OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc.

732 Ninth Street, #534

Durham, NC 27705
919.824.3914
www.opensourceleadership.com

August 1, 2016

Dr. Cindy Corcoran

Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Support Services
Rockingham County Schools
511 Harrington Way
Eden, NC 27288

Dear Cindy:

We are pleased to help Rockingham County Schools sharpen its racial equity lens in order to
fulfill its mission of providing an educational environment in which all students can reach their
highest potential. As you focus on creating a system-wide culture that deeply understands and
promotes structural equity in all its schools, the Rockingham County School system seeks to
achieve the following goals:

Develop a common language and understanding to equip leadership in each school with
an equity lens and framework for surfacing issues of inequity in their contexts.
Provide leadership with the tools to create school improvement plans that include
strategic ways to interrupt inequity structurally in order to respond to the needs of each
individual student.
Provide leadership with tools and support to create a school culture within which equity
is a primary goal and every teacher and administrator is committed to supporting equity
in their context.

Led by OpenSource Associates Kathleen Crabbs Clark and Sterling Freeman, our engagement
would span two school-year cycles, beginning in Summer 2016 and culminating in Spring 2018,
and would focus on the following activities and deliverables:

Year One: Summer 2016 to Spring 2017

July-September 2016: Launch and Preparation

Meeting with a small Equity Leadership Team* to launch the engagement. The launch
meeting would include finalizing the work plan that is laid out here. This meeting is
tentatively scheduled for September 1, 2:30-4:00pm.
Designing and administering a brief online survey to participants in advance of the
training.
Designing an initial one-day training, based on results of the survey and the teams
earlier input. With the ELTs feedback, we would finalize the design, prepare materials,
and communicate with participants to help them prepare for the training.
Grouping schools into four zones, based on geography and students served, to form
peer learning networks.
 Agreement with Rockingham County Schools
Prepared by OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc.
August 1, 2016
Page 2 of 4

*The ELT named above should be reflective of the stakeholders you wish to engage in the
overall process by role, level of authority, race, etc. Typically, five to six people can reflect that
diversity while also allowing for efficiency.

October-November 2016: Baseline Training

Facilitating a one-day introductory training on racial equity for school and central office
leadership. The one-day training would be offered twice in order to accommodate up to
75 employees: 25 principals, 15 assistant principals, 25 instructional coaches, and up to
10 central office leadership. The focus of the training would be to learn a shared
framework and vocabulary and practice using a racial equity lens. This training is
tentatively scheduled for November 1st/2nd.

January-May 2017: School Culture Change

Providing three 1.5-hour coaching calls with the ELT. The first would be to debrief the
initial trainings and strategize to support the leaders in bringing the learning back to their
schools through Equity Dialogue Circles (EDCs) or some other mechanism for sharing
the learning and changing the culture. The second coaching call would happen early in
the spring to check in on how the leaders are doing with those conversations and
exploring equity issues within their schools. The third coaching call would happen as we
near the summer school improvement academies to check in on support of the leaders
as they home in on the work they wish to do there to create equity goals.

Facilitating one half-day session in the early part of the year to launch the school-based
culture change work. The session would be offered twice to accommodate all
participants. Assuming EDCs are the chosen vehicle for school culture change, training
for the leaders would include: 1) assisting the EDC participants in creating a safer
space in which to do their work; 2) clarifying the role of the moderators and the
responsibilities of all group members; and 3) maintaining a focus on equity while
exploring the topic/content of each session. This session is tentatively scheduled for
February 21st/22nd.

Offering a one-hour webinar on the OpenSource framework for understanding,

analyzing, and transforming structural inequity. This session would be recorded and
available for all school personnel to review at their convenience.

Coaching the ELT to support leaders as they convene the EDCs. Trained leaders would
moderate a series of Equity Dialogue Circles within their schools that focus on
recognizing and understanding inequities in their contexts. Three leaders within each of
the schools will moderate 1 circle each, meeting 4 times with 6-10 teachers and
administrators in their schools for no more than 1.5 hours per session. These sessions
may include watching a TED talk and discussing it, reading a common article to discuss,
discussing a particular data point from their school system that highlights inequity.
OpenSource would provide a guide for discussion.

Coaching the ELT to help leaders create school-based teams, or use their established
School Improvement Teams, to begin to think about what the unique needs are at their
schools and how best to go about working towards equitable best practices. Alongside
the EDCs, this will be an ongoing conversation.
 Agreement with Rockingham County Schools
Prepared by OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc.
August 1, 2016
Page 3 of 4

YEAR TWO: Summer 2017-Spring 2018

Summer 2017: Creation of Goals and Plans

Facilitating one half-day session, offered twice, at the School Improvement Academies
to assist the teams of leaders to create a focus on particular equity issues that are
present in their schools and home in on goals, and accompanying plans to reach those
goals, to put into their school improvement plans. This work would be done in
partnership with the ELT.

Offering one 1.5-hour coaching call with the ELT to provide support on coaching leaders
on implementation of their plans.

September 2017 March 2018: Follow-up Training and Coaching

Facilitating two half-day sessions, one in the fall and one in the spring, with the teams of
leaders to check in on progress of the equity plans, and how they are supporting one
another across schools. Each session would be offered twice each semester to
accommodate all participants. This work would be done in partnership with the ELT.

Offering two to three 1.5-hour coaching calls with the ELT to check in on their support of
the leader teams across the system.

March-May 2018: Review and Looking Forward

Designing and facilitating one culminating workshop for all participants to review the
progress of the racial equity action learning projects and to set intentions for continuing
into the 2018-19 school year and beyond.

Meeting with the ELT to debrief the engagement.

Compensation

Rockingham County Schools agrees to compensate OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc., a

flat fee of $45,000 for the activities and deliverables outlined above, as well as project oversight
and communication. Additionally, Rockingham County Schools will reimburse up to $1500 for
travel expenses over the course of the engagement. Rockingham County Schools also will
arrange for and cover all other costs associated with the engagement, including meeting space,
materials preparation, translation and interpretation services, and logistical support as needed.

Payment will be made in five equal installments of $9,000 on November 30, 2016; March 31,
2017; July 31, 2017; November 30, 2017; and May 31, 2018. Invoices will be issued as needed;
receipts will be included for reimbursement. All payments should be made to OpenSource
Leadership Strategies, Inc., Federal Tax ID 86-1070665.

Terms

Both Rockingham County Schools and OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc. retain the right
to terminate this contract with 15 days written notice. Compensation would cover only work
completed. Under no circumstances will members of the consulting team or any of their
representatives be considered an employee, borrowed or otherwise, of Rockingham County
 Agreement with Rockingham County Schools
Prepared by OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc.
August 1, 2016
Page 4 of 4

Schools absent a written amendment to this agreement. It is assumed that the consulting team
will work on their own premises with their own equipment except for meetings scheduled on
Rockingham County Schools premises or elsewhere.

The consulting team agrees to keep in confidence any proprietary information to which it is
given access, and to return to Rockingham County Schools, upon request, any such materials
as have been made available because of the consultation.

The consulting team retains ownership of all written materials, research, and tools developed by
members of the consulting team prior to this contract and used or adapted in materials prepared
for Rockingham County Schools. The consulting team grants Rockingham County Schools
permission to use these written materials, research, and tools as part of the products developed
for Rockingham County Schools, as long as all said documents acknowledge the appropriate
consulting team members as the author.

If you accept the terms set forth in this agreement, please sign below and return a copy to me.

Signed Date
Rockingham County Schools

Print Name and Title

Cindy, we look forward to a fruitful and successful engagement with you and your team.

Warmest regards,

Gita Gulati-Partee
Founder and Chief Strategist