Director's Action Plan

1. Create and provide professional learning, resources, and opportunities  to prioritize and support the mental health and well-being of students by focusing on:
   • Introducing and implementing the RevisedStudent Mental Health and Addictions Strategy: A Holistic approach to Mental Health Within Us, Between Us , Around Us;
   • Extending the ABCs of Mental Health Framework (Acknowledge, Bridge, Connection); as a way to Understand, and counteract the oppressive ideologies which create barriers to mental health for students who are racialized and marginalized; 
   • Partnering and collaborating with identity-specific mental health organizations to develop supports which respond to the needs of students;
   • Implementing a pilot for student identity affirming leadership “Youth S.P.A.C.E” (Students Promoting Awareness Connection & Empowerment).
      
2. Create and provide professional learning, resources, and opportunities to prioritize and support the mental health and well-being of staff by focusing on:
   • Extending the ABCs of Mental Health Framework (Acknowledge, Bridge, Connection) in collaboration with Student Mental Health; as a way to Understand, and counteract the oppressive ideologies which create barriers to mental health for staff who are racialized and marginalized; 
   • Enhancing the Board's organizational culture by developing, implementing, and/or promoting anti-racist, and identity-specific staff mental health and well-being supports. 

1. Provide learning for all stakeholders about anti-racism, anti-oppression and identity-affirming practices, in order to intentionally disrupt racist and hateful acts, by:
   • Continuing the Implementation of the Dismantling Anti-Black Racism Strategy (DABRS);
   • Implementing the Discriminatory Slurs and Statements Protocol;
   • Continuing the implementation of the system protocol and processes that support students, families and communities in responding effectively to acts of racism, hate and oppression; and
   • Creating a Dismantling Hate and Oppression Framework to address racism, hate and discrimination, e.g., specific to anti-Asian racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and homophobia/ transphobia, ableism, etc.

1. Create culturally responsive, identity-affirming resources and engage educators, students, families and community in foundational, reciprocal and ongoing learning by:
   • Centering the diverse intersectionality and experiences of students who have historically and are currently underserved across all curriculum, instruction, and assessment, K - 12.
      
2. Continue to implement the district’s Pre-K-12 De-Streaming Plan with a particular focus on:
   • Examining withdrawal programs such as Student Support Centers and ESL/ELD programming for multilingual language learners;
   • Supporting all grade 9 and 10 de-streamed and academic only courses;
   • Reviewing class placement processes; and
   • Investigating access to Enrichment Programs (e.g., Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate (IB), French Immersion (FI)).
   • Examining the role early and continued assessments play in streaming.
      
3. Create culturally relevant and Black-affirming curriculum by:
   • Generating historical and contemporary counternarratives, for use in classrooms, K-12.
   • Engaging administrators, educators and support staff in foundational, systematic learning to support the concepts, mindsets, and actions outlined in the DABRS.

1. Create inclusive approaches to engaging community by:
   • Identifying and removing barriers to engaging families and communities that are marginalized (e.g., access to technology, translators, language barriers);
   • Developing resources and learning opportunities to support schools and departments with inclusive approaches for engaging community; and
   • Developing and fostering community partnerships with culturally relevant agencies and organizations, religious institutions, etc.

1. Create a space for partners to dialogue, bring voice, advise, and collaborate on key leadership challenges and opportunities.
    
2. Provide learning opportunities (e.g., Induction Programs, Aspiring and Indigenous and Racialized Leaders Learning Series; VP/P Selection Process) to build competency and critical consciousness by:
   • Examining the working definition of ethical leadership; and
   • Exploring ethical practices through the use of the YRDSB Leadership Framework.
      
3. Use the Actions for Leaders from YRDSB’s Leadership Framework to inform and engage with students, parents, families and communities by:
   • Providing Unconscious Bias Training annually for PEAC members on the Membership Selection Sub-Committee
   • Planning workshops that are reflective of parent, family and community needs for the PEAC Regional Symposium;
   • Reviewing Policy processes and Website redesign to be AODA compliant and translatable; and
   • Supporting Student Trustees to increase and promote opportunities for YRDSB student leadership and student voice at the elementary and secondary level.

1. Prioritize and support the mental health and well-being of students by:
   • Implementing and monitoring priority actions outlined in the Student Mental Health and Addictions Strategy: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health Within Us, Between Us, Around Us
   • Understanding counteracting the oppressive ideologies which create barriers to mental health for racialized and/or marginalized students by implementing the ABC’s of Mental Health Lesson extensions for K-12 students;
   • Providing access to and promoting linguistically, culturally, and racially relevant and responsive services by:
   • engaging in partnerships and collaborations with an expanded list of diverseidentified childrens’ mental health organizations and other associated organizations.
      
2. Prioritize and support the mental health and well-being of staff by:
   • Promoting feelings of mattering and belonging through positive relationship building amongst staff, students and community.

1. Prioritize the creation of identity-affirming spaces and practices that are inclusive of all communities, free of racism and hate by:
   • developing supportive relationships with students, families and community members;
   • using culturally reflective and responsive resources in schools and workplaces;
   • reviewing curriculum implementation/long range plans/courses of study and learning materials (e.g., using the Text Selection Tool); and
   • selecting and supplementing resources so that all students see their true selves, the contributions of their communities, and the diversity of society reflected in what and how they are learning; 
   • Implementing the discriminatory slurs and statements protocol and continued use of the Protocol for Addressing Incidents of Hate and/or Discrimination; and
   • implementing and monitoring priority actions outlined in the DABRS.

1. Use an anti-oppressive framework to design culturally responsive and identity-affirming learning environments, experiences and assessments that are flexible, relevant and authentic by:
   • focusing on excellence of all students;
   • reflecting prior knowledge, lived experiences and multiple ways of knowing;
   • supporting instructional entry points for learning; and
   • promoting reciprocal and collaborative partnerships with educators, students and families.
      
2. Establish, communicate and maintain a culture of high expectations for all students, in all courses by:
   • using data about programs and processes to reveal biases and oppression within our schools that support or impede student experiences and outcomes;
   • believing that all students can achieve high expectations; and 
   • providing actionable feedback that guides a student to where and how a student can improve their learning and work. 

1. Identify and dismantle barriers that families and students experience and build safe and welcoming environments for all by: 
   • hiring translators to support language barriers;
   • developing and fostering community partnerships with culturally relevant agencies and organizations, religious institutions, etc. 
   • inviting students, staff, families and communities that are marginalized to ask questions, engage in dialogue and discourse, and co-construct shared understandings in authentic ways; and
   • engaging with Information and Technology Services to support access to learning.
      
2. Engage in ongoing communication and relationship building with students, families and staff in planning and decision making by:
   • understanding and centring the needs, interests and lived experiences of marginalized students, staff, families and communities;
   • engaging in self-reflective practices in order to centre the lived experiences of our underserved families and students.
   • ensuring students, staff, families and community have ongoing, equitable access to information using multiple modalities to connect, guide planning and inform decision making.

1. Use the Actions for Leaders in the YRDSB Leadership Framework to support self-reflection and self-assessment for the purposes of discussing ethical practices and leadership growth by: 
   • expanding the YRDSB Leadership Framework Self-Assessment tool to include corporate management and professional staff; and
   • supporting all staff in seeing themselves in the YRDSB Leadership Framework Actions for Leaders.
      
2. Use the Actions for Leaders in the YRDSB Leadership Framework to frame and support open discussions about ethical practices in support of students, families, and communities by: 
   • supporting School Councils to remove barriers by including diverse family and community voices, e.g., PRO Grants application development; 
   • creating a collaborative space for all School Council Chairs/Co-Chairs to connect;
   • inviting members of School Council to School Council Forums in collaboration with local PEAC member and Trustees; and
   • including diverse family and community voices to address barriers and increase engagement, e.g., supporting School Councils with PRO Grants applications.

Staff Beliefs/Mindset:

• Validate the whole child through acknowledging and honoring the student’s social identities as a means to support student mental health and well-being. 

Increased Knowledge/ Understanding of:

• How environment and circumstance can impact students’ mental health. 
• Universal approaches do not necessarily yield universal impact.
• The impact of social location on personal mental health and well-being. 
• The resources and supports available to respond to and promote staff mental health and well-being at the individual and team level. 

Staff Behaviours:

• Devote intentional time during the instructional day to support student mental health and well-being through the use of Positive Mental Health Daily Activities
• Implement practices and attitudes from the Caring Communities Resource (e.g., 5 Minute Chats With Individual Students, The 1st 10 Days and Beyond, and Understanding Cultural Safety - Guiding Considerations) that create a supportive experience for students as they transition back to school and through the year
• Develop ongoing opportunities for student voice and student leadership at the classroom and school levels
• Use inclusive and respectful language when communicating among staff members
• Engage all staff members in ways that honour their diverse backgrounds and experiences
• Increase in the number of employees accessing staff wellness resources (e.g., Staff Well-Being Sharepoint site, Staff Well-Being Training Suite modules, wellness webinars, and EFAP)
• Schools and workplaces committing to implement the Healthy School and Workplace Action Guide 2020-2021 to promote personal and team well-being and positive relationships

Staff Beliefs/Mindset:

• The importance of listening to and acting upon student interests and expressed needs to inform decision-making regarding policy, programs, practices and procedures

Increased Knowledge/ Understanding of:

• How power, privilege, and bias operate to advantage some students and disadvantage others
• How social identity and location are constructed and impact school and system practices
• Marginalization and its impact, both historically and currently
• The ongoing impact of colonialism on Indigenous communities

Staff Behaviours:

• Select/use texts and learning resources that represent a diversity of social identities, experiences and world views in identity affirming ways that do not limit choices of possible selves
• Co-construct learning, knowledge and spaces that affirm students’ identities and incorporate multiple ways of knowing
• Build learning environments that encourage students to question existing power dynamics and take action against oppression and discriminatory elements in society
• Name and respond effectively to acts of harm and incidents of identity-based hate, discrimination or bullying
• Engage in partnership with students and families to incorporate and value multiple community knowledges that decenter euro-centric ways of knowing and doing
• Analyze data (including student and community voice) using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive framework to actively seek information about students who have been marginalized in order to inform program planning and instructional practice

Staff Beliefs/ Mindset:

• See all students as capable and hold high expectations for all students, particularly those who are underserved and/or underperforming.

Increased Knowledge/ Understanding of:

• The Importance of developing deep knowledge of learners to inform responsive assessment, planning and instruction
• Culturally Responsive and Relevant Practices
• Continuums to support student development of concepts and skills, and to help understand where students are as learners and where they need to go next (e.g., ESL/ELD STEP continua, math continuums, landscapes, and/or trajectories, developmental reading assessments).

Staff Behaviours:

• Educators reflect on the ways in which social identities, lived experiences, power and privilege, biases and assumptions intersect with planning, instruction and assessment and seek to de-centre dominant perspectives
• Cultivate students’ mindsets that promote risk-taking, build sustained engagement in deep learning, and value mistakes as learning opportunities
• Co-construct learning opportunities that involve student collaboration and voice, invite choice, and reflect the diverse identities, strengths, needs and interests of students
• Co-construct learning opportunities that are innovative, experiential, reflective of and connected to the communities from which students come and the diversity of Canadian society.
• Co-construct learning so that problem solving, inquiry and student agency are central to the development of fundamental concepts and skills
• Differentiate learning and provide multiple entry points in order to ensure all students have access to learning
• Increased use of effective questioning, accountable/ equitable talk, prompting, and feedback as instructional strategies
• Use observations, conversations, and products/representations to document evidence of learning over time and understand students as learners 
• Engage students in the assessment and learning processes through co-constructing success criteria, self-assessment, and providing feedback to their peers

Staff Beliefs/Mindset:

• Honour and leverage the expertise of families and communities within school and department planning

Increased Knowledge/ Understanding of:

• How their social locations (e.g., social identities, power and privilege) impact building authentic relationships, and actively work to change the way they communicate with students, staff, families and communities who are marginalized

Staff Behaviours:

• Build safe and welcoming environments which invite students, staff, families and communities that are marginalized to ask questions, engage in dialogue and discourse, and co-construct shared understandings (e.g., facilitating conversations about mathematics and literacy learning, actively soliciting input, feedback, and concerns, creating dialogue around whose voices are heard and not heard or silenced)
• Gather input from students, staff, families and communities that are marginalized before and when making decisions to inform the direction of the system, department and/or schools
• Intentionally ensure students, staff, families and community have ongoing, equitable access to information needed to guide planning and decision making (e.g., pathways planning; school, department, and system goals and initiatives; documents and resources in accessible languages and formats)
• Respond proactively to structures and concerns that perpetuate marginalization by: using active listening; acknowledging and learning from mistakes; integrating critical feedback into future planning, practices, interactions, products and services; and being accountable to stakeholders by meeting timelines and keeping commitments
• Develop community partnerships with culturally relevant agencies and organizations, religious institutions, etc.

Staff Beliefs/Mindset:

• The importance of self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-regulation for effective ethical leadership.

Increased Knowledge/ Understanding of:

• How social identity, personal assumptions, and biases influence personal leadership.
• The impact of anti-oppression and personal biases on students, families and staff 

Staff Behaviours:

• Model the importance of engaging in actions and communication that develop trust. 
• Are highly visible and accessible to family and community members to understand their unique strengths and needs.
• Build collaborative, professional, and productive relationships with key stakeholders. 
• Create school and workplace procedures, practices and spaces that intentionally engage families, guardians, communities and Elders to increase the voice of marginalized communities