Dear MBS Community:

We write to provide an update since we last communicated with you on June 24. During these past weeks, members of the leadership team, faculty, and Board of Trustees have met with dozens of Black students, alumni, and families from our community, read social media posts and engaged in Zoom meetings to listen and learn about their experiences with racism and inequality at Morristown-Beard School and in society overall. Thank you all for your honest assessments, unvarnished comments, shared pain and willingness to collaborate with us. It is clear from these conversations that Morristown-Beard has not lived up to its mission to empower and support our Black students and family members. We have also not done enough to educate, sensitize, and deepen our entire community's understanding of what racism is and how it permeates our School and our society.

Many of these conversations also highlighted the positive life-changing impact Morristown-Beard has on the lives of our students. It is this potential, aligned with Morristown-Beard's mission, that drives our overall efforts. While we acknowledge Morristown-Beard cannot change society's views on race, we know we can change our School environment through education, programs, culture, and community engagement.

We have already made significant investments and programmatic work on diversity, equity and inclusion as part of our strategic plan and we will build on this foundation to achieve our goal of being an anti-racist community. In doing this work, we will be open, transparent and inclusive of our community. We know we are entrusted by our families with the hopes and aspirations for their children and by alumni with the proud association of a life-changing experience. We intend that these efforts enhance Morristown-Beard for all current and future students, for alumni, and for all members of our community.

What follows are the steps we have already taken to begin to address these critical issues:

Formation of the Racial Justice Task Force

On July 8, we formed a Racial Justice Task Force that will report directly to the Board of Trustees and is chaired by two members of the Board of Trustees. The Task Force will be led by a Steering Committee that is comprised of a third party Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant, external community leaders with no ties to the School, alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, and administrators. The Racial Justice Task Force will be committed to evolving the policies and practices of Morristown-Beard School to reflect an anti-racist agenda. The function of the Steering Committee is to gather, review, and analyze key data to identify preliminary areas for improvement. Many community members have expressed interest in participating on the Task Force, and they will be included in the process. The Racial Justice Task Force will develop a series of short and long-term recommendations and present their findings directly to the Board of Trustees.

Diversify our Leadership Team

Our work to create a diverse, inclusive, and equitable School must begin with our leadership. To ensure these critical issues inform all of our work, we have appointed Klarissa Karosen, Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, to our School's Executive Leadership Team.

Listening to and Empowering our Alumni and Student Body

We have met with a new alumni group that was recently formed called the Black Alumni Alliance. The group is made up of over 60 MBS alumni who want to engage with Morristown-Beard in the work of creating a diverse and equitable environment. The Alliance has presented a series of highly developed and comprehensive recommendations which our newly formed Racial Justice Task Force will review. Members of the Alliance have not only joined this Task Force but are also committed to working with the School to provide support for current and future students. The Alliance represents the best of MBS, and we are extremely proud of the contributions they are making in this effort. We expect them to hold us accountable in the months and years to come.

We have also met with the Student Justice Committee and shared their recommendations with the Task Force. At a later date, we met with Black members of the Student Justice Committee (SJC) via Zoom and listened to their experiences and shared their recommendations with the Task Force.

Working with a third-party group, we have developed and conducted an anonymous student survey that was sent to all Black students and alumni, and we have already received the results which have been shared with the Task Force.

Here are the future steps we are planning on taking:

Engagement of External Experts and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultants

In addition to the external experts on our Racial Justice Steering Committee, we are working to identify and hire Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultants. The DEI consultants will be invaluable resources who can support our current DEI Director and help us implement real and structural changes in our community. We will look to these consultants to provide clear recommendations and direction as we employ best practices in our programming, initiatives, and work. Our ultimate goal is to build a robust DEI office that is fully staffed, funded, and empowered to ensure the changes we make are lasting.

Launch of Virtual Town Hall Meetings and Climate Survey

In the coming weeks, we plan to host a series of virtual town hall meetings for students, parents, and staff to understand the breadth of issues within our community. The information we receive from these events and from the student survey will be shared with the Task Force and will be guiding our response and future vision for our School. In addition, we will send out an anonymous climate survey in the fall to assess how our community feels about our new programs and efforts to correct injustices in our community. We will use the results from this survey as a way to test sentiment and ensure this work continues into the school year and beyond.

Diversity Hiring and Recruiting, Evolved Curriculum and Consistent Policies

We will examine ways to diversify our faculty, student body, and administration, as well as our Board of Trustees and alumni board. We will review our curriculum and assess our policies and procedures to ensure there is consistency and transparency in our school community.

In the past few weeks through the BlackAtMBS Instagram account, we have been made aware of past and present issues of racism, microaggressions, and discrimination among our students, staff and faculty. We plan to engage an independent third party to look into these matters where appropriate and, moving forward, we will provide an open channel for students and others to report instances of racism so that they are protected, supported and empowered.

Work in Progress this Summer and Early Fall

The work and recommendations that come from the Racial Justice Task Force will be critical to meeting our commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution. With that being said, we also acknowledge certain changes are imperative for a successful reopening and there is work that has to be developed over this summer. Prior to the start of school, all of our faculty and staff will participate in workshops focused on racial understanding and how to be an ally in the classroom. Our first day with students on campus, Convocation & Community Day, will be restructured to include school-wide cultural competency education. At the start of our athletic season, all coaches, and students will engage in conversations surrounding behavioral expectations, specifically, the use of racist or discriminatory language.

Morristown-Beard School has been a transformational institution for many community members. We acknowledge that racism has occurred in our community, and we intend to take action to improve our community to be an open and safe environment where all feel welcomed and supported. This is an opportune moment for Morristown-Beard to fulfill its mission for its students of today and into the future. We welcome you to join us in this community-wide effort, and we look forward to engaging with you and reporting regularly on our progress.

Please feel free to reach out and email us with any questions or contributions that you might have.

Sincerely,

Peter J. Caldwell
Head of School (pcaldwell@mbs.net)

John Fay
President of the Board (fay@fayusa.com)

Klarissa Karosen
Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (kkarosen@mbs.net)

70 Whippany Road • Morristown, NJ 07960 • Tel: 973.539.3032 • www.mbs.net