The Essential

Happy October DDSD community! As the days get cooler and the atmosphere becomes more colorful, the DEI team hopes that you have been able to setting into your routines.

This month we celebrate Indigenous People's Day on October 9th. Earl Boyles Elementary will be providing some resources in the format of a slide show that will be sent out. Additionally there are some resources linked down below.

We wish you a wonderful start to your Autumn!

-DEI Team

Every month, we will highlight the cultural and identity based celebrations that are celebrated nationally within each month. However, it is important to state that people who hold the identities that we are celebrating should not only be celebrated one month out of the year. We choose to celebrate the diversity of often marginalized groups because their histories and stories historically have been left out. There are many people who hold these identities within our community, students and staff, who deserve to see themselves in the work we do. We move forward with these celebrations encouraging a continuing visibility, representation, and celebration of the groups we highlight.

In 2021, the Oregon Legislature decided to instead celebrate Indigenous People's day over Columbus day on the second Monday in October. It was decided that "Oregon will recognize that Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas is historically inaccurate and unworthy of celebration due to his voyage opening the door to 'heinous crimes against humanity'" (OPB) . If you would like to learn more about this decision, read this Oregon Public Broadcasting article.

We celebrate Indigenous People's day not only to highlight the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed, but also to highlight Indigenous Cultures for the diverse communities that they are.

When it comes to equity, we are all learners. As we become more intentional about this work in our schools, we may find the process challenging at times. It might be easier to be dismissive when we are uncomfortable. As educators in an extremely diverse district, we owe it to our students and the communities they come from to listen. We owe it to those students whom our data shows are consistently falling behind to seek to understand what exists beyond our own paradigms and experiences in order to better serve their needs.

Below are opportunities to listen, to challenge ourselves, reflect, and gain new tools for practice.

“I love it! It doesn’t even feel like a job,” exclaims Mel Borbon-Tabarez, one of our district’s most recent Grow Your Own participants, when asked about her new position as an instructional assistant in West Powellhurst Elementary School. When asked why, she explains, “I’ve made so many connections with students across all grades. I was with a kindergarten class in the morning and did lunch duty with 4th graders. I’ve gotten so many hugs and high fives!”

Mel is a graduate of the David Douglas class of 2023. After graduation, Mel worked as an intern during the summer, supporting students in West Powellhurst as an instructional assistant. The internship was part of the Multnomah Educators Rising (MER) Summer Academy, a partner of our Grow Your Own program that gives high school students the opportunity to gain experience as classroom educators.

Mel had considered becoming a teacher before, especially after how much she enjoyed teaching preschool students in Ms. Dinca’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) class, along with the ED 200 class taught by Ms. Wood. Her experience as an MER summer intern sealed the deal! Not only was she certain that she wanted to pursue a career as a classroom teacher, but the impact of having someone with her background and lived experiences in that position became increasingly clear to her. “I don’t recall ever having a Latina teacher in David Douglas,” she reflects. “I think it’s so important. We are opening a path for people, that’s what my dad reminds me.”

As a Spanish-speaking educator, Mel has quickly realized how much of an asset she is for the West Powellhurst community. Since starting a few weeks ago, she has already translated for numerous students and families. She recalls one especially moving example at Back to School Night, when a family who had recently arrived in the United States showed up in a really tough situation. Mel states, “I felt so grateful and honored to be there and to be able to help them out. I tell myself, if this is the impact I’m making in just two weeks, I can only imagine the impact that I will have throughout the years.”

It wasn’t long ago when Mel’s family was in a similar situation, navigating an English speaking school system with limited support. It is precisely that experience that keeps her motivated to persevere in her career path and support families like her’s, even in moments when she feels out of place as a young Latina. “In these families, I see my parents, I see my mom, I see the girl that I used to be. Seeing my parents struggle when I was little, I don’t want that to be any family that I work with, that’s why I love what I do.”

If you are or you know a David Douglas student, family, or community member of color who is interested in pursuing a career in education, please contact Andreina Velasco (andreina_velasco@ddsd40.org), Grow Your Own Pathway Navigator.

“It’s nerve wracking, but we’re excited to see what may come of it,” expressed Carin Rosenberg, Equity Chair at Ron Russell Middle School.

This Fall, Ron Russell’s equity team has decided to lean into the work of doing empathy interviews with stakeholders in their community. “We want to elevate and access more student voices,” Rosenberg stated. The lean into this work came from a few different places: the awareness that student voice needed to be a part of systemic changes and a June workshop around Empathy interviews held by Community Design Partners.

The Ron Russell equity team was able to secure a grant to dig deeper into their empathy interview work this summer. During this time they were able to work with Julie Smith and

Kari Nelsestuen from Community Design Partners in order to decide their path. Moving forward, Ron Russell plans to use this data from their empathy interviews to inform next steps with their behavior goal and to use as a needs assessment for specific students.

Great job Ron Russell on leaning into this work!

Ventura Park Elementary school is trying something new this year in a big way!

When starting the process Assistant Principal Miki Johnson exclaimed to her principal, Lydia Smith “I’m excited, I hope you’re excited too!”

Ventura Park is Implementing 3 C’s into a part of their systems. The three C’s stand for Connections, Check for Understanding, and Consistency. The idea for the 3 C’s came out of a COSA Assistant Principal meeting in which a presenter stated “Go slow, to go fast.” Johnson and Smith came together with their leadership team, and a love of alliteration, and came up with the 3 C’s. Every “C” is connected to data. Connections and Check for Understanding came directly from data on their Youth Truth survey and Consistency came from their PBIS survey.

These C’s live everywhere at Ventura Park.. They are embedded into data teams, equity goals, restorative practices, and even their school improvement plan. “Every decision we’re making, we do our best to decide which of the 3 C's it connects to,” Johnson Stated. “They [the 3 C’s] have helped us keep ourselves accountable to looking at our practices all around the school with everyone.”

When asked about some of the best parts of this new practice, Johnson shared, “I’ve seen it make an impact on how people interact with families, students, and each other. That’s really wonderful.”

Thank you Ventura Park for sharing this new system with our community!

This year is an adoption year for secondary ELD materials at level 1 and level 2. This process continued on September 26th with a deep dive into our DDSD equity lens to see how it can inform decisions that are being made during this process. During this meeting, teachers also got to look through empathy interview data that was gathered from students in their classrooms in order to see how they enjoy learning.

Are you doing something wonderful in your classroom, building, or in the wider community that has to do with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? Are you super proud of an engagement strategy, a lesson, or a community bulletin board that you’ve created? Do you see someone else doing something wonderful and want to shout them out? The equity departments want to hear from you! Every month, we’ll be highlighting a few educators and staff members who are doing wonderful work. We know that there is wonderful work being done out there, and we would love to hear from you and share! To submit something, or invite one of us to your classroom or space, please email gabie_mbenza-ngoma@ddsd40.org.