This is what community engagement looks like: An overwhelming number of community responses to critical issues facing the Grand Rapids Public Schools speaks volumes

For nearly 2 years now, the Urban Core Collective’s Education Justice campaign has been working hard to identify problems and potential solutions to the issues that students, parents, teachers and community members in the Grand Rapids School District have been ignored for too long.

On Monday, the Urban Core Collective provided some documentation of the 414 responses they received for their Community Report Card Campaign. You all remember Report Cards, those things that we used to get when we were students. Report Cards, the piece of paper we received that either had a rushing home to show our parents what kind of a student we were, or feelings of dread that our parents might not be too happy with the grades we have been given. 

Report Cards are a measuring stick and a concrete way for the community to make some assessments about the quality of public education in Grand Rapids. The Urban Core Collective’s Education Justice campaign released the results of the Community Report Card Campaign.

The Community Report Card covers feedback in the overarching categories, GRPS Administrators, GRPS School Board Members and Student Outreach. In each of these three overarching categories there were numerous questions, there was feedback and there were recommendations for the school district.

In regards to how respondents felt about GRPS Administrators, here are a few comments that are both thoughtful and challenging: 

“In fairness, I think the district does “name” (i.e.; acknowledge) the issues, but what they fail to name is what standards of excellence (or even an acceptable standard) look like for those issues. The posture is persistently defensive (cleaning up messes or meeting minimum standards), rather than aspirational… “Reimagining Transportation” should not mean “we get reports from Dean.” It should mean kids get safely to/from school on time, every day.” 

“I’m appreciative that the district offers listening sessions, but I have often walked away with the perspective that the district is using these sessions to defend their position rather than listen to community feedback. When big decisions are announced, GRPS generally states that these decisions are made a result of community feedback but doesn’t present the information in a way that shares how this feedback is reflected in their decision-making…” 

“Se pasan la vida con planes y planes sin acción, la acción se queda en el papel.” They spend their lives with plans and plans without action, the action remains on paper.

Under the category of GRPS School Board Members, there were also powerful comments and feedback from the community: 

“There are a few board members who consistently ask questions and seek change. The rest seem fine with the status quo and are not asking enough questions or holding people accountable.” 

“The district’s budget is extremely complicated. I don’t feel informed enough about where BOE has discretion and where it doesn’t. Also, the budget isn’t presented/broken down in terms of those five priority areas? Is that something we could ask for?” 

“There is a way to come together around the same goals, where dissent is not seen as an attack on the district. However, we need leadership that is exploring new ways of approaching our problems. More of the same will not work!” 

“I know board members care, but we need to see them show their work a little more publicly on how they are trying to improve the district. I’m really hoping that they will take a stronger role in the budget process this year to ensure that parent, teacher, and student priorities are reflected in the budget.”

Lastly, under the category of Student Outreach, we read excellent comments from GRPS students. 

“They’ll ask us questions or do surveys but financially they don’t do anything to show us they care.”

“I was going to grade them a ‘C’, but I wrote a ‘D’ instead because they don’t do even an average job. I remembered when they banned backpacks. I have to walk 25-30 minutes to school and carry a lot of stuff. I first used a box and was told no, then a plastic bag and was told no, and then had to carry everything by hand.” 

“They don’t do enough to collaborate with students, and when they do nothing happens. We had a meeting with a school board member and I felt she was very stuck in her own ways. She was talking about how we should be more appreciative about our school. One thing we did like was talking with the food service director and sharing how we need more choices and he mentioned how we would get fresher fruits and veggies from local farmers. But when we talked about the menu options, he kept bringing up the two options that the school had already decided. We gave food feedback last November, but haven’t seen those changes.”

The Community Report Card document also shared some instructive comments on this whole process. Here is one thing they wrote which is deeply problematic: 

“While the Urban Core Collective has strong relationships with a variety of community non-profit partners who have close ties to communities of color in Grand Rapids. We did outreach to some of fifteen organizations, and many were reluctant to share information or support in disseminating the report card to their stakeholders. These leaders express concern about openly participating in the campaign for fear of jeopardizing their relationships with GRPS. This is important feedback, given the fact that providing opportunities for students and parents/caregivers to provide feedback should be a neutral activity in and of itself.”

The Community Report Card Campaign document ends with these powerful words: 

“We unequivocally recognize the need for communities of color, who make up nearly 80% of the GRPS student population, to be at the center of any transformative education justice work in the district. As such, these response demographics are also a call for our team to continue to build networks and trust with folks who have for so long felt excluded from actively participating in the education process. We are committed to continued growth and learning. As Angela Davis reminds us, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” We believe in the power of collaboration and real power-sharing to radically transform GRPS, and we look forward to opportunities to move this work forward alongside district leaders, students, parents/caregivers, and other partners.”

This document was shared at an event hosted by the Urban Core Collective last night. In addition, people from the community attended the Grand Rapids School Board meeting and presented some of the findings from Community Report Card Campaign.

As an organizer and community member I highly recommend that people do the following. First, please read the Community Report Card Campaign report. Every aspect of this report is important, it is visionary and it speaks to the power that communities can have when them come together with a common purpose. 

Second, share this report. We all need to make sure that this information, this input and this analysis is shared widely especially if we hope to move systems of power to act in our best interest. 

Third, I would encourage as many people as possible to join this campaign. If we can build a sustained critical mass of students, parents, teachers and community members we can dismantle the awful practices of the GRPS and we can collectively imagine new ways of providing the very best educational opportunities for students. 

Lastly, I would say that we all need to learn about how to do community engagement and this Community Report Card Campaign is an excellent model. We cannot settle for just being invited to a meeting, instead we need to host our own meetings. We can’t just react to problems, we have to radically imagine new possibilities. In addition, we need to change power dynamics. If we want a vibrant public school system then we need to make sure that students, parents, teachers and community members are equal partners in this thing we call the Grand Rapids Public Schools. 

In tomorrow’s post I want to look at how the local commercial news media reported on the incredible work done by the Community Report Card Campaign and why it matters.