Board-Superintendent Communication
Superintendent Dr. Jesus F. Jara
April 25 Board meeting
It has been almost a month since the racially motivated hate statements made online against African American students at Arbor View High School.
As I meet with the mothers of the students from Arbor View, other community groups, and talk among my staff, I keep asking:
- How can we ensure that every student feels safe at school?
- How can we initiate impactful conversations about bias, explicit and implicit, and cultural competency in our schools?
We know this isn’t just about Arbor View and the surrounding community. This is about our entire school community.
Tonight I am going to describe a districtwide long-term strategy to ensure our students feel safe in school, and to address race and other biases.
| Action
NOTE: Throughout this process the Equity and Diversity Department will execute this plan and facilitate/monitor progress. |
Timeline |
| Phase 1
Engage with stakeholder groups to ensure we are understanding the problem and fully addressing concerns in the community. Identify the first cohort of schools and communities where we will gather data. Identify a suite of services to support our staff, students and community (we are currently talking to National Equity Project, Anti-Defamation League, Unbound Ed). Equity and Diversity Department will facilitate the utilization of these resources. Some specialize in:
Stakeholders from the community, central office and Arbor View participated in the National Equity Project’s webinar on implicit bias and structural racism. |
April |
| Phase 2
Initial training at Arbor View for staff and parents
Equity and Diversity Department will utilize research-based tools and instruments to gather data and input from schools and communities to determine districtwide needs. Data will be used to support the development of differentiated plans for each school. |
May/June |
| Phase 3
Continued professional learning and development of district plans and school site plans. Monitoring of progress of district and school action plans. Equity and Diversity team will return to schools after interventions have been provided to assess progress on each school’s goals, and to monitor/adjust as data is utilized. Tracking and monitoring progress of district wide plan, including addressing core curriculum. |
Fall 2019 |
This will continue to evolve as the work progresses.
Finally, I want to thank the four parents from Arbor View High School that I personally met with on Thursday, April 18th. The conversation was productive, resolution-oriented, and created additional action steps to assist with Arbor View particularly, but also the concerns across the District. I am most thankful for the work we can do together.
