Building Belonging
By Katie Bulava
When Kristen Kendrick-Weikle, Ed.D., became superintendent of McLean County Unit District 5 in July 2020, the district was deep into a question it had been asking for years: What would it take to build a real DEI plan? Beginning as early as the 2008-2009 school year, teachers had been meeting informally in a group they called the Racial Justice Committee, later evolving into the Racial Social Justice Committee. The mission was to identify ways to support equity in the classrooms. At the district level, a group had been formed, including community members and staff, to examine literature selections and ensure that each child experienced a diverse set of books and media resources in media centers and classrooms.
In the spring of 2020, just months prior to Kendrick-Weikle’s arrival, the district had contracted with Ivette Dubiel, Ed.D., to complete its first equity audit, work that was just underway when the pandemic hit.
“When I arrived, she had just started collecting basic demographic data,” says Kendrick-Weikle. That first year was spent working alongside Dubiel to gather information. By the end of the 2000- 2021 school year, however, the report was complete and numbered several hundred pages, outlining the district’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities. That report became the foundation for a group that still meets today: The District Equity Leadership Team (DELT). The DELT includes educators, support staff, and administrators from all across the district. They were charged with creating the first Equity Plan.
The Five-Strand Plan
The framework of that plan, which the district still uses, included a five-strand approach: systems; teaching and learning; professional learning; student voice, climate, and culture; and family and community as agency.
The first, systems, looks at processes, including board policy and administrative procedures. The second is teaching and learning, a strand that reviews instructional materials and curriculum and works closely with the third, professional learning.
The fourth, called student voice, climate, and culture, works closely with student groups and contains the Student Equity Action and Accountability Team, now in its fifth year, a student group that helps brainstorm solutions. The final strand, family and community as agency, brings in parents and caregivers, including through a longstanding bilingual parent group attended by the district’s multilingual director. This strand has also recently added evening “parent cafés.” Rather than being separate entities, the strands are DELT’s working structure, meeting together a few times a year and independently the rest of the time.
The Board’s Role
While the board doesn’t sit on the DELT, its support runs through several strands: Policy is reviewed through an equity lens within systems; curriculum committees provide disaggregated data that inform board decisions; and the board helps raise awareness and encourage participation by family and community as agency. Questions asked through the committee structure keep multiple viewpoints in the conversation.
Early in the process, after the district’s first equity plan was approved, the board formalized its stance by adopting a board equity statement. That statement now shapes hiring: Interview questions for administrators and teachers are designed to surface an equity lens specific to each building’s needs, such as inclusivity for students with varying abilities in one building, support for newcomers in another, and attention to race and ethnicity elsewhere.
The Progression
As Kendrick-Weikle says, “There’s no endpoint — this is continuous learning for all of us.” This shows clearly in the district’s commitment to staff training. Early sessions focused on defining equity and helping staff see it as broader than race alone, and as applying to all students and their experiences. This past year’s training centered on restorative practices, increasingly designed and delivered by teachers and teacher leaders rather than administrators. Equity is also naturally built into typical professional development, such as learning about a new math curriculum.
Last year, the district kicked off a new “Excellence Summit” program that gives staff the opportunity to submit proposals to share their best. The event was held at one of the district’s high schools, allowing staff to choose which sessions to attend. “It was a huge, overwhelming hit,” she says. The second iteration is scheduled for October, with staff already practicing their presentations and receiving feedback.
Every McLean County Unit District 5 school improvement plan must now include at least one equity goal alongside academic goals, which principals report on and receive feedback from the district level and colleagues throughout the year. This expectation supports the district’s strategic plan, which was renewed in 2024–25 and reflects an ongoing commitment to equity.
Pushback
Although the board’s support has been largely overwhelming, the work still comes with challenges. A small number of staff and community members questioned the work in its early stages, but consistency and efforts to define equity and belonging in broad terms have assuaged most fears. The district has also received Freedom of Information Act requests, largely related to listing the accomplishments of individuals who identify as LGBTQIA. It’s a reminder that visible commitment to equity doesn’t mean the conversation is settled, even after five years of sustained work. The important thing, according to Kendrick-Weikle, is maintaining a dedication to living the work.
Advice for Districts Starting Out
Asked what she’d tell a superintendent or board just beginning this work, Kendrick-Weikle says, “Just having the conversation is a great first step.” Every district has room to improve outcomes for some group of students, and identifying that isn’t a mark of failure. “You should be proud that you’re willing and brave enough to have those conversations.”
Her second piece of advice: bring in outside expertise, even if you feel equipped to do the work yourself. “It’s hard to be the expert in your own district,” she says. Her third: Don’t overreach. Set realistic objectives rather than trying to accomplish everything at once, and make a plan that works for everyone.
The Next Steps
Commitment two of the district’s strategic plan lists one word: Belonging. To this district, that means a “safe, courageous, and inclusive environment for all.”
Kendrick-Weikle is focusing this year on taking that task to heart. This past June, when meeting with administrators, she challenged them to focus on adult belonging this year. The district has spent years on the important work of building equity and processes for student belonging. Now the work turns toward the adults who staff its buildings and the families who walk through its doors. Administrators return from break this month to start mapping out what that looks like.
Five years and five strands later, the work continues. Kendrick-Weikle’s message is clear: Belonging isn’t something a district finishes; it’s something it keeps choosing, one conversation at a time.
Katie Bulava is Director of Outreach & Training for the Illinois Association of School Boards.