Dear Fairport Community:

One of the strengths of our Board of Education and our school community is our willingness to continue to reflect on everything we do, and how it ultimately affects our children.

We have heard it repeatedly, we are living in unprecedented times. Our students have endured eight months of the pandemic, coupled with social unrest and racial injustice and all of the varied trauma that comes from both. Over the past several weeks, we became entangled in these realities and attempted to clarify our role as a public school district.  Since then, we have heard from our students, staff and community members around the political landscape and the real-time urgency to end institutional racism in our society.

The District remains steadfast to prioritizing the concepts of equity, access and diversity.  We will stay the course with our commitments related to fighting racism by developing a culturally responsive curriculum, recruiting and hiring for greater diversity, providing professional development for staff, supporting parent and family engagement, and conducting a thorough review of our data and policies.

At the heart of Fairport values lies our commitment to our students based on the enduring principles of CARE (Civility toward each other, Awareness of our surroundings, Respect for all, and Embracing differences) and Sisterhood/Brotherhood. As a District, we have wrestled with the conflict of our publicly funded staff using their positions to advance any political agenda. However, our staff has made clear to us and I fully support this belief, that their choice to demonstrate support for our Black and Brown students by wearing t-shirts and pins, is not meant to be a political statement. It is intended as an act of kindness, love and support for the benefit of modeling civility for all students.

We will not suppress sentiments of love, kindness and support for our students. These enduring concepts are at the heart of who we are as a school community. To that end, staff members may choose to wear a t-shirt,pin or face covering to express those sentiments.

Over the past several weeks, we have learned from our students, staff and community; it is not a time for trepidation- but a time to move forward, be courageous, press-on and be better and do better for our students and community.   As our Board attests, “our Black and Brown students must know that we fully believe their lives matter! We love them, we embrace them and stand alongside them during this pivotal time in our nation’s history!”

As shared, we have an opportunity to create our own narrative around how we need to care for each other in our community. Our children need us to model how to work constructively through challenging situations together; in a way that our Fairport community can only do. It’s crucial to continue to work together and create a school community that reflects equity, inclusivity and diversity for the benefit of all our children.

Sincerely,