Ongoing D&I Initiatives

District 203 Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Efforts

FOCUS 203 

• Diversity & Inclusion in Naperville 203 - April 2019
• Courageous Conversations about Race - November 2019 and
• Implicit Bias - January 2020

Deep Equity 

• Began September 2019 - two year learning process
• Deep Equity is aimed at producing the deep personal, professional, and organizational transformations that are necessary to create equitable places of learning for all students.Supporting school and district efforts at systemic change and strategic planning for equity
• Deepening the work of personal growth toward cultural competence for teachers, non-certified staff, and educational leaders
• Each school and District office has an equity team which is comprised of administrators, faculty, and non-certified staff who will participate in the Deep Equity learning process and serve as the equity leaders in their school or department.

Curriculum Review

• Partnership with Midwest & Plains Equity Assistance Center (began December 2019)
• The curriculum review will help ensure that our curriculum and supporting materials are sensitive to and reflective of the diverse cultures of our student population. 
• C&I staff will engage in a four part professional learning series aligned to educational equity and culturally responsive teaching

Implicit Bias trainings

• Substitute teachers (June 2019 to Dec 2020)
• Teaching assistants (Feb 2020)
• Additional teacher/staff trainings in development

Diversity Advisory Committee meetings

• Dr. Leaks leads these meetings
• The Committee gives the District input and advice about issues related to diversity, equity, and inlusion.  More information can be found here.

Culturally Responsive Music Education training

• Part 1: October 2019; Part 2: March 2020
• Dr. Leaks is the facilitator
• All D203 general music educators attended/will attend these trainings

Schuyler Bailar Speaking Engagement

• First D1 trans male athlete (September 2019)
• Hosted a community session and a session at each high school 

Chinese Delegation Cultural Exchange

• Hosted 20 school administrators from Shanghai for a cultural and educational learning exchange (October 2019)

LGBTQ+

• DuPage Professional Serving LGBTQ+ Youth
• DuPage ROE LGBTQ+ Task Force

 

Related Community Events

Naperville Neighbors United

• Dr. Leaks and Jennifer Rowe (D204) facilitated an Implicit Bias training (September 2019)

ALIVE Center 

• Dr. Leaks facilitated an Implicit Bias training (December 2019)

Islamic Center Naperville

• School District Engagement Event: School Rights and My Rights (November 2019)

Conversations with Black student organizations (November 2019) 

Student Panels (December 2019) 

• NNHS and NCHS Black student panelists
• Listening sessions for District and school leadership

Leadership Forum to Address Community Concerns and to Promote Peace (November 2019)

• Sponsored by the Honorable Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow Push Coalition and Rev. Dr. James F. Miller DuPage AME Church
• Hosted by Unity Partnership, NFP DuPage AME Church Cantigny Park  
• Superintendent Dan Bridges served as a panelist

SUCCESS parent organization hosting guest speaker Ernest Crim III at Kennedy Junior High School 

• Topic: "How Black History Saved My Life" (January 2020)

Civil Rights Activists at NCHS

• Honorable Rev. Jesse Jackson and a panel of Civil Right activitists spoke at NCHS about Peace and Unity (January 2020)