Oregon School Board Members of Color Caucus Special Event - June 2022

You are invited this Thursday, June 30, 2022, to the Bend-La Pine Diwanya (community gathering) to share and listen to others sharing their answers to this question: “What should the future of education look like and what is missing in our schools and community colleges?”

The gathering will be taking place from  6 to 8 pm at 61980 Skyline Ranch Road, Bend, Oregon.

Students, parents, community members, elected officials, and community leaders are invited to attend Oregon’s first Diwanya (community gathering) of its kind held in Bend this Thursday. Shenika Cumberbatch-Corpas, and school board members Shimiko Montgomery and Janet Sarai Llerandi will be hosting this gathering which is sponsored by the Oregon School Board Members of Color Caucus.

This Diwanya is for everyone - school board, ESD, and Community college board members, teachers, administrators, parents, PTA, community leaders, and locally elected officials to share their voices on priorities to invest in systemic change to address educational inequities. Everyone is a teacher, a storyteller, and a listener in this gathering.

Oregon School Board Members of Color Caucus president Dr. Sami Al-Abdrabbuh stated that the intended purpose of this gathering is to facilitate community building and inform policy needs. The meeting will focus on community building first. It may also report policy changes, advocacy priorities for policy, and legislative concepts on local, state, and federal levels. 

Al-Abdrabbuh hopes these listening sessions will inform ‘Color Caucus’ members, OSBA board members, and other partners such as legislative and municipal caucuses on the intersectionality of inequities that impact children, educators, and board members of color. “We hope to highlight the intersection between the impact of inequities on students of color and other underserved students,” Al-Abdrabbuh said, mentioning examples of such intersectionalities include access to clean and safe water in schools, access to equal and appropriate education services for special education recipients, access to high-speed internet, support of adoption of culturally relevant curriculum, and the safety of all students, educators, and public servants.

Please send accommodation or interpretation needs to 541-283-6611 (by voicemail or text).