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Tallawanda High Best Buddies presents inclusion work; diversity and equity committee narrows focus
Summary
Best Buddies representatives from Tallawanda High School described 11 friendship matches, 57 members, and upcoming events; the district's diversity and equity committee reported it will focus on recruiting diverse staff and fostering student engagement with diversity initiatives.
Members of the Tallawanda High School Best Buddies chapter presented to the board on Dec. 19, describing the program's peer-mentoring matches and its emphasis on inclusion.
Ashley Sammons, an English teacher and the chapter's faculty advisor, told the board Tallawanda's chapter had 11 one-to-one friendship matches this year and 57 total members. Student leaders described activities including a spring social/dance, participation in the Cincinnati Friendship Walk, and schoolwide events such as trunk-or-treating and digital pen-pal projects with local long-term care residents.
"The big goal of Best Buddies is to foster inclusion with one-to-one friendship matches," Sammons said, noting the chapter meets twice per month and partners with Miami University's large Best Buddies program and with a local partner that sponsors a Best Buddies ball.
Also presenting, Britney Hess and Beth Arness, co-chairs of the district's diversity and equity committee, said their committee will narrow its work this year to two focus areas: recruiting, hiring and retaining more diverse teachers, administrators and staff; and fostering student engagement with the district's diversity-change process. The committee said it will meet quarterly, coordinate face-to-face staff training in the spring and continue to review discipline and referral data in proportion to student population segments. The committee asked for representation from Riley Township and Milford Township and invited interested residents to contact committee members.
Why it matters: Best Buddies is an international nonprofit that matches students with and without intellectual or developmental disabilities for year-long friendships; the district presentation highlights inclusion and extracurricular access. The DEI committee's narrowed priorities focus district resources on personnel diversity and student engagement with equity work.
Provenance: The Best Buddies presentation and the diversity and equity committee update were both included in the meeting's presentations segment earlier in the Dec. 19 meeting.
