The La Cañada Unified School District Board of Education recently discussed the second year of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative and heard updates from the DEI Oversight Committee about the introduction of the DEI glossary of terms.
This June marks the end of the second year in their three-year plan.
At the Board’s June 8 meeting, Superintendent Wendy Sinnette shared some of the bigger updates from this year’s report, which included a DEI glossary of terms, leadership goals and DEI subject matter.
“These four experts have been vetted by the DEI [oversight committee], and they have worked with the district throughout the school year to varying extents and will work with us going forward into next school year for the year three of our plan,” said Sinnette.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Debra Cradduck discussed the recruitment of staff and outreach efforts, which are reviewed throughout the year. Virtual and in-person job fairs have been a way to fill vacancies, she said.
“It really has opened our doors up to candidates that we may not have seen otherwise. It’s been really exciting to bring some new folks down into Southern California and La Cañada specifically,” Cradduck said.
The district has also honored staff members that have gone above and beyond during monthly board meetings.
“This idea came from the DEI oversight and superintendent’s committee to recognize those staff members that are doing excellent work every single day in our schools and across our district,” said Cradduck. “It’s become really a special moment each month as we’re able to identify those really terrific, individual, everyday heroes that are doing great work in the area of DEI and beyond.”
A formal mentoring program was initiated in the fall at both the district and school sites.
“Mentors are paired up with our new staff members to make sure that all of our new employees have a good sense of what our culture is like, as well as expectations, and then they have a go-to person that they can reach out to anytime throughout the year,” said Cradduck.
Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Anais Wenn shared information on professional development and parent education.
One of the DEI consultants, Jennifer Lindholm, led the annual retreat for site and district administrators which focused on training to strengthen and empower learning communities, Wenn noted.
“She provided guidance on how to address issues involving discrimination, racism and bias and how to facilitate critical thinking and respectful discussions around contentious topics,” Wenn said.
There was also an evening in November that focused on providing resources to parents on raising good citizens and leaders in a globalized society.
“Finally, every year we analyze our school discipline data and determine whether all students, especially our key subgroups, are experiencing consistent, restorative outcomes through our discipline implementation,” said Wenn. “We continue also to empower teachers with strategies to promote inclusive and supportive learning environments rooted in restorative practices and the climate of care through focused professional development.”
The DEI committee consists of 23 members that include parents, certificated and classified staff members, student members and district and site administrators, according to the co-chair of the DEI committee, Sugi Sorensen.
“It’s quite a diverse group,” said Sorensen.
He said the committee’s job is to verify that the district is adhering to the DEI implementation plan and to recommend any plan adjustments.
“Speaking on behalf of the Oversight Committee, we believe that the three-year DEI implementation plan is on track,” said Sorensen. “[The plan has] achieved almost all of the year two goals.”
Though the DEI glossary of terms was scheduled to finish in the first year of the plan, Sorenson noted, the group didn’t complete it until this year.
“We noticed that there was quite a robust diversity of viewpoints on certain issues. So, it’s taken a long time. We had hoped to finish it up at our October meeting and we wound up discussing it at all four meetings,” he said.
Governing Board President Joe Radabaugh and Governing Board Clerk Caroline Anderson were on the DEI committee, saying they both learned a lot through the discussions.
“I grew as being part of the committee, in terms of just hearing the different perspectives and insights and things like that,” said Radabaugh.
Governing Board Vice President Josh Epstein expressed his confusion and concern on what happens after year three of the DEI implementation plan.
“Our goal would be then to have the work embedded at the [school] sites and have it really driven by the site principals with actions and services, metrics and targets all related to goals that we can still assess and report on annually,” she said. “If we’re talking about student inclusion, health, wellness, belongingness, safety, security — all of those issues that go into students feeling represented in their campus or belonging in their campus — all of that should be site based,” said Sinnette.
Sinnette said that the goal is to transition the DEI teachings to the individual schools.
“It’s funny because I have felt from day one that a successful program meant that we wouldn’t be talking about it as a program anymore. We would be talking about diversity, equity and inclusion as who we are and is core to what we do,” said Epstein.
“For years, I’ve been saying that the work of DEI is good work,” said Governing Board Member Octavia Thuss. “It’s necessary work and it was long overdue back in the day. And I just want to say thank you all for stepping up, and doing the work. It’s been really hard work. It’s no longer long overdue. It’s just part of who we are.”
The Board unanimously approved the report and moved on to the approval of the DEI glossary of terms.
“I have to commend the committee for its engagement — they reviewed the glossary of terms each time, provided feedback on terms that might not sit quite right, looked for consistency in terms of definitions and in terms of sources,” said Sinnette.
The glossary defines about 115 words or terms including sexism, restorative justice, neurodiversity, homophobia, bigotry and anti-racism.
“It was nice to see a list of definitions,” said Epstein. “I know there was a lot of thought put into what is included and there’s no possible complete list of definitions. So, I appreciated the thoughtfulness both on the definitions themselves and which words to include and we know it’s not exhaustive, but I think it’s a great start and a great way to sort of have a common language as we continue our further discussion.”
“Part of the discontent was not being sure what everybody meant by certain terminology, and so we needed to come up with a common launch point for the community,” said Radabaugh. “You may not agree with everything. And we have also said that it’s potentially going to evolve as society evolves.”
Sinnette said that the glossary of terms is intended to be a living document that will be posted on the LCUSD website and included in teacher resources.
First published in the June 15 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
