Positive Schools Center Director Shantay McKinily

In this episode, Shantay McKinily, MS, talks about her personal journey as a Baltimore City educator and principal, experiences that led to her current position as director of the Positive Schools Center (PSC), a program aligned with the University of Maryland School of Social Work’s (UMSSW) Social Work Community Outreach Service.

McKinily and her team train and support principals, leadership teams, and school district staff to create nurturing, holistic, and racially equitable learning environments by using restorative approaches rather than punitive disciplinary actions. The goal is to develop and retain better-equipped and more committed teachers, address and cut down on teacher burnout, and empower students to lead with empathy and compassion. This has led to a decrease in the high rates of student suspension and expulsion. McKinily also takes time to discuss the differences and synergy between PSC and UMSSW’s Promise Heights initiative.

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Transcript

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Jena Frick: 0:04

You're listening to the heartbeat of the university of Maryland, Baltimore, the UMB Pulse.

Charles Schelle: 0:17

I'm Charles Shalee.

Jena Frick: 0:18

I'm Dana Rampolla. And I'm Jena Frick. Thanks for tuning in for another Pulse episode.

Charles Schelle: 0:23

Yes. And we have another great guest today who will help us continue our conversation about UMB change makers. This season on the UMB Pulse, we are featuring stories about how UMB is taking creative action to overcome barriers and solve social problems. This episode features a guest who is helping to make change right in our own community. Joining us is Shante McKinley, who is the director of the Positive School Center and Promise Heights School Based Programs. Both are programs in the University of Maryland School of Social Work's Social Work Community Outreach Service, better known as SWACOs.

Dana Rampolla: 0:56

So Shantae has a fascinating background as an educator. She served Baltimore City Public Schools for 19 years, and 8 of those years were spent serving as the principal of Walter P. Carter Elementary and Middle School. She's also pursuing her doctorate in Urban Education Leadership at Morgan State University, where she earned her bachelor's in English. Shantae has also earned her master's degree in adult education from Coppin State University.

Jena Frick: 1:22

She now works to train and support principals, leadership teams, and school district staff to create nurturing and holistic, racially equitable learning environments. One of her specialty areas we'll learn about today is training in restorative practices that provides a successful alternative to punitive discipline.

Charles Schelle: 1:39

Shantae, welcome to the UMB Pulse. Thanks.

Jena Frick: 1:42

Hi, how are you all

Charles Schelle: 1:45

doing? Great. Great.

Jena Frick: 1:46

So glad to have you here. Yes. Good to be here.

Charles Schelle: 1:49

That warm conversation on another cold day. Um, so let's get to know you a little bit better. First, tell us about your background in education and as a principal that we alluded to earlier.

Shantay McKinily: 2:03

Yeah. So as you alluded to, I served Baltimore City for 19. 2 years. They wouldn't give me the full eight, the full eight months for the 20, but, um, 19. 2 years. Um, I was a teacher, middle school teacher, um, middle school department head, high school assistant principal, and elementary middle school principal for eight years. Yes, it was the best experience ever serving, serving Baltimore City Public Schools. Long commitment to education. I know, I know. I can't believe I actually just looked. I'm at like 25 years in education already. So it's been a long time.

Charles Schelle: 2:45

And, and as our listeners who've tuned in before know, Dana was a former teacher in another life. So she has that educator bond with you.

Dana Rampolla: 2:54

Was, and I'm excited to hear, you know, once we get talking about some of the different, you know, Differences that you're making in the school and in the community. I can't wait to embrace that conversation.

Charles Schelle: 3:05

So tell us about how you then made that pivot from being a principal in public schools to coming to the positive schools center.

Shantay McKinily: 3:15

Oh, it's very interesting. I, my school, Walter P Carter. Um, I spent a lot of time just working on like, how do I create a positive Space where students feel safe and nurtured in school. And so I was introduced to Dr. Shia, who started the positive school center and my, um, Walter P. Carter was a positive school center for about two years. And then the director of the positive school center left, and I actually was trying to help them find someone to fill the space. And then one of my mentors, um, Dr. Durant said. Why don't you apply for the position? Oh, it never occurred to me to apply for a position outside of Baltimore city public schools. Um, but then I started thinking about the larger impact of the work. So I applied and I became a part of the positive, the director of the positive school center. And it really was the boost that it needed. It needed a, Someone who has an education lens and administrative lens to support the work of school. So yeah, I tell people all the time, Dr. Shia stole me. Dr. Shia stole me from Baltimore City Public Schools.

Charles Schelle: 4:33

Yes. Thank you. Dr. Winnie Shia. She's the director of swap goes for everyone who doesn't know. I swear her her name and faces everywhere and it's for the better.

Shantay McKinily: 4:42

It is. It is. She's amazing.

Charles Schelle: 4:45

So we're going to focus on the positive school center today Where you're the director, but there's also been a restructure and promise heights and you have some responsibilities there. Tell us about positive school center, what it does, and then promise heights and the differences and similarities, uh, with how those programs work together.

Shantay McKinily: 5:04

So the positive school center, we really work through improvement science, um, like a cycle of plan, do study act. To really, um, support principals and creating a strategic plan to improve their school culture and climate. So we train and restore to practice social, emotional learning, um, community, family, voice. And, um, trauma informed care. Well, we do this all through a racial equity lens. Um, I coach about 26 to 30 principals. We also have seven community schools. And we have a next gen program where we support students that we've worked with since seventh grade. They're now seniors in high school. And so we just work and try to reduce barriers. for families and community members to make sure that the school is the community and it's not a separation. And also to make sure that what's going on in the schools, that families actually know what's going on, you know, at home as well. So that's the positive school center. So Promise Heights is, um, similar to the positive school center. They're both community facing organizations. Promise Heights aligns with the promise grant. Which is a Department of Education grant is a 30 million grant, and we're actually in the fourth year of the five year grant. And so promise access five community schools, and they really are very intentional and thoughtful about like, Reducing barriers in a specific area, Baltimore city. I get a chance to now work with both Promise Heights and manage them as well as the positive school center. We work together in very similar. Um, it's just more people, um, on the Promise Heights side. And they also have a clinical component, um, when you think about the school social work, they also have a clinical component, um, with Promise Heights.

Jena Frick: 7:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Promise Heights also has programming that's not just geared for children in school, but as well as like infants and toddlers and development for them. So, uh, it really goes well beyond just classroom and school environments in Promise Heights.

Shantay McKinily: 7:19

Yes, so I actually I direct the school based programming. So that's grades K through 12. Stacey Stevens does be more for healthy babies. I'm sure everyone heard of the more for healthy babies and the early childhood program. So promise heist does extend from birth to through career. I just really work with specifically school based programming grades K through 12. Fante,

Dana Rampolla: 7:44

UMB's Catalyst magazine profiled you in the PSC in the fall, and the story talked about all of the great things that the center's done during the pandemic to support students and their families. Do you want to give us a few examples of what that looked like or is continuing to look like?

Shantay McKinily: 7:59

Sure. We continuously, um, make sure that we're doing food drops in neighborhoods. We've done COVID clinics in some of our schools. We've referred, um, some of our families to different resources that University of Maryland, Baltimore has provided. Um, so we do things to ensure that families during this COVID time, it was so hard. For especially marginalized communities, we want to make sure that they have resources, um, even if it's making sure all schools have hotspots, right? And making sure that, that, that there were, that computers were distributed, um, in communities, making sure that we're able to identify and bind. Each student that should be in school right and being able to bring them back to school. And if there were, if there was a barrier, then how can we support and reducing that barrier. So those are some of the things that we did to support families and communities and and To be honest, you know, um, we're back in person, but still the work still continues. We still have to make sure that we are able to find each student and bring them back to school. We still have to make sure that there are food drops every single month at each school. And also, we are actually working on having a van to take students. Take parents and community members from schools to, um, a Walmart or to other places where it may be a food desert, or they may not be able to have like basic resources. Um, so we're continuously trying to think, think of, um, different ways to support our families, you know, our theme this year. is moving from the transactional or I'm just going to give and you give me and I give you to this transformation. How do we, how do we create sustainable systems throughout Baltimore city? That's going to support our families and communities and just make life a little bit better for them.

Dana Rampolla: 9:58

Sounds fabulous. And what are some of the challenges that, that you all are facing when you're trying to step in and help these families?

Shantay McKinily: 10:06

So one of the problems, one of the challenges that, um, we face continuously is that there is a distrust, um, between Baltimore City communities. And the University of Maryland, Baltimore. And so we have to really work really hard to build that trust up because we are an anchor institution. And there's a lot of things that come with being an anchor institution inside of Baltimore. Um, and we have to really be show families that we are consistent and that we're committed and that we're there for them so that they're able to, you know, trust us. We have to be in the community every single day. And sometimes that could be a barrier because we aren't able to do that all the time. Another barrier would be, you know, just COVID in itself being limits us to what we can do. You know, I think one thing that is really good is that I share the Baltimore climate collaborative. Which has 80 different Baltimore city organizations and grassroots organizations. So our role is to just power broker relationships in that collaborative. In that we are building trust as the University of Maryland, Baltimore as the positive school center and SWACOs. We're building trust with communities. We're building trust with community organizations. And they know that they can come to us for support. And we're always going to call, we're always going to bring them into the work that we're doing. And communities sounds

Dana Rampolla: 11:37

fabulous. Charles mentioned earlier that I used to be a teacher as well. And I know that. It was always challenging when students would come into school. Um, I had an advisee group who I would greet in the morning and they would be bringing their problems in with them and just trying to navigate those problems that were specific to them in a way that would help them just stay in school for that day and get through that day. So how, how do you find that you and your team keep students and family spirits up no matter what they're going through, whether it's the pandemic or another just. You know, we can name lots of crises involved more that these kids are bringing in on a daily basis.

Shantay McKinily: 12:16

So as I learned this as a principal, I think it's essential for every school to have restorative practices. And so when people think about restorative practices, they automatically think that it's there to repair or restore harm. And it is, but that's only 15, that's only 20 percent of it. Like 80 percent of it is that proactive work we do every day to build community and relationships in schools. The key to ensuring that students are in school The key to ensuring that families feel comfortable to come into schools is building relationships. So restorative practices helps us to build relationships with families and students and amongst each other, um, as educators, like teachers building relationships with one another and being able to trust one another. So as students entered the day, They enter into restorative circles where they have voice, they're able to express themselves, they're able to, to talk about things that are going on with them and in their community. And also the teacher is able to get to know students and triage. Right? What's going on? So if I saw a student and I know that normally they're talking in the circle, but today they're not really talking in the circle, I'm going to walk up to them a little bit as shortly after the circle say, are you okay? And so if they tell me this happened last night, I may want to refer them to, well, maybe you need to talk to the social worker because what we know is that whatever comes into the school, whatever kids bring into the school is going to come out. Right. It may not happen in first period. Right. The child may be able to handle first period, but by the time we get to like third period, then the child may explode a little bit. So we want to make sure that we do not let that happen. And restorative practice is always the answer.

Dana Rampolla: 14:04

That sounds like on a regular basis, you're, you're helping to build them and empower them. So when these times happen, they're already prepared. You're already aware. Sounds terrific.

Jena Frick: 14:16

Yeah. And I'm, I'm really glad that you brought up restorative practices and that one of the areas that The positive school center concentrates on is restorative practices, trauma informed care, and healing as an alternative to punitive discipline. Can you dive a little bit deeper on that and give an example of what that, what restorative practices and trauma informed care is and how it's being used within the schools?

Shantay McKinily: 14:39

Yeah, so I think one thing we need to remember is that restorative practices is not like what we do. And we work with principles of about that all the time. It's not what we do is who we are. So, it is finding staff members finding that sweet spot between being nurturing and just accountable. And that impacts us. How they interact with students and that impacts students, um, discipline, um, punitive discipline. So in a typical restorative practice school, you may walk into the building and you'll see circles. Students, whether it's from kindergarten through 12th grade, students are entering the building into restorative circles and restorative circles really provides you space and students space to have voice. And, um, have agency for themselves and it starts off their day and for staff members is able to, they're able to triage. If their students are coming into a school building with some anxiety or something that happened outside of the school, they're able to, you know, to see it in a circle, um, and they're able to talk to the student after. Restorative practices is, um, 80 percent proactive and 20 percent responsive, so that proactive part is going to be the circle, and the 20 percent is going to be that responsive part. So instead of sending a child out for suspension, In a restorative practice school, you may see a conference, a restorative conference where you're trying to repair the harm, right? Or you're trying to have these small impromptu meetings with students to address any issues. It really is how you interact with students. That's the difference. It is finding that spot that you're, you can be very nurturing and accountable and also repair harm when necessary.

Charles Schelle: 16:28

If there's a conflict between maybe a student and another student. Are they conferencing or maybe in a circle where they talk out their differences and say, you know, I'm, I'm sorry, like, this is what made me upset in this situation. And then this is what I see in you as, you know, you're really good. Yeah.

Shantay McKinily: 16:46

So when students have a conflict, um, they participate in a restorative conference where they're able to talk through and answer a series of questions. Um. And really it is space to it is it provides space for students to have voice in the conflict, right? Because a lot of times, you know, people we try to punish people for conflicts when we don't really know what happens. The restorative conference allows them to reflect on what they did so that it doesn't happen again. Right? Like I could have, I could have, um, chose to do this a different way. So when students have that conflict, they are together in a restorative conference and where they're able to kind of express how they're feeling and they'll be able to kind of find some way that they can repair it with the person that felt harm. Thank you.

Jena Frick: 17:42

Sounds like this is a really effective approach. So we were talking about kind of challenges, um, that students face and how we can kind of address that. But to pivot, I know that, um, Baltimore City schools can be a challenging environment for educators as well. And you've been doing some work to help schools retain their teachers and encourage them. So what's been kind of your approach to help the schools retain and, you know, Convince teachers to stay, especially after such a trying year for the education system.

Shantay McKinily: 18:14

The work of the positive school center. Most of our work is really adult work. We don't specifically work with individual students. We see the results and how students. Navigate schools, but really our work is to provide tools for teachers in the school building and you know, what it boiled down to is providing teachers with tools to put in their toolkit to handle, you know, the adversities of COVID, right? So we can't get rid of COVID like it's here, but what can we do for you to support you? Like we'll train in mindfulness, we'll train in yoga, we'll provide yoga training. We'll provide all sorts of tools, how to, how to create a schedule for a morning schedule for yourself so that you can have some balance for your life. We'll do all of those self care things for them to support them because we know that they're in the profession because they love the profession. Like teachers, teachers are not teaching because of money. They're actually teaching because they love their kids. They love the profession. And the only way we can get them to stay there. Is to remind them of that, that they love their profession, but also provide them with tools. So they're able to cope on a daily basis,

Dana Rampolla: 19:31

sitting here, listening to you. I have a daughter who lives in Florida, who is a teacher and she teaches elementary school. And you know, the last couple of years have been a real challenge. So hearing you talk about this, And I'm going off script again, because this is what I always do, but it's okay. How do we, how do we get other people except, you know, through venues like this, but how do we get other people to recognize that? This is what teachers need because you hit the nail on the head. They're not there about pay. They're there because they, Have a passion and a love for reaching out and helping children and not just educate them though. It's all these other parts. How do we, how do we get the, the country as a whole to hear what you're saying?

Shantay McKinily: 20:11

So we do, we try to do a lot of advocacy work. Um, so we work with the coalition to reform school discipline to do some advocacy work. Again, we do the Baltimore climate collaborative. We partner with Baltimore city. Um, We try to like, uh, work with our funders, um, to get them to understand, like, teachers want to be there. They just need help and support with being able to be present and hold space for students, right? And part of that is that they don't have the tools, they don't have the resources that they need. And so when we're looking for funding opportunities, we're always mentioning, like, these are things that we're trying to get, give, get things that teachers will need. So that they will keep stay in those particular positions, but then it also goes back to school leadership. It's working with principals and assistant principals on how can they support teachers and in providing them grace. And so that they're able to stay in their positions and they want to stay at that particular school. And it's, it's, it's important that the leader of the school sets the tone for how teachers feel like as a principal, I had to be able to buffer some of the things that were around. And again, you know, I take my hat off to those people, those leaders that are doing it. through COVID because I did not have to do it through COVID. However, they still have to buffer some of the, like it's reduced some of the noise, right? And so that teachers are able to go in and not only teach, as you said, because it really is this holistic approach of education. And especially right now. Students have been out for like a year and a half, two years. They have to come back in and start all over from the beginning to, to learn how to become more social, emotionally developed.

Charles Schelle: 22:08

You mentioned, um, uh, a minute ago about doing a lot of adult work with the mental health area. And so you have this program called Competent Adults. Um, can you tell us about what that involves and, and how it works with teachers and leaders and parents?

Shantay McKinily: 22:24

So essentially competent adults. It's funny because one of my coaches, Andre, he was like, when I first came, I looked up competent adults and a competent adult is totally a shanty thing. It is this notion that, so let's be clear. It is this notion that you have to be trauma informed. social, emotionally developed and racially in tune in order to stand in front of students. So it's really pushing teachers and administrators to do the inner work to become more, not only, not only look at students say you've experienced trauma, you've experienced trauma, you experienced trauma, but really examine themselves to show like how their trauma is. Shows up in the way they hold space for kids and because then they'll be able to identify those triggers when students do it right and then they'll have some tools that they can deal with that. But if they don't think about their trauma, then They don't even know what's happening in their body when students do certain things and then becoming more social emotionally developed, looking at their, their decision making, building great relationships, all of those five competencies of social emotional learning. But then also more importantly. How do you become more racially conscious? And that's the hard word,

Charles Schelle: 23:45

right?

Shantay McKinily: 23:45

Right. No matter, no matter what your race is, how do you become more racially conscious and understand how you show up as a person in your racial self? Right? So when people look at me, I don't want them to say, Oh, it's Shantay, I don't see color. No, I need you to see color. I need you to see the intersectionality of being a black woman, right? And all the things that, That come along with me being a black woman, and that's the work that teachers need to do because that gives the humanity and the empathy that they need in order to support students.

Charles Schelle: 24:21

I talked to an education professor one time, who's doing similar work about being self aware, and your experiences as a teacher and it's really interesting to for her talking about it because she said, Look, my first teaching job right out the gate. Was in Texas at a predominantly Latino district. And the, and the first language wasn't English for a lot of kids. And she said, I had to be aware of myself, how I had a military family background. And so there were certain. Behaviors or customs of how you would act in public that she said she essentially had that expectation of the students and realized that's not the way to approach things that you can't expect the way that you grew up to have these same students do that same behavior.

Shantay McKinily: 25:10

I'm going to push people's thinking around this whole notion of self awareness and social awareness to know like when you enter spaces. You have to always know that you're entering spaces as a space as a whole being. So people are receiving you like that. And so you have to be very self aware enough to know your biases. You have to be very self aware enough to know, like, this is what people see when they see me and be able to navigate spaces. In your skin and who you are, so I'm glad that she was able to kind of come to that conclusion that she needed to shift sometimes her behavior, you know, her behavior as a teacher

Dana Rampolla: 25:54

and you have a program that helps black women in school leadership who experienced incredible stress in their job. It's called evolving superwoman syndrome. What does that entail?

Shantay McKinily: 26:04

The first thing Dr. Shia, Dr. Wendy Shia did was like, you need to become an executive coach. So I went through the training to become an executive coach. I would go to schools to coach principals, um, not only around their school, but also around like, how do we create this life balance? Because I wanted to sustain them in their position. But then what I realized was a lot of the principals that they were all mostly all Black women. They were my friends. When I was a principal, but I didn't know that they were stressed taking medicine for high blood pressure, taking medicine for anxiety. They were like, I was in this bubble of Baltimore city of my school that I didn't, I didn't even realize, you know, what was going on and you know, what other principals were experienced was experiences experiencing. So I created a program, uh, it's for all black women and it's based in Dr. Cheryl, just school based work. Around evolving the superwoman syndrome, right? Dr. Cheryl just don't bathe does work on the superwoman syndrome. And is this notion that black women feel like they need to be super women in community, right? My program helps them kind of divest from that. Like we don't need black women. We don't need to be super woman, right? We need to figure out how we can create balance and give what we can give and pour into ourselves as much as possible so that we can pour into other people. And then sometimes black women need a community, just as black women, so that they're able to express all the things that are happening to them on a daily basis. So I'm so excited. We went through our first cohort over the summer. So we're going to go into our second cohort this spring. And it's a program that I'm really trying to continue because black women communities and school school communities and just communities in general are just on their shoulders, whether it's their family, whether it's the community, whether it's the school. It's this pressure to be all to everyone, and they can't. So somehow they have to divest from this notion that they need to save everyone because you can't, you can't, you have to take care of yourself because it's literally, literally making you sick. When you look at data, black women are dying early. When you look at data, most of them have high blood pressure, kidney disease, all of those things, and it's all attributed to stress. And so it's just working with them to figure out how they can balance life. So that they could be a healthier them, and then they can support other people, right? They need to be healthy, healthy within themselves.

Jena Frick: 28:46

How can people register to be part of that next cohort or, or the one afterwards if, if needed, um, if anyone's listening and wants to get involved in that?

Shantay McKinily: 28:57

So right now through our research project, we're really focusing on black women leaders in Baltimore city public schools. Eventually after this cohort, hopefully we'll open it up to black women leaders throughout the state of Maryland, because the PSC's goal is not just our goal was only to be in Baltimore city for a little while and then extend throughout Maryland. And eventually that's what we want to do. So hopefully, given like a year or so, we're able to extend throughout Maryland, um, to support, um, other school districts. But right now, what we do is we provide monthly breakthrough sessions for the public if they follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the PSC, Positive School Center. You can, right now, actually this week, we have a session for, it's called R. E. S. T., and we do it every month. for our people that follow us and that want to take advantage of some of the PSC's resources.

Jena Frick: 29:57

Shante, if there was by chance a major donor somewhere out there listening, what would be your wish to make the Positive School Center even better and expand upon your work?

Shantay McKinily: 30:09

Well, I do have a wish list. Um, so one of the, one of the things that can make the Positive School Center better. is funding for additional coaches to support schools. Right. So the positive school center and promise heights, when we look at our coaching staff, it's kind of small. And so in order for us to, we have to turn down schools to work with us because we don't have the capacity to support all the schools that would like our help. So it's providing resources, financial resources, so that we're able to hire another other coaches that were able to support schools a little bit more. And we're, we'll be able to add more schools to our cohort of schools that. And also just, you know, we're doing a lot of work to make sure that parents. are involved in our, um, our schools. So we're actually, I'm out looking for funding right now, actually, to make sure that it's parent liaisons in each building. You know, it's those type of things that we can do, that we need in order to, Um, reduce barriers for like families and if parents are in the school, then they're gonna bring other parents to the school.

Charles Schelle: 31:20

Chante, I'm sure if a donor is out there, they probably want some data to make sure that their money is going to a great place and a great call. So are there any numbers you can share about, you know, what type of impact that the positive school center has?

Shantay McKinily: 31:32

This quarter alone, so that's from September until January, we have conducted 57 principal coaching sessions, 125 hours of like staff training, 13 different circle walks throughout schools. Um, we have done 24 food distribution drops, 779, um, just. with community. So we try to keep up with all of those data points to ensure that people know that we're actually doing the work.

Charles Schelle: 32:09

Sounds like it. And you're doing a lot. You don't actually so much for families, teachers, the Children and making sure that they're taking care of themselves. But what's inspiring you to do this? What inspires you to make a difference for others like this?

Shantay McKinily: 32:26

I actually was talking to my leadership team this morning about like, life should flow with ease. Right. And I feel like when you're in alignment, and you're doing what you're supposed to do, then it's going to flow with these. And so the positive school center is, it started off with just being five schools. Now we're at like 30 different schools. We have seven, six community schools. We have Promise, like we have so many things and it's become like my baby because I can actually see my thoughts. Coming to life through the positive school center. And so that's why I love it here and I stay here, um, because I actually can see, you know, all the things that I've been thinking coming to practice, um, in school. So, and it aligns totally. With my purpose, my, my, one of my doctoral professors, um, Dr. Ruddum says, you know, your research and you, your work is actually who you are. And the Positive School Center really aligns, it's not who I am, but it aligns with who I am.

Charles Schelle: 33:34

Who better else to help principals and schools than a former principal themselves, right? Right. They just need someone to talk to who understands what they go through day in and day out.

Jena Frick: 33:44

Also, you have such a great and like a great energy. And I could totally see you as the principal of my school and just wanting to follow you anywhere because you, you, you seem like you really know what you're doing and you bring a really great and positive energy and attitude to all of it. So that's just an aside that I've noticed from this interview. Thank

Charles Schelle: 34:05

you. Earlier, you mentioned about how hopefully the positive school center can go beyond the city of Baltimore and into Maryland, but, you know, even thinking bigger, if there's other institutions out there, is this something that you think can be a successful model and be replicated? Elsewhere by by other other organizations. That's actually

Shantay McKinily: 34:27

a great question. So this last year I've been thinking about because, as I said, I have been in education for 25 years, and so I always want to make sure that we're at wherever I am, there's replicable models. And so the positive school center I've been working to ensure that it's a replicable model that because my sister is the Deputy Chief of Education in Chicago public schools. And so, because I'm from the Midwest as well. She's in the early learning department and, um, I think that this model could be replicated in Chicago, in Texas, and all throughout school dishes urban school districts throughout the country, because it's such a. It's such a holistic model when it, and it also works with just shifting the mindset of staff, of teachers and administrators because that's the key. So people always want to think that children are the issue and the children are the issue they're being, they're being children. Right. And so even if you're 11 years old, you know, I can't assume that, you know what I know, and I'm 49 years old. Right. And so we really work to shift mindsets and any, any school district throughout any, especially any urban school district throughout the country can definitely utilize like the, the tenants of the positive school center in order to shift mindsets, especially teachers that are serving and students that are in from marginalized communities.

Charles Schelle: 36:02

It sounds like a excellent federal grant application.

Jena Frick: 36:14

And, uh, we've, we've learned so much about the, uh, positive school center here, but if anyone would like to learn more about it, they can visit it positive school center. org and you'll find a link to their Facebook and Twitter pages at the bottom of their website.

Charles Schelle: 36:28

Yes. And an address to cut a check if anyone's listening. Yes, absolutely. Shante, thank you so much for joining us and enjoy your spring semester.

Shantay McKinily: 36:38

Thank you so much for having me.

Dana Rampolla: 36:43

Oh, wow. She was really terrific. And what I feel like I learned so much that I didn't even know a program like this existed. So I'm super happy that we had her on. I hope that the audience really enjoyed, and please, if you did give us a rating, log on, let us know how you think we're doing in our news feed. Um, we'll continue to talk about change makers and, um, please rate, review, and subscribe to the UMB pulse on Apple podcasts or wherever you like to listen.

Jena Frick: 37:10

Yes, definitely do that. And our next episode will drop Friday, April 1st, and no, it is not going to be an April fool's joke. This is real, and this is really who we're going to have on. So in April, we're going to feature C Daniel Mullins and Rodney Elliott. From the university of Maryland school of pharmacy patients program patients as an interdisciplinary research team of community partners and researchers housed at the university of Maryland school of pharmacy that works to change the way we think about research by creating a path for health equity in West Baltimore. And I believe they were just recently recognized given the staff award at Martin Luther King black history month celebration in February.

Charles Schelle: 37:48

That's excellent. I can't wait to learn more about that. So we will see you in April along with the patients program, folks. Thank you once again to Shantae McKinnelly, and thank you for listening to the UMB Pulse.

Jena Frick: 38:05

The UMB Pulse with Charles Shalee, Dana Rampolla, and Jenna Frick is a UMB office of communications and public affairs production. Edited by Charles Shelley, sound engineering by Jenna Frick, marketing by Dana Rampolla, music by NoVibe, recorded in the University of Maryland Baltimore Community Engagement Center.