those are the things that we're working on.

And I am a strong believer that education is the avenue and the vehicle to help do it.

But nowadays, there's so much to education.

It's not just math and reading anymore.

Tracy Parsons: I don't know if anyone wanted to add or Unknown: what have you.

I mean, we all know when I first came to Danville, we had some challenges with with violence, right?

We would know, and I didn't.

And disproportionately they were black and brown boys, right?

So and there are 20 of them.

I have about 20 of us, black administrators or teachers total 20 So I didn't know any other way to do it, but to get in there and do it.

So I started pulling them out.

The gangbangers I've met with them put I had a poster board I know who needed to be where and I started placing and moving in look at the blame me like that, you know, doctor get it's gonna get me if I do this, right.

So we I have a little reputation.

Yeah, I'm gonna get rich.

So you know, and I just, I didn't have the resources.

I didn't know anything to do, but to go do it.

So we got in there.

And we met with him.

We strategically kind of keep people you know, I know I need to keep people separated.

things still happen.

You know, but we will get an air handler just the we had a little fight in Northridge and somebody decided he wanted to be a game break room.

And I think I was talking to you, your board president.

I because my secretary is named Amy Wright and has a board president they may not make any and so called the wrong Amy Wright would have tried to call the bus company and I had I'm shipping 12 kids out because I need to manage the situation.

So I moved in from Northridge get on the bus you came to my office because everybody about to be expelled.

So let's talk about it.

So but you know, we worked through it and so I don't know Any other way to do it, but to do it.

So that's kind of how we handle it, it has worked.

But oh, it's a lot of work.

It takes all of you.

And it's not just black teachers away.

But they help but real talks, there's something about seeing there's a cultural capital in this desert that you have when you come from similar experiences.

And for me to be able to tell them, it wasn't always this way.

I come from a rooming house in New York, thank you know what I mean, that house you see on the lake was not my reality, when I was a little girls, me and my mother in a room.

And so that builds me some credit with them.

And like, I understand the struggle, and they will talk to me, and it's the only thing I got that so I use it, I get in there with him, I talk to him about it, and use me as the excuse that we can't fight because you know, that guy's gonna get me No, don't get it's gonna get us get it's gonna get you.

So I use what I had.

And it is working, thank you good.

It is working mom vibe, sometimes just bring that Mama vibe look.

So as superintendent, I feel like one of our most important jobs aside from pouring into kids and educating them is keeping them safe.

So that is our that is the most important thing that we can do for our students and our staff, is to make sure that they're safe, and they feel safe walking through our doors.

I think the victory over violence efforts the last two years, I know I want to thank everybody here in this room, it has been a very intentional focus on our community for a lot of reasons.

We lost a lot of young people, we've all experienced some loss, I know we've experienced loss in our district, and those loss lives, you can't get back and the impact of losing those young people spreads through our community, you know, the connections, the family members that are connected to the the friends, the cousins, the uncles, the TTS all the people who are still carrying that trauma and that loss, I think we work really hard every single day, to make sure that our students know that the things that might be happening in community don't belong in our schools.

And, you know, we've done some of those things like having door detection.

And, you know, making sure students that I've looked down, like I have my ID, I'm so used to wearing my ID everywhere, but having our IDs and you know, just making sure that we are putting protocols and systems in place that sometimes might, you know, it might take a long time to get people in it.

But once we're in our spaces, we're feeling safer.

I'm really excited about I mentioned our partnerships earlier.

And this is an area that I think, has been a real focus of ours.

And it really started because we had a one of our students was killed in December, you know, we, we didn't, we said no more funerals.

We said that to our students.

We said that to our staff, we can't lose another kid.

And so we have just really as a as a district, I, you know, Dr.

Boozer talked about owning it, I think we we have stepped in and said we need to own it.

And we pulled our partners together and said, you know, and that includes the city, you know, our SROs, the coalition, you know, just all the people who are already working with our youth, working with them in different spaces, we can't silo that work anymore, we all have to do it together.

And if that means, you know, this family is working with three or four different groups or you know, if they're a dream, if they're part of Sioux Tribe, whatever they are doing, then we as a school district need to know that because then we can wrap around that whole child, the whole family, to really make sure that the the trauma that they're experiencing, or the things that might ongoing still be happening, that that student can come to school, and they can say this is what is going on.

This is what I'm dealing with, and we can address it and do what we need to do to wrap around them to keep them safe.

Reginald Hardwick: Well, we've already had quite a filling discussion already.

And we have a lot more coming up in our next half hour including, we're going to ask our panel, you know what inspired them to get into education.

But first as part of our news brews and beads experience, we include a spoken word performance, and right now, Miss Lee Richland is going to perform a poem enough is enough that she wrote for our series Missy.

Unknown: I can't believe we're still talking about the same old stuff.

We all know what's wrong in our community.

However, our only answer cannot be the handcuffs.

Maybe the media should stop pointing the finger because all that's really doing is making these kids even meaner.

We have a responsibility to take care of their youth.

However, I'm starting to realize that most adults are still young minded too.

So honestly, I keep expecting these kids to do exactly what they do.

As we as adults, we talk a good game.

But we're not out here showing no real proof.

We won't even sit down and tell these kids exactly who they are.

But quick to tell them about all the racism scars, don't you see that the plan is to keep us in the past.

That way, their children will never have to worry about being surpassed.

And we quit to let our kids sign up for all these social media platforms, but won't take them on a trip to the bank so they can learn how that performs.

When are we going to show them that the mind is the only gun you need?

Don't ya realize it is us who don't want them to succeed, because we have set these kids up for failure without loss to see and the fact that we can't even bond this one, but got the nerds to be running around telling them please put down the gun son.

behavior is learned by actions and not by words, we fight each other every day, then turn around and label it to these kids as it's just horseplay and hurt people really do hurt people.

And now the violence is bleeding on all the townspeople, and we can't even give them programs so they can learn a successful trade.

Because the people we put in place spend the money on themselves because they feel underpaid.

So it's a complete circle that just keeps going around and around.

And the only reason why we really talking about this is because the violence has hit downtown.

And my parents, we don't have it all together either.

But that doesn't mean that we still don't have time to help these kids become better achievers, we have more power than what child think.

And if we don't start using it, all of our kids will be down at that precinct.

Because this life we live in.

It is not a game.

So we have to come together and help restore our real family names.

Because in the end, these kids are definitely calling our bluff.

So my only question, when are we going to show them that enough?

Is enough?

Reginald Hardwick: Thank you, missy, Brooklyn for performing that and just a joy to hear you write and perform that for us tonight.

Welcome back to news frozen beans.

I'm Reginald Hardwick.

And if you're just joining us, we're talking with three of the local school superintendents.

And just to reintroduce them Dr. Alicia gatos is marking her eighth year as superintendent of Danville school district 118 Dr. Sheila boozer became superintendent of Champaign unit for schools and 2021.

And right next to her is Urbana school district 116.

Superintendent Jennifer ivory Tatum and joining me here and asking questions Tracy Parsons, community relations manager and facilitator of the community coalition and champagne.

And how's it going?

You think?

Tracy Parsons: Fantastic.

I told you, we had a crew, we had a panel, right?

They bring it right.

So this is this is wonderful.

Thank you, again, for being here.

This is News brews and beats right where we bring it live real intentional.

And thank you for hosting us.

There's been a lot of discussion about history, teaching history, race relations, LGBT Q issues in our schools.

And talk to us a little bit about the impact that we're having to be inclusive, addressing the needs of a number of constituent groups, whether that's students, families, you know, there's the traditional families that we've known no longer exist, are not the only means of what family is.

So we've had a lot of public discussion, but education and information, and Dr. Ivory Tatum feud started softly.

Unknown: Okay.

So, yeah, well, with pride fest coming in Champaign Urbana this weekend.

This is you know, right now, we have in our schools, we are having those conversations even this week, about you mentioned the US history, you know, we have I can't remember exactly when the school code or when we were at kind of mandated to start teaching some of these new instructional units.

So, you know, civil rights and black history and the contributions of Asian Americans in our, in the state and in the world, as well as our the contributions of LGBTQ plus individuals in the impact that they have on history and the impact that they're that all of all of those groups have on the world.

So, you know, we're being creative in how we're sharing that through instructional units.

It is, you know, all the way down to the younger kids.

You know, we do things like reading storybooks.

And you know, bringing that in through literature, special assemblies, or just celebrations, lots of, you know, writing and history and just really talking about how all of those grew Oops, you know, make our country the country that it is today.

And because everyone has input impact, and everyone has a role in in making Illinois and the US, because this is part of our US history.

So I know you know, not every single family and every single person, I would say in the community understands, you know why maybe we have to teach some of these areas.

And there's some people who oppose it, and are nots, don't want their students participating in in these spaces.

But as educators, it's our job to make sure that we're being inclusive.

And we're making sure that our students are understanding all walks of life again, you know, I started off talking about diversity.

So diversity isn't just about race, or you know, the language you speak, it's about, you know, whether you're abled versus disabled, or, you know, there are all these different aspects of inclusivity that we have to talk about every day.

And so in Urbana, we've said, You have a right to be who you are.

And as a district, we have a right to make sure that you feel that you can be who you are, and in our spaces, so Tracy Parsons: Dr. Gates, anything like that.

Unknown: I think every time said, well, people are just in a space where they want the truth about who they are heard.

And the conversation about education in history is just reflective of that.

It's just like I said, with Danville, that it's, it's a part of us, but it's not the totality of our narrative.

And it's not the truth of who we are.

And we're seeing that in more conversations about the truth of Latino, Latina X, I'm sorry, I messed that up.

Congress of Latin, Latin American history, Asian American history, and, you know, black people, we didn't start with slavery.

So it's, it's time to have all of those conversations.

And when I go in with that, and that should have said, we're in the middle of, of Latin a heritage month, you know, and one of the ways that we've kind of shifted that narrative a little bit in Urbana, is, you know, people were using the term Latin x, we have a lot of our families who, who really didn't subscribe to that term.

And so we had to have some real conversations with some folks from our community and talked about, you know, what is, you know, if we're not saying Hispanic, we're not saying Latin X, what what did our our, that population wants to us to use.

And so this year, we did something very different.

And we started using the term Latin gay, because it is a more inclusive, non gender base way of kind of addressing our Spanish speaking families and some of our families from you know, those different cultures.

So I just wanted to point that out, because we're right in the middle of it.

And we've been doing a lot of celebrating this month in our district around that.

So if there's anything you want to do, my my friends have really hit it, I just want to say I believe that we have so many mandates to teach inclusivity and diversity and how to honor one another.

Because education schools is the one place that is the central hub, so to speak.

So we bring in we teach whoever comes in, especially public public education, whoever comes in the door has a right to an education.

I think part of our issue as a community and as the world, the nation is not being able to be respectful of someone, I might not agree with what you believe in do.

But that doesn't give me a right to treat you different to treat your nasty.

And so we have to be able to understand one another and honor and respect people's differences, doesn't mean you always have to agree.

And so I think that is why it's so important.

And though the one of the things I talked about as well, the diversity and Unit Four is powerful and honoring everyone, everyone has a voice.

No one wants to be invited to the table and be sitting in a broken chair.

So how do we honor everyone in a way and so our students are more open nowadays than than adults, a lot of times, students will embrace whoever, if we allow them a lot of times the things that we encounter because of adults getting in the way.

So if we just let our children and our students just be all that and just honor who they are.

Because think about it, if we don't teach it, they're going to learn it somewhere, somewhere.

And it may not be accurate.

And it may be disrespectful, it may be harmful.

So so let's just open our doors and open our hearts and our minds.

And we also as educators, and remind our parents, if there's something we're teaching that you don't want your child to know about.

You always have a right to opt out.

And so you don't have a right to be nasty, but you have a right to opt out if you don't want your child to learn about this That is your right.

And we have no no business and a right to judge you on that.

So it's all about that just been inclusive and honoring everyone who walks in our doors.

And I believe schools are the place to do that.

Because we embrace everyone that comes in.

Reginald Hardwick: What is something that you wish that people who are out watching this on television, but know about what you do every day and what you face in schools?

You know, they're not in there in the trenches with you, you know, what is one thing that you face.

Unknown: This job is not easy.

It's not easy.

We have to be on all the time, trying to make the right decisions, we will make mistakes, but it's never intentional.

We're forever learners as well, because when you're an educator, if you don't have a mind and a heart to be one that will learn, you're in the wrong field.

So in this day and age and the sitting on the stage with my sisters, here, it is, it is a historical moment to have three black women who are leading these major districts.

And people need to understand we didn't get here by happenstance.

And we worked hard to get here.

And we are servants of our community of our students.

And I know that they believe the same thing we lead from our heart.

So if we make a mistake, charge it to our head, and not to our heart.

But we're doing everything that we know to do.

And we're every everything we say do feel Speak, speak, drink, whatever is in the limelight.

And that's not an easy place to be.

So please give us some space and some grace and, and help us lean in and help us not criticize us, but helped us and lift us up and pour pour into us.

And I'm not afraid to say this those that can pray, pray for me.

Because I need I need strength and prayer every day.

Period exclamation point.

Yeah.

I guess I would say ditto, yes.

I think what I would want people to know is that the students who we serve today are not the students we served even two years ago, you know, prior to COVID.

This is my 31st year in education, whoo, hallelujah.

But, you know, after 31 years, it looking back, it is very different.

The babies and the students that we have in front of us, even today are not the students that we had in front of us in March 2020.

And I think people don't really understand the impact that the pandemic has had in all different areas.

I mean, we've already talked about mental health and social emotional, and the trauma and, and just behavioral challenges and some of the just things that we none of us could have predicted.

And I think we have all done a great job managing this.

But people don't understand how difficult it was.

I mean, I was in my first year as a superintendent, when you know, I didn't even get to have a regular first year because we shut down the spring of my first year on the job, and how hard it was to have to make on the spot decisions almost weekly.

You know, every Friday that press conference from the Governor, I got to the point it was not something any of us look forward to because we knew that we were going to be pivoting and one way or another.

And whatever direction or whatever decision we made, we were going to make a lot of people unhappy.

And a lot of people happy and it was in that is with anything right?

Not just COVID I mean, we make decisions every day that we know, once we make a decision, we're going to have a group of people that are going to not be happy about what we're doing.

But what we do every day is for our children and our students.

And I think people just have to realize that we make these tough decisions, we stand in that space because we're you know, we have these these students in front of us and we have to do whatever we think is best for them, as well as our staff, but it is all about our youth and so sometimes we are not our decisions are not well liked our you know, things that we may do but we we do it we do it on behalf of our young people and I think that is what people have to understand.

And yes, sometimes we're going to say or do things that people don't like and but no, like Dr.

Boozer said we're doing it with good intentions and not every decision that we make is going to please everybody that's with anything right but But I guess my main point I want to stress is just how difficult these jobs are now, because our our, our world has just changed in ways that we never would have expected.

And we're just trying to fix all that put band aids on it and you know, move in a better direction.

So, Tracy Parsons: so what's tell us about your answer your personal inspiration?

What got you into education?

What's, what's your driver?

What's your inspiration is, as we talk about you, personally?

You personally Right.

Dr. Gas, I'm gonna start off with Unknown: questions.

So great question.

So I can't tell you that I chose education.

This is this.

My undergrad is finance.

I in my mind up real estate.

In New York, I wanted that hustle, I wanted that drive.

This was my calling.

And me and God had a conversation.

That's why I'm here the wrong person.

I'm away from my message.

Because you you obviously can't wait to get my attention.

And and here I am.

And it is truly, you know, there isn't a day that I feel like, you know, when you what's my purpose?

Ooh, every day is purposeful.

And every day that you are able to transform the lives of children, and my staff and just, there is no greater feeling.

And I'm like, Okay, God, what after this, what do you do?

Because you make such an impact, you make sure children are fed and, and they have a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs.

And for my staff getting the help they need.

And sometimes it's a roof over their head.

And I don't you know, let's go back to the question.

I don't think people understand what we do behind the scenes.

Let's go to that.

Y'all don't know how many rents we have paid, how many people we've helped not lose their cars, their homes, how many bodies we didn't have to bring over the state lines for you, I have no idea and we will never talk about it not and it's not district money.

It's money, our own pockets.

Not using district funds for that.

We have paid risk.

We have paid mortgages we have delivered.

And we'll never talk about it, we know we do it.

And that comes up in our our pop up, you know, getting the body back over the lines because you couldn't get them from and we do that all day every day.

And we keep it moving.

And why do you do that?

Because we're called to do it is what we do, if you like the gateway isn't us?

Well, I came here as a pre med biology student, because to you have Art University of Illinois.

And like I said, I'm from Chicago.

But I was from a family of educators.

And so you know, my aunt too, you know, I was raised with was a PE teacher in Chicago Public Schools for 33 years.

And so I saw how hard that was.

And she would say to me, you don't want to be a teacher, you don't want to be a teacher is a thankless job.

And in so I grew up with that.

But I was always in those spaces.

You know, I wanted to be a pediatrician and thought, oh, I don't want to be a teacher.

But then every job I had, throughout my whole life was working with kids.

And so I got here and said, This is just This is just not who I am.

And I loved being a teacher loved it.

I loved it.

I absolutely love being a teacher.

But then when I became a principal, I was like, wow, this is the best job ever.

You know what I was principal at King's School.

And I never wanted to be a superintendent.

But when the opportunity came to, I just it wasn't my life.

I've done that forever.

But when this position opened up in Urbana, I needed to be in the space for our people, for our youth and for our teachers.

And so I stepped into a space that I never thought I'd see myself in.

And I'm enjoying it.

And I love that.

While we don't touch we're not in that space with kids every single day, the decisions and the things that we do touch the lives of students, like every day.

So that's why we do it.

I have no choice.

I thought I did.

I tried to everything else.

That made money.

I was I was in mortgage banking.

I thought I was gonna go to med school and be a doctor until i Blood makes my stomach cringe.

So it's like, Okay, Lord, I hear you.

My mom, I'll give a shout out to my mom.

My mom looked at me when I was born.

And she spoke life into me and she said, You are going to do great things.

And sometimes people don't understand great things is an education because it's not the limelight so to speak.

But I was called chosen I answered, I'm here.

I'm thankful.

I don't regret it.

Even when we have those long, 1214 16 hour days, I still don't regret it.

Because this is where we can change the trajectory of so many lives in so many different ways.

And I'm thankful for being a teacher is nothing, there's nothing greater.

I used to play school.

I don't know why I've tried to run them in a teacher, I placed one the oldest child and all my brothers and my brothers and my sister, were my students, my Barbie dolls.

Were my students.

I mean, so you know, I'm the oldest child and bossy.

So you know, it's just in me.

So I was just like, okay, just answer the call.

I'm here.

I don't regret it.

I'm thankful it then, you know, just like Jonah tried to run.

But I'm here and my calling for time such as this Reginald Hardwick: you're running out of time, but I just have to ask, what does it mean to be in this moment?

To have three in with Dr. Clark for black women, leading local school districts?

What does that mean to you when you hear that?

Unknown: I'll start I'll say when I was named superintendent Champaign.

It I didn't know.

Until the day they announced me that I was the first black woman superintendent for Champaign Unifor.

And it was a momentous moment for me because the day before Kamala Harris was announced as the first black woman, Vice President of the United States.

So it was just like, oh, man, someone's putting it in that same vein, and it was powerful.

But for me, it's I don't want to be just the first I want to leave this position where those who look like me, come behind.

I don't want to be the first and they only want to inspire young girls, young boys who who look like me to do this work and say there's nothing that you cannot do when they tell you you can't do it.

That's when you say yes, I can.

And when my own children look at me and say Mom, I'm thankful for the doors that you've that you've kicked open and the model and the example you've given to us.

And so I'm thankful for that.

So for me to sit on the stage with my sisters is powerful.

It's it's momentous.

There was a day we couldn't even go into a school and learn, let alone lead for not predominant phenomenal school systems.

And here we sit.

Some things I need to add.

One is out the ballpark leaving Reginald Hardwick: three superintendents in front of us for spinning an hour here at the Illinois public media, Dr. Alicia Geddes with Danville school district winning team Dr. Sheila Boozer, from Champaign unit for schools, and Urbana school district 116.

Superintendent Jennifer Ivory Tatum.

And let's give them a round of applause.

Thank you again.

And again, our thoughts are with Decatur school superintendent Rochelle Clark, who couldn't be here with us tonight.

And before we go, any closing thoughts?

Tracy?

Tracy Parsons: No, this is phenomenal.

Thank you.

You all were fantastic.

Information is just what we need because our work is in front of us.

And so we need all of us, those of you in the room and the space and our communities, our skills, our kids, our families need all of us to come together to address these issues.

Reginald Hardwick: Thank you for being here to help help with the questions.

And if you want to watch this conversation again, head over to the Illinois public media channel on YouTube.

And we want to mention that our next news brews and beats discussion will be in person at poor brothers Taproom in downtown Champaign in December, from Illinois public media.

I'm Reginald Hardwick and thank you for tuning in.