Waukee Schools to Celebrate District's Diversity with Potluck

About 50 different languages are spoken in the Waukee school district.

Surprised? Some might be, and Waukee school leaders want everyone to feel included in the district, to share their stories of where their families come from.

To help spread that message, the Waukee school district will host a Diversity and Inclusion Potluck from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, in the Waukee High School Commons.

The diversity leadership team is putting the event on, while members of the International Club will also attend.

Tammy Getting, a German language teacher at Waukee High School, is one of the supervisors for the potluck.

“We decided to have this potluck because we wanted to bring in people from the community, (students and parents) to get to know each other and to share our cultures,” she said.

At the start of the school year, the team came up with a theme of “Your Story Matters” for the 2012-2013 school year.

“We want to make everyone feel welcome,” Getting said. “We want everyone to know that we appreciate their story.”

Three years ago the Waukee school district formed a leadership team to start the conversation about diversity in the Waukee community and its school district. The Waukee Schools website says it defines diversity as an aspect of an individual that makes him or her different.

It is our individual stories that make us diverse, your story matters.

Getting said, “The thing about Waukee is that we don’t have a big pocket of one certain culture, we have a bunch of different ones. We have a pretty diverse population.”

Michelle Hurlburt, the curriculum facilitator, and Evelyn Rudich, who’s a parent liaison for the diversity team, are also in charge of this event.

The potluck starts at 6:30 in the Waukee High School Commons. Organizers ask that you bring a traditional food dish from your country or heritage to share and to email the recipe to evelyn.rudich@gmail.com to be displayed.

Plates, utensils and water will be provided.