Capital Region BOCES stands together with our 24 component school districts in our shared responsibility to provide safe and inclusive learning environments for all students, particularly those who have been historically marginalized and underrepresented.
It is our commitment that the diverse experiences and perspectives of each of our students, families and staff will be recognized, reflected and embraced in our schools, educational programs and practices.
While our BOCES and the region’s school communities are each unique, we share a desire to provide equitable educational experiences that ensure opportunities and needed supports for the success of all students.
Our Commitment
We are committed to embracing the diverse experiences, values, beliefs, backgrounds and perspectives of our students and their families, our staff and those in our school community as we strive to prepare each learner for success when they are with us and in their lives beyond our classrooms and schools.
On-Going Improvement
As we look at our organization and its practices through a DEI lens, we always strive to do better.
As the needs of our BOCES community evolve, we remain committed to ensuring that our schools and workplace exemplify true diversity, equity and inclusion. We realize this requires a commitment to collaboration and introspection, and must be on-going.
Some of what we have done as an organization includes:
- Evaluating our organization to find areas of improvement and opportunities to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture.
- Expanding our learning around cultural proficiency, privilege, bias and microaggressions.
- Revising our recruitment process to include outreach to under-represented populations.
- Revising hiring manuals to include processes that interview committees will follow to ensure the most qualified candidates are hired.
- Implementing strategies for increasing participation and success with the Albany County Civil Service Exam (a hiring requirement.)
- Removing gendered pronouns and indirect language from employee handbooks and our ethics code; revising the staff exit survey to include self-identifying demographic information.
- Adding more inclusive categories to the voluntary Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data collection.
- Providing resources to managers to recognize and decrease biased behaviors.
- Creating an Equity Committee of school superintendents in our component districts to help determine diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) needs and concerns we can work on together.
- Offering new and expanded programs and services to address educational equity, mental health and social and emotional development and learning and other essential topics. We also offer many workshops and trainings designed to help area school leaders and teachers engage in the work of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
- Helping area schools assess their technology needs and acquire needed resources (computers and other tools) to ensure all students can learn in school and remotely.
- Developing a process to continually evaluate our internal and external communications to ensure we are using inclusive language and communication systems.
Share Your Thoughts and Comments To Help Us Improve
We take to heart the concept of “being the best at getting better.”
We value feedback and suggestion from our community about how we doing, as well as how we can truly exemplify the values of diversity, equity and inclusion. Please contact our District Superintendent Lauren J. Gemmill, lauren.gemmill@neric.org or 518-862-4901, or Deputy District Superintendent & Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth Wood, elizabeth.wood@neric.org or 518-862-4954, with your comments or concerns—we welcome your input.