Northshore School District spotlights racial and educational justice work; students credited with leading change

Superintendent Irish and district staff presented progress on Parameter 9 — the Northshore School District’s racial and educational justice framework — focusing on systemwide training, student leadership and new data tools to track incidents of discrimination and microaggressions.

Dr. Thomas, who led the presentation of a 20-page REJ report, said the district will concentrate this year on three priorities: building and sustaining leader and staff capacity; creating structures of support; and strengthening cohesion across schools. "We are trying to make this part of the DNA of the organization," Dr. Thomas said, describing work spread across departments and schools rather than isolated in a single office.

Rena Harb, the district’s specialist for organizational change and student advancement, opened the presentation with a land and people’s acknowledgment. "We are currently on unceded Coast Salish lands that have been colonized, occupied, and renamed to Bothell, Kenmore, Redmond, and Woodinville," Harb said, and described forthcoming slide decks and videos to help staff and students make land acknowledgments action-oriented.

Staff outlined required professional learning hours for racial and educational justice, a centralized REJ staff toolbox with slide-deck templates, videos and sentence-stem cards for addressing microaggressions, and a program of in-class student workshops on identity, empathy and the power of words that the team plans to scale from preschool through grade 12.

Two student leaders from the Student Justice Collective, JD and Jasmine, described the Collective and the annual student justice conference as formative. "The Student Justice Collective for me has really been a life altering experience," JD said, describing cross-district student workshops, slam poetry and a student-made mural; Jasmine said the Collective helped her co-design workshops and bring the work back to multiple schools.

Nikki Smith, assistant director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, reviewed the district’s P–12 ethnic studies framework and high school course offerings (including an "Ethnic Studies in Action" option). Smith said the framework has been piloted by teacher leaders and expanded through professional learning communities (PLCs) so teachers can embed ethnic-studies themes in existing content.

Dr. Craig Foster, director of research and evaluation, described changes to student surveys: the district added six Panorama questions aligned with the REJ framework to capture students’ experiences with identity-based bias, whether they feel their identities are valued, and whether they have opportunities to collaborate with teachers. Foster said the new items are intended to be more inclusive measures of student experience.

District staff noted that staff reporting of discrimination and microaggressions increased in this year’s surveys. The presenters cautioned that higher reporting can reflect improved recognition and training rather than a true rise in incidents; as Dr. Thomas put it, the district will combine quantitative measures with qualitative root-cause analysis to understand patterns and timing of spikes.

Board members asked for follow-up on specific concerns raised during the session. One board member raised privacy concerns about FAFSA completion for college-bound students; staff committed to provide detailed information at a future meeting. The presentation concluded with board support for embedding REJ measures into departmental goal reports and the strategic plan so the work is integrated across district systems.

The study session ended with thanks to the student leaders and staff; no motions or votes were taken and the board adjourned the meeting.