Anti-Bias Anti-Racisim (ABAR)

Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District

Anti-Bias Antiracism (ABAR) Council

Goal Statement

2020-21

The Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District is committed to recognizing, addressing, and eradicating all forms of racism from our school systems. This includes curricula, pedagogy, policies, practices, and programs at the school and system levels, all of which impact the student experience in school. Our specific focus on antiracism in MMUUSD is intentional, as we aim to empower our students with the critical thinking skills and equity literacy needed to be anti-bias and antiracist global citizens. While BIPOC are members of the MMUUSD ABAR Council, we recognize that a few voices does not imply an all-encompassing BIPOC perspective, and that it will be important for MMUUSD to continue our efforts to diversify our faculty and staff. Meanwhile, the ABAR Council makeup is reflective of the current faculty and staff demographics across the district.

We recognize that in order to ensure all students, staff, and the broader community are included, reflected, and affirmed in all MMUUSD spaces, in curriculum, and in community with others, we need to continue our individual and institutional examinations of racism, bias, and structural inequity embedded across systems. This multi-year commitment will require an assessment of current realities, visioning forward, and a significant amount of accountability along the way. The MMUUSD ABAR Council is committed, and up for the challenge.

Toward these ends, year one of the MMUUSD Anti-Bias Anti-Racist Council’s goals include:

• To revisit the foundational work around identity and implicit bias that many have been engaged with, and to get others up to speed.

• To conduct equity audits to self-assess our current practices through an equity lens with specific focus on representation and inclusion in literature, curricula, terminology, inclusive practices, culturally sustaining pedagogies, physical spaces, and school culture.

• To work with equity specialists throughout the year, build our internal capacity to facilitate and sustain antiracism work, and bring the learning back to our schools through a ‘train the facilitator’ model.

• To synthesize the baseline data we collect in year one and begin to develop a multi-year Equity Action Plan.