On Aug. 23, The Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) met with over 100 community members to sign the District’s first-ever Community Pledge and Civility Bylaw. The meeting started outside on the Beverly Hills High School campus, where BHUSD Board of Education President Mary Wells celebrated the induction of the new mission, vision and core values for the district. The Board then moved inside for its regular meeting, to discuss the revised Governance Handbook and Superintendent Michael Bregy’s report.
“It all started with a question: how can we deliver educational excellence when it is not in our mission, vision or part of our vernacular,” said Wells. “This has become the basis of all of our conversations and planning for the future of BHUSD.”
The Community Pledge was first introduced to the BHUSD staff on Aug. 12 and reads as follows:
“The BHUSD community acknowledges that in order to achieve educational excellence, we must act with integrity and respect for each other and our learning environment.
Therefore, I pledge to:
Model civil behavior and respect in all communications and in public while maintaining a culture of honesty.
Listen and acknowledge differences of opinion.
Do my part to protect an inclusive culture in which we honor the relationship between all school community members; and
Honor our learning environment including how we take care of our schools and personal property.
By holding ourselves and each other accountable to this pledge at all times, we will promote an environment of educational excellence that will allow our entire BHUSD community to thrive.”
The Board also took the opportunity to highlight its new mission, vision and core values. The new mission statement was boiled down to two words: educational excellence. The Board’s vision has been altered to read: “Our students will realize their full potential to thrive with integrity in a complex, changing world.” The core values listed the terms: excellence, integrity, wellness, inclusion, safety and community. After Wells’ speech, everyone in attendance was invited to sign the pledge.
The new guidelines were applied directly to the revised Beverly Hills Unified School District Governance Handbook. At the meeting, the Board voted unanimously in favor of the new revision.
In addition to the Community Pledge and Handbook, the Board also voted in favor of its first Civility Bylaw, which further enforces the behavioral expectations of the Board moving forward. The District has had its Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) programs that enforce good behavior within the schools, but the Community Pledge and Civility Bylaw differ by setting standards across the entire educational community of Beverly Hills, from the Board to the parents. “I’m proud that we’re doing this,” said Board Member Gabriel Halimi. “I think a lot of this is about accountability and I really encourage our community to start holding each other accountable.”
Superintendent Dr. Michael Bregy also gave his report at the meeting, sharing some of the experiences from the first week of school. Over the last week, Bregy has attended the first day of Beverly Hills High School, a carnival at the Beverly Vista Middle School and made campus visits at Hawthorne and Horace Mann Elementary. “A personal goal of mine, as Superintendent, is to spend time in our classrooms and be part of the culture and learning environment,” said Bregy. “That’s something that’s been missing due to a lot of responsibilities in the past, but I finally have an opportunity this year.”
The Board also had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the District and California School Employees Association that formally recognizes Juneteenth, June 19, as a federal holiday. The District is in accordance with the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act President Biden signed on June 17, 2021, declaring Juneteenth a day of observance. Students and faculty will have the day off, if it falls on a Saturday, it will be recognized on Friday; if it lands on a Sunday, it will be recognized on Monday.
The Board is excited to usher in a new era that reflects the guidelines they’ve set forth. “With all the work that went on, it was so well worth it,” said Board Member Rachelle Marcus. “I’m hoping that our community will embrace and think about it for not just the next year, but the year after that and so on.”
