Access and Inclusion Elements

When we created our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) in 2018, we added a sixth core value – equity. As the 2023-2028 CSIP team created the next iteration, team members continued to prioritize access and inclusion. Our current CSIP has one goal… to build successful futures for Park Hill students of all backgrounds. One of the three CSIP objectives is culture, stating that we will create an environment where all students, staff and members of the Park Hill Community feel a sense of belonging. As a district not only is equity an embedded focus, but each of our schools has incorporated this focus into their own building school improvement plans (BSIPs).

PHSD continues our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) work, in alignment with our Board of Education approved DEIB Drivers and Narratives, throughout the three CSIP objectives of academics, culture and systems. In academics, we will implement culturally responsive education practices. In culture, we will develop charts of work to implement the DEIB Drivers and Narratives. In systems, we will recruit, retain and support a high-qualified staff representative of our students. All this work is done through sustaining a fiscally intentional operating budget reflective of strategic goals.
 

We study culturally responsive education.
Since 2015, we’ve been studying the work of Zaretta Hammond on culturally responsive education and providing training to our leaders and teachers on this important framework. We also
incorporate culturally repsonsive teaching into our system for evaluating our teachers.

We work with consultants.
Our partnership with Sophic Solutions began in 2021. As thought partners, they support our district’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts with a focus on change management, by
facilitating community forums, providing ongoing consultation and professional development, co-leading community engagement opportunities, and helping to ensure strategic alignment across
the organization.

We are working with People of All Colors Succeed (POAC).
Together, we lead conversations with coaches and students in our athletics programs.

We implement the national AVID program.
This is a program that helps close the opportunity gap in all of our schools.

We provide educational resources.
We maintain a repository of expert resources for staff to use.

We integrate this work across the organization.
We know this work transcends our entire organization and all must be accountable for continuous improvement pertaining to access, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. You can look no further than the 2023-2028 CSIP where this work is found in the objectives of academics, culture and systems.

As we developed a model for our instructional vision over the last couple years, our best and brightest teachers helped us not only identify the best practices for teaching, but also to make sure our instruction reflects our values of access and inclusion.

• Part of the instruction vision was a list of our instructional beliefs, and a few of them specifically target access and inclusion:
  • We believe that learning is inclusive of every student.
  • We believe that learning is enhanced when social, emotional and cultural needs are met.
  • We believe that learning is supported on a foundation of positive relationships.
• Another part of the instructional vision was a learning model. This is built on a foundation of a positive classroom climate, where students enjoy a high-trust, low stress environment, as well as positive relationships with the adults. This is core to culturally responsive education.

We have worked to increase learning opportunities for each of our students, removing barriers that might stand in their way. This includes . . .

• Requiring each of our departments to conduct equity audits to identify ways we can remove barriers for students and families.
• Providing transportation to programs like summer school, Professional Studies and Northland CAPS, so that lack of transportation is not a barrier to participation.
• Eliminating fees so that every student can participate in opportunities like field trips, sports and extracurricular activities.
• Making the gifted program screening more equitable.
• Addressing tracking so all students can access the highest-level courses.
• Offering high-school courses in African-American Studies, Women’s Studies, Asian-American Studies and Latin-American Studies.

The Park Hill School District offers an environment where all staff and members of our community feel a sense of belonging. We use our resources to remove barriers to learning and continually search for ways to diversify our workforce so that our staff better reflects our student body. We also provide employee resource groups - affinity groups organized around a shared interest or identity.

We currently have two approved and formally recognized Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in our district. ERGs are employer-recognized workplace groups voluntarily led by employees. These groups allow employees with commonalities to meet, support each other and produce a particular outcome that can help improve our organization and their job satisfaction. An employee resource group is a workplace club or more formally realized affinity group organized around a shared interest or identity.

ERG in Park Hill

We have a District-level DEIB Council that consists of five action teams: Safe Spaces, Community Learning/Education, Events/ Holidays/Calendars, DEIB Champions and Communications. Each action team has developed and is carrying out a chart of work in alignment with our DEIB Drivers and Narratives. We are proud to say that our Drivers and Narratives, action teams and the
charts of work were all derived from stakeholder feedback received during the original Community Forums (2022) and the annual Community Connections/Updates that have since followed in 2023-2024. These sessions are open to students, staff, families and community members. In fact, our students help us host and moderate community feedback sessions, as well as information/learning
sessions.

Our district DEIB Council action teams added value through their work in 2023-2024. One team established a system to honor DEIB Champions on an annual basis. We honor a student, staff member and community member who actively support the District’s DEIB work at the district’s annual Hall of Fame Celebration. Another District DEIB Council action team collaborated
with district administration and an external partner to offer three live webinars about the topic of Restorative Practices, a major initiative in our 2023-2028 CSIP. The Communications action team assisted in promoting work through social media, video work and bulletins, as well as creating this report. In addition, we have one team seeking input from students and staff to further refine
their work while another is putting finishing touches on its work to educate our school community on important holidays, events and observances. All this work is centered on the culture objective of our CSIP, which is to create an environment where all students, staff, and members of the Park Hill Community feel a sense of belonging.

From DEIB community forums and updates and through the development of the 2023-2028 Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP), the community spoke loudly and clearly that part of our efforts should include implementing restorative practices.