RCDS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan 2020-2023

Message from the RCDS DEI Team regarding national news of violence and discrimination against Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders

Xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic are escalating at an alarming rate. The continuing news of violence and discrimination against people of Asian and Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent is deeply disturbing. We oppose anti-Asian racism. We condemn anti-Asian hate crimes. We stand in support and solidarity with AAPI students, families, faculty, and staff as they grapple with this surge of violence. We recognize that in order to effectively address anti-Asian racism, we must work to end all forms of structural racism leveled at Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. 

At RCDS, we commit to creating a welcoming learning environment where all are included and empowered. As an educational institution, we have a responsibility—and an opportunity—to break down systemic racism and build up a community that is just, one that understands the long history and present iterations of bigotry and hatred and strives for a much better future for all. As we work to become an anti-racist institution, we all must learn about systemic racism, marginalization, equity, and power. 

Last week, RCDS employees gathered to discuss ways to support AAPI students and community members in a DEI Chat coordinated by the DEI Team and led by Priya Singhvi. The DEI Team and school counselors also made efforts to reach out to the community and remind them of the School’s support services and networks. In addition, resources for learning about and taking action against AAPI discrimination, including https://stopaapihate.org/, were shared broadly.

The DEI Team’s commitment is to always take care of the entire RCDS community, and remind each and every member to do their part in taking care of one another.

DEI Team: Dr. Meredith deChabert, Assistant Head of School; Rebecca Drago, Director of Public Purpose; Ali Morgan, Director of Diversity & Inclusion; Joshua Rivera '15, DEI Teaching Fellow; Priya Singhvi, Director of Health & Wellness

Student Support Services
The Student Support Services department has partnered with Schwartz Hannum Law, a leader in guiding independent schools, to continue the development of our protocols regarding confidentiality, assessments, and leave. These updated policies will help us increase transparency and equitably meet the mental health needs of all members of our community. The new and updated protocols, which will be a part of all Student Support staff training, will be reflected in the 2021-2022 handbooks.

We are excited to share that the School is investing in increasing the number of full-time staff on the Support Services team, which has been restructured to include a full-time Lower School Psychologist and an additional Director of Counseling Support Services/Upper School Counselor. These roles will actively engage with and amplify the goals of the RCDS DEI Plan around supporting students’ psychological well-being, with specific attention to exploring issues of social identity and power, engaging in open dialogue and relationship-building across identity, and articulating a clear understanding of racism-related stress and coping processes. Creating and building psychological safety within RCDS will be a critical focus as we develop a more anti-racist, anti-bias, and culturally-responsive community.

Athletics and Physical Education
The Athletics Department leadership has been in regular conversation with the DEI Team and the Head of School in order to make improvements in key areas of DEI. A six-part improvement plan has been developed, and the department is working to fulfill the goals. The department has been tasked with developing a strategy for hiring and recruitment that will increase diversity in the department, including participation in implicit bias training prior to the start of the hiring process; improving relationships with students and families of color by increasing the department’s awareness of perceived differential treatment of students of color (such as different levels of supervision, conduct expectations, etc.), engaging in relationship-building training and ensuring that athletics is an area in which all students and families feel a sense of belonging; exploring and implementing more progressive and inclusive strategies for coaching; collaborating with DEI support personnel; and engaging in further anti-racism/anti-bias training to make DEI a core competency of the athletics staff, including a deeper analysis of the issues mentioned in the Instagram posts.

College Counseling
The Office of College Counseling’s Junior Seminar program is well underway, and it serves as an opportunity to directly approach a number of issues and concerns that often arise in the college process and need to be explored and addressed through a specifically DEI lens. The DEI Team is working to partner with the College Counseling team to support and deliver content on topics like affirmative action in college admissions, imposter syndrome, and the history of American higher education and the myth of meritocracy, among others, to help juniors better understand how these issues affect all students.

Additionally, Associate Director of College Counseling/Senior Dean Susan Davidson is spearheading two pilot programs: one to support first generation applicants to college and first generation applicants to college in the U.S., and the other to support families who are sending their first child to college. These programs will be rolling out in the fall of 2021, and we are thrilled to be working closely with the College Counseling team in this endeavor.

Shifting the Messages: Analysis of the Instagram Posts
Consulting Counselor Dr. Barbara Prempeh held meetings with the DEI Team and the senior administrative team to review her analysis of last summer’s Instagram posts. Her analysis categorized the demographics of individuals posting and engaging with the content, and it provided a summary of the themes and experiences noted therein. Dr. Prempeh encouraged a narrative shift away from themes of exclusion towards the message that everyone at RCDS deserves to be a part of the community and their voices and experiences matter. The next steps include creating a culture at RCDS where racial, ethnic, and religious differences are celebrated; working with the entire RCDS community to create a more supportive, inclusive environment for all; and leveraging a multi-level approach (from all learners up to administrative staff) to create a culture in which everyone knows that they are capable and that they belong at RCDS.

Drafting Policies Regarding the “N-Word”
On February 1, 2021, the RCDS Curriculum Council—comprised of the department chairs, principals, initiative directors, and senior administrators—approved a clear and formal policy regarding use of the “n-word” in academic settings in response to the SEAL report recommendation: The “n-word” is not to be used in academic settings. All members of the RCDS community - students and employees alike - should not speak the word in class, in its entirety, even when it appears in academic or literary texts. The policy was put into effect immediately, and it will be included in trainings, orientations, and handbooks starting in the 2021-22 academic year.

Students’ Role in Evaluation
The newly formed Professional Development Committee, in collaboration with the Curriculum Council, is developing a written faculty evaluation process for students. Recognizing a lack of student voice in faculty evaluations, Upper School Principal Jon Leef spearheaded a faculty committee in 2019 that researched different vehicles for student feedback and developed a survey for students that was piloted by members of the committee in December of 2019. The Upper School has begun to administer the faculty evaluation survey to all students in all departments, starting with Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Classics. The remainder will be conducted after Spring Break. The questions cover a broad range of students’ experiences with their teachers in their classes, from fostering curiosity and allowing synthesis and deep understanding to establishing meaningful connections, encouraging self-advocacy and personal responsibility, and fostering an inclusive and culturally sensitive classroom. The Upper School’s experiences with the survey will inform the work of the Professional Development Committee and the Curriculum Council, as the process is refined and formalized in time for the 2021-22 school year.

RCDS Community Connections
The RCDS Community Connections (RCC) committee continues its arc of learning, sharing, and community building with parents and guardians. In December, a survey of parents and guardians confirmed that DEI programming like the common language workshop led by Dr. Kira Banks, opportunities to get to know each other, and finding innovative ways to walk this road with students should remain RCC’s compass. In January, RCC partnered with Heard in Rye to create a virtual space for Dr. Sandra Chapman to lead a workshop focused on raising children with healthy racial awareness. Thought-provoking RCDS Book Club sessions continued in February with Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. Seniors Katie Farrell and Jordan Miller led a fireside chat introducing our newest counselor, Dr. Barbara Prempeh, to our parent/guardian community in mid-February. Dr. Prempeh inspired us to recognize the importance of mental health, as our community, like our nation, continues to navigate a pandemic and racial inequity. The Arts Festival and International Fair was reimagined to celebrate our culture and history through food with unique virtual events. In April, RCC is excited to bring Tabari Coleman, a nationally recognized DEI training consultant and social justice advocate, to help our parent/guardian community map our identity and understand its connection to DEI. RCC will close the academic year in May with a reflective and motivating year-end event to set the stage for the next phase of our journey in the fall.

RAMP - Interactive discussion with Kareen Zahr Walsh ’93
The RAMP (Resilience in Alumni Mentorships Program) connecting students of color with alumni of color continues. In January, RAMP mentees and mentors convened to ensure the continued progress of the program through collaborative assessment and planning for the second half of the year. RAMP mentor and strategic business growth coach and advisor Kareen (Zahr) Walsh '93 facilitated a retrospective exercise during which participants shared their reflections and recommendations. The feedback from both mentors and mentees was very positive, and it was clear that the networking facilitated by the program has resulted in meaningful connections. RAMP will host its next group get-together in April. Learn more about RAMP here.

DEI Advisory Committee 
RCDS actively pursues equity for every student, family, and employee. With this in mind, the DEI Advisory Committee was created and brings together the School’s various DEI bodies and members of school constituencies in order to ensure collaboration, transparency, and accountability in fulfilling this goal and building and sustaining an environment that is safe, welcoming, and diverse. The Committee is encouraged to raise questions about issues that need to be addressed, identify trends, and make recommendations to the Head of School regarding areas of improvement related to DEI. The committee also creates space to ensure that underrepresented groups in the community are heard. 

After the kick-off meeting in December, the reins were turned over to the Co-Chairs, Nicole Granston '96 (alumna), Hilary Cooper P'16, P'19, P'25 (parent), Yuto Abe '22 (student), and Ali Morgan (employee), to open up a forum for discussion. Committee members were given a short survey and asked to share two goals that they would like the committee to focus on and accomplish. The survey feedback was later organized by themes: accountability/compliance, curriculum and pedagogy, equity/inclusion, and admissions/hiring. The committee also watched short clips of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho and dedicated time to express AAPI solidarity. All meetings begin and end with a short “I am, I feel, I am bringing” check-in, which is an important element of the work. 

Dear RCDS Community,

I hope this message finds you and your loved one safe and well. As scheduled earlier this summer, I am writing to share a progress update on Rye Country Day’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Plan. (If you have not yet explored the plan and the subsequent summer progress update, I encourage you to do so here.)

Our anti-racism and anti-bias work continues, and it spans the entire RCDS community, from the Board of Trustees, myself and the administrative team, and faculty and staff to students, families, and alumni. Together the various constituencies that make up the school community are contributing to the goal of launching a collective effort to build and sustain an environment that is safe, welcoming, and diverse.

The fall has seen a number of accomplishments, which the DEI Team’s update outlines in detail below. It has been a privilege for me to be a part of this work and to witness our community’s commitment to it. I have previously noted that deep systemic change takes time as well as thoughtful, intentional, thorough, and continuous effort. I am proud of our community’s dedication and desire to delve into difficult concepts and dismantle entrenched frameworks of bias and racism. My gratitude and admiration go to each and every member of our community for their active engagement in this process.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered school life significantly, and while we would have prefered to engage in our DEI work at a time when our community could gather more readily in-person, we have embraced virtual learning spaces and opportunities. From board, administrator, teacher, employee, and parent/guardian remote DEI training sessions to the virtual vetting and hiring of a new counselor and countless Zoom meetings to rethink and restructure our financial aid and counseling efforts, the work has continued. A student-centered culture is inviting students to lead in the areas of awareness and inclusion. Alumni have also stepped up to give back to the community they love so deeply. I am especially inspired by the successful launch of RAMP (Resilience in Alumni Mentor Partnerships), a program connecting RCDS students of color with RCDS alumni of color. The support this program will provide our students is profound.

Our school-wide focus on character has been especially fitting during a year that has seen an ongoing global pandemic, a new chapter in civil rights history, and a most contentious election. As a school, we have prioritized civil discourse and highlighted the role that each and every one of us can and must play in providing strength, support, and understanding for our community. Our Portrait of a Graduate states that strength of character is embodied by critical thinkers who possess self awareness and confidence, know and express themselves authentically, understand their impact on others, approach ideas and others with an open mind, empathize with compassion and acceptance, and act with kindness. This theme has been a meaningful guide and one with particular consonance with the DEI plan.

As always, thank you for your partnership and engagement in this critical work. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Scott A. Nelson
Head of School

Parents and Guardians
The RCDS Community Connections (RCC) Committee, co-led by the Parents Association and the School’s DEI Team, helps drive authentic connections and community building across our parent/guardian community. This fall, RCC offered parents and guardians several meetings and programs aligned with this objective. On September 30, RCC held its first committee meeting of the academic year via Zoom, and over 35 parents and guardians attended. This year, RCC will focus on anti-bias/anti-racist (ABAR) programming, social events, and resources to help foster a sense of belonging for all parents and guardians. On October 28, RCC hosted ABAR training for parents and guardians led by Director of Diversity and Inclusion Ali Morgan, Director of Public Purpose Rebecca Drago, and the Board’s DEI consultant, Dr. Kira Banks, who shared theories on DEI work and guidance on our approach to this work as an institution. This program, which had over 60 parents and guardians in attendance, is the first in a series that RCC will offer to provide a space for families to learn together throughout the school year. Dr. Banks’s portion of the training was recorded and shared with all parents via e-notes. On November 16, RCC member Elizabeth Shah-Hosseini launched the RCDS Book Club, which offers an informal opportunity to build community and learn together. The first book is Colson Whitehead’s historical fiction The Underground Railroad. 

The next RCC meeting will be held on December 9 at 7 p.m. The agenda and Zoom details will be shared under separate cover. All interested parents and guardians are welcome to attend RCC meetings, the Book Club, and any PA event.

Inclusion of the Full Range of Voices
To meet the goal of actively pursuing equity for every student, family, and employee, Rye Country Day has established the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee, an inclusive committee that brings together the School’s various DEI bodies and constituencies in order to ensure collaboration, transparency, and accountability in fulfilling the goals of the DEI plan and building and sustaining an environment that is safe, welcoming, and diverse. The Advisory Committee will sustain a forum for discussion, raising questions and issues that need to be addressed, identifying trends, and making recommendations on areas for improvement related to DEI. The Advisory Committee will also create opportunities for RCDS community members to share their experiences, particularly those in underrepresented groups. Members of the Advisory Committee will represent the DEI Committee of the Board of Trustees, parents and guardians, employees, students, the DEI team, and alumni. A subcommittee of the DEI Advisory Committee will also help to ensure transparency and drive accountability with regards to DEI-related incidents and community issues. The Advisory Committee is currently being formed, and the inaugural meeting will take place in December 2020.

Focus on Common Language
The School is engaged in a year-long commitment to develop a common understanding of the language we use in conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition to targeted conversations with employees regarding Advisory programming, Dr. Nicole Furlonge led training sessions for all employees at the beginning of the school year, including  training for deans and administrators, the counseling team, department chairs, the Athletics Department, and non-teaching employees. Students are also engaged in learning a common language with a focus on personal and social identity. Through the updated Advisory program in the Upper School, students were guided in creating an identity starburst and social identity molecules to investigate how their identity contains many diverse and intersecting elements. By articulating different aspects of their identities, students had an opportunity to consider how each aspect interacts with and shapes the individual self. These terms and themes were also explored through SEEK and advisory courses in the Middle School.

Alumni Support and Engagement
The Office of Alumni Relations has successfully launched RAMP (Resilience in Alumni Mentor Partnerships - Connecting RCDS Students of Color with RCDS Alumni of Color). This new mentoring program, which is designed to build meaningful connections among alumni mentors and Upper School students who identify as People of Color (POC), helps current students build networks, share perspectives and experiences, celebrate successes, raise issues, and inspire change as they learn and grow at RCDS. The dedicated RAMP Steering Committee, comprised of 20 RCDS alumni volunteers, began meeting in late summer to design the structure and content of the program. As the school year got underway, current students and alumni were invited to participate in the program, mentors were trained, and the first virtual mentor/mentee meeting was held on November 2. In the coming months, mentors and mentees will meet both individually and as a larger group. The response to the program has been robust, and we are excited to see RAMP evolve as the year progresses.

Anti-Racism Training
Anti-racism training for students has been integral to our community-wide commitment to change. Students in the Upper School have all participated in several training activities. During orientation, they engaged in asynchronous work exploring oppression, as well as the Upper School’s new Restorative Justice program and its roots in anti-racism. Earlier in the fall, Upper School students also engaged in two civil discourse dialogue spaces focused on the 2020 Election through the student-led Coalition of Differences. The program was also extended  to the eighth grade, and there are plans to include additional Middle School grades. The Middle School Advisory program continues to be an important space where students learn new DEI-related language, reflect on identity, and engage in dialogue about society and social identity. In the Lower School (Pre-K – Gr. 4), Dr. Debra Pager supports Lower School students in their identity development, and the DEI team is supporting the teachers in that work through division meetings and more. The Lower School is also utilizing Teaching Tolerance’s Anti-Bias Framework to help guide the curriculum work moving forward.

Student Support
In September, reopening sessions with students centered on coping and resilience, and faculty and staff were trained and educated on the impact of trauma. The members of the Counseling Department have begun work on several important goals, including creating a confidentiality policy and developing clear job descriptions with measurable outcomes for counselors in all divisions. The Counseling Department will continue developing key policies and cultural competency in consultation with Dr. Nicole Furlonge in December.

This month, Dr. Barbara Prempeh joined Rye Country Day as the School’s Consulting Counselor, fulfilling a key recommendation of the School’s DEI Plan. Dr. Prempeh has over 15 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and families providing assessments, crisis intervention, and therapy across multiple settings. She has presented at conferences on various topics ranging from psychological disorders, racial/cultural issues, resilience, and trauma-informed practices. She is the co-developer and co-facilitator of a curriculum for police officers and community members that focuses on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). She also co-facilitated training for teachers and administrators in the public school system on school-based trauma-informed practices. Dr. Prempeh is the vice president of the New Jersey Chapter Association of Black Psychologists. In addition to her clinical experience, she has 10 years of experience in academia teaching undergraduate and graduate psychology courses. Dr. Prempeh received her Psy.D. in Clinical and School Psychology and M.A. in Educational Psychology from Kean University. She also holds an M.A. in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a B.S. in Psychology from her beloved undergraduate alma mater, Howard University. Dr. Prempeh will work closely with the Director of Health and Wellness, the Assistant Head of School, and all student support staff to support the health and well-being of all learners, and she will serve as an additional counseling resource who will focus on supporting students of color and younger alumni of color. Young alumni of color who are interested in receiving support related to their experiences at RCDS should reach out to Dr. Prempeh directly. 

Financial Aid 
The newly instituted Financial Aid Advocacy Team, comprised of the Dean of Financial Aid, the Financial Aid Officer, the DEI Team, and the Assistant Head of School, spearheads robust and responsive support for families and students in the Financial Aid Program so that students can participate fully in the life of the School. The team meets weekly and employs a holistic approach to supporting each student and family, including direct outreach and programming. Working with the Office of Communications, the Financial Aid Advocacy Team has launched a new page on the Family Portal as a centralized hub of information for families and students participating in the Financial Aid program. The advocacy team meets on a weekly basis to ensure that students have access to the materials, supplies, and equipment they need; can access support in areas that might be overlooked; and receive necessary academic and socio-emotional support. On October 7, the Office of Financial Aid hosted a successful Financial Aid Meet and Greet to introduce families to the Advocacy Team and learn more about the new improvements to the Financial Aid program.

Authentic Connection and Community Building
In the interest of building community and fostering authentic connection, the school year began with an intentionally slower pace for Upper School orientation, which provided opportunities for students to dive into student-teacher partnerships and DEI work. In an effort to ensure transparency, Upper School orientation included presentations on the DEI Plan from key administrators and student leaders. To ensure student involvement and feedback, the Student Support Services Department has added short surveys for students in Grades 5 – 12 that provide regular community pulse checks and assessments of DEI efforts. In the Upper School, time for Advisory has doubled to allow for skill building in social, emotional, cognitive, and racial identity development. The Advisory curriculum is centered on the RCDS Portrait of a Graduate and creates an intentional environment that communicates care, support, and belonging. The Upper School's weekly Community Meetings, formerly Morning Meetings, have been reimagined to be rooted in building community, sharing stories, centering student voices, and good old fashioned fun.

Civil Discourse and Brave Spaces
The DEI Team has been working to weave DEI approaches into the overall school culture and include more student voices in daily practice. This includes fostering civil discourse and providing brave spaces for open communication across constituencies. 

The team now attends weekly deans’ meetings with the Upper and Middle School division administrators, facilitating direct communication to ensure every member of the student body is connected and having a positive experience at school. Students have been key leaders in the effort to shift our culture. The Upper School student-led Anti-Discrimination Committee is working with Student Government to institutionalize their partnership by adding a representative who will ensure a DEI-aware voice at the table. Encouraging brave spaces, the Coalition of Differences organized discussions from students in Grades 8 – 12 prior to the 2020 Election. The conversations, which covered current issues, philosophical quandaries, and more, provided the opportunity for students to practice the skills of listening and engaging in a respectful and thoughtful exchange of ideas when it comes to challenging topics. Students have been guided to explore the School’s collective anti-racism and anti-bias efforts and current events, such as the election, as they pertain to the year’s theme of character. 

Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, the fourth Annual Saturday Summit on Social Justice took place virtually on November 21 with over 170 participants from 16 area schools. This year’s theme of UNITY was inspired and created by senior leaders at RCDS and the Masters School, and the Summit featured student-led workshops on topics including racism, classism, gender oppression, and intersectionality. Through participation in affinity groups primarily based on racial/ethnic identifiers (with consideration for the intersection of LGBTQ+ identities), students challenged themselves, leaned into discomfort, and learned from one another.

Based on student feedback about difficulties at school relating to LGBTQ+ identities, the DEI Team is employing awareness training, brave spaces, and affinity groups to make sure that LGBTQ+ students feel supported, safe, and connected at school. The DEI Team continues to educate the school community about sexuality and gender and facilitates awareness-building opportunities activities. Pronoun training for faculty in the Upper School ensures each student’s identity is recognized and honored. The GSA (Gender and Sexuality Alliance) continues to be an integral part of this work, and through it affinity spaces are created as needed. The GSA recently sponsored two conversations with Upper School administrators, inviting LGBTQ+ students to honestly discuss their experiences and what they need from RCDS.

Admissions
The Board’s DEI Committee, the administration, the DEI Team, and the Office of Admissions continue to collaborate to develop a DEI-centered admissions strategy. Rye Country Day's fall Open House event included attention to the DEI plan and the School’s objective to enroll families who share our mission-level commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. RCDS continues to partner with access programs like Prep for Prep, REACH Prep, A Better Chance, and Oliver Scholars. In the summer, RCDS was represented on a panel for students in the Oliver Scholars program and, in the fall, at events sponsored by A Better Chance and Prep for Prep. In addition, RCDS continues a relationship with independent schools that focus on academically talented students from underserved neighborhoods in Connecticut and New York City, including Waterside School, George Jackson Academy, and De la Salle Academy. In October, RCDS participated in a panel for parents and guardians sponsored by Resources in Independent School Education (RIISE) and a local chapter of Jack and Jill of America. The School also participated in RIISE’s annual fall fair.