Building a Community of Belonging

“Without community, there is no liberation…but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.”
— Audre Lorde

One of our highest values at Bright Water Waldorf School in honoring the humanity of every individual. We believe that by learning and growing within a diverse and vibrant community, each student can best meet the challenges of the human being in the modern world. In this spirit, we welcome, value, and support families of all races, ethnicity, national origins, religions, economic backgrounds, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities and expressions. We seek to provide an environment that require people to learn to engage with differences and to be willing to listen and to find common ground. Therefore, one of our highest goals is to have our school community reflect the abundant and changing diversity of our city, the United States as a whole, and the world.

From NWAIS Self-Study, 2018-19 Academic Year

The Bright Water Waldorf Board of Trustees fully endorses this statement from the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America.

AWSNA Statement of Inclusion and Equity

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Circle

The DEI(B) Circle creates and maintains regular opportunities for study and action for faculty and our extended community. Our aims and domain includes Preparing, Supporting, and Empowering each other to take anti-racist action and lean into deconstructing implicit and explicit biases. This work is not but a summit, a lecture, or sojourn; it is instead a lifelong learning and unlearning of white supremist norms.

DEI(B) Circle Aims

Consistently support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Bright Water to enable everyone in the school and extended community to feel welcomed, represented, and seen

  • Engage the community by hosting DEI(B) educational opportunities, February mid-winter break learning for faculty and community, taking collective action, and having an annual summit.

  • Support DEI(B) integration and expansion of curriculum and activities in the classroom.

  • Identify, revise and create policies and procedures that support our DEI(B) values.

  • Support organization of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Assembly.

  • Work towards becoming an anti-racist organization.

  • Solicit and field feedback for the school. For transparent and or confidential feedback, please email Melissa Lang Lytle, mllytle@brightwaterwaldorf.org.


DEI(B) Circle Domain

  • DEI(B) education and integration

  • DEI(B) policies

  • Belonging work in daily life at the school and at school community events