Student Equity

Our Beliefs Statement

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Equity Work in Greendale Schools

Greendale Schools began its equity work nearly a decade ago, providing guidance and training to staff while giving strategies and supports to increase representation, belonging, and access to the rigor of grade level standards into classroom practices. In recent years, the administration and School Board have worked together to refine district practices and enact policy to ensure that all students in Greendale Schools have access and opportunity to educational programs, feel a sense of belonging in our school community, and achieve at their highest level. Quarterly, Maggy Olson, Director of Equity & Instruction, prepares an Equity Update that reports on the schools and district work and, according to Board policy, informs the community on instances of hate speech that take place in the schools. 

In early 2021, the Greendale Board of Education unanimously approved and adopted the Student Equity and Anti-Racism Policy. The policy was developed with input from the community, staff, families and students and its purpose is to address systemic impact of policies and practices on groups of people with shared demographic characteristics. 

Greendale Schools takes every matter of racial hate speech seriously and acts against any statement of injustice, racism, and hate toward our students, staff and community. Guiding these beliefs with actions is the ongoing work we do.

Greendale Board of Education Policies on Equity, Anti-Racism, Bullying, Hate Speech and Harassment are linked here.

Restorative Practices in Our Schools

For the past decade, Greendale Schools has used restorative practices to build community and address student behavior that has caused harm to the school community. Recently, we have improved our staff's ability to engage in community circles by training all staff in restorative practices. Now, community circles are a tool we use to build community in every school and every classroom.

This increases a sense of belonging for all students and increases the trust in our school community.