Advisory Committee

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Committee is a formal advisory committee to the Eanes ISD Board of Trustees. The expectation is that this committee will be in place for a minimum of two years and that committee members will serve two year terms. Specifically, the DEI Advisory Committee will work with the district consultant (Dr. Mark Gooden) and the administration on providing input on the following:

• Enhancing community, staff, and student racial awareness in building a community of trust
• Cultivating an environment of understanding our unique similarities and differences
• Improving access and increasing belongingness of all students, including those with religious, sexual identity, cultural, ability and economic differences
• Providing guidance and staff development around DEI for all staff
• Curating resources and informational meetings for DEI for both the district and the larger community
• Examining policies and practices counter to building a community of trust around racial awareness and access and belonging for all students
• Examining hiring practices to support goals on equity processes and outcomes
• Examining curriculum to ensure that our students have access to information that will prepare them to meet the goals in the EISD Graduate Profile, including:
  • Valuing cultural and linguistic diversity
  • Working collaboratively with persons of varied beliefs, interests, and backgrounds to build consensus
  • Respecting self and others equally
  • Understanding the interconnected nature of our global community
  • Respecting differences
  • Understanding world issues and current events 
• Recommending district initiatives based on the needs assessments and consultant’s recommendations and of school Equity Team recommendations

This charge may be expanded, condensed, or constrained from time to time at the sole discretion of the Board of Trustees. Future subsets of the committee may include but are not limited to assisting the administration’s efforts to evaluate and implement initiatives around DEI.

All committee activity will align with the Eanes ISD strategic values, priorities and goals. Committee considerations may have academic, financial, contractual, and transportation impacts on students, staff and community members; as such, objectivity, creativity and resourcefulness are essential.

Up to 27 voting members with experience or interest in the charge will be selected and appointed by the Board of Trustees (with Dr. Gooden’s assistance) to represent stakeholder groups. Consideration will be given to people with an interest in DEI work or those who have particular expertise in DEI, as well as to the diversity of the committee itself.

DEI Advisory Committee members must:

• Live in the Eanes community or be a student or staff attending or working at one of our schools
• Attend evening and weekend meetings as necessary (Remotely)
• Base their recommendations on objective information and relevant data, and not on any singular issue or personal viewpoints
• Serve an initial two-year term unless determined otherwise.
  • Students will need to be able to serve for 2 years for the same school. For that reason, we are limiting Middle School applicants to 6th and 7th Graders and High School to 9th - 11th graders.

Membership of the DEI Advisory Committee:

• 2 Community Members without students currently enrolled in EISD schools
• 4 Students (2 from middle school (grades 6-7) and 2 from Westlake High School (grades 9-11))
• 9 Staff (1 from each school)
• 2 Principals (1 from elementary and 1 from secondary)
• 1 Central Administration Staff
• 9 Parents (1 from each school)
• Dr. Gooden facilitating (with Linda Rawlings coordinating)