The Strategic Planning Committee on Sept. 17 reviewed results from the district’s spring student climate survey and discussed changes to how schools report and respond to hate-bias incidents, with staff urging more participation, clearer reporting rules and expanded training for school leaders. Keisha Addison, the director of shared accountability, told the committee, "we had a little over 38,000 students complete the survey, which was a response rate of 44.2%."Janita Love, coordinator for hate-bias response, said the district recorded a roughly 49% reduction in reported hate-bias incidents from 520 to 253 year over year and described a new tiered reporting system that distinguishes red (criminal), orange (serious, noncriminal) and yellow (hurtful but not bias-motivated) incidents.Because the committee’s conversation focused on where the data point to remedial work, members pressed staff on two recurring problems: gaps in who completed the survey (the denominator or “n” that explains how representative the results are) and likely underreporting of bias incidents in some communities. "We always need to know what the n is, to provide the full picture," board member Rita Montoya said after staff explained that the published slides show item-level respondent counts but not the full eligible-population denominator.Addison said the survey window ran in May and closed June 16 and that the streamlined student version contained 11 items. Staff said they would provide site-level denominators to principals so leaders can see school-level context; for public-facing reporting the district currently aggregates small racial/ethnic groups into an "all other student groups" category to avoid identifying individuals when counts are low, following the district’s public-reporting threshold (about a 5% enrollment rule).Committee members pressed staff on disaggregated results for middle and high schools. Addison summarized that agreement with statements about teachers respecting students and confidence in open conversations about race generally fell in the 40%–50% range for middle-school items and were somewhat higher for high school, but that Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino students showed lower agreement than some peers on items about respect and fair treatment.Staff described steps the district has taken or plans to take in response. Janita Love outlined three pillars of the hate-bias plan—prevention education, clarified reporting, and restorative response—and said the tiered reporting process was intended to reduce automatic police involvement for all incidents while still reporting and tracking every incident. She said the database of reported incidents is reviewed by multiple stakeholders and used to target differentiated supports and training.School-level examples were offered. Dr. Edward Bostic, principal of Wootton High School, described school-based efforts to build relationships and student leadership—student ambassador programs, parent “patriot” meetings, celebration events, and targeted outreach to families—that he said are part of a longer-term culture shift. "Together we can," Bostic told the committee when asked how the school is measuring and sustaining progress.Staff also described training and monitoring changes. Administrators received mandatory training beginning last summer; the district delivered a half-day session for more than 400 principals and a separate, scenario-based workshop for principals and one additional staff member from each school. The committee was told district leadership plans to require administrator training going forward and to make the climate survey a twice‑per‑year measure (after the first nine weeks and again after the third nine weeks) so principals get earlier data to drive action rather than waiting for an end‑of‑year report.Additional concerns raised by board members included underreporting in specific communities, the lumping of small racial/ethnic groups into an "all other student groups" public category, and whether staff are consistently identifying incidents as hate-bias rather than classifying them as general bullying. Staff said they will expand affinity focus groups, build a wraparound feedback process for people who report incidents, and work with technology and communications to make reporting more accessible.The meeting produced several non-legislative directions but no new board policy changes. Staff reported that school leaders will continue to receive rapid-turnaround survey results, that the climate survey will be administered twice per year, and that additional required training for administrators is forthcoming. The committee closed the meeting by unanimous procedural consent.