-
In 2016, one of the four Strategic Planning working groups focused on creating a culturally diverse Kirby. Parents, students, staff and Trustees engaged in conversation about how to increase and honor diversity in the staff and student population.
-
Informed by the Strategic Planning input process, Kirby leadership prioritized a review of our human resources search and hiring practices in an effort to increase diversity within our staff and has begun to use job boards that exclusively reach People of Color.
-
Kirby expanded Facebook marketing to include the southernmost reaches of the county, where populations are more diverse, and added language to invite questions about Tuition Assistance in both English and Spanish.
-
Kirby Trustees and admin leadership tripled funding for professional development so that school-wide programming could be offered to staff and faculty on the topics of racial equity and inclusion.
-
In order to retain and support BIPOC staff, leadership committed to sending an annual cohort to the National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference.
-
Department Heads and faculty have worked to increase commitment to our anti-racist and anti-colonialist curriculum by changing novels and texts across departments to amplify voices of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ scholars and storytellers.
-
The criteria for new course proposals changed to include an evaluation of how the course increased Kirby’s commitment to cultural competency. Results from this change include a shift from AP to Honors Art History so that we could increase non-Western art in the curriculum and the addition of English courses such as the History, Literature, and Art of Nigeria and the History, Literature, and Art of Iran & Iraq.
-
Faculty and staff sponsor a Students of Color affinity group.
-
Faculty and staff are in the process of creating a student group called the Anti-Racist Project where allies of racial equity work together to center and elevate the needs and experiences of Students of Color.
-
Administration collaborated with staff to create a position called the Student Advisor for Culture and Inclusivity. The person in this role advocates for policies and procedures that are focused on the experience of Students of Color and the LGBTQ+ community.
-
Faculty and staff initiated and have been participating in a weekly anti-racist lunch learning group.
-
As the Retreats were expanded school-wide, the 10th grade trip was focused on the theme of building cultural competency. While the first trip to a sustainable coffee farm in Costa Rica was successful, travel for international students in and out of the country was becoming a challenge. To create an inclusive opportunity that both international and domestic students could share, the trip coordinator designed an experience for Kirby students in the historically significant location of the Gullah/Gheechee Corridor of South Carolina where teachers, a Trustee, and students engaged in challenging conversations about racism and connected to our history of slavery in this country.
-
This past May, after converting their entire curricula to the online learning environment for COVID-19, a group of teachers enrolled in an online class to unpack their understanding of white supremacy called Hard conversations: Whiteness, racism and social Justice.
-
A racially diverse group of Kirby students participated for the second year in the 2nd annual Diversity Gathering in February at Harker School. Students and teachers attended together to work on embracing internal discomfort to make space for the critical consciousness that is required to shift the pervasive racist and anti-Black culture within our schools.
-
Student council has held various presentations on issues of racial diversity. Our last All School Meeting was re-imagined to dedicate time and structure for our student and staff community to reflect on the impact that the murder of Mr. Floyd and the countless other Black men, women, and children before him has had on the core of this country.
-
It should also be shared that as enrollment declined between 2018-19 and 2019-20, the newly minted role of Dean of Diversity, which was a part-time administrative leadership role, was regrettably cut. Having witnessed the growth that the school enjoyed with such a role in place, it is clear that this role must be reinstated and expanded in 2020-21.
