Westport Schools Superintendent Discusses Efforts To Address Bias

WESTPORT, CT — Coming on the heels of the recent forum addressing antisemitism in Westport schools, Superintendent Thomas Scarice is vowing to continue efforts to deal with bias in the district.

In the message below, sent out Tuesday to the school community, Scarice wrote that the district has undertaken a number of steps to improve the discourse in schools, but admitted that challenges remain.

"Even with a broad prevention strategy, there is the likelihood that we will experience bias incidents," Scarice wrote. "For this reason, we have also worked to develop an effective response protocol across all of our schools."

The full text of Scarice's message is below:

Good afternoon,

When I arrived almost four years ago as superintendent, Westport's decades-long commitment to diversity and inclusion could be seen across the community and within the schools. Over these four years, the school district has continued to build on the work of the community in many ways, including our Equity Study, our district Strategic Plan, curriculum revisions, and advanced teacher training to name just a few initiatives.

In a recent conversation with our district-wide PTA Presidents, it became clear to me that I have more work to do to keep the school community informed about our progress by actively sharing our work. While my focus recently has been on offering purposeful updates on timely topics, I have been remiss in not sharing some of our proactive and preventive student programs, ongoing teacher training/professional development initiatives, and curriculum efforts, all of which enable and inform our continuous evolution as a place founded in academic excellence and belonging.
Last Wednesday night, about one-third of the district’s administrators and I joined local clergy and community leaders at Temple Israel to share details about our framework for preventing and responding to identity-based bullying in our schools. The information we shared demonstrated how our programs follow every Westport learner’s journey from pre-k through graduation, and we hope, beyond. The presentation's content was guided by the questions and feedback we’ve received from the community over the last few weeks. A copy of the presentation is attached to this message and the recording is available here.

Even with a broad prevention strategy, there is the likelihood that we will experience bias incidents. For this reason, we have also worked to develop an effective response protocol across all of our schools. Over the past two months, the district has worked to engage with the community, educators, and students to update our student "Code of Conduct". A critical and unique input to this work has been the solicitation of ongoing feedback from the community, including multiple public readings of the student discipline policy at Board of Education meetings over the past few months.

This work will lay the foundation for transparency, common language, mutual understanding, and consistent processes. But it’s only the beginning and requires a collaborative partnership with the community, including a continuous flow of information. To that end, I’m pleased to share that we launched the district’s DEIB website (westportdeib.org) last week as the source of truth regarding the work, progress, and dialogue happening in, and for, our schools. Here, you’ll find sample learning experiences, curriculum highlights, school policies and protocols, and current news and events. In the coming weeks, answers to frequently asked questions will be added.
I always appreciate the community's candor, dialogue, and shared vision for our schools.

Together, we can continue to exemplify the values of the town where we live or work, grounded in caring and understanding.

Sincerely,
Thomas Scarice
Superintendent of Schools

Temple Israel Community Forum.pdf