DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN THE YARMOUTH SCHOOLS

For several years, YSD leadership and staff have been focused on ensuring school programming and practices are equitable for all students. This webpage summarizes some of the work that has been taking place during that time. To clarify the intent of our efforts, the District Leadership Team composed a position statement that was shared with the School Committee on September 23, 2021. We invite you to read that statement as one way to learn more about our work.

In the fall of 2019, the Yarmouth School Committee, upon recommendation of the school administration, identified increasing intercultural competence as one of the district's priority areas, adopting the following language:  

Priority 1:       School Culture and Climate

Support the administration in making intercultural competence and social justice a district-wide focus for the coming year, with specific programming for staff development, student instruction, and community awareness.

Students working collaboratively

Students

ANNUAL REPORTS

On May 27, 2021 the Task Force presented this annual report to the School Committee.

A second annual report was presented on August 11, 2022.

MISSION COMMITEE

In the fall of 2023, the School Committee transitioned the Equity Task Force to the district-level Mission Committee, ensuring that the work of ensuring equity for all students is addressed at the highest levels of the organization. The Mission Committee has a dedicated web page which can be found here, and is linked from the main page of the District website.

EQUITY TASK FORCE

In June 2020, the School Committee approved the formation of the Equity Task Force with the following charge:

To promote inclusion, identify systemic inequities, and illuminate all forms of institutional bias in the Yarmouth Schools pertaining to race, religion, country of origin, gender or gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, socio-economic status, or any other protected category or group identity.  

The task force was comprised of more than twenty members of the school community and identified four general areas on which to focus:

  • Student Leadership

  • Family Engagement

  • Academics and Programming

  • Policies and Protocols

ven diagram of DEI task force