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District highlights equity and inclusion rollout: bias reporting, staff PD and community affinity outreach
Summary
Equity and inclusion leaders described an expanding professional‑development program, a first full year of bias‑incident reporting, services for students experiencing homelessness, and new or reinvigorated parent affinity groups including a halal food pilot at ISB.
Shelly Reggiani, leader of the district’s equity and inclusion work, told the Beaverton School Board at its Jan. 28 retreat that the office is expanding professional development, community outreach and services to better center student belonging across classrooms and buildings.
Why it matters: Staff framed the work as a means of addressing predictable disparities in outcomes by race, language, disability and other student characteristics — an effort leaders said is essential for improving both academic achievement and student wellbeing.
Reggiani described the district’s “Engaging Equity” professional‑development series: six modules that in total provide roughly two to three hours per module and that are intended to build shared vocabulary, an understanding of bias, culturally relevant instructional practices and strategies to support belonging and student wellbeing. Staff said year‑two rollout will reach instructional staff, TOSAs and administrators and that the district plans further scaling to include classified staff, transportation, food services and public‑safety partners.
The district implemented a bias‑incident reporting system the state required by Jan. 1, 2024, Reggiani said, and she reported the system has completed its first school year of operation. She also noted the district’s McKinney‑Vento homeless services are serving more than 1,000 students this year.
Reggiani walked the board through the district’s ten culturally relevant instructional practices (examples: knowing oneself and students, building relationships, normalizing rigor, and checking classroom culture) and said staff will use those practices to support classroom instruction and professional learning. She said restorative practices and a broader “culture of care” are central components of the approach and that district teams have run training sessions that included public‑safety officers and paraprofessionals.
On family and community engagement, Reggiani described several organized parent‑ and community groups: the Beaverton Black Parents/People Union (BBPU), a reinvigorated Latinx parent relationship, a newly established Muslim parent group and a nascent Jewish parent group. She said those groups are intended to provide culturally specific consultation and that the district is also developing broader community partnerships for parenting education, English‑language development for parents and other supports.
Reggiani described a halal‑food sampling pilot co‑ordinated with food services at ISB (a school with a larger Muslim student population) during the school’s cultural celebration week in late January, and said staff plan to use student feedback from ISB to inform any larger menu changes. She also said the district is reviving a Special Education Parent Advisory group under the leadership of the special‑education administrators.
Board members raised questions about including students and families with disabilities and the safety of LGBTQ+ students; Reggiani and other staff said disability services staff and special‑education administrators are part of the system of supports and that work with vulnerable communities is being pursued through relationship building in trustful, often small‑group settings rather than broad public announcements when families feel particularly vulnerable.
What’s next: Reggiani said the office will continue scaling the professional‑development series, expand translated materials and keep building targeted parent‑engagement channels. She offered to provide the board with the presentation materials and an infographic that summarize the 10 instructional practices and the PD structure.
Clarifying details from the meeting: "Engaging Equity" is six modules delivered over two years to certified staff (about three hours per module); bias‑incident reporting system was instituted to meet state requirements Jan. 1, 2024; McKinney‑Vento services are serving more than 1,000 students in the district; the halal food pilot was organized at ISB during cultural celebration week and will collect student feedback before any wider menu change; Special Education Parent Advisory is being reinstated; staff affinity groups (AAPI, Latinx, staff of color, disability, LGBTQ+) are active or being expanded.
Reggiani said the work is intended to be systemic: “We must first ensure equity before we can actualize equality,” she said, summarizing the office’s approach to fairness and access.
