MANKATO — When Mankato Area School Board Member Erin Roberts first championed the district’s new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, she said she wanted to expand on some of the work already happening within the district.
“We had a few discussions during a couple of different work sessions, and when I was talking with my colleagues, it was really in terms of we had a lot of pockets of really great work happening … but we didn’t really have anything that was districtwide,” said Roberts, the only person of color on the board.
“In terms of do the buildings need added support when it comes to this topic? Do we look at things from a systemic level? So when we’re talking about systemic level equity work, a lot of it is with policies and procedures, how we create new programs, etc.”
The committee held its first meeting in June; community members, principals, the superintendent, Roberts and School Board Chair Shannon Sinning are among those behind its efforts.
The committee’s initial work will involve creating and implementing an equity analysis for policy, Roberts said.
“And so, what that would entail is we would kind of create like a rubric or a list of questions that we could go through reflecting in the policy … and determining whether or not we find there are some inequities within that policy, and if there are, what would be needed to make the change,” she said.
“It could be just the language that we use within the policy. Is it inclusive? Do we use, for example, when we’re speaking about a person, does it say he or she or him/her and change those little languages to be more inclusive.”
Roberts said the committee will walk through inequity analysis at its next meeting to gauge whether the group thinks it will be useful.
She added the committee also could work with Bridges Community School after it was chosen as one of the district’s new focus schools starting in the 2025-26 school year. The school will be themed around global studies.
“With a global studies focus, we’re going to want to make sure that we’re intentional about not being performative or appropriating people’s identities or cultures. This committee could help them look at different things that they’re doing to ensure that we’re being intentional about the learning that is happening within the school,” she said.
Sinning said as they formed the committee, the district wanted input from all different areas of the community.
“My hope of this committee, in addition to all the things (Roberts) is saying, is a way to tie it all together for our board to make some good decisions to see where we could help people out for our staff and buildings.”