Aurora Public Schools Parents and Guardians,
Supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is pivotal to our mission. As one of Colorado's most diverse school districts, we have long been committed to DEI. Over the years, we have worked with national experts and educational organizations to ensure that we are serving students equitably. Recently, we have become more intentional about seeing and naming DEI in our classrooms, schools and districtwide.
In fact, during the 2021-22 school year, a work group comprised of families and staff, developed working definitions for diversity, equity and inclusion for our district. They also identified a set of look-fors that are in alignment with Pedro Nogero's 10 Ways to Pursue "Excellence through Equity" Framework.
Both school and district staff members have spent the past month starting conversations about our DEI framework and finding ways to discuss both areas of success and areas for improvement.
We have put together a short video that provides an overview of our DEI work and the definitions that will guide us. I am also including those definitions below.
Watch video
Diversity (Honoring and respecting the range of human differences and experiences)
Aurora Public Schools defines diversity as the range of human differences and experiences including, but not limited to, race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, ability, nationality, age, religion, and sexual orientation.
We honor the intersectionality of our shared human experiences and believe the diverse experiences and perspectives of our staff, students, and their families are an asset to our community. We commit to creating a safe culture and climate in service of knowing ourselves better and identifying and addressing our biases for the purpose of creating systems and structures that seek out and celebrate diversity district-wide and dismantling those that do not.
Equity (The actions we take to meet every student's and staff member's unique needs)
Aurora Public Schools defines equity as the individual and collective actions we take to ensure success for every student and staff member regardless of their race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, ability, nationality, age, religion, or sexual orientation.
We understand that our collective student, staff, and community strengths and differences create a healthy culture. We acknowledge that equitable treatment of students and staff requires fluid and responsive differentiated supports to highlight everyone's potential. We commit to dismantling inequitable systems and creating systems and structures that reinforce equitable human interactions, resources, strategies, conditions, and outcomes.
Inclusion (Involvement and empowerment to break down barriers and support belonging)
Aurora Public Schools defines inclusion as the involvement and empowerment of all people where all members belong regardless of their race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, ability, nationality, age, religion, or sexual orientation.
We acknowledge that true inclusion not only means including the perspectives of all people but also deconstructing structures that contribute to the historic and systemic oppression of marginalized groups. We commit to creating systems and structures that ensure all people feel embraced and celebrated in Aurora Public Schools and have access to decision-making and developmental opportunities.
These definitions ground us but it is also important for us to know what we should be looking for in our classrooms, schools and districtwide. So, in alignment with Pedro Nogero's 10 Ways to Pursue "Excellence through Equity" Framework, our workgroup also defined clear look-fors that we need to see.
You will notice that there is both a staff and family-friendly version of look-fors. The family-friendly version was created because the staff version uses terminology and language that is likely unfamiliar to those who do not work in education.
We also want to encourage our students, parents and guardians to have conversations with school staff. As always, please share what is going well and what areas need improvement. As a community, we need to value this work together, so we ask for your partnership in holding our staff and each other to the highest standards when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.
We recognize that this work is never truly done. We will continue to dig deeper and have tough and vulnerable conversations over the coming weeks, months and years. I ask for your openness and willingness to grow together. Individually and collectively, we know that when we advocate alongside students and their families, the future belongs to everyone.
Thank you for your continued partnership.
- Superintendent Rico Munn