Echo has taken on the task of breaking down Park’s mission statement into five parts, diving into how each aspect of the mission is fulfilled and how it continues to be achieved. Over five weeks, each part will consist of a three-source story, a photo gallery, a podcast and a video featuring the voices of students, staff, administration and outside experts. The mission statement we’re breaking down is, “Park Public Schools sees, inspires and empowers each student to achieve academic excellence and live their brilliance in a racially equitable learning environment that centers student voice and experience to energize and enhance the spirit of our community.”
The first part of Park’s mission statement focuses on valuing and “seeing” students academically and personally, empowering them to reach their full potential as students. While this aspect of the mission statement is fulfilled in many ways by teachers, staff and administration, many Park students feel unheard and overlooked at school.
Superintendent Dr. Carlondrea Hines said seeing every student is to value the unique qualities and abilities that they bring to Park. She said by seeing these strengths, Park can allow students to grow and thrive in their own individuality as students.
“It’s important to see students at Park because each student has their own individual identities and strengths and gifts and talents,” Hines said. “When we’re able to see students for who they are and what they can do and their natural abilities, we’re able to help them see the gifts and talents they already have in order to accelerate their learning and their growth.”
According to math teacher Keisha Piehl, she feels seen when another person knows her by her name and shows kindness by understanding her imperfections. She said she feels most overlooked when she feels unheard or unseen in the thoughts she shares with others.
“A big piece (of feeling seen) is (someone) knowing my name,” Piehl said. “When a person knows my name, I feel seen. When they treat me with empathy and care, I feel seen. When they give me grace for being human and sometimes making mistakes, that makes me feel seen as well. If my contribution in a discussion is dismissed, that would make me feel overlooked. If a person didn’t know my name, or if my responses or opinions weren’t valued and acknowledged, those are things that would make me feel overlooked.”
Sophomore Teraysa Rombalski said it can be difficult for teachers to attend to and offer individual support for every student in the classroom. She said she’s seen gaps in the student body and division with Park administration and the rest of the Park community, which can lead to a feeling of not being seen.
“Not every teacher has the capacity to individually talk to every student, and teachers aren’t given extra support,” Rombalski said. “There are such separated dynamics between both students and teachers
and different student groups. There’s a big divide between teachers and admin and
students, because the only time that my friends and I have interacted with admin is either during a speech or when it’s discipline. With the school’s mission statement, it needs to include every single staff member who has the capacity and staff members who can support each other.”
While teachers may be met with a lack of resources and time to get to know every student individually and intellectually, some teachers find ways to connect personally during class, in the halls and outside of the classroom.
Piehl said she works to help students feel seen by investing some of her time into their personal lives and interests outside of the classroom. She said she makes an effort to watch students in their various activities and hobbies outside of school and showcases their talents by taking photos, which she then shares with them.
“I try to (see students) in the classroom by connecting with kids, learning about them, and remembering the things that I’ve learned about them to keep our relationship strong,” Piehl said. “Outside of the classroom, I try to see kids in their sports and theater activities. I often take pictures of them, and then give them the prints of pictures, just to show them that I see them working hard, and being celebrated outside of the classroom too.”
According to Hines, there are visible disproportions in the demographic of students participating in Park’s credit recovery program, with the majority of students involved being students of color. She said this serves as a reflection of the lack of enrichment and help these students are receiving in class.
“I have been diving into our achievement data, and we have some disparities (at Park),” Hines said. “I was looking at our roster of students that are taking credit recovery. The majority of the students that are participating are students of color. (Students of color) are about 80% of our students that are in credit recovery, when they only make up 50% of the student population. And generally, it’s because they don’t feel that they’re getting the attention or that their academic needs are being met in the classroom.”
According to Rombalski, students involved in the ML (Multilingual Learner) program are especially at risk of going unseen and being excluded at Park. She said students in Special Education could continue to be more unified and included with the general student body as well.
“I see multilingual students feeling super overlooked,” Rombalski said. “Our multi-language teachers like Ms. DeLand, Profe Anderson (and) Profe Korman are amazing and offer so much cultural and language support, but there can still be more intentional inclusivity towards students who are in those classrooms. Along with that, the special education students who are in different classrooms should be integrated and make that a space of inclusiveness.” Hines said teachers and staff at Park are responsible for harnessing spaces of inclusivity where all students feel valued and seen as individuals. She said that those spaces are created by hearing from students, and the self-reflection of staff to open those doors.
“We, as the adults, create those environments for students to feel a sense of belonging,” Hines said. “We do have some work to do to make sure that the ‘each’ (student) in our mission is actually the ‘each’ that happens during the school day. As long as we’re leaning in and listening to our students and doing some self-reflection of ourselves, we get to create those opportunities for students to really see themselves. As humans, we gain our identity by how people interact with us until we learn who we truly are and are able to identify our own gifts and talents.”
