Youth and Family Engagement Team

Up for Learning updates:

Reflections from the Burlington School District Youth and Family Engagement Team (YFET) SY 23-24

In partnership with UP for Learning, the Youth and Family Engagement (YFET) team met five times over the course of this year to identify priority areas and make recommendations to the Burlington School District administration. The team was part of a Vermont Department of Children and Families (DCF) grant to address racial and ethnic disparities in the district’s discipline data. The team, made up of middle and high school youth, as well as BSD Equity Instructional Leader Autumn Bangoura, identified three priority areas:

1) Improved Communication between the district and parents/caregivers

2) School Safety

3) and Youth Leadership

They met at the Robert F. Miller Center in the New North End for their evening retreats, participating in community building, circle dialogues, as well as activities focused on values and leadership development. At the final retreat, the team reflected on the identified priority areas and why they believe they are important.

The YFET hopes that the BSD administrative teams will take these priority areas and select one or two to act on during the 2024-2025 school year. They hope that whichever plans are created to address them will include youth as equal partners in the work (youth are involved in the planning/visioning conversations with administration, youth are given responsibility to bring these plans into fruition, etc.). They also hope that families will be included in the planning process for the changes the administration chooses to take on so that the community can have a say and a voice in any changes.

Improved communications with families was one of the priority areas identified by the team. The youth and their families expressed that they feel disconnected with what is happening at the school, and that the only time they are connected after elementary school is when their student is in trouble or missing class. These communications are often only in the form of robocalls, which limit the ability to engage in question-asking and meaningful communication that would welcome families into the problem-solving process.

The youth reflected on the importance of this priority area:

“I believe that communication with families and the school should be prioritized because it’s very important, and it still needs to be expanded on to make it better.”

“I believe improving communication with families is important because parents have the right to know what happens when their children are attending school. A lot of communication happens over robocalls or emails, which is problematic because it leaves room for improper interpretations.”

Another important priority area that arose this year through the YFET meetings was the need for increased engagement with families throughout all of the grade levels. Team members reflected that there were many opportunities for parents to enter the school and be involved and informed during the elementary school years. This was a source of connection and joy for both parents and their students. As a youth progresses on their journey into middle school and high school, families feel like they are not welcome or have never been invited to enter the school other than parent/teacher conferences which are inaccessible to some. Youth expressed how community events that bring families into these spaces and include teachers and students would be a welcome way to increase family engagement.

The youth reflected on the importance of this priority area:

Families deserve to know what’s going on in their kids lives
It’s important to increase engagement with families so they have a better level of understanding between the student and the family
It’s another way for families, teachers, and staff to connect and to find a common ground with each other.
It’s important for families to know what’s going on in their kids’ lives because it’s their own children, and they should know if their kids are getting the education they need.
My parents care about what’s going on with me at school and even out of school.
It’s important for families to be engaged so students don’t feel like their parents only care about their grades but they’re also involved in their students’ school life and care.

Another priority topic that arose throughout YFET this year was the lack of safety felt in the community. The reason this topic came up so much was due to the increase of incidents of physical violence at Edmunds Middle School. There was also discussion of the increased incidents of weapons found on students across all schools this year. The youth felt like there were many reasons for these conditions. One interesting topic of conversation was that many feel unsafe walking to and from school with the uptick of homelessness and drug use in Burlington. They reflected that perhaps sometimes an adult sees a weapon bought to school and assumes ill intent towards other students, while they think it is a strong possibility students are bringing weapons to school because of they feel a lack of safety during their commute to and from school.

The youth reflected on the importance of this priority area:

I think this is important so people feel safe and want to go to school and not have to think about someone doing something to them.
It’s good to feel safe going to school because everyone should be able to get the education they need without worrying about something bad happening to them.

The final priority area that came up in many YFET conversations this year centers around the strengths and opportunities for growth for youth leadership across BSD.

We made a list of where youth leadership already occurs in BSD.

UP For Learning
Student Government
Students on Hiring Committees
Student Leading In Staff Meetings
SRJA
Small Groups In Schools
Clubs/After School Sports
YPAR
Honors Society
After School Metours
Student Tutoring
BHS Heros
Student representatives on school board
Youth and Family Team
Peers Mediation
International Clubs
GSA

We reflected on where youth leadership works best in BSD currently:

Superintendent’s Advisory Council gives leaders a chance to hear youth experiences
SRJA gives students a chance to learn new things, and allows them to share their experiences.
Peer Mediation: gives students ownership over decisions
Student Government: gives students opportunities for leadership
Clubs: allows students to take actions
Boys and Girls Club: Students can voice concerns to Club staff and they bring them to the adminstration

We reflected on where youth leadership does not go as well in BSD currently that could be improved on:

Student to student leadership
Peer mediation: lack of adult buy-in and support to create a better system for student choice
Ramadan decision making: BHS admin conferenced with MLLs and did not check with students; adult minds were already set before asking youth for opinions
Tokenization of staff of Global Majority: asking them to discipline students of color
General power imbalance

We reflected on where youth leadership could be embedded more into BSD that is not already:

More education about the world (current events, such as the conflict in Gaza)
Mores students leading restorative circles
Students making more decisions

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or would like to collaborate on school-based solutions to these priority areas next year with a youth-adult team, please reach out to Autumn Bangoura or UP for Learning.

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