Dear Bancroft Community,
In my letter last week, we unveiled our school's new Mission, Vision, and Values statements derived from our collective work on our BluePrint125 strategic plan. Within these statements is an important commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of the important early steps of the work within our strategic plan has been to conduct a community assessment to learn more about where we stand as an institution with these issues. Our 'Equity in Action' team has done great work to identify a partner for us to conduct this review in Keith Hinderlie Ph.D.
Dr. Hinderlie is an educator and licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with adults, youth, and families. Dr. Hinderlie has presented workshops all across the country on diversity, equity, inclusion, multicultural competence, and the social/emotional experiences of children. Most recently, Dr. Hinderlie was the Director of Equity and Inclusion at Choate Rosemary Hall where he implemented a best practice program model that has established Choate as a leader in inclusive programming. We have already started working with him as he met with faculty, administrators, and trustees over the last month.
We look forward to Dr. Hinderlie's upcoming week-long visit to campus. He will be with us in early October conducting interviews with members of our community and observing elements of our school culture. We will send additional details and invitations to meet him soon. He will also be sending out surveys and collecting data for inclusion in his report.
The results of Dr. Hinderlie's community assessment will give us an important baseline and help to guide the work of our 'Equity in Action' team. As described in BluePrint125, our goal is to be a racially and ethnically diverse community that is informed, self-reflective, and characterized by respect and careful listening. We look forward to your participation in this information-gathering phase in a few weeks.
I appreciate our continued partnership in bringing about meaningful change to improve the experience of all members of our community.
Best, Trey Cassidy |