Update on 2/1/21 Patrick Marsh Middle School Lesson

Dear Sun Prairie Community:

In the time that has passed since the incident that occurred at Patrick Marsh Middle School on February 1, 2021, it has become clear that we need to do a better job of informing the community of the extensive equity-related efforts that this school district has made our priority over the last five years. While we are not a perfect organization, our focus has been and will continue to be on equity through strategic leadership, culturally relevant learning and teaching, and keeping our students at the center of our work. 

For background, our current racial-equity journey began in the 2015-2016 school year when we started a partnership with the National Equity Project. Soon after, we transitioned to a more strategically-focused equity partner, the Pacific Educational Group, whose core programming includes Courageous Conversations and Beyond Diversity. Since the 2016-2017 school year, we have built capacity to transform this system from random acts of equity to a strategic, systemic racial transformation framework. We’ve included more than 100 different training opportunities in racial equity as staff development at school sites and district-wide, and we’ve had over 3,700 separate entries of staff participation in these opportunities (link below). We have almost 1,300 staff members, and most have participated in multiple professional development opportunities in this area.

As a result of our work with the Pacific Educational Group, the district developed an Equity Framework, which serves as the basis for our district-wide, boardroom-to-classroom approach to racial equity transformation. During the 2019-2020 school year, we advanced the first Equity Teams at all fourteen district schools. Together over the last five years, our Community Schools partnership has rapidly expanded, our AVID programming has been amplified by expanding it to our middle schools, our summer school program (including transportation) continues to be the largest and most robust in the state, Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards have been adopted and integrated, and our “Grow Your Own” program has continued. Our work as a school district has been focused on racial equity work, such that we were asked to present on a panel at the NAACP Education Summit on Saturday, October 17, 2020. 

While this work represents progress, it’s simply not enough. Our school district vision, the School Board’s expectations, and our commitment to students, families, staff, and this community demand accelerated strategic work. 

The way we make progress toward our commitment to racial equity is through collaborative, solution-oriented work toward dismantling racial inequities in our policies and practices, behaviors and actions. The SPASD’s response to the February 1, 2021, incident for action steps moving forward has four primary components:

1. The SPASD is committed to engaging our communities to provide the space and place to process what happened. This includes plans for:

   1. Restorative Circles for PMMS Sixth-Grade Students and PMMS Staff, the creation of Restorative Discussions for our local and immediate PMMS community, and broader Restorative Conversations with the greater Sun Prairie Community

   2. Initiating work with Courageous Conversation Global Foundation Interracial Community Healing Circles through collaboration with Sun Prairie Community Schools (long-term initiative)

2. The SPASD is committed to continued collaboration with and deliberate input from the Sun Prairie African American Parent Network (AAPN). This includes:

   1. Hiring a district-level administrator focused specifically on equity and engagement with communities of color 

   2. Gathering input from African American Parent Network leadership, our Black Student Unions, and the Pacific Educational Group to research, develop a position description, and develop a hiring timeline to fill the administrator position no later than July 1, 2021

   3. Continuing our partnership with AAPN for consideration of additional
      strategic action steps

3. The SPASD is committed to conducting a thorough and detailed investigation with integrity.

   1. The teachers involved continue to be on administrative leave.

   2. A third-party investigation is being led by an attorney.

   3. Ensuring a thorough and legal process that produces clear findings and decisions that are grounded in the findings is important, as this will lessen the chance for lengthening the process or possibly having decisions overturned. 

4. The SPASD is committed to taking action steps to improve teaching and learning. This includes the following:

   1. Developing plans to engage our racially and culturally diverse community in the development of a system-wide anti-racist and culturally responsive instructional framework 

   2. Reconvening the Social Studies Committee to review the social studies curriculum with a lens of anti-racism and cultural responsiveness

   3. Reviewing the 2019 district adopted social studies instructional materials

   4. Creating a rubric by which staff can review supplementary materials for instruction with an emphasis on cultural competencies

   5. Reviewing and revising policies regarding the teaching of sensitive and controversial topics, to provide additional guidance to staff and families

   6. Creating a race readiness reflection form for educators to use as they
      develop lessons and activities (race, racism, oppression, injustice)

Recent action steps include:

• February 2 - PMMS morning staff meeting. Student services and teachers met to provide a discussion space for processing for all students.

• February 2 - Employee Affinity Group met twice (on February 2 and 23) to provide a discussion space for our employees of color. 

• February 17 - Restorative Justice Circles held for all PMMS staff.

• February 19 - Restorative Justice Circles held for PMMS students in the three 6th-grade houses who experienced the social studies activity.

• February 20 - A Combatting Curriculum Violence Seminar was attended by 19 Social Studies Steering Committee members.

• March 9 - District staff, Sun Prairie Community Schools, the City of Sun Prairie, and student representatives from the Black Student Union met with the Courageous Conversations Global Foundation to begin the process of developing community capacity for equity initiatives.

• March 10 - District staff, union leadership, and AAPN leadership met to develop the job description for our district-level administrator for equity. 

• March 17 - Social Studies Steering Committee meeting has been scheduled.

  • Three Black Student Union representatives have been added to the 4K-12 Social Studies Steering Committee.

We deeply value our ongoing partnership with the African-American Parent Network (AAPN) and will collaborate with the AAPN leadership to assist in the selection of an objective third party to conduct an examination and assessment of our equity efforts. Beyond reviewing and detailing the investments and programs that we have implemented, we will also ask that our equity programming be measured in the context of our peer institutions locally, statewide, and nationally. We have already begun the process of contacting potential equity assessors.  While the timeline to officially begin this process has not yet been determined, we want to acknowledge the benefits of having our forthcoming district-level administrator for equity be a part of this process. We believe it is important that the director is involved with and able to participate in the review process. 

Please know that Every Child, Every Day is not just a tagline for us. It is who we are and why we do the work we do. As a school district and community, we must work collaboratively to ensure that all children receive the very best education. All of our children deserve to be inspired and respected, supported and valued, and safe and loved in and out of the classroom. That is our commitment to you. 

Sincerely,
Brad Saron, Superintendent
Steve Schroeder, School Board President

At the February 22nd Board Meeting, we provided an update to the School Board, school district, and community on the action steps we’ve taken since the incident that happened at Patrick Marsh Middle School on February 1st.

Topics in this video include:

• Patrick Marsh Middle School Incident Timeline (01:46​)
• Update on Action Steps to Restore the PMMS Community (03:12​)
• Update on Action Steps to Engage Our Community (05:30​)
• Update on Action Steps with African American Parent Network (06:12​)
• Update on Ongoing Investigation (08:13​)
• Update on Action Steps to Improve Teaching and Learning (08:47​)
• Transparency and Information (12:37​)
• Our Continued Commitment (13:56​)

I am writing today as the President of the Sun Prairie Area School District Board of Education to express my apology on behalf of the entire Sun Prairie Area School District, to the YWCA of Dane County, including Ms. Vanessa McDowell, for any and all disputes and disagreements that have occurred over the last week between the District and the YWCA. I recognize that these disputes have become a distraction from the District’s important equity work. I take full responsibility for the misunderstanding regarding the use of the YWCA name during the School Board meeting on February 8 in describing the restorative work we plan to do. Moving forward, the District’s unwavering commitment to restoration and racial equity must be our focus. The Board of Education’s expectation is that the District will use any and all resources for a systematic transformation toward racial equity, and we will hold the system accountable for results.

Steve Schroeder
School Board President

Dear SPASD Staff,

We write to you today in recognition of the incident on February 1, 2021, in sixth-grade social studies at PMMS. After eleven days that have surfaced many emotions within the school district and within the community, we would like to review our next steps as an organization and share with you the resources we’ve developed to ensure communication. There is no doubt this has been a difficult time, especially for our students, families, and staff members of color. We write to you with an update from Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

We acknowledge our role as a public institution in modeling a deeper level of vulnerability, recognizing that there has been trauma to our community, and answering the call to action of recommitting to our equity work. That said, we also need to be crystal clear: What happened at Patrick Marsh Middle School last week in the sixth-grade social studies lesson about ancient civilizations is not aligned with our equity work or our commitment to our kids, families, staff, and community. 

 The SPASD’s response has four primary components:

1. The SPASD is committed to engaging our communities to provide the space and place to process what happened. This includes developing plans for:

   1. Restorative Circles for PMMS Sixth-Grade Students and PMMS Staff, the creation of Restorative Discussions for our local and immediate PMMS community, and broader Restorative Conversations with the greater Sun Prairie Community

   2. Initiating work with Courageous Conversation Global Foundation Interracial Community Healing Circles through collaboration with Sun Prairie Community Schools (long-term initiative)

2. The SPASD is committed to continued collaboration with and deliberate input from the Sun Prairie African American Parent Network (AAPN). This includes:

   1. Hiring a district-level administrator focused specifically on equity and engagement with communities of color 

   2. Gathering input from AAPN Leadership, our Black Student Unions, and the Pacific Educational Group to research, develop a position description, and develop a hiring timeline to fill the administrator position no later than July 1, 2021

   3. Continuing our partnership with AAPN for consideration of additional
      strategic action steps

3. The SPASD is committed to conducting a thorough and detailed investigation with integrity.

   1. The teachers involved continue to be on administrative leave.

   2. A third-party investigation is being led by an attorney.

   3. Ensuring a thorough and legal process that produces clear findings and decisions that are grounded in the findings is important, as this will lessen the chance for lengthening the process or possibly having decisions overturned. 

4. The SPASD is committed to taking action steps to improve teaching and learning. This includes the following:

   1. Developing plans to engage our racially and culturally diverse community in the development of a system-wide anti-racist and culturally responsive instructional framework 

   2. Reconvening the Social Studies Committee to review the social studies curriculum with a lens of anti-racism and cultural responsiveness

   3. Reviewing the 2019 district adopted social studies instructional materials

   4. Creating a rubric by which  staff can review supplementary materials for instruction with an emphasis on cultural competencies

   5. Reviewing and revising policies regarding the teaching of sensitive and controversial topics, to provide additional guidance to staff and families

   6. Creating a race readiness reflection form for educators to use as they
      develop lessons and activities (race, racism, oppression, injustice)

Systemic racism cannot be addressed randomly. Our efforts must be consistent, strategic, and deliberate. This work must be done in partnership with one another and guided by beliefs and vision. The sixth-grade social studies incident at Patrick Marsh on February 1, 2021, is a painful indicator of why this work is important. We must continue to accelerate and follow through on work to improve racial consciousness in the district on behalf of our kids, families, staff, and communities of color. 

We also understand the need for real-time communication, and we are committed to providing complete and material resources for you and the community. In addition to our internal emails and Board meeting videos, we’ve developed a web page that consolidates the emails, communications, videos, and documents pertaining to the February 1, 2021, PMMS incident. We’ve also added a FAQ section for additional information. 

We know that we are not alone in saying that the disequilibrium we feel is unsettling, but not nearly as unsettling as the greater pain it has caused for our students, families, staff, and community members of color. As an organization, we must stay grounded in our Vision and School Board Equity Statement. We know that our work on racial equity can’t be addressed randomly but must be a strategic response.This is why we have committed ourselves to a strategic and organizational transformation. 

To end without speaking directly to self-care for our staff would be remiss. Please take the steps to manage the stress by being present with loved ones, taking moments for reflection and perspective, and utilizing our district resources, such as our Wellness Programs and Employee Achievement Partner. 

We join you in recognizing how difficult the past ten days have been, professionally and personally. And we know you are all thinking about and working on behalf of the students and their families who have been hurt by the incident on February 1, 2021. We know that's the kind of servant leader you all are. 

Thank you for your leadership, dedication, and care for all students. We have a lot of work to do in this school district, and there is no team better suited to take on this important work than all of you.

With deep respect, 
Brad Saron, Superintendent
Steve Schroeder, Board President  

Resource: https://www.sunprairieschools.org/district/news/update-on-pmms-lesson

SPASD Response to Open Community Letter

Please allow this letter to serve as a response to the Open Community Letter from the Hawk & Bowie families representing other concerned Sun Prairie residents and families of SPASD.

First, we want to acknowledge with commitment and sincerity the harm the sixth-grade social studies incident at Patrick Marsh Middle School on Monday, February 1, 2021, has caused for our students, families, staff, and community. We also recognize that this incident has caused even greater pain for our students, families, staff, and community members of color. It was categorically unacceptable, and we stand in solidarity with you against systemic racism. We are deeply upset by what happened, and we acknowledge that people have every reason to be angry. We are committed to our work on racial equity, and this incident is a painful indicator of why this work is so important. It is also a reminder that our work is ongoing and that we have much to do--in collaboration with community partners--to achieve our goals.     

Systemic racism cannot be addressed randomly. Our efforts must be consistent, strategic, and deliberate. We must work in partnership with one another, guided by beliefs and vision. The incident at Patrick Marsh is not indicative of the commitments of this school district or what we are passionately working to become as an organization. It was a direct result of people working outside the protocols we’ve established and outside our expectations of our staff.  

Specific to your letter, we would like to address one of the demands, particularly your call for the immediate and permanent dismissal of the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning, and Equity. 

There is no one more committed to equitable outcomes for students than Stephanie Leonard-Witte. She has been and continues to be a champion for the work of increasing racial equity and eliminating disparities for Black and Brown students. She has been a model for teacher leaders, principals, and district administrators when it comes to disrupting racism within our public education system. The following list represents some outcomes in which she has been a tireless leader in support of our students of color:

• Starting in 2015 and continuing through the present, all 4K-12 district curriculum has been revised and updated with a lens for racial equity. The curriculum renewal and design process guides the review, adoption, and/or replacement of curriculum to be equity-centered in all content areas. The curricula across the district have not only been updated but also expanded to include social-emotional learning standards within content instruction. This process involves teachers throughout every step of curriculum review, selection, and adoption.  

• In 2015, the English Language Arts steering committee worked to adopt the Reading and Writing Workshop Framework for literacy, including instructional materials from Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City, promoting social justice themes and equity as core principles.

• Beginning in 2016 and continuing annually, the district has strategically purchased student materials with a focus on diversity of races, cultures, and identities. The district has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to update, replace, and diversify text resources to be more historically accurate and representative of our student body.

• In the spring of 2017, the Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) Social Justice Standards were adopted and integrated into the K-12 Social Studies curriculum. These standards provide a road map for anti-bias education in the district. The standards, which are grouped into four domains (identity, diversity, justice, and action), have helped educators at all grade levels develop a common language for equitable and accessible learning opportunities.  

• Since 2018, a coordinated, robust Black History Month (BHM) commemoration has occurred districtwide. Prior to 2018, planning for BHM was site based. This coordinated effort includes engagement with the Sun Prairie African American Parent Network and professional educators to create a variety of activities to celebrate the contributions of Brown and Black people in our nation’s history. The Black History Month materials make use of Black Lives Matter at School resources published by the NEA EdJustice program, and the district senior leaders have steadfast endorsement of “Black Lives Matter” posted on school signs in support of the district’s equity statement.  

• The district dramatically shifted course sequencing in mathematics in 2018 by implementing Algebra for all eighth-grade students and eliminating tracking in math, which had previously begun in fifth grade.  Algebra for all created equal educational opportunities for all students to be prepared for, and have access to, college-level coursework.

• In 2019, the district implemented Race and Equity Teams at each building, utilizing training through the Pacific Educational Group and Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations about Race framework. Race and Equity Teams are groups of equity-focused faculty who lead staff professional development in culturally responsive teaching practices at school sites at a minimum of once per month. Our partnership with the Pacific Educational Group started in the 2017-2018 school year. 

• The district’s three senior leaders engaged with student groups at each school (C-Heights, PPA, SPHS) after the student walkout in November 2019. Discussions with students have led to the development of student affinity groups at Cardinal Heights. In addition, high school students targeted revisions to the student handbook, including a culturally sensitive dress code and incorporation of racial harassment into the anti-bullying language. Students will also participate in the development of racially conscious homeroom lessons, professional development for staff, and participation on upcoming curriculum steering committees.  

• During the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, K-12 instructional staff have participated in training from Dr. Sharroky Hollie and The Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning on culturally and linguistically responsive practices. Additionally, all staff in grades 6-12 have received training from Dr. Hollie on Culturally and Linguistically Responsive practices in remote learning. Currently, 40 staff members across grades 6-12 are undergoing three rounds of direct coaching from Dr. Hollie’s coaching staff.

• In 2020, the Teaching, Learning, and Equity team addressed vendors about racist content in their curriculum and assessment materials as a protection for students and staff in Sun Prairie and to set a high bar for appropriate content in our nation.

• District leaders have immediately addressed racialized incidents, including the blackface incident at the basketball game last school year and the Confederate flag incident at SPHS earlier this school year. The district disrupted these events, investigated, followed up, and took immediate action, including restorative conversations with students who were involved and impacted.

• This year, all instructional staff in SPASD are engaged in a book study of Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, and this study is led directly by Race and Equity Team members.  

• All district-level cabinet members are part of the District Equity Leadership Team, a districtwide equity team. This year, an adult learning framework for Race and Equity Teams (E-teams) was created to determine the level of fidelity and impact the teams are having in each building.  

We recognize and are thankful for the work done by Stephanie Leonard-Witte in service of the district’s mission, vision, beliefs, and values, as well as our district equity statement. We will not be recommending any form of dismissal of the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Equity for this incident. The urgency of this work requires a transformational and systemic response. The district ardently opposes systematized and institutionalized racism that has been in place for over four hundred years. We name this not to minimize the incident that has taken place, but in service and understanding of our call to deepen and accelerate our equity work. Please accept this letter as assurance of our ongoing commitment toward racial equity with support from the highest levels of leadership in this school district. 

We encourage you to watch the school board meeting on Monday, February 8, at 6:00 p.m., via sunprairiemediacenter.com, for more information about how the district is responding to this incident. As stated in our public comments earlier this week, we plan to provide an update and district statement at that time. We share with you a commitment to doing better, while both holding ourselves accountable and accepting accountability from our community. 

Sincerely,
Brad Saron, Superintendent
Steve Schroeder, School Board President

We have spent this week acting on the items we stated in the letter sent by Patrick Marsh administration and the letter sent by district administration to all families on February 1st. 

Here is a summary of our actions so far this week. There is an ongoing investigation into the incident. Our district-wide student services team has been and will continue to follow up and support students and families from Patrick Marsh Middle School and across the school district. We are making plans to reconvene our social studies curriculum review committee for an intensive review of our social studies teaching practices as a first step to eliminate racial trauma and curriculum violence. We have reached out to the organization Teachers Pay Teachers demanding the removal of this racist activity and a public apology for originating and monetizing it. They have since confirmed the removal of the activity from their website. We commit to work collaboratively with our community and lean into conversations to address the harm caused by this incident.

Above all else, we are intentional in acknowledging the damage caused this week to our students, families, staff, and community. And, we also need to be crystal clear: What happened at Patrick Marsh Middle School is not aligned with our equity work. It was not approved or endorsed at any level of leadership, and does not define our commitment to and work toward racial equity.  

Our district administration will provide an update to the community at our School Board meeting on Monday, February 8th, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. Information can be found on the school district website: www.sunprairieschools.org 

Dear Parents and Students of Patrick Marsh Middle School:

Today an assignment was given in some of our 6th grade Social Studies classes that was exploring the politics of ancient Mesopotamia.  A portion of the assignment asked students to answer scenarios around Hammurabi’s Code. Hammurabi's Code was a set of 282 laws established by King Hammurabi as a way to unify Mesopotamian city-states.  The purpose of the activity was to help students understand how order was kept in the early civilization, how the laws that were developed, and how unjust they were.  One of the scenarios posed was directly related to the treatment of slaves in Mesopotamia; this was upsetting to students and parents.  Above all, this assignment hurt our African American community.

We regret that this assignment was not racially conscious and did not align to our district’s mission and vision of equity.  We know that it caused harm to our students and their families.  Our intent missed the mark, and for that we are deeply sorry.  Going forward we will be sure to think critically about whether our intent matches our impact.  

Please know that we will be following up with our students to process this event and the staff involved will apologize directly to them.  We will also have student services personnel available to any of our students who need additional support.  

Sincerely,
Rebecca Zahn, Principal
Amy Schernecker, Associate Principal

Sun Prairie Area School District Families:

We are writing today to apologize for a grave error in judgment that occurred during sixth-grade social studies instruction at Patrick Marsh Middle School. A small group of our teachers developed and used an activity that was neither racially conscious nor aligned to our district mission, vision, values, curriculum, or district equity statement.

Once we learned of this activity, we immediately stopped any further teaching of the lesson and promptly began an investigation. In our preliminary findings, we have determined the lesson was not a part of our district curriculum and therefore, no student should participate in or complete the assignment. To be clear, this lesson is not consistent with the School Board’s vision for this school district, our commitment to equity and cultural responsiveness, or the development opportunities we have invested in our staff. 

The staff issued a direct apology to the students in the class and their families.  While our administrative staff continues to investigate the situation, the teachers involved have been placed on administrative leave, consistent with our district’s procedures. 

This incident is a fracture in our system to support Every Child, Every Day. We deeply regret that this lesson took place, and we also recognize that this was a breakdown in our curricular processes and our district-wide focus on equity.  In addition to immediately addressing this situation, it is important that we commit to changing our curriculum and professional development for all staff. To that end, we will work to immediately reconvene our social studies curriculum review committee for an intensive review of our social studies teaching practices with the lens of racial trauma and curriculum violence. 

Our Student Services team will be following up with the students from these classrooms and will be available to support other students in processing their feelings about this incident. Further information will come from Patrick Marsh’s leadership, including opportunities for listening sessions. Additionally, our Patrick Marsh leadership team will be working with Black community leaders to work toward community healing. All of our schools are prepared to support students' processing.  

Sincerely,
Brad Saron, Superintendent
Stephanie Leonard-Witte, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning & Equity 
Janet Rosseter, Assistant Superintendent for Operations

Staff Update from the 2/22/21 Board Meeting about Patrick Marsh Incident

Hello everyone, 

The incident that happened at Patrick Marsh Middle School on February 1st has undoubtedly shocked this school system into a deeper level of racial consciousness. Recent local events, such as the Blackface incident of 2019, and national events, such as the killing of George Floyd, have turbocharged our community’s advocacy for and our commitment to systemic transformation for racial equity. This school district accepts our responsibility as a moral obligation grounded in our organization’s vision and mission. The Board supports and demands change. The administrative team has budgeted for and strategically advanced this school system for change and action. Our staff has taken up this charge in service of our students and families. 

Our current racial-equity journey began in the 2015-2016 school year when we started a partnership with the National Equity Project. Soon after, we transitioned to a more strategically-focused equity partner, the Pacific Educational Group, whose core programming includes Courageous Conversations and Beyond Diversity. Since the 2016-2017 school year, we’ve been building capacity to transform this system from random acts of equity to a strategic, systemic racial transformation framework. We’ve included more than 100 different opportunities for staff development at schools and district-wide in racial equity, and we’ve had over 3,700 separate entries of staff participation in these opportunities (we have almost 1,300 staff members, and most have participated in multiple professional development opportunities). During the 2019-2020 school year, we advanced the first Equity Teams at all fourteen district schools. Together over the last five years, we’ve rapidly expanded our community schools partnership, amplified our AVID programming by bringing it to our middle schools, maintained the largest and most robust summer school program (including transportation) in the state, adopted and integrated the Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards, and continued our commitment to our Grow Your Own program. And, while we’ve made progress, it is simply not enough. 

The racial-equity journey of the Sun Prairie Area School District will be indefinitely changed because of what happened on February 1st. The way we make progress toward our commitment to racial equity is through collaborative, solution-oriented work toward dismantling racial inequities in our policies and practices, behaviors and actions. The vehicle through which we currently drive this examination and deconstruction is through our site E-Teams. Starting with the 2021-2022, these actions will be strategically directed by our new district-level administrator focused on equity. 

On February 22nd, we updated the School Board, school district, and community on the action steps we’ve taken. The video is attached HERE, and has been translated, transcribed, and bookmarked. The presentation slide-deck is attached HERE. To view the School Board presentation from February 8th, other district and school communication, and FAQs, please visit our webpage HERE. 

If you have questions, your first resource is your building principal. Please know you can always reach out to us if you have questions. 

In appreciation, 

Brad, Steph & Janet

Teachers Pay Teachers is a site where teachers across the country can share activities, slide presentations, and other supplemental instructional materials. The SPASD allows teachers to pull resources from a variety of sources to supplement approved instructional materials, however SPASD does not promote or endorse TPT. 

Our teachers have access to a robust set of District approved adopted instructional resources.  We empower and encourage teachers to personalize curriculum to appropriately tailor lessons to students to encourage the voice, choice, and agency of students. 

A curriculum is the intentional pairing of standards and content that result in learning outcomes for students.  Curriculum is also packaged within a “scope and sequence” that provides pacing of individual lessons.  The curriculum is set by the district in a collaborative process with our educators and instructional materials are purchased by the district to support the curriculum.  Lesson plans are high level descriptions of the intended outcomes for a particular class session.

Activities are classroom-based exercises, slide decks, worksheets, and other materials used to teach the required curriculum.  As long as the desired outcomes are reached, teachers have autonomy to use activities best suited to their students using a variety of instructional materials.  This includes supplemental materials that teachers create or share beyond the resources provided by the district.

The activity presented on Feb 1 was not a part of the approved district curriculum or adopted district instructional materials.

Administrative leave is district directed leave which is typically given to employees that are subject to an investigation. It does not mean the employee(s) are at fault, but allows for the investigation to take place in an efficient and thorough manner. Because this is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to disclose any other personnel details at this time.  It is very Important to ensure a thorough and legal investigation process producing clear findings leading to decisions that are grounded in the findings and lessen the chance for lengthening the process or possibly having decisions overturned.

Yes, the staff of the Sun Prairie Area School District have Equity Training. Some examples include:

• In 2019, the district implemented Race and Equity Teams at each building, utilizing training through the Pacific Educational Group and Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations about Race framework. Race and Equity Teams are groups of equity-focused faculty who lead staff professional development in culturally responsive teaching practices at school sites at a minimum of once per month. Our partnership with the Pacific Educational Group started in the 2017-2018 school year. 
• During the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, K-12 instructional staff have participated in training from Dr. Sharroky Hollie and The Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning on culturally and linguistically responsive practices. Additionally, all staff in grades 6-12 have received training from Dr. Hollie on Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Practices in Remote Learning. Currently, 40 staff members across grades 6-12 are undergoing three rounds of direct coaching from Dr. Hollie’s coaching staff.
• This year, all instructional staff in SPASD are engaged in a book study of Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, and this study is led directly by Race and Equity Team members.

The principal did not know about or approve this particular activity. The principal did know that social studies teachers were on the section of curriculum that covered the legal system of ancient Mesopotamia. 

CRDC: scope and sequence and pacing guides. Textbook and instructional materials selection by teacher committee at the district level. The curriculum was reviewed and new materials were just purchased in 2019.

The activity was isolated to three classrooms and was not taught or queued up to be taught other sixth grade classrooms. It was taught in three 6th grade classrooms at Patrick Marsh Middle School and was not taught or queued up to be taught at PVMS. 

The activity presented on Feb 1 was not a part of the approved district curriculum or adopted district instructional materials.

The SPASD has staffed, and will staff, the classrooms with qualified and licensed substitute teachers continuing to support the students in the classroom.