Shen enhances its Diversity Committee
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » The Shenendehowa School District is making enhancements to its well-liked Diversity Committee, giving it a new charge with new expectations.
The original Diversity and Multiculturalism Committee was the force behind the district’s multicultural spring event, Shensational. The new version, renamed the Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity, was discussed at the Oct. 20 Board of Education meeting.
he renamed committee is partly a reflection of the times and partly the product of discussions board members have been having among themselves on cultural issues. It is a document produced by the district’s administration with Board members’ input.
In presenting the document at the meeting, Shen Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson noted that 2020 is a critical point in history, and with that in mind, he wants the district “to revisit the classical provisions of education while keeping equity, diversity and inclusivity in mind”.
To make his point, Robinson referenced a discussion the board completed moments earlier on in-person education compared to virtual learning.
“It has huge equity issues that lend themselves to that conversation that we as a system must take into consideration,” he said.
Viewing education as a tool, Robinson said it can produce two different experiences for young people.
On the one hand, it can be very disengaging and very discriminatory for kids if district staff is not paying attention and on the other, it can perpetuate and facilitate opportunities and be a catalyst.
“Think about that. The same system can have profoundly different impacts on kids,” he said. “We have all these kids in the same systemand the experiences can be so different if we’re not careful about assessing and monitoring what we’re doing from those two vantage points.”
With that in mind, the question to be answered then becomes how to mitigate, if not eradicate that negative effect, he said. To help with that Shen has sought to improve the Diversity Committee.
In the charge for the Committee, the administration noted what it deems the critical nature of the current time in history, a period where the public is not only reimagining the practical provision of education it is “transforming the fundamental structures that have validated privilege and perpetuated discriminatory and racist practices, and ultimately pervasive uneven outcomes for generations of young people”.
The immediate goal of the committee is to identify new ways to include and generate diverse participation in supporting Shen and building the future of the district.
According to Robinson, the new committee is to be an action committee; a committee that gets things done. Its multi-dimensional effort will help Shen remain
“a dynamic place to learn, where challenging questions about diversity and multiculturalism are met with an attitude of enthusiastic possibility”.
“It embodies everything we do as a system,” he said of the Committee. “It can’t just be a sidebar”.
According to the Committee’s charge, “the duality of education (as Robinson described) must be acknowledged and reconciled.”
“The provision of education must be able to engage race and social difference as intrinsic to the identities and lived experiences of learners; insisting on race, gender, class, sexuality, (dis) ability, ethnicity, language, religion, and spirituality, as part of our identities in terms of who we are as persons,” the charge states.
The committee is to be an inclusive district-wide body of Shen employees, students, and community members of diverse cultures and backgrounds.
According to the document that establishes the committee, there are three critical areas which must be
addressed, curriculum and instruction, personnel and professionalism, and organizational culture.
In the area of Curriculum and Instruction, the committee’s objective will be to facilitate and foster more culturally relevant teachers and teaching.
In the area of Personnel and Professionalism, “the fundamental purpose is to ascertain and ensure the benefits to students gained by the presence of and interaction with a faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds”.
One of several items listed as specific actions the Committee may include, pertaining to Personnel and Professionalism, is to “advise and support efforts to recruit and retain the racial and cultural diversity of the district’s staff”.
In the area of Organizational Culture, “cultural relevance is validated and enhanced; meaning school personnel would seek to further build upon the culture and experiential strengths of others versus seeing those differences as deficits”.
In an interview on the transformation of the Committee, Board of Education President Deanna Stephenson said making the change is a way for Shen to check itself, hold itself accountable.
“You have to be forwardthinking, forward-facing and consider how it relates back to what our mission is, what our goals are,” she said. “It’s how we touch everything that we do at Shen; where’s the equity, where’s the resources, where’s the inclusivity.”
Asked if the Committee’s charge had overstepped the job of the district Stephenson said it was indeed Shen’s job.
“Shen is doing our part and will continue to do so,” she said. “This is the right thing to do for our district. This is the right direction for our students and Shen as a whole.”
At the board meeting, Robinson took a broader view.
“This goes to what kind of society we want to have,” he said.