By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Equity work in the school district has moved beyond planning to action.

The Board of Education last week was given several examples of the work underway this school year to make students feel they belong.

Staff members across the school district are receiving training on how to address bullying and bias with the help of two outside groups.

In the athletic department, some 80 coaches are taking cultural sensitivity classes and just shy of 100 student athletes have joined a leadership council designed to create a more inclusive, positive culture at Staples High School.

And district and school-based staff teams are being assembled to coordinate a unified and sustainable approach to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging work.

Those committees will start work soon, Christine Wanner, coordinator of health and physical education for the district and co-chair of the district’s equity committee, told the school board.

“A lot has been happening since May,” when the board was last updated on the plan, added Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice.

Some of the work has been influenced by high school students who offered feedback to the committee last spring.

Moving ahead without terminology hangups

The mission and vision of the work has also been tweaked.

The aim is still to ensure equitable access and opportunities for all students to reach their full potential and calls on staff to use students’ cultures to enhance a sense of belonging, but no longer calls for staff to develop “culturally responsive” or relevant practices.

That had been a sticking point for board member Dorie Hordon and she was pleased to see the wording changed.

“We don’t want to get tied up with terminology,” said Assistant Supt. Anthony Buono. “We want to put [out] exactly what we are doing and what we mean.”

Board member Robert Harrington said while two weeks ago the talk was of the school board establishing guardrails to the process, he senses a bridge is being built with the current mission statement.

He was pleased the conversation has shifted to action.

“I hope we can continue to build that bridge” to make more feel comfortable, Harrington said.

Board member Kevin Christie said the presentation helped him see where the district is headed.

“I would love to eradicate all identity-based incidents,” he said. “In meantime, we have to be proactive in how we react. It’s great.”

Multi-pronged approach

Some of the teacher training work includes lessons from the Anti-Defamation League and Triangle Center, which advises on how to support the LGBTQ community.

Rather than one district-wide presentation, the professional development is rolling out school by school and is tailored to address incidents and scenarios staff specifically want help with.

Work with students is age based. The fourth and fifth grades are getting lessons on identity-based teasing, bully prevention and how to be an ally.

The middle school lesson is called: “I Was Only Joking!” intention vs. impact, and will be offered in extended homerooms.

In high school health classes, there will be gender-inclusive lessons.

“That means the language a teacher uses is inclusive,” said Wanner.

Instead of referring to a boyfriend or girlfriend, for instance, one would say “partner.”

Students calls for broader efforts

Several high school students at the meeting, during public comment segment, suggested the effort needs to go further.

Wren Slavin, a junior, said teachers this fall have told him they are no longer allowed to ask for student pronouns.

 “As an openly trangender student, I have faced many challenges due to my identity, but the main issue I have this year has been getting teachers and staff to use my correct pronouns,” Slavin said.

Putting the responsibility on trans students to tell teachers their pronouns puts them in an awkward situation, he said.

Slavin suggested a written survey at the start of the school year that gave students the opportunity to provide their pronouns.

Jona Bernstein, president of the Staples Pride Coalition, agreed.

“Every student should feel respected, recognized and safe,” Bernstein said. “It’s not about grammar politics. It’s not about what you call them or what they want to be called. It’s about dignity. It’s about integrity. It’s a declaration that you are seen. And respected. And valued.”

Scarice said after the meeting that he did tell staff this fall to not affirmatively seek student pronouns through a questionnaire or otherwise.

He followed up with a staff email Friday, however, suggesting instead that staff provide new students with a prompt offering them the chance to disclose any information they need to share so that they feel safe, seen and have a sense of belonging in the classroom.

Leadership council for student athletes

Staples Athletic Director VJ Sarullo, in the last district where he worked, said there was a leadership council made up of athletic team captains. What has been created at Staples is more robust, including students recommended by coaches who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, he told the board.

 When the group first met in September, members were surveyed on what they want to get out of the council and what improvements are needed in the department and school. The suggestions were many, Sarullo said.

Students told him they want a school community that is more inclusive, they want equal treatment of all teams and student athletes, and that they want a council that won’t start anew each school year but will be ongoing.

Three-quarters of the council also offered to participate in a unified sports program at Staples that offers athletic opportunities to students with special needs, he said.

More work to do

Hordon asked how the effort underway with student athletics translated to other afterschool activities, like music programs or Staples Players.

Wanner said that bridge had not yet been crossed.

Scarice said there is only so much equity work the district can do at once.

Board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein, said she saw this year’s work as foundational. “We need to lay a foundation,” she said.

Hordon said she wants to see it stay on the radar.

“If you’re a kid and want to participate in an activity and don’t have access, isn’t that what this is all about?” she asked.

Hordon also asked if the district could look to provide more before- and afterschool activities which would provide students with more opportunities to meet others with common interests and perhaps break down barriers.

“I agree one hundred percent with what you just said,” Scarice said. “It’s hard to take on more right now.”

Hordon also asked about the gender breakdown in AP and honors courses. There is a 15 percent gap between male and female students.

Why aren’t more boys taking AP literature or psychology, she asked. “That should be on the radar,” she added.

Christie also asked how the impact of the efforts would be measured.

 Once the school committees get up and running, decisions would be made on data collection.

In the meantime, Scarice said, every arrow is pointed in the right direction, based on results of a climate survey to be released later this month to the board.

Harrington said he is supportive of the overall equity strategy, and gets that changes will take time, but wants to some tangible signs of systematic progress in 12 months.

“Two or three examples, that aren’t about mission statements or generalities, that [are] hopeful … We can say inside the classroom, how we are doing things differently,” he said.

“I am impatient too,” said Wanner. “I’d like this work to move forward at lightning speed. It is a process.” She called it a good question for the committees to talk about.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.