NKSD plans districtwide PD March 28; equity vision statement to be shared at school committee

North Kingstown School District staff will hold a professional development day on March 28 that the DEI Advisory Committee said will include an all-staff opening and multiple breakout sessions focused on culturally responsive practices.

Sally Davidson, the district equity, belonging and community engagement coordinator, told the committee Jan. 5 that the morning session (about 8–11 a.m.) will convene staff from all buildings in the North Kingstown High School auditorium. “Rob is preparing a presentation about culturally responsive practices,” she said, describing the opening as an umbrella that includes culturally sustaining practices and culturally relevant pedagogy.

Why it matters: committee members said the PD day will be an opportunity to launch the district’s equity vision statement to a broad staff audience, provide choices for staff learning needs and surface additional professional development offerings tied to the district’s equity goals.

Key points

- The PD morning will be followed by two 50-minute breakout sessions in which staff can choose topics; organizers reported 18 proposed breakout topics and early survey responses showing interest across them.

- Topic examples include implicit bias and microaggressions, practices for maintaining high expectations for all students, and strategies for multilingual learners and students experiencing homelessness.

- The committee plans to share the equity vision statement with the school committee (the transcript notes the document will be presented to the School Committee at a meeting the committee chair referenced as “Tuesday”) and then use the March public launch to point staff and the public to additional PD resources and a potential web page linking to asynchronous options.

What committee members said

Paula (role: staff organizer) reported that an interest survey of staff indicated varied interest across all 18 breakout topics, and the committee agreed that offering choice would help staff feel involved. Committee members suggested using the March session to communicate the equity vision widely and to follow with additional career-long learning options such as asynchronous NHERI-style courses and district-curated PD lists.

Next steps and context

Committee members said they are preparing a short public launch of the equity vision statement and will align further PD offerings to the vision once the School Committee reviews it. The committee discussed compiling a list of existing PD activities attended by administrators, teachers and students so the DEI group can identify gaps and publicize options.

Quotes

“We will begin altogether as all NKSD staff from all buildings,” Sally Davidson said, describing the March morning session. “Rob is preparing a presentation about culturally responsive practices,” she added.

Ending

The committee plans to present the equity vision statement to the School Committee in the coming weeks and to use the March PD day to introduce the districtwide framework to staff; members said they will compile PD options to share at a later meeting.