BBSD looks to align culture to match its growing diversity
December 5, 2024 at 1:59 a.m.
Blind Brook Superintendent of Schools Dr. Colin Byrne is well aware of the perception many people have about the school district’s population.
“I think people have a certain picture of what the community looks like here,” he said. “But that’s been changing over the years. We’re becoming more diverse, which I think is a good thing. And with that change, we have to keep in mind that there isn’t just one culture that dominates the district. There are a lot more than that here and we’re trying to bring attention to that.”
He highlighted the growth in diversity the district has seen over the last decade—the population of non-White students has grown from 10% in 2014 to 25% in 2024.
In line with those population shifts, Byrne and various Boards of Education have been pushing to focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for the last three years.
“We actually intended to start earlier than that, but because of COVID, it moved to the back burner,” he said. “But three years ago, we got the DEI Committee up and running and really started taking a real look at our district.”
The superintendent wanted to address some concerns from the community that certain cultural groups felt unwelcome.
“Without getting into the specifics of it, some people reached out to me and pointed to some incidents that occurred in and around our buildings,” he said. “And I wanted to immediately deal with that. I don’t want anyone to feel that they’re not welcome in Blind Brook or that their culture is not reflected.”
One of the committee’s first ways to foray into addressing that was by partnering with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022.
“I had been speaking with one of our connections with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and they suggested I reach out to the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS),” Byrne said.
The agency provides programming to identify conflicts based on race, religion or gender and create solutions through mediated dialogues.
“The first thing we did with them was the School-SPIRIT program,” Byrne said. “We had our middle and high school students work with facilitators to talk about their feelings on the schools and community.”
During those dialogues, students brainstormed tangible solutions that promote inclusivity and connectedness.
It led to the implementation of workshops on microaggressions, the decision to create monthly culture recognitions and adjustments in classrooms.
“We reviewed things to make sure that there’s a diversity of characters in assigned literature and created the Defining the Vision course at the High School,” Byrne said.
The class, taught by Jon Ambrosio, offers an environment for students to discuss difficult social concepts through the lens of history and literature.
“We’ve been running it for two years and it’s been very well received,” Byrne said. “I think the students really enjoy and appreciate having open discussions.”
Following the success of the School-SPIRIT program, the district once again reached out to CRS to organize an event for Blind Brook families during the next school year.
“We hosted another one of their programs, the Dialogue on Race, which is really for the grown-ups in the community,” he said. “We came together to talk about concerns and how we could address them.”
Those conversations led to a push for cultural programming in all the buildings, but particularly at Ridge Street Elementary School.
“The DEI committee partnered with various clubs in the district to host dinners, assemblies and other events to help expose and educate students to the different cultures we have in Blind Brook.”
Parents who participated in the Dialogue on Race also suggested a Climate Survey be distributed to the students, staff and families to gauge how comfortable and represented they feel in the district since the implementation of the slew of new DEI initiatives.
At the Nov. 6 Board of Education meeting, Byrne presented the results of the questionnaire.
“We asked questions like whether or not they feel comfortable in the buildings or if they feel that their culture is seen. And a large percentage of students said they did,” he said. “But it’s very important for us to look at the students who said no.”
He explained that because the percentage of non-White students is still relatively low, any number of negative answers could reflect a larger portion of certain demographics. If 77% of middle schoolers are comfortable approaching an adult, it’s important to determine who isn’t.
“That’s what we’re digging through now,” he said. “I don’t have any exact numbers right now, but overall, the responses form the non-White children were generally more negative than their White counterparts.”
The DEI committee is in the process of analyzing the anonymous responses for the comments students left to describe the reasoning behind their answers.
“The best I could guess right now is that whatever is important to these students’ identity isn’t being reflected when they come into our buildings,” he said.
A notable point he made during the presentation was that some students felt the district’s DEI programming was negatively impacting their experience in the school.
“It’s certainly an interesting result for us to see,” Byrne said. “It’s difficult to see why that’s the case. It’s possible we’re not doing enough, or not truly recognizing everyone. But it’s very important for us to address that.”
He explained that DEI programming will be adjusted based on their findings.
“I don’t think this is something that we want to give up on because some people feel uncomfortable,” he said. “To the contrary, we want to continue to work even harder to figure out what the specific concerns are.”
At the staff level, most felt the buildings were equipped to deal with cultural sensitivity but were unsure of the effectiveness of the DEI policies.
In both buildings, educators requested more professional development and training to tackle the issue.
“I think they’re valid points to bring up because they’re a big part of the culture here,” Byrne said. “They help generate the culture and we need to know what they think. I think it’s important to address how educators respond to instances of discrimination or bias. Our response and the reception of those responses is vitally important, so we’ll work on that.”
At the end of the presentation, Byrne identified ways the district will move forward using the data from the climate survey. They include offering more professional development for staff, providing additional support and looking at the district’s restorative practices.
Byrne showed keen interest in the latter.
“We’re looking at different ways to deal with cases of discrimination in our buildings,” he said. “We want to address them from a cultural perspective. Rather than just suspending or other punitive actions, which you have to do sometimes, we want to address the underlying cause of the behavior.”
He’d like students to have conversations or communicate through restorative circles to understand why certain behaviors are hurtful to prevent them in the future.
The next climate survey will be sent out in Spring 2025, a date earlier than last year to encourage more participation.
“It’s very difficult to get a feel for how a community views difficult issues without asking them directly,” the superintendent said. “We had a relatively low response from families, only about 21% of them. Ideally, we’ll get more of a response in the next one.”
Ultimately, Byrne is hopeful the DEI initiative, as a movement, phases out because it becomes the norm.
“The goal is to get to the point where you don’t need a committee or programming,” he said. “It just becomes so ingrained in our everyday culture and environment that a focus on it isn’t needed. But that’s going to take some doing.”
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