OGDEN — The Ogden School District is among the most diverse in Utah, and with 50.9% of its students identifying as Hispanic, it is one of two in the state that are not majority-white.

As the district’s administration and school board work to help its student body overcome many of the barriers within the education system that have traditionally inhibited students of color and those from other marginalized backgrounds, it is forming a diversity, equity and inclusion advisory council.

The council has been a project of outgoing Superintendent Rich Nye, who is leaving to head Granite School District in Salt Lake County. It will address the question: “How are we including all students to where they feel welcome, they feel supported, they have the resources they need to be successful, not only successful but a part of what it means to be a student in the Ogden School District?” Nye said at a school board meeting last week.

Community members and district employees will make up the council, which Nye said he hopes will be assembled in June. The number of people who will serve on the council has yet to be determined, but Nye indicated that several people have reached out to express interest in participating.

“Each member of this committee is going to be able to speak to their lived experience, their life experience, and they’re going to have thoughts and feelings about it,” Nye said.

At the council’s first meeting, it will work out some of those details. It will also decide its purpose and goals, set expectations and come up with a definitional lens of what diversity, equity and inclusion are.

“It’s very important for us as we speak of diversity, equity and inclusion that we’re very clear on how we are defining each of those constructs to be able to guide the council’s work,” Nye said.

As it meets on a regular basis, the council will reference various data sets provided by the district to identify inequities to be addressed. It then may break up into subcommittees as it works to find solutions to those issues, Nye said.

Much of the data used will come from social-emotional learning data the district has started collecting in recent years. The questions in social-emotional learning surveys aim to grasp students’ sense of belonging and their experience at school.

The council will also work to help the Ogden school board come up with a statement to show its commitment to diversity. Nye said the council may reference the Utah State Board of Education’s Resolution Denouncing Racism and Embracing Equity, which passed at the beginning of 2021.

The school board previously passed a resolution in support of its Latino students following the 2016 presidential election — “a time when many in our community and in our schools were fearful that certain protections might be violated as it pertains to deportation orders and ICE coming into our schools,” Nye said.

With the adoption of the resolution, the district requested that any law enforcement agency attempting to enforce immigration laws notify the district superintendent or designee at least seven days in advance.

In recent years, the district has made other strides toward improving equity, especially among its Spanish-speaking students. Multiple schools within the Ogden School District were recognized this year for being the top for English language instruction.

“There are good things going on. This isn’t a deficit mindset where we’re identifying things that are broken, but there’s areas to improve,” Nye said. “And there may be some things that are broken that we’re going to take a hard look at and work to solution and fix them.”