Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice & Belonging

SBMS DEIJB VISION STATEMENT

At SBMS, we challenge our students to become compassionate, respectful, and courageous agents of change in the world. This compels us to include, listen to, and respect the voices, traditions, beliefs, and ideas of all members of our community and to approach this work with an open mind, a full heart, and a patient spirit.

 
Our DEIJB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging) Committee is not just a one-time effort. We are continuously working hard this 2024-2025 school year on taking the results of the Ally 2 Accomplice equity audit and turning them into task forces. Each task force represents an area in which we can make significant short term and long term improvements.  Our task forces include: Student Inclusion, Belonging and Climate / Employee Belonging and Climate / Campus Policies / Classroom Lessons and Materials / Board and Leaders. Below you can find  some of our recent achievements. We recognize there is still much to do, but we'd like to acknowledge the various accomplishments thus far. 

  • First ever independent school partnership and Parent Webinar - "How to Raise Anti-Racist Children" with Brit Hawthorne.
  • We've completed the Ally 2 Accomplice equity audit about workplace inclusion and belonging (employees, leadership, and board participated)
  • We completed our second internal curriculum audit to identify where teachers are or have opportunities to weave DEIJB topics into the curriculum intentionally. 
  • Our community collaboratively developed and agreed on a school-wide DEIJB Vision Statement. Students, faculty, staff, and parents were involved in the process. 
  • We continue to provide Spanish interpretation during our information night, parent conferences, and open houses.
  • We continue to provide a strong presence of our GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance), which has also brought "Friday Facts" to town meetings and guest speakers, like the Executive Director of Color Bloq, which our GSA raised funds to support.
  • We continue to partner and consult with James Joyce, Coffee with a Black Guy, to help continue our momentum.
  • Michelle Holmes, DEI Director of Crane Country Day School, presented at both our Parent Association and Faculty inservice.
Santa Barbara Middle School cultivates in our students passion for life and life-long learning, a deep sense of trust in themselves, strength and courage to succeed at life's challenges, and compassion and respect for others.
Santa Barbara Middle School ● 1321 Alameda Padre Serra ● Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Tel: 805-682-2989 ● office@sbms.org