*Phase 1*
In September 2021, Dr. William Hite announced that he would be leaving his role as Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia at the end of the 2021 – 22 school year. The Board of Education launched a local and national search; and engaged Brownstone to power and lead all community engagement and communications related to the process. From October 2021 – November 2021, Brownstone partnered with 52 local nonprofit, city agencies, elected officials and district stakeholders to host 48 public input sessions across the city – both in-person and virtually; along with in-person listening sessions at elementary, middle and high schools across the district. Over the course of the three-week period, the Board was able to engage with over 6000 parents, students, and community members.
During this three-week process, Brownstone cataloged all feedback captured in each session in real-time and produced weekly reports to the Board of Education that tracked attendance, demographics, and feedback themes.
Of the 48 sessions hosted, 13 sessions were hosted in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, French, and Vietnamese; and materials were drafted and distributed in the District’s top 10 languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Khmer, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Russian, Arabic and Albanian).
Of the 52 nonprofit organizations and agencies with whom we partnered, five serve Philadelphia’s unhoused population; 11 serve Philadelphia’s diverse immigrant communities; seven serve Philadelphia’s special needs and disabilities communities; 21 serve non-English speaking families; and five serve Philadelphia’s LGBTQIA community.
In December 2021, Brownstone constructed a 27-page report that captured all insights shared by the public during the community input process, along with creating a public dashboard for stakeholders to see all feedback from parents and students, and the key themes that resonated across all sessions. The Board published the report for public consumption; and the dashboard was used to show how the qualities and capabilities of the three (3) Superintendent finalists were aligned with what Philadelphians said they wanted in the next leader of the district.
In March 2022, when the Board was ready to introduce the final superintendent candidates to the public, Brownstone was responsible for putting together 6 in-person, live-streamed stakeholder meetings and one public town hall for each candidate – in order to ensure all Philadelphians were able to meet and hear from each candidate. In total, 1311 Philadelphians were engaged in this part of the process.
*Phase 2*
When School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington Sr. began on June 16, he committed to using his first 100 days to listen and learn. Dr. Watlington engaged Brownstone to lead his 100 day Listening & Learning Tour, which provided him with the opportunity to hear directly from 440 staff and leaders across neighborhood schools; faith leaders, elected officials, union leaders, and community stakeholders; and, most important, students and families, on what the District does well, what needs improvement, and how we can work collaboratively to achieve the School District of Philadelphia’s Goals and Guardrails and make the District one of the fastest improving large, urban school districts in the country.
Over the course of 110 days, Brownstone partnered with over 25 diverse community organizations – including AFRICOM-Philly, CAIR-Philly, The Peal Center, HUNE, SEAMACC, the Office of Immigrant Affairs, the Mayor’s Commission on Disabilities, the Office of State Rep Morgan Cephas, and Our City Our Schools – and hosted 90 Listening & Learning Sessions. Well over 2700 individuals engaged in this three-month process.
Brownstone recorded all in-person and virtual meetings and produced biweekly reports to the School District of Philadelphia that (a) documented attendance, demographics, and word-for-word responses to all questions asked from each individual session and (b) key themes that were echoed throughout all sessions during each 10 – 14 day time period.
Of the sessions hosted, 9 were hosted in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
