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Equity

Elementary students in music class.

Edina Public Schools is committed to looking at all district work and initiatives through a lens of racial equity so that all learners have the skills, opportunities and access to experiences that will help them reach their full potential and achieve success.

Edina Public Schools will partner with families and the community to gain a better understanding of and eliminate barriers rooted in racial constructs and cultural misunderstandings that can interfere with a student’s learning or reduce his/her willingness to persist academically. By applying this lens of racial equity and cultural understanding to all teaching and learning experiences, Edina Public Schools will be able to achieve its mission of educating all learners with the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly changing, culturally diverse, global society.

Definition of Racial Equity & Cultural Competence

In Edina Public Schools, all learners will have access to rigorous and challenging learning opportunities, which lead to measured growth and high achievement without predictable links to race, culture or ethnicity. Learners will acquire an awareness of their own cultural identity and value racial, cultural and ethnic diversities so as to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.

At Edina Public Schools, we believe that we must:

  • PROMOTE HEALTHY SCHOOL CLIMATES, providing the best opportunity for learners to be culturally aware as they interact with a diverse society;
  • ESTABLISH HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL LEARNERS, integrating high quality, rigorous and relevant curriculum that reflects the diversity of the student population, which in turn best prepares each learner to achieve success in college, career and life; 
  • ERASE BARRIERS that impede all students from being successful and instead honor beliefs and practices that support the district’s All for All mission to ensure each student is able to achieve at the highest level possible.

Racial Equity Plan

A combination of professional development, community conversations, and engagement are critical to addressing racial inequities as well as achievement and opportunity gaps. Edina Public Schools acknowledges that complex societal and historical factors contribute to inequities within our organization. Nonetheless, Edina Public Schools is committed to addressing and overcoming inequities at all levels to ensure learners have the skills, opportunities and access to experiences that will help them achieve success.

In order to interrupt systems that perpetuate inequities, Edina Public Schools is committed to:

  • Inviting and including representative voices to help examine issues and find adaptive solutions that look beyond one-time, situational fixes to addressing root causes and systemic barriers;
  • Developing the personal, professional and organizations skills and knowledge of employees to enable them to address inequities; and 
  • Eliminating practices that result in predictably lower academic achievement for any student group compared to their peers.

The Edina Public Schools 2020-27 Strategic Plan incorporates racial equity goals throughout, with Strategy B specifically identifying plans to "ensure an equitable and inclusive school culture."

Equity Resources

American Indian EducatiON


Equity Staff

Frannie Becquer
Director of AE & MLL Programming
952-848-4824

Jody De St. Hubert
Director of Teaching and Learning
952-848-4096

Cultural Liaisons

Sayali Amarapurkar
South Asian Cultural Liaison
952-848-4883

Blanca Diaz De Leon
Spanish-speaking Cultural Liaison
952-848-4052

Farhiya Omar-Samatar
Somali Cultural Liaison
952-848-4051

Christine Johnson
Native American Cultural Liaison

Achievement and Integration Plan