Character Development

Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives

December 14, 2021

In the Fall of 2020, the Board of Trustees created the Advisory Council for Diversity and Inclusion to thoroughly review all policies and procedures of the School. The Council was tasked with making recommendations to the Board as to how the School might improve its policies and procedures to strengthen our diversity and inclusion efforts for current and future students.

The Council, committed to a rigorous review of the School, consisted of former and current parents, current students and alumni, faculty, and administration. Over the 2020-2021 School year, interviews were conducted, research performed, and listening sessions were held with every area of the school community. The Council submitted its findings to the Board in September of 2021.  

Since September, the Board has held multiple meetings to discuss the Council’s findings. After months of deliberations, the Board recommends that the School improve its diversity and inclusion efforts by improving its operational policies and procedures, and its governance. To these ends, the Trinity Prep experience will be strengthened in the following ways:

The School will:

1. Elevate its strategies that identify, recruit, and retain students from historically underrepresented groups

   • Continue to expand the geography from which Trinity Prep recruits prospective students, with a particular focus on historically bypassed groups that continue to be underrepresented in the student body.
   • Develop an action plan to identify and eliminate unnecessary barriers to entry for diverse students related to eligibility, application and admissions, access, and financing.
     1. Respond with compassion, cultural humility, and increased awareness of support options appropriately to all, and particularly under-represented groups.
     2. Increase competence in healing processes: conflict resolution, early intervention, and mediation.

2. Identify, attract, and retain a diverse faculty and staff.

   • Establish mandatory semi-annual faculty training that includes DEI competencies related to unconscious and implicit bias, and various understandings regarding their relative impact and outcomes.

   • Engage all faculty to equitably mentor diverse students.

3. Review the curriculum with an eye towards inclusivity and diversity. 

   • Analyze, understand and balance the cultural and diversity sensitivities of academic programs including lessons, texts, activities, and projects that support diversity and inclusion.

4. Reiterate and align the principles and values of its Episcopal identity, which strategically strengthen and advance the School’s diversity and inclusion standards. 

   • Ensure a safe campus environment that espouses character development, embraces inclusion, and models no tolerance for exclusion, intimidation, and offensive conduct.

5. Hire a diversity and inclusion professional who will serve as Assistant Head of School. This person will:

   • Interface with the Head of School and take discernible effort to understand and effectuate the School’s Mission and Diversity Statement.

   • Establish a student, teacher, and parent education series to further develop an understanding and respect of different cultures and the values and life experiences of historically bypassed and underrepresented minority groups at Trinity Prep.

   • Review the policy and guidelines for establishing student organizations.

   • Build opportunities for discourse and reflection on issues of diversity and inclusion and continuous learning in cultural literacy.

The Board of Trustees will:

1. Develop a Diversity Statement and/or Community Standards Statement.

2. Maintain an inclusive view of diversity to support the work of the Board in carrying out the School’s Mission.

3. Coordinate ongoing educational opportunities for the Board on a wide range of issues relating to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.

4. Review the Mission with an eye towards incorporating values that further clarify the Board’s position on the whole child and how we treat each other.

5. Explore methods for ensuring diversity and inclusion standards are incorporated into all Board business (e.g., Board Committee/Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion or incorporating diversity and inclusion into the goals for all Board committees).

Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, Trinity will provide updates related to the School’s progress and its efforts on diversity and inclusion and other mission-based activities such as spirituality, character development, leadership, and ethics.