How East Stroudsburg schools plan to diversify curriculum, staff and more
With a student body far more racially diverse than its employees, the East Stroudsburg Area School District is undertaking a long-term effort not only to make sure its curriculum reflects all students, but to make sure all operations, including communication and hiring, are carried out with diversity in mind.
It’s not quick work, but it’s deliberate: “We don’t want to be reactionary. We want to be proactive,” said school board member Damary Bonilla-Rodriguez. That means “the work is happening on an ongoing slower pace” but that allows diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to be purposefully baked in across the district.
Throughout her years in the Central York School District, Princess Gabriel never sat in a classroom where a person of color stood at the chalkboard and lectured.
It didn’t seem that strange, for the most part, she remembers. All her neighbors were white, all her friends were white the lead characters in her favorite television shows were white.
As a student, she recalls reading only a handful of books that featured nonwhite perspectives titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird or Huckleberry Finn come to mind. But even when those novels featured people of color, she realized, the books were often written by white authors who failed to portray the Black characters with depth and thoughtfulness.
TOBYHANNA As festive holiday music played in the background, prominent members of the Latinx community with the help of the Three Wise Men handed out toys to the children of Monroe County.
The drive-thru event, in honor of Día de los Reyes Magos and sponsored by the local chapter of the Federation of Latinos for Education about the Cultures of Hispanic America (FLECHA) was held Jan. 9 at the Mountain Center in Tobyhanna.
Volunteers and members of FLECHA braved the cold temps to spread cheer and pass out hundreds of gifts to Pocono children.
It was a day of happiness for Latinx leaders of Monroe County, but also one where they reflected on the recent insurrection on Capitol Hill which coincidentally took place the same day millions of Latinos and Catholics around the world celebrated the popular holiday otherwise known as Three Kings’ Day or the Epiphany.