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Sycamore presentation: culture-and-climate team seeks spring community gatherings, staff trainings
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Summary
The district’s ACT (Aves Culture and Climate Team) reported on efforts to build trust, belonging and conversational skills among staff and parents, and said it will expand to teacher PD and a spring community gathering to apply its four pillars of presence, participation, hosting and cocreation.
The Sycamore Community School District’s culture-and-climate team described its work Tuesday night and asked the board to support wider community gatherings and staff professional development.
Members introduced themselves: Nalini Bates, a district parent; India Richardson, assistant principal at Sims Elementary School; Megan Krone, a kindergarten teacher at Sims; and Eric Muchmore, an assistant principal at the high school. They told the board the team meets quarterly and has added parent representation this year to complement educator voices.
The team outlined four pillars — hosting, listening, cocreation and building community — and said the goal is to create small, repeated conversations to strengthen trust and belonging. “We host conversations that matter, and we are committed to developing the capacity of others to do the same,” an ACT presenter said, describing plans to run teacher-focused PD in February and a broader community gathering in the spring.
Board members praised the committee’s work and encouraged the team to share meeting dates and details so the community can cocreate the spring event. Several trustees noted the group had quietly rebuilt trust among staff after earlier pauses and emphasized that expanding parent participation was a welcome development.
The superintendent said administration will help publicize meeting times and take legal/operational steps needed to host larger campus gatherings. The team did not request board funding at the meeting; it asked for permission to move from school-based exercises to broader community convenings and to bring draft plans back for further discussion.
