Stilwell Newsletter

If you did not get to read the statement from Dr. Jok last week it sums up my feelings about our current experiences:

WDMCS Mission

Working in partnership with each family and the community, it is the mission of the district to educate responsible lifelong learners so that each student possesses the skills, knowledge, creativity, sense of self-worth, and values necessary to thrive in and contribute to a diverse and changing world.

I have been fortunate to experience the diversity and generosity of the community in my short time at WDMCS. The commitment to providing inclusive, equitable, and excellent public education to every student is a collective effort, and I want to thank you all for choosing West Des Moines Community Schools.

I want to make clear my support for our LGBTQ+ students, staff, and families. Each member of our community deserves the right to human dignity, choice, identity, and the right to culturally affirming learning and working spaces. Standing with our students, staff, and families impacted by actions that morally exclude them is imperative because the diversity and belonging of each community member makes us better.

WDMCS, as a public school district, will continue to comply with all laws, including pending legislations. This does not absolve us from our responsibility to provide excellent public education to all students regardless of their race, color, creed or religion, ancestry, gender identity, citizenship, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, familial status, or other identity markers.

I call on all of us to continue centering the needs and humanity of each member of our community, especially the students we serve. Hate speech or dehumanizing language or actions violate board policies and need to be addressed accordingly. Together, we will continue striving to cultivate a thriving work and learning environment.

I am always reminded of the South African concept of Ubuntu which means “I am, because we are.” The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she (or they) belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” Our humanities are interconnected, and anything that harms one member of our community harms all of us.

Thank you for choosing West Des Moines Community Schools. I appreciate you for sharing your gifts with us. #HereforKids

Ubuntu,

Brother Dau+

Dau Dut Jok, Ph.D., Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Thank you for your statement. We continue to embrace Ubuntu as we all live and grow.

Mitch Kuhnert- Principal

David Perrigo- Associate Principal