Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Winter 2021 Newsletter
Welcome to our Winter Edition 2021!
As winter break is upon us, we wanted to send you off with a newsletter highlighting what our new DEI office has been doing so far this school year. Feel free to view the images at the end for all of the awesome things our students are up to as we approach the halfway point of this school year. Though it has been a challenging year, our school community continues to persevere and excel. We hope you find joy in reading this newsletter as you relax, refresh & recharge for the new year!
Yours in Equity,
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Department
What's Happening from the DEI Office:
MDA Hosts it's 36th Annual Educators' Conference
On Friday, December 3rd the METCO Directors' Association hosted its 36th Annual MDA Educators' Conference at the Four Points by Sheraton in Norwood. This year's theme was, "Dismantling Systemic Racism: Starting in Schools." Over 400 educators gathered together in workshops and interactive sessions increased skills to actively disrupt the systemic racism--both on a micro and macro level--that exist within our schools and communities. This year, Walpole Public Schools is proud to announce that 14 staff members were in attendance. That's the most Walpole has had to represent its district at the MDA Conference in its history!
High School Students Attend MDA Youth Forum
Prior to the MDA Conference, 3 students (11th grade) represented Walpole High School for the first time at the MDA Eductors' Conference Youth Forum 2021: Student Leaders Experience. Led by the author of the novel Don't Ask Me Where I'm From, Jennifer De Leon engaged students from over 10 school districts in an all-day workshop that dived into their experiences as a black student or student of color attending a pre-dominantly white school. At the end of the workshop, students had wrote their own story through various forms (e.g., a poem, a letter, etc). This forum validated, inspired and uplifted students to begin to share their story with larger audience and gained the tools to move others to do the same.
To learn more about Jennifer De Leon and her work, please visit https://jenniferdeleonauthor.com/.
Roundtable Conversations About Race @ Walpole High School
In light of the workshop led by Mrs. De Leon, students were motivated to take what they had learned and begin discussions about racism present in our school community. Students have held a roundtable discussion with admin about their experiences as a student of color at WHS and create solutions together on making our learning community a more welcoming and equitable environment. Our students have met with Dr. Gough in the beginning of the month and with Mr. Imbusch last week. These roundtables will now occur on a monthly basis to continue the dialogue on improving our WHS community. If you have questions about the roundtable, please contact the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Director!
Educators of Color Affinity Group
Earlier this year, Ms. Castro formed the first "Educators of Color Affinity Group" at Walpole. Any staff member who identifies as a person of color are invited into this space to connect and network with other staff of color from different schools and be able to engage in dialogue in a comfortable environment!
Courageous Conversations @ WHS!
For once a month, Courageous Conversations invites the whole WHS community for a 1 hour group discussion pertaining to various topics about race in our school community. Leadership has expanded as we have partnered with Mr. Powers (Assistant Principal) and Ms. Campbell (School Clinician/School Social Worker) and held discussion relating to LGBTQ! In the last meeting, we talked about microaggressions that students of color have mentioned are said by both staff & studenst and how we as educators can work to eliminate microaggressions in our own practice. The next Courageous Conversation meeting will occur on Wednesday, January 19 after school in the large media conference room.
Equity Task Force Launches Learning Walks
Last week on Wednesday, Dec. 15, the Equity Task Force began its first Learning Walk of the school year! Members of the task force were assigned to a school at random and put in pairs to do a walk through of the school building to explore and learn about its learning environment, school culture and the students they celebrate. The Equity Task Force greatly enjoy stepping out of their current building and seeing the different schools. Their findings will be shared with the leadership team as we create more ways to make our school communities in Walpole a more welcoming, inclusive and equitable space.
Tenacity Challenge Info Session w/Mr. Mondesir
Mr. Mondesir (METCO/DEI Director) visit WHS to speak with students of color about the Tenacity Challenge, a statewide academic scholarship competition held for high school African-American and Latinx students from urban and suburban communities. Students compete in 4 categories: Math Quiz Bowl, Literature Response, History Argument and Tenacity Art. Teams who place in the overall competition will earn scholarship money set towards their post-secondary education. We hope to have our first high school team from Walpole compete this year! The competition will be held on Saturday, April 30, 2022 @ Bedford High School. We are trying to get at least 1-2 teams of 6 members to register. If you (or someone you know) might be interested, please email Ms. W (lcummingswatanabe@walpole.k12.ma.us) or Ms. Castro (jcastro@walpole.k12.ma.us).
To learn more about the Tenacity Challenge, please visit https://www.tenacitychallenge.com/.
METCO & Graphic Design class Collaborate to Make Walpole METCO Logo
Even though it gets busier during the school year as we approach winter break, our students continue to make moves in their school! The high school students in METCO have collaborated with the graphic design class to create the first logo for the Walpole METCO program. Students in METCO gave their feedback on what they would like the logo to represent and the class is off to work designing a draft of the Walpole METCO logo. Be on the look in the next newsletter and/or your emails for the new logo!