Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 75

meeting was successful and led to two more
meetings with him and the youth.
These discussions led to the SUCCESS team
capitalizing on the formation of a community
Graduation Task Force. The District invited
SUCCESS youth leader Miriam to be a part of this
Task Force as well as a couple of SUCCESS adult
team members from YLI and The Know Youth
Media.

What is the Graduation Task Force and what is its
role in all of this?
Miriam: In mid-April to June of 2012, students,
community members, teachers and a school board
member regularly met as the Graduation Task Force.
We conducted more focus groups with students
who were at risk of dropping out. We collected all
of our thoughts about the data and stories that we
heard and came up with 18 recommendations
for the Fresno Unified School Board, one of the
recommendations is about implementing Restorative
Justice.
MaryJane: There was a rally outside the meeting
with about 80 young people from different schools.
And the Board accepted all the recommendations of
the Task Force and set aside $2 million to implement
the recommendations.
This was important but it was only the beginning.

What did YLI work on in 2013?
Miriam: Due to the campaign and work of the
SUCCESS Team, the Fresno Unified School Board
adopted the Resolution in Support of a Restorative
Justice Framework in June 2013. After that, summer
break happened and the policy just kind of sat there.
When school began we hadn’t yet been told which
schools sites would pilot restorative practices and
we were working to have a meeting with the new
Restorative Practices Manager. When we finally had
the meeting it was October. The RP Manager let us
know that McLane High School and the elementary
and middle schools that feed into McLane were
selected to pilot RP. She also told us that they had
begun training teachers and staff in October.
We are continuing to meet with our base and learn
how restorative practices are working there. We are
working to schedule and build relationships among

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How we can fix school discipline

the SUCCESS Team, the Restorative Practices
Manager, and teachers so that they become a part of
the ongoing work to implement this policy.

Feel free to contact us at:
Youth Leadership Institute
1749 L Street
Fresno, CA 93721
559-255-3300