At Saint Paul Public Schools we recognize, respect and appreciate the valuable and different perspectives that each of us bring to the work environment, our students, and our community.

When you educate and serve over 40,000 students and their families from many countries, speaking over 75 languages and dialects, you can't afford to have a singular point of view.  As our workforce evolves to reflect the growing diversity of our community, our efforts to understand, value, and incorporate differences become increasingly important.

Saint Paul Public Schools is committed to promoting and supporting diversity within our own organization and to demonstrate this commitment in the communities we serve.  We do this a number of ways: through inclusive events and activities, continuing education, awareness sessions, brown bag videos and discussions, numerous special events relative to similarities and differences among people, their cultures, traditions and values and also by trying to increase the number of publications we translate into other languages.

Our goal is to break down barriers and create an environment that maximizes the contributions of all employees.  Diversity includes but is not limited to, race, gender, languages spoken, class, age, physical and mental abilities, lifestyles, culture, education, ideas and background.  It also includes the varied perspectives, interests, and needs that our people bring to the workforce.

A diverse workforce is essential to our success and our efforts to build a respectful culture of inclusion.  Recognizing that, Saint Paul Public Schools is exploring the possibility of forming employee resource affinity groups that provide networking opportunities and provide district leadership with recommendations on what is working and for needed changes.  We believe this approach may be of value to our employees and promotes the values of inclusiveness and supports implementation of workplace initiatives to create an environment in which all our employees can achieve their potential.

Key diversity efforts include:

• Getting out our message that Saint Paul Public Schools is a great place to learn and work for all people.  We believe that multicultural marketing is not just about marketing and advertising, but also about relationships and being present and active in the community.
  
• Improve selection tools to reduce cultural bias and focus on most critical competencies/skills needed in the position.
  
• Educating employees on understanding the importance and value of diverse ideas and employee diversity.