Diversity, equity, and inclusion training is part of our faculty’s professional development. In addition to having consultants and speakers work with us on specific topics, some faculty also participate in DEI trainings and conferences outside of on-campus professional development. This includes the National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference and, most recently, Diversity Directions Independent School Seminar.

We have a mental health counselor, Olivia Oona LMSW, who works with us full time at the Mountain School. We also work to pair students with outside therapists/counselors if they feel that the mental health/advising support doesn’t meet their specific needs.

Our mental health counselor provides community support through the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support model, which focuses on providing proactive and holistic measures for all students. In addition, she provides 1:1 support to students in crisis and coordinates access to long term care, if necessary. She also heads the advising system and provides ongoing training to faculty members who have been designated as advisors for students.

Advisor pairings are made with consideration to our faculty’s background and the student’s application information.

We offer Queer, BIPOC and First-Generation affinity groups. There is a nascent Disability group. We have at least two all-gender dorms. We teach all our classes with a social justice lens.

The Bridge Program is a pre-orientation for students on full or close to full scholarship. School Meeting is an opportunity for all members of the community to bring up issue or concerns. Our Student Support Team is a diverse group of faculty who often provide multiple perspectives of individual issues that are raised.

22%, including all part-time faculty.

Facilitated conversations between students, when possible. Education for students expressing racist or harassing language or behavior. We have a process to address bias incidents. We have also, at times, brought in outside resources trained in handling bias incidents and in mitigation.

We use the bias incident process for this as well. Although, of course, there’s a different recourse in terms of employment. Also, with the serious nature of harassment we would use a designated faculty committee to address this.

When an issue pertains to an individual student, the director or a delegated member of the Student Support team will contact the family directly.

When an issue pertains to the community as a whole, the director communicates with all families. We try to balance transparency with privacy, e.g., naming the harm done and the ways in which the responsible party is being held accountable without naming the students involved.

For issues related to mental health, specifically, the mental health counselor usually communicates with the family, directly, in order to discuss next steps for care.

We correspond regularly with the families. Two weeks into the semester, all families receive a phone call from students’ advisors to check in. At the mid-term, families receive another call, during which indicator grades may be discussed. At the end of the semester, advisors write a letter for each student which is sent to both families and the home school, along with a transcript.

On Opening Day, Closing Day, and days of departures for breaks, there is usually time for families to gather with the school community in a shared meal.

As we have some schools with which we have established relationships and return to visit year after year, home schools look forward to in-person reports from the Director of Admissions during admissions visits.

The Director is in charge of high level communication and the advisor is the point person for student-specific communication. At times, other members of the administration might send an email to families. The Directors of Enrollment and Admissions share responsibility for communicating with home schools on some specific issues.