Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Frequently Asked Questions

Thursday, February 14, 2019

1. Where can I find information on school practices and policies?

All school committee policies may be found on the school committee page of the district’s website at the link: GMRSD Policy Manual. The policy that speaks most directly to civil rights is Policy AC – Nondiscrimination. Related procedures are found at ACAB – Discrimination/ Harassment Grievance Procedure

2. Where can I find information on the secondary school’s disciplinary system?

Student handbooks provide this detailed information. These are found in the student and parent dropdowns of each school’s webpage of the district website.

3. How can parents communicate a concern or file a complaint?

Concerns or complaints may be brought to the attention of the appropriate teacher or school administrator. Incident reporting forms are available in the parent and student drop down menus on the district website and may be brought or sent to school offices. If an impacted person does not believe an incident was handled properly at the building level, they may contact the superintendent of schools. They may also contact the civil rights coordinator directly.

4. What does the civil rights coordinator do?

All school districts have a civil rights coordinator whose job it is to investigate serious claims of civil rights harassment. The coordinator also acts as a resource to district staff when questions arise about how to handle questions of a civil rights nature. The district’s civil rights coordinator is Gill Elementary School Principal Conor Driscoll. A similar role for matters of sexual discrimination and harassment is filled by the Title IX coordinator. In our district this is Pupil Services Director Dianne Ellis.

5. Where can I learn about school and district efforts to improve in this area?

Work under the umbrella heading of diversity, equity and inclusion includes several overlapping areas; communication of expectations, school disciplinary systems, school climate, student learning, staff learning, and broader systems such as hiring practices and curriculum materials selection. While it is not possible to provide information about work in all of these areas in a single location, school committee meeting minutes and superintendent’s reports provide updates of recent work in this work. These documents are found on the school committee page of the district website. If you have specific questions please contact the superintendent michael.sullivan@gmrsd.org or a school principal and they will be happy to help. We are pleased to see productive dialogue taking root in this vitally important area.