Dear Harbor Families, 

Since 2019, Harbor has maintained a cross-constituent Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee - consisting of teachers, administration, parents, and Board members - charged with ensuring that we are fulfilling our mission and beliefs around DEI, which remains central to our work.  In a multi-year process guided by input from our community, the committee developed a strong set of philosophy statements, based on the belief that "our differences enrich us and make our community stronger” and formulated specific goals appropriate to our small early childhood/early elementary school. These philosophy statements and goals have guided our work each year, and are safeguarded by the committee. You can read about them in this publication, which is shared with prospective families and with all of you earlier this school year. 

This year, one of the most impactful actions of the committee was our work with Ashley Nartey, an early childhood and diversity, equity, and inclusion expert, and a good friend to Harbor. Many of you have met Ashley during the Family Friday Coffee and Connections conversations she facilitated about neurodiversity and the importance of diverse books. What you may not know is that Ashley worked with our teachers over three sessions in November, February, and April to explore how we can best integrate aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion into our students’ daily experiences at Harbor - through research-based practices, enriching and diverse resources including children’s books, and enhanced understandings of the intersection of child development and bias.

Tomorrow, our DEI Committee is excited to host another exciting event in line with our goals! Four years ago, as we were starting to host in-person events again after a long (and challenging!) experience of managing a school in a pandemic, we took a step back to think about what kind of events would best align with our mission. With our core beliefs front of mind, in the spring of 2022, the DEI Committee took on the task of planning a new Harbor tradition - the Celebration of Culture.

Since its inception, Harbor’s Celebration of Culture has been built around the question of “what makes your family unique?”. We use this prompt to help focus our students and families on the concept of culture in the wide range of its expressions. There are three components in our Celebration of Culture, in pursuit of this goal:

• Each year, families are encouraged to create a family culture project to show what makes their family unique. These have been posters, artifact bags, and collages in the past, and may represent favorite activities, family traditions, stories of heritage, and much more. As you well know, this year’s project is a time capsule box!

• In each class, we choose a country that connects with one or more of our Harbor families or teachers, and spend time learning about the cultures and traditions of that place from members of our community who understand it well. Students also learn a song or dance from that country, which is performed for families (you are in for a treat tomorrow morning)!

• Finally, each year, we create a community art installation together during the morning of our Celebration of Culture, to represent the concept that our differences enrich us. The beautiful weaving project in the front stairwell, and the mosaic tile design of the word UNIQUE have been created at these events in the past. Tomorrow, you will be invited to paint a rock representing your family name/s and culture, which will be displayed as a rock garden at our arrival/dismissal location for years to come!

Some logistics about tomorrow morning’s event… The performance begins at 9:30 AM in the Social Hall, but the space will be open after 9 AM should you arrive earlier. Please plan to stay for two hours if possible, so you can participate in the meaningful activities in the classroom following the performance. You will be invited to share your family’s culture project together with your child, with the class, and to paint a rock as a family for our rock garden art installation! 

Finally, we’d like to share our gratitude to all of the DEI Committee members, who have provided important contributions to this work over the years. A special thank you to Yuki Wilson and Jasmina Hinton, our music and PE teachers, for their dedication in putting together tomorrow’s program of performances.

We hope you enjoy the morning, celebrating what makes us each unique!

Warmly,

Leah Musico
Head of School
DEI Committee Co-Chair

Naomi Senkeeto
Harbor Parent and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees
DEI Committee Co-Chair