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Equity and Advocacy Collaborative – Phase 4

Home → Get Involved → Community Advisory Groups 2023-2024 → Equity → Equity and Advocacy Collaborative – Phase 4

What is the Equity Advisory Group?

Now in its 4th year, the Equity Advisory Group was formed to provide advice to the BSD Superintendent and district leadership on issues of equity, and to support the implementation of BSD Board Policy 0130 – Equity and Accountability.

This work remains vital.  Equity issues have been exacerbated due to COVID and distant learning, especially for students with special needs, students with Multiple Language Learning needs, low-income students, and students of color.

For 2021-2022, the EAG will reboot and rebrand as Equity Advisory and Advocacy Collaborative, with these actions:

  1. Partner with the BSD and the broader BSD community to ensure the achievement of more equitable outcomes for BSD students, by the BSD
  2. Advocate for policies, practices, and programs that honor the inherent humanity and racial, social, and cultural identities of each and every student in the broader BSD community
  3. Advise and advocate to the district leadership on equity commitments, and current issues and narratives
  4. Empower members to advocate, educate, and engage in equity dialogues in the community
  5. Rebuild membership to achieve a ratio of 60% families-community partners and 40% staff. Recruitment will prioritize and center the voices that are missing and those who have been marginalized. Members will be comprised of:
    • Parents / PTSA
    • Community Partners
    • Reps from Black, Latinx, Chinese, Muslim communities
    • Reps from ELL and Special Ed communities
    • BSD Teachers and Administrators from different school levels and school neighborhoods
    • BSD Staff
    • BEA

Download the Equity at BSD Team Charter (PDF)

Members

  • Mohamed Bakr
  • Jamie Cho
  • Mareth Flores
  • Cesar Garcia
  • Nathan Hoff
  • Gwen Jackson
  • Haruka Kojima
  • Chris Marks
  • Elise Suazo
  • Paul Sutton
  • Kara Torres
  • Maina Tran
  • Monica Webster
  • Gareth Fenton, Bellevue Schools Foundation
  • Susie Pietz, Special Needs PTSA
  • Marissa John, Bellevue PTSA DEI Chair
  • Reiko Aramaki, Bellevue PTSA Co-VP
  • TBA, Eastside Pathways
  • TBA, Muslim Parent Community
  • Johanna Fischer, Educator, Interlake High School
  • Brooke Garcia, Asst Principal, Clyde Hill Elementary
  • Betty Nahn, Assistant Principal, Tyee Middle School
  • Lena Pothitou-West, Educator, Somerset Elementary
  • Jill Rock, Educator, Elementary, Bellevue Education Association VP
  • Marta Trilles, MLL at Central Office
  • Lisa Snyder-Stone, Family Engagement Coordinator Newport High School
  • Johanna Wong Jacobs, School Psychologist, District Wide
  • John Harrison, Executive Director for Community Affairs & Group Advisor
  • Shomari Jones, Director of Equity and Strategic Engagement
  • Pat Hughes, External Facilitator, Trillium Leadership Consulting

Meeting Schedule

Members commit to attending all sessions (online until further notice) from Dec 2021 – June 2022 

Equity
The Bellevue School District acknowledges that we learn, work, live and gather on the Indigenous Land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish and Snoqualmie Tribes. We thank these caretakers of this land, who have lived and continue to live here, since time immemorial.