Northern Humboldt Union High School District:  Designing a systems approach to building equity into the educational system and the community

A small far north district in a struggling regional economy, with a high suspension/expulsion rate of native Americans and a commitment to addressing racism affecting all BIPOC students.

Project profile:  Our goal is that that race/identity will no longer be a predictable indicator of student/staff struggle in our schools.  Instead,  ALL our students and staff members, especially those who are BIPOC, will feel valued, safe and connected within their school communities. The three strategies for our pilot include:

• Building trust and respect with our BIPOC communities by regular communication with families/communities about our equity-centering work and development of an anti-discrimination policy

• Developing curriculum and professional learning about local history/culture to build understanding

• Creating a BIPOC multi-generational mentoring program so students have personalized support.

Design is an iterative process where we share work in progress. Over the course of two months, Northern Humboldt Union High School District practiced design thinking and created a prototype. See below for a video of this early prototype.

The design sprint helped our district identify three areas where we wanted to focus our efforts in order to eliminate race as a predictor of student struggle; Building Trust & Respect with our BIPOC Communities, Curriculum Development & Professional Learning About Local History/Culture, & a BIPOC Multigenerational Mentoring Program. The following initiatives and plans have helped us launch our work in those three areas.

Building Trust & Respect with our BIPOC Communities

NHUHSD Partnered with the NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools to engage in a year long Root Cause Analysis Process to help understand the disproportxionalities in our system, and develop a clear plan for reducing/eliminating those areas of disproportionality. The NHUHSD team is composed of teachers, administrators, parents and board members who worked collaboratively to focus on this difficult work. The team worked to develop a 3 year action plan around 4 identified areas of need: MTSS Development & Implementation, Professional Learning & Development, Teaching & Learning, and Family & Community engagement. On a smaller scale, site based Equity Teams finalized their work on Racial Incident Reporting Forms, Anti Racial Discrimination Handbooks, and a Behavior flowchart, all elements we had identified in the design sprint as important pieces to building trust with our students and communities. Small trainings have also been given to staff and students around allyship. There are plans to end the school year with a district level communication to our families & communities to share with them the accomplishments of the year as well as the work we have outlined for 2022-23.

Curriculum Development & Professional Learning About Local History/Culture

On April 4th, 2022, NHUHSD launched a year-long Indigenous Learning Fellowship that currently includes more than forty participants. Throughout the course of the fellowship participants will engage in three stages: Exploration & Learning, Implementation & Collaboration, and Sharing with our Community. The first stage has offered a variety of opportunities for our staff to learn directly from Indigenous leaders (local whenever possible). A list of some of our current partners includes: Save California Salmon, Cal Poly Humboldt Extended Education, Humboldt County Office of Education Equity Series, NoHum Indian Education, & the educational leaders at Blue Lake Rancheria. Through training, reading and discussion staff have begun to build a knowledge base around local Indigenous histories and culture. When the next school year begins, stage one will continue and staff will begin to work in collaborative groups to integrate their new knowledge into our systems and their curriculum.

BIPOC Multigenerational Mentoring Program

In partnership with the McKinleyville Family Resource Center, in August of 2022 NHUHSD will begin to train BIPOC student mentors. The MFRC will provide trained facilitators who will lead a group of 10-12 NHUHSD students through a series of 10 leadership training sessions using the “On the Verge” program. Through meaningful and challenging shared work, the “vergers” will build connections with their peers and sustain their commitment to remain in leadership. It is our hope that this will be a pilot program year, and that with the help of future funders, we would be able to scale this program up to include more students and possibly more schools within our feeder school districts.

“As a community member and Trustee, I've been lucky to see the REACH Program spark numerous important conversations in Northern Humboldt Union High School District. Community members have worked with students and staff on our largest campuses to design and test reporting tools, support student-led equity activities, and develop responses to racism impacting students and families. Because REACH is a whole District program, our sites have also increased collaboration around equity, leading to the development of innovative programs like the Native Education Fellowship Program and the upcoming Youth On The Verge Cohort (both programs that increase our partnerships with community leaders from historically excluded communities). I am proud that NHUHSD is able to prioritize repairing and building relationships with communities of color.”

—Aristea Saulsbury, NHUHSD Board Trustee & Reach for the Upside Team Member

“As an Indigenous student at Arcata high school, the work the district is doing to create an inclusive campus is revolutionary! The implementation of the Indigenous knowledge fellowship and student reporting form is a lesson to us all, that real change can happen when we begin to center BIPOC voices. This is a movement that all students can be proud of as they are introduced to new perspectives and see everyone treated fairly.”

—LeMonie Hutt, Arcata High School Senior & Save California Salmon Intern

To learn more about this project contact Rachel Watson at rmwatson@nohum.k12.ca.us