I’ve been watching, listening and reflecting on the events happening across our nation in which citizens are speaking out against social injustice and in support of equity, fairness, and equality for all.

Over the past few days, I have seen public figures and public entities make statements in support of our African American community and against the injustices that we have seen. These words are needed and appreciated because what has happened in our democracy is wrong.  I have also been thinking about action, because I am convinced that our actions reflect our character, our intentions, and our dispositions.  Ultimately, our actions or reactions are what we have control of as human beings.

As superintendent of Paducah Public Schools, I want our community to see congruency between our words and our actions. So, I want to briefly mention four ongoing commitments we have made to the community as we pursue equity, fairness and justice together.

1) We are committed to our district’s vision to “know each and every child by name and need.”

Our district’s vision for half a decade has inclusion and equity at its core. “Each and every” means inclusion of all races, all religions, and all socio-economic demographics. And when our vision talks about knowing each individual student’s needs it speaks to our common goal of equity. Every child has unique needs. Our system strives to differentiate how we serve each child so that our efforts effectively meet their needs. There is still much work to be done in our pursuit of this vision, but we are committed to serving all students with fairness and equity.