List of 4 items.

• Message from Father Ryan - Spring 2021 Update

  A More Inclusive Campus Environment 
  Spring 2021 Update

  Father Ryan High School is committed to fostering an inclusive environment where every student is known and loved.

   

  As we communicated with you last summer, we have entered into a thoughtful and prayerful process to understand the ways we have created this inclusive environment on our campus and how we can improve it, specifically so that students of color have a genuine feeling of belonging. 

   

   The goals continue to be

  • to identify effective and sustainable actions that Father Ryan High School will take to make our environment more inclusive and with a greater feeling of belonging for Black students and other students of color, and
  • to identify effective and sustainable actions that Father Ryan High School will take to help prevent racism on our campus. 

  Since July we have been in collaboration with the Diocese of Nashville and have been working with Derek Young, president of YMG Enterprises, LLC, an experienced Nashville-based diversity and inclusivity consultant, to establish and facilitate the process to achieve these goals. The three steps of the process are outlined on our website at FatherRyan.org/inclusion. We want to update you on the process thus far.

   

  Step 1 – Listen and understand

  It was important to take time to listen to and understand a variety of perspectives from members across our community. This part of the process took place during the fall semester in two ways:

  • An online survey was made available throughout our community.  Nearly 900 completed surveys were submitted during the survey period, which ran from July-August 2020.
  • More than 300 members of our community, including alumni across multiple generations, current parents, faculty and staff, and students, were invited to participate in one of eight focus groups conducted by Derek Young during the fall of 2020.

  Step 2 – Prioritize the feedback and identify action steps

  Critical to the success of this process is turning the feedback into meaningful action steps. While step 2 is not yet complete, these are the actions we have taken thus far.

  • With the assistance of our consultant, we organized all of the feedback and insights from Step 1 into these five categories where specific initiatives to achieve the stated goals will be considered - 
    • Education
    • Experiences     
    • Policy             
    • Representation
    • Support.
  • School leadership has joined with the Board of Trustees' Strategic Plan Oversight Committee to assist in aligning specific actions within our strategic plan. This committee’s membership was expanded to incorporate additional Father Ryan High School constituents.
  • The committee has met multiple times, including a six-hour session with Derek Young on December 18, 2020. During this session, the committee divided into work sub-groups in line with the categories identified above.
  • Each sub-group, as well as the full committee, has continued to meet and consider further the feedback received. They will make recommendations for actions to be taken to achieve our goals.

  We will organize the recommendations for action into achievable, meaningful, and manageable steps. We plan to complete step 2 prior the beginning of the 2021 school year.

   

  Step 3 – Implement and track progress

  In step 3 we will ask the Board of Trustees to adopt and incorporate the recommended actions into the school’s current strategic plan where they will be part of the progress tracking for the entire strategic plan.

   

  We are very thankful for the feedback that we have received and the support our community has offered for this process. We will keep you informed as the action steps are finalized.

   

  Jim McIntyre                                              Paul Davis '81

  President                                                     Principal

• Survey

  A survey was available through July 31 for constituents to provide insights, experiences, and feedback. 

• Message from Father Ryan - June 24

  Dear Father Ryan Community,

   

  Recent events have demonstrated yet again how this nation’s long legacy of racism perpetuates a system that diminishes and even destroys the lives of Black people and other people of color. These events have brought a renewed focus to the role we all must play in confronting racism. Our humanity and Catholic social teaching demand that each of us work for the dignity of every human being as a child of God and a part of this world community.  

   

  We are in the process of implementing our strategic plan, adopted last year, and its particular initiatives of enhanced inclusiveness and a deeper student experience. Our community recognizes that we need to look at our school and ourselves to make sure we demonstrate an inclusive environment for Black students and other students of color. The Father Ryan community, in collaboration with the Diocese of Nashville and its leadership, is committed to doing the work necessary to make this initiative a reality. 

   

  To help guide us as we move forward, we have partnered with Derek Young, president of YMG Enterprises, LLC, a respected and experienced Nashville-based diversity and inclusivity consultant.  With his help, we have begun to identify a process for our work that begins with listening to representatives of our community. We will communicate specific information on this process and its steps in the next few weeks.

   

  All of this is happening as we determine how to reopen our school in the midst of a pandemic. As we work towards reopening in this time of uncertainty, the leadership team will also continue to address the issues facing our nation and our school. Our goal is to create effective and lasting solutions - ones that emerge from an informed and thoughtful process, ones that will help prevent racism on our campus. 

   

  Sincerely,

   

  Jim McIntyre                         Paul Davis '81

  President                                 Principal

• Message from Father Ryan - June 2

  Dear Father Ryan Community, 

   

  This past week has brought another painful reminder of the injustice faced by so many in our communities, and the anger, fear and heartache they feel every day. We join our Bishop Mark Spalding and Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, in their messages of hope during these difficult times.

   

  The senseless and preventable deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others awaken us to our responsibilities as Christians, as educators, as citizens, as human beings. Just as Christ calls us, Father Ryan is deeply committed to a culture of inclusion, justice and equality for all, with no place for racism in any form.

   

  Throughout our history, Father Ryan has taken on the challenges that social justice demands, with Catholic social teaching as our guide. Today, we embrace our legacy of social justice and stand in solidarity with our global neighbors in calling for true reconciliation and meaningful change. We offer our most heartfelt prayers to all the victims of prejudicial violence and racial bias. We recommit to educating our students and our community to encourage a peaceful and unrelenting resolve to challenge systemic injustices in our world.

   

  As we work to form lives of excellence in the world today, we draw again on Christ’s message of love and acceptance and pray for His grace on all. 

   

  “God of peace, justice and love, fill us with courage that we might seek to heal wounds, build bridges, forgive and be forgiven, and establish peace and equality for all in our communities, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

   

  Peace,

   

  Jim McIntyre      Paul Davis '81               

  President              Principal