Kicking off the 2024 DEIB Leadership Summit with a panel discussion with Soraya Matthews, Amanda Abell, Tamala Howard, and Jim Detwiler on Speaking Up and Speaking Out to ensure we are serving all students. Photo courtesy of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Caverna Independent Schools Superintendent, Amanda Abell, took to the road Tuesday, Jan. 30, to participate in the annual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Leadership Summit where she not only attended the day-long event, but also participated in a panel discussion.
Held at The Galt House Hotel in Louisville, the summit is under the umbrella of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, or KASA, which is a group of “unified professionals…serving the needs of children and our members by the continuous improvement of education through professional development of strong leaders, advocacy for the welfare of learners and leaders, and effective participation in shaping education policy.”
KASA divides Kentucky into 11 regions. Barren County falls into the Barren River Region, which is represented by Kyle Cassidy of Warren County.
Larry Bell of Multicultural America Inc., who also came to Caverna and talked with staff on their opening day, gave the keynote address, Abell said, for the conference that featured a variety of diversity based “Education Sessions” including “enhancing students belonging through culturally sustaining Pedagogy” and “engaging English learners in family leadership.”
Abell said she planned on just attending the conference when they asked her to speak about the role and responsibility of a superintendent and while it’s easy to see diversity as a simple issue the diversity question is a lot more complex than one issue.
“Diversity has so many different aspects,” Abell said. “Sometimes when people say diversity we think automatically it’s just about race, but it’s not it’s about students with disabilities, it’s about language barriers, it’s about gender. All types of different things that we need to take into account to make sure we have equitable practices in our schools.”
The committee, of which Abell is a member, also looked at individual school data, such as that aggregated by the Kentucky Department of Education, that shows Caverna schools being comprised of 83.2 percent economically disadvantaged students and 28.7 percent minorities. According to Abell, insuring a positive educational experience is a key part of her role as superintendent.
“I have to be an advocate for all my students regardless of socioeconomic status [or] race or any of those categories,” she said. “I have to advocate for them all because we are here to educate each and every child.”
Abell said it is important to hold continuous conversations on these matters so the educational system can improve.
“It’s important to have these types of committees because it gives an opportunity to get different shareholders and partners to the table,” she said. “It helps make sure we have representation of different groups and it ensures that we’re having conversations [about things] that we don’t need to ignore.”
“I did greatly enjoy the conference,” Abell said.
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