July 10, 2020


Dear Notre Dame Belmont Community,

NDB’s Administrative Team, acting in partnership with the faculty and the Board of Directors, is taking the following concrete steps to live out the Hallmarks, particularly the call to honor our commitment to equity and inclusion throughout the NDB community.

I am grateful to our alumnae, parents, students, faculty, staff, and Board members who have expressed their views. Their collective message has been clear: Notre Dame Belmont needs to move beyond talk and take meaningful action. To that end, we are enacting the following steps: 

  • Create a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force. The task force, which will be fully constituted in July, will be composed of representatives from the faculty/staff, current students and parents, alumnae, and Board members. Their task will be three-fold:
  • Organize listening groups - While we seek immediate action, we also understand that solutions cannot be fully developed without first allowing all voices to be heard. The task force will invite members of the NDB Community, both past and present, to share their stories of exclusion or racism.
  • Conduct outside research - As the task force synthesizes what they hear, they will research and discuss other policies and structures that will lead to meaningful change at NDB.
  • Present recommendations - The task force will work with NDB’s leadership and Board of Directors to create strategic plans for DEI programming.
  • Mandate Professional Development for faculty/staff and Board members. Beginning in August and continuing throughout the 2020-2021 school year, faculty and staff will engage in mandatory professional growth and development training in anti-racist and equitable practices. The handbook will be revised to include DEI practices.
  • Re-design curriculum for Social Justice class. As a required Spiritual Life class in the 11th grade, the previous focus has been a survey course of social justice issues, including the environment, economic justice, ethics of life, war and peace, to name a few. For the 2020-2021 academic year, the course will focus exclusively on race, ethnicity, and justice.
  • Establish protocols for recruitment and hiring for administrators, faculty and staff. All administrators and department chairs involved in the hiring process will be required to have completed anti-bias training.
  • Strengthen and enhance. NDB’s U.S. History curriculum will be expanded to include more comprehensive engagement with the history of black, indigenous, and people of color.

By simply stating that we are an inclusive community, free of prejudice and discrimination, does not mean that we actually are one, yet; inclusive communities are made, actively, and intentionally. We must deliberately support and foster a culture of inclusion and anti-racism. Thank you to all members of the NDB Community who are aligned with our collective and collaborative work, committing their support to help NDB become a more equitable and anti-racist school. 

As we establish the task force and make genuine progress on the stated initiates, I will provide updates to the NDB Community. Please contact me if you have any questions.

In Notre Dame,
Maryann Osmond
Head of School
Notre Dame Belmont