Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

The Board of Trustees recognizes the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as a guiding principle behind our mission. This priority is reflected as one of the pillars of our Strategic Plan that reinforces our commitment to being an inclusive institution. This goal requires us to respond appropriately to the needs of our community and to create a learning environment where students are challenged to think critically, act respectfully, and consider multiple perspectives in their academic journey at King.

Crucial to the proper oversight of King’s DEIB goals is the Board’s own education and the competencies of its trustees. To that end, members of the Board participate in regular DEI training sessions. 

The Board has a standing DEIB Board committee that is tasked with the oversight of King School’s policies, initiatives, and strategic goals related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The committee helps guide the Board's own work in this space and address any organizational gaps in mission fulfillment and strategic vision. 

The Board understands the value of diverse backgrounds and perspectives at the Board level and has proactively increased diversity among its members. 

At King School, we believe that every member of our community should enjoy a sense of belonging.

With the goal of improving our cross-cultural competencies in classrooms, on the athletic fields, and within our co-curricular activities, our students, faculty, and staff participate in workshops, training sessions, and educational opportunities during the academic year to learn to identify implicit biases and systemic racism in our curriculum and our approaches to teaching, counseling, advising, and coaching. 

In order to foster belonging and provide a space to discuss shared experiences, middle school and upper school students have access to age-appropriate affinity groups. These groups were formed following the recommendations made by students, and they have become a central component of our work together. 

With the help and support of student openness, bravery, and vulnerability, affinity groups meet regularly during lunchtime and are facilitated by trained faculty and staff. We will keep listening to our students and will create new groups as needed.

An Employee of Color Resource Group is available for our faculty and staff. This group is a space for participants to explore their identities and share their personal experiences. Employee Resource Groups, or ERGs, are voluntary, employee-led groups that foster a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with organizational mission, values, goals, business practices, and objectives. Our goal is to create additional groups that meet the needs of our community.

We must hold each other accountable when it comes to fostering a safe, welcoming, and inclusive school. Discriminatory behavior is not tolerated in our community. King School has a robust nondiscrimination policy and reporting system and established reporting mechanisms. The school swiftly addresses allegations of racism, discrimination, or unwelcome behavior.

A foundation for academic excellence is an education that includes a diversity of voices, backgrounds, and experiences.

Our Prekindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum is reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that all subject matters and disciplines are taught through a lens of equity and inclusion. Our goal to improve racial literacy, cultural competencies, and equity practices is ongoing.

Our curriculum aims to build greater self-awareness and achieve grade-level programmatic goals that reflect multicultural perspectives. Academic departments work to incorporate cross-cultural competencies directly into the curriculum as well as to develop a research-driven curriculum that reflects inclusive academic excellence. 

In addition to an inclusive curriculum, we are continuously working to make our classroom libraries more diverse and culturally responsive. Our teachers are trained to identify, address and interrupt biases and microaggressions on campus.

We strive to create a diverse community not only among our student body but also among our faculty and staff. 

In order to do so, we have recruiting and hiring processes in place to increase the presence of underrepresented groups in all areas of the school.

To increase diversity among our faculty and staff, we attend job fairs focused on recruiting candidates with a variety of experiences and backgrounds, and we work with recruitment and search firms with a demonstrated commitment to representing candidates of color and candidates with skills in cross-cultural competence. 

We are advertising our job openings in a broader range of spaces such as social media, job fairs, colleges and universities, and associations beyond independent school arenas in order to open up the door of access.

We require anti-bias training annually for all hiring committees and managers. Our hiring process helps us ensure that we mitigate bias and inequity during the process of attracting and reviewing applicants.

We place a specific focus on faculty, counselors, and other staff who provide social-emotional and cognitive learning frameworks for underrepresented students. Our students and their families also have access to a diverse group of school counselors. 

As mentioned above, we have also created student and adult affinity groups. Our goal is to create additional groups that meet the needs of our community. We conduct school-wide DEIB trainings, and we continue to diversify our curriculum and advisory programs so that each and every one of our students feel  supported and valued.

The Admission and Financial Access team also works to attract and enroll a diverse student body. Members of the team form strategic partnerships and attend conferences and workshops in order to strengthen our ability to build a more racially diverse student community. In addition to our commitment to a more racially diverse student body, we continue to provide significant financial access to students, ensuring a socio-economically diverse population. 

In addition to offering educational initiatives to students, faculty, and staff, King School also provides opportunities to parents, alumni, and the greater community.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in partnership with the Parents' Association's King Inclusion and Diversity Committee (KInD), organizes activities for families, including author visits, speaker series, and training for volunteers. The mission the KInD Committee is to help foster a welcoming space for King parents and our entire school community, through inclusion and celebration of diversity. 

On the alumni front, we have five affinity groups: Black Alumni Affinity Group, LGBTQIA+ Affinity Group, Cross-Racial Alumni Group for Social Justice, Alumnae Affinity Group, and Alumni of Color Affinity Group. We hope to expand the groups to provide spaces for other communities. 

We understand that to truly become an inclusive institution, we must also engage our extended community. We are fortunate to be located in a relatively diverse area of Fairfield County which allows us to take advantage of many resources. We form partnerships with organizations that allow us to engage in a dynamic exchange of thoughts and ideas between our communities.