KLEIN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES

REAFFIRMING OUR COMMITMENT TO EVERY

July 13, 2020

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, the Klein ISD Board of Trustees reaffirms our commitment to EVERY student in our care. This concept of EVERY is not new to our District. Our shared vision has been and continues to be that EVERY student in Klein ISD enters with a promise and exits with a purpose. At the core of our shared vision, is the missional pillar of equity, and we reaffirm our commitment to closing gaps by personalizing learning and knowing EVERY student by name, strength, and need.

Because the spirit of EVERY is always at the core of our District and our decisions, and as we acknowledge there is racism, prejudice, and injustice in this world, today we, as a Board of Trustees and as a Team of Eight with our Superintendent, commit as follows:

(1) We will not tolerate racism or prejudice or injustice of any kind in our schools. We stand together, so all our students know that they are valued and included in our commitment to EVERY student;

(2) We recognize that we all must look within and challenge ourselves as leaders to ask how we may have, knowingly or without intention, contributed to or not taken steps to correct such injustices;

(3) We will continue to raise important questions, intentionally listen and learn with open minds, valuing perspectives that may be different from our own;

(4) We understand that there is no EVERY when individuals or communities believe, hear words, or see actions – whether overt or covert – indicating that EVERY does not include them;

(5) We make it clear that at the forefront of our leadership will be highlighting and honoring those who raise up EVERY. We will continue to seek out and raise up our student and adult leaders who bring EVERY to the community, such as Culture4Caring and Klein Family Serves led by our students and our Leadership Academy led by our outstanding Klein ISD Police Department and school counselors, and many others; and finally,

(6) We confirm and make clear our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, so that all of our employees, families, and community know they are valued and included in our promise to EVERY student.

Today demands that we continue to embark on vigorous and positive actions for change.

We must embody culturally responsive practices that demonstrate our promise to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As our students enter Klein ISD, we commit they will know that these commitments are the promise of their leaders. And as our students leave with purpose, we commit that we will have collectively instilled in them a purpose that includes the vision of a shared world with an equitable future, for EVERY. We promise to continue working together for change. We ask for the prayers and support of our district as we look toward the promise of a better future for EVERY student in our Klein Family.

Download Equity Resolution (PDF)

“With tremendous empathy, we will move forward renewed and recommitted to that powerful, hopeful word Every. I pray that we’re courageous enough to use our lives and our voices as leaders to make it true and keep our promise to every student in our care.”

Dr. Jenny McGown - Klein ISD Superintendent

In June 2020, Superintendent Dr. McGown addressed 300+ district leaders at Admin Collaborative Virtual Retreat.

As our students and instructional staff return to school this fall, we’ve been thinking about the enormous impact that the past few months have had on their lives. Not only do we think about the pandemic and how it’s changed our lives forever, but I think about the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and countless others and how all of this impacts our Klein Family. As a leader, a mother, and a human being, I grieve and am angered by the injustice, racism, and prejudice that is so clearly evident in the world today. I think about the weight of this reality that our students must carry with them as they return to us. 

I’m inspired by the words and wisdom of a young commencement speaker—“The world that we are about to enter into is fractured. Old divisions, old prejudices, old tensions flare alongside this pandemic. But we know that these fractures are neither the world’s destiny nor its potential. Each of us will find a way to make something beautiful out of the different worlds we enter as we leave this shared one.” It takes courageous leadership to make something beautiful out of the different worlds that we enter.

I believe that the Klein Family has always been about Every. However, I want to pause and recognize that as a leader, confronting injustice, and racism, and prejudice of all kinds starts with looking in the mirror. We all have to ask ourselves what bias and behaviors we bring to the table that might affect the students we serve for better or for worse. It’s our call to action as the Klein Family to focus on unity, awareness, and response to injustice through equalizing our efforts through education.

Our work in public education is paramount to the success of our great nation. I believe it is a marvelous privilege to be a public school educator—to have the opportunity every single day to enter into young people’s stories and to boldly eradicate the barriers of bias and imposed narratives and to create the conditions for education to truly be a catalyst for excellence and equity.

With tremendous empathy, we will move forward renewed and recommitted to that powerful, hopeful word Every. I pray that we’re courageous enough to use our lives and our voices as leaders to make it true and keep our promise to every student in our care.