Dear Prep Community,
As we witness the continuing traumas wrought by a global pandemic, institutional racism, and police brutality against Black Americans, traumas that demand our responsiveness and commitment to change, we, like you, are called to action.
It is clear that we have not talked enough about racism and its insidious effect on our relationships and progress. And, without education, without encouragement and support, without action, we cannot achieve the essential and commonly held values of fairness, justice, and equality.
Guided and informed by your many letters, comments, petitions, and requests, we are committed to addressing racism with honesty and intentionality. And, while this work will take time and commitment from all of us, the school’s administration and trustees will take these immediate steps:
- We will create a comprehensive action plan to address diversity, equity, and inclusion that we will share with the entire Prep community. We will engage all constituencies in this process, and hold ourselves accountable, transparently sharing with the community discernible goals, measurable outcomes, successes, and failures. We will issue our first progress update in August.
- We will create two committees: a Board oversight committee and a committee that includes faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni to develop this action plan for our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative.
- We will commit to a comprehensive review of our curriculum, programs, and practices with the intent of creating an anti-racist environment that promotes a culture of inclusion for all people of color.
- We will introduce opportunities for anti-bias teaching and learning that encourage the open exchange of truth, facts, and perspectives.
- We will expand community-wide programs, including campus speakers, faculty professional growth, and cross-constituency education that fosters and strengthens empathy for all students, employees, and our extended community.
- We will reframe our hiring process to focus on recruiting and retaining a greater diversity of faculty and staff.
- We will expand our current initiative to prioritize racial diversity in admissions and financial aid.
We will live by our mission and honor code: Through honest, kind, generous, and respectful learning, examination, and practice, we will make our school—and by extension, all those we encounter—part of the solution to end ignominy, injustice, and hate.
We call on all of you to join us as we commit to this important work. We must all—individually and collectively—teach and learn with the compassion and belonging that are the values of our school. We look forward to your collaboration, participation, and cooperation.
Sincerely,
Peter Bachmann
Headmaster
David Codiga
Chair, Board of Trustees
Jim Pickett
Incoming Head of School
Kristina Leslie
Incoming Chair, Board of Trustees