Watertown Superintendent Dede Galdston announced the selection of the district’s first Director of Equity & Inclusion.
The School Committee approved the creation of the position in December following racial bullying incidents that took place at Watertown Middle School in the fall, which led to a highly attended meeting of parents calling for action.
Galdston included the following statement in her Superintendent Newsletter:
Introducing Our New Director of Equity & Inclusion
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Dr. Kimberlee Henry was selected as our new Director of Equity & Inclusion for the 2021-2022 school year and beyond. Dr. Henry is a strategic and creative leader who is dedicated to advancing the District’s equity work in this leadership role to help Watertown Public schools become an anti-racist and anti-biased school system. Dr. Henry’s background in public schools as a teacher and principal at both the elementary and secondary levels, and present role as the Principal at the STEM Academy in Lowell, MA have provided her with extensive experiences to take forward in her new role. She has demonstrated in those roles a deep commitment to equity and anti-bias, anti-racist education. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Master’s degree in Education from Simmons University, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Central Connecticut State University.
Dr. Henry has important related experience creating and leading professional development sessions on equity topics that include: Culturally Responsive Teaching (Zaretta Hammond), Student and Teacher Identity Work, and Mindshifting (Carol Dweck). Her research is in the area of marginalized groups in the field of education and her dissertation title is, A World Apart: A Case Study of Black Female Administrators in Predominantly White Schools and Districts. In addition, Dr. Henry is a member of DESE’s Principal Readiness Advisory Council composed of school leaders and educator preparation program partners with a collective goal of making DESE’s racial equity charge more explicit and elevating the importance of antiracist leadership.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Henry to our leadership team.
Galdston also released a statement on the tragedies in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo., and details about COVID-19 testing and policies in the newsletter. See the entire newsletter by clicking here.
This hire has both a dismissal and placed on leave in her backgound. Interesting…
The dismissal was because of a certification issue in CT: “state officials did not recognize all of the hours she had put in while teaching in Connecticut because of her teaching certification status after transitioning from Massachusetts, where she had obtained her teaching and administrator certifications.” And the paid leave was, according to the superintendent, not a disciplinary issue. So, no, not really very interesting.
Lots of learning going on. This will necessitate lengthening the school day to accommodate additional learning in these courses, programs , etc. how will this be achieved?
I hope that the anti-bias approach truly is that. Right now the cancel culture is trying to demonize white people for sins of the past. We need to treat EVERYONE equally and have the goal of unity vs. division, which is what most of the media is not doing. If we start elevating one group above another, we are creating hatred and distrust all over again with just another group.