Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Westside School is committed to promoting inclusiveness, diversity, and cultural competence in its education, employment practices, school community, and governance.
We view inclusiveness as a fundamental value, diversity as a key element, and cultural competence as a vital skill necessary to prepare students to participate in and contribute to a global society. Westside uses the term diversity broadly to encompass differences in the attributes of individuals, families, and communities.
Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Westside is excited to introduce Chay Dixon as Westside's inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.
Chay is committed to creating safe and equitable classroom environments. She is in alignment with Westside that the concept of Belonging is critical to diversity and equity work in schools. They are excited to partner with us to help all of our students, families, and staff feel a greater sense of Belonging and to ensure that our children see themselves in our curriculum, materials, and in our faculty and staff. She looks forward to bringing a critical thinking, data-driven approach to support the school in our DEIB efforts.
Chay's goals are to:
- Shepherd our grassroots work to provide a strategic vision and develop institutional structures necessary for sustaining and advancing DEIB goals throughout our school.
- Lead recruitment and retention efforts with a focus on building and sustaining the diversity of the faculty and staff in collaboration with the leadership team.
- Develop targeted professional development programs for faculty and staff to advance cultural competency and other diversity, equity, and belonging skills.
- Lead and support others in the organizational structure tasked with DEIB work, including affinity groups, curriculum assessment, admissions, and development.
- Collaborate with parents and caregivers on educational programs and serve as a resource for families to ensure that this vital constituency engages with the school's and their own DEIB work.
Facts & Figures for 2023-2024
- 29% Students of Color
- Languages Spoken: 25+
Amharic, Cambodian, Catalan, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Oriya, Oromo, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese.
Defining Terms
At Westside, we believe that having a common understanding of terminology and language helps us have essential conversations. We plan to have community dialogues to build our own working definitions of key diversity, equity, and inclusion terms. For now, we source definitions from credential anti-racist organizations as a resource to guide our work.
2023-2024 Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series
Westside School is excited to partner with local independent schools to bring the Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series to our communities. The purpose of this series is to raise awareness, challenge ourselves, deepen understanding, and empower our communities to advance their efforts to actively recreate systems into equitable, inclusive, and antiracist institutions.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Westside School Community acknowledges that we are on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish People. We make this acknowledgment with gratitude and a commitment to justice for the land itself, and the Duwamish People, past, present, and future. We endeavor to join them in honoring and protecting the Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit of our shared home.