DEI Hiring: University Place School District

University Place School District’s Racial Equity Initiative – Workforce Diversity & Cultural Competence – states that “increasing the diversity of our workforce is another key component to achieving racial equity for students in UPSD.” According to the district, it has an “affirmative action plan” in place with the “specific goal of diversifying our workforce for better reflect our community.”

The district states that it will “actively recruit teachers and support staff of color,” “review hiring practices to ensure that they are non-discriminatory,” and “review hiring practices to ensure that they help to identify and select qualified candidates of color.”

Additionally, it states that when the district is “unable to hire educators of color to open positions,” it “still plans to emphasize cultural responsiveness and competence in the people we do hire.” The district has also engaged its “District Equity Advisory Team in reviewing” both “job postings and interview questions” to ensure that the district’s “commitment to racial equity, inclusivity and cultural responsiveness is reflected in both places.”

A document titled Staff Hiring, Treatment, Compensation and Evaluation states that the district worked with the “district equity advisory team” to create a “set of equity/diversity focused questions” which “have been added to the process to better assess the commitment level and knowledge of prospective employees around racial equity, social justice and anti-racism.”