16 February, 2021
Good afternoon, Chairperson Walz and distinguished members of the Education Community. My name is Barbara Baier, B-A-R-B-A-R-A B-A-I-E-R. I am a member of the Lincoln Board of Education, and I am offering proponent testimony for LB359.
I would like to focus my testimony on the addition of a full-time multicultural education consultant at NDE on page 2, lines 22-23 of the bill.
A full-time consultant trained and experienced in the field of multicultural education will not only provide additional information to districts, but that position can also become the natural connector to help districts learn from the best practices of other districts.
We believe that the consultant can be very beneficial to the state in three ways:
First to assist districts in decision-making: An NDE consultant can be the person who is knowledgeable and skilled and is able to bring together key members of a district or key stakeholders across the state to enable strong stakeholder engagement and consensus in a process or decision-making session.
Second to assist district in planning: A consultant can be there as a support for districts who are doing strategic planning or school improvement work who want to ensure that their plans for infusing multicultural education materials or experiences match best practices in this area and reflect the goals of the state.
Third to spur discovery: School Boards, district superintendents, school building leaders and teachers sometimes have a gnawing sense that something needs to be different, but they are not sure what to do, what is missing or even what is wrong. The consultant can act as a sounding board against which those educators can bounce questions then the consultant can act as a resource for the district or school or classroom to find the multicultural educational materials or experiences necessary to fill those gaps.
LPS has an Equity, Diversity and Multicultural Administrator in the District that serves in this role. We have found that position very beneficial for the district for the reasons that I have stated, and also, because it provides a central figure who can act as a spokesperson on the topic of multicultural education when questions arise from our community.
For these reasons, I would like to offer our support for LB359, and we encourage you to pass it out of committee and on to General File.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
