Goal IV

Promoting the inherent dignity of the human person {Goal IV . Criterion 1}

Community Understandings

STRENGTHS

Ninety-first Street fully affirms the sacramental view that the Body of Christ is composed of people and that all are created in the image and likeness of God {IV.1}. All constituent groups strongly believe that Sacred Heart compels our entire 91st Street community to reflect and act in the interest of dignity, equity, and justice. The school centers equity and belonging in recruiting and integrating all of our members into this body through community and financial resources {IV.7}. The community values differences that include, but are not limited to, ability, age, belief, ethnicity, family structure, gender, learning style, race, religion,

Figure 6. Areas of Excellence in Goal IV by Criterion.

Community members believe that the school does an excellent job promoting the inherent dignity of the human person as created in the image and likeness of God {IV.1}. In addition, faculty, students, and parents feel the school creates a safe and healthy environment {IV.4} at 91st Street while engaging well with the Sacred Heart mission {IV.2} and the Network {IV.3}.

sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Faculty and staff foster an atmosphere of mutual respect with and among students so that as alumnae they will continue to value relationships and serve as allies for those who do not have a voice.

Figure 7. Sensory and Empathy Map by Grade 4.

When community members were asked to visualize and explore the future behaviors, emotions, and perspectives of dierent community constituents through a sensory and empathy map, Grade 4 students examined the experience of 91st Street students in 2031. Constituents feel that there are thoughtful planning processes that include a diversity of voices and multiple perspectives. Faculty and staff ensure that policies, resources, and personnel are designed and allocated to keep students and employees both physically and emotionally safe and to build a community where all feel a strong sense of belonging {IV.4; IV.6}. In fact, students and families indicate that 91st Street’s greatest strength in the building of community is maintaining a clean, healthy, and safe environment {IV.4}. They expressed a deep gratitude for the school’s proactive and thoughtful approach to opening classes in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.

91st Street has had a long tradition of engaging with the Network of Sacred Heart Schools around the world {IV.3}. In the past two years, we have grown the 91st Street Network team to expand programming and opportunities for students, faculty, and staff in all divisions and teams with Sacred Heart schools in the United States and Canada and globally. The importance and value of the Network is introduced to our newest educators and students and emphasized as a community and resource so that individuals also feel empowered to seek partnerships and opportunities on their own.

In recent years, 91st Street has increased our education to mission. The Heritage & Spirituality Council leads onboarding sessions on the history, mission, and traditions of Sacred Heart education for new employees. In August 2022, 91st Street offered our first Mini Roots program to bring learnings and insights from St. Charles about the Sacred Heart identity to faculty and staff who have been unable to attend. {IV.2}

For examples of how 91st Street lives Goal IV, please ✦ see pages 38–42.

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

The school has examined and implemented efforts to recruit students, families, and employees from communities not traditionally represented at 91st Street {IV.6}. Still, our mission calls us to enhance these efforts to recruit and subsequently retain students and employees of a diversity of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. We know that this work requires additional human and financial resources both in admissions and in the daily lives of students, faculty, and staff—and this remains a priority of the Board of Trustees {IV.7}.

With the persistence of anxieties and stressors of life, students and families need a supportive, flexible, and hopeful community within the safety, calm, and tranquility of the school {IV.4}. Across divisions and across grade levels, students wish for a more interconnected community that is inclusive and creates a sense of belonging as well as an environment that welcomes greater freedom of individual expression {IV.5}. The mission and charism of Sacred Heart remain at the forefront of 91st Street’s work as a Catholic-independent-Sacred Heart School. As modeled by the RSCJ, school leaders, decision makers, and community members all need to follow a deliberate method of pausing, reflecting, discerning, deciding, and acting as we call upon the Goals and Criteria through crises and turbulent times.

Figure 8. Areas of Opportunity in Goal

IV by Criterion. Our community members, especially the faculty, sta, and board, agree that we can do more to recruit and employ faculty from diverse backgrounds {IV.6} and financially assist students from a diversity of backgrounds in their lives at 91st Street {IV.7}.

Welcoming New Community Members

Welcome Program for Families. The School welcomes newly admitted early childhood families at the spring Milk and Cookies, during which parents enjoy adult community time as students gather together for age-appropriate community-building opportunities. New admitted Middle School students enjoy a morning visit with their peers. All Grade 9 families—those new to 91st Street and those continuing on with 91st Street to a new division—participate in a spring evening gathering to start building their grade-level community as they enter the Upper School. Grade 9 parents enjoy a cocktail reception and students begin their time together with a scavenger hunt and dinner, designed in collaboration between the Admissions team and the Upper School support team. When the academic year begins in the fall, the School welcomes new parents at grade-specific and divisional morning coffee and evening cocktail events and new students during orientation days. The Parents Association also hosts the Kindergarten Family Fun Day in collaboration with Upper School student volunteers. Each new student Grade 1 to 11 is paired and guided by a student Angel for the entirety of the year, and parents have easy access to school information and resources through the Parent Portal.

The goal of Peer Support is to welcome Grade 9 students into the Upper School community, help them build relationships with each other and Grade 12 mentors, and develop the skills needed to handle typical challenges that arise in high school. Peer Support kicks off the year on the first Friday evening of the school year at an event called Immersion. Peer Support groups meet once every six-day cycle and comprise six to seven Grade 9 students and two Grade 12 peer leaders. To support their critical work, the Upper School Social Worker trains and leads the peer leaders. The Onboarding Program ensures that new employees to 91st Street are integrated into the wider school community. Throughout the year, the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Community Life, in collaboration with the Heritage & Spirituality Council, Awareness Council, and the DEI team, leads group and individual meetings, small group collaboration, and cohort celebration to focus on the Goals and Criteria, growing as a Sacred Heart educator, and the building of community. Mini Roots was designed as a way for administrative staff and leadership to steep themselves in the history, philosophy, and spirituality of Sacred Heart education before eventually attending Roots That Give Us Wings to connect with the broader Network of Sacred Heart schools. This orientation not only provides a foundation for each individual but also coalesces individuals in seemingly distinct roles across the School as advocates of Sacred Heart Education throughout the 91st Street community and beyond.

All-School Community Read and Dialogue

As we continue to deepen our understanding of and commitment to building a community of inclusion and belonging at Sacred Heart, we utilize the summer months to read a selection of books to prepare for group discussion upon returning to and throughout the school year. Community reading selections have included the following: ● ✦ The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee ● Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong ● The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation by 91st Street alum Jodie Patterson ● I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown ● Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson ● My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem ● So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo ● We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love ● White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo

Network Programs

We define entrepreneurship as creating value where it did not exist before, through the pursuit of opportunity and innovation. Entrepreneurs ask themselves, “Is this something that could benefit the world?” The ✦ Exploring Entrepreneurship program aims to ignite an entrepreneurial spirit in young women through experiential learning and engagement with young leaders in industry. Participants in the program see first hand how young entrepreneurs are working to make the world a better place and begin to imagine how they might contribute to the co-creation of a better world in their careers, develop the future-ready skills, dispositions, and mindsets through experiential, hands-on learning that will empower participants to make a profound impact in their careers, and build community as young women within the Sacred Heart network, who will be future leaders in industry.

Grade 10 students have the exciting opportunity to participate in the Visiting Students Program with Sacred Heart schools across the United States and Canada and globally. Program participants broaden their horizons socially, academically, and culturally by experiencing the life of Sacred Heart students in different parts of the world and the country, practicing world languages, and hosting sister students in their homes and here at 91st Street for several weeks. 91st Street students have studied in Australia, Austria, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington. After a delay of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 12 members of our community will be traveling to India for an academic and service learning immersion in December 2022. The focus of the trip is two fold for students: to collaborate with their peers at Sophia College through an academic learning experience in Mumbai and to work with children at the St. Theresa School, which is led by the RSCJ in the remote village of Haregaon. In Mumbai, students will stay on the campus of Sophia College in simple accomodations and, in Haregaon, at the Bhokar Center for women run by the RSCJ. Our delegation plans to build relationships, reflect, live a simple life for two weeks, and open hearts to experience the rich culture of India.

In preparation for this immersion, Grade 10 students participated in the ✦ NYC-Mumbai Literary Collaboration, a poetry exchange with peers at Sophia Women’s College. In 91st Street-Sophia College pairs, students researched and read poetry by an American poet and an Indian poet, discussed and analyzed them, and then presented their analysis over Zoom.

Middle School Leadership

The Middle School leadership program is committed to increasing students’ awareness of the importance of responsibility and compassion for others while offering opportunities to develop their voice. Student leadership and citizenship is encouraged at all grade levels. Two class representatives are elected to serve in the Student Council, led by the Executive Council, which comprises Grade 8 students elected by the entire student body in the roles of President, Vice President, and Service Captain. The Executive Council meets weekly to plan and run morning meetings, special events, and activities. They often spearhead initiatives, request special privileges for the Middle School, and have a voice in determining the focus and activities for Middle School events. In addition, a leadership team, composed of elected students from all grades, have special responsibilities and lead school initiatives such as Uganda Spirit Week, Heritage Week, and Kindness to the Earth Week. As they prepare, research important topics, present speeches, fundraise and run activities, they develop a deeper understanding of important issues and the powerful and positive impact that they can have in both the school community and the greater community. Read the ✦ President’s welcome to the student body for the 2022–2023 school year.

Kindergarten Buddies and Prayer Partners

Lower School students form relationships outside their grade cohorts by participating in two beloved, year-long 91st Street traditions. Kindergarteners match with Grade 4 students in the Kindergarten Buddies program, meeting several times a year to read and spend time together, and form a bond that enriches their school experience. Grade 4 students are matched with Grade 12 students as Prayer Partners. The partners meet four times during the year, to visit, celebrate holidays, and pray for one another as they embark on their next journeys: the Grade 4 students moving to Middle School and the seniors moving on to college.

All-School Community Concerts

The 2021 Christmas Concert was one of the first occasions we gathered as one school community after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual format enabled the Lower School Twitters, the Upper School choir, the Upper School orchestra, and soloists from the Upper School musical cast to appear together in a concert for the first time. In winter 2020/2021, we established the faculty-staff CSH Sound Collective, a choir to which all are welcome and no auditions are required. Individuals from across divisions and departments made music with fellow community members on a weekly basis. That year, the Sound Collective performed at the school benefit with the Lower, Middle, Upper School choirs, the Upper School Madrigals, and the Upper School Orchestra.

Sunshine Committees

The Lower and Middle School Sunshine Committees are groups of educators who aim to foster a sense of belonging and spread joy within our community. The Committees gift faculty members personalized cards on their birthdays, host special treats once a month, and plan community gatherings outside of school. As part of the Middle School Sunshine Committee, faculty and staff can choose to be a Secret Supporter, giving and receiving surprises each month to another member in the community. At the end-of-year celebration, recipients guess which community members have been supporting each other.

Rooftop Garden

In its eighth year of operation, the Rooftop Garden at the Athletics and Wellness Center contains ten raised planter beds with a wide range of botanical habitats: annuals, perennials, succulents, assorted vegetables, along with a fully enclosed tropical habitat greenhouse. The Garden also has seven fruit trees and two composting bins. Dedicated experimental beds allow Middle and Upper School students to collect data concerned with plant growth and environmental conditions. The Environmental Science class regularly uses the roof garden and Lower School enrichment programs access it on the weekends and through summer programs. Future enhancements include expanding the tropical greenhouse, connecting the irrigation system to a cistern, installing an automated watering station, and expanding the use of the Garden during summer programs.

Congé

Even through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to celebrate ✦ Congé. In 2022, Congé was celebrated across divisions on the same day with a wide range of activities including Lower School rooftop hide- and-seek, the Middle School water balloon fight in Central Park, and Upper School students flying kites on 91st Street!

Financial Assistance

91st Street endeavors to ensure that each child and family enjoy the full Sacred Heart experience and school community. Many teams—Admissions, the Business Office, the Finance Committee, the Financial Sustainability Committee, Division Heads, and program directors—work in concert to provide tuition and non-tuition financial assistance, including but not limited to technology hardware; First Communion, Confirmation, and Sacred Heart traditions; programs and trips after school and beyond the school year; transportation; standardized testing and college application fees; and extenuating circumstances. In response to needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporary emergency fund was established to help families through this difficult time. Typically, over $6 million in financial aid is awarded each year. 27% of students receive financial assistance.

Affinity and Alliance Spaces

Affinity groups provide a safe space for students to gather based on self-identity to have conversations, share stories, take action, and empower each other. Alliance groups bring together students who have a common commitment to an identifier group, for individuals who identify as members of the group and/or who support that group. All three academic divisions offer affinity and alliance spaces: Lower School ● Banana Splits ● Students of Color

Middle School ● Students of Color

Parents Association ● Parents of Student of Color Affinity Space Upper School ● Asian American Affinity ● Women of Proud Heritage ● Providing a Responsible, Inclusive, Diverse Environment (P.R.I.D.E.) ● Asian Pacific Enlightenment ● Club Middle East Club ● South Asian Club

Community Mural

Each year, the school community is asked to focus on one or more of the five Goals. In 2018, the art department began creating a community mural project among students in Grades 1 through 4. As seen in the cover image of this Self-Study document, the community mural in 2021–2022 focused on Goal IV and was constructed in the theme of “the people at school are part of your Sacred Heart family. ” Students used tempera paint to create a self-portrait, focusing on color mixing and proportions and capturing their own unique personalities. Many students contributed a variety of sites that they observed around school to complete the scene. The 2022–2023 mural, pictured here, is a reflection on all five Goals. To create the mural, each student divided their circle into parts to connect with another three students’ circles. The work, titled “Together We Are Better, ” emphasizes the interconnectedness that is created in our community—one that values each other, works well together, and reflects a hope that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Building Maintenance, Operations & Security

The 91st Street Maintenance, Operations, and Security teams ensure that the school is open on time, clean, safe, and ready for teaching, learning, and growing each and every day throughout the seasons. With the grandeur and beauty of our two historic buildings—the Otto Kahn and James Burden Mansions—as well as the elegant and best-in-class Athletics and Wellness Center, our physical spaces stimulate the aesthetic appreciation so inherent in Sacred Heart institutions. This style was carried over into recently renovated spaces in FutureLab. Personnel in

the operations, maintenance, and security departments make it possible for 91st Street to function not only as a school but also as a desired location for events and rental use as well as multipurpose space for community-based organizations and their client families—teams oftentimes must transition the spaces from one function to the next with a tight turnaround. The security team is composed of former law enforcement individuals who are a welcoming, watchful, and visible presence as community members begin and end their days and provide a sense of calm and expertise during times of need.

COVID-19 Response

In March 2020, the school year was interrupted by what would become the global COVID-19 pandemic. In the immediate aftermath of pivoting to distance learning format, the School established protocols that enabled students to participate virtually and created a ✦ Distance Learning microsite with tools and resources for families. A task force—composed of the Administrative Team, Board members, nurses, and special health and safety advisors—was charged with making preparations in consultation with other medical experts consistent with local, City, and State guidelines. The School implemented a ✦ reopening plan for the fall of 2020 that allowed families to select between virtual or in-person modes of learning. With about 90% of families opting for an in-person format to start the year, the School was the first to open safely in person in our market. In the time that followed, the School was nimble in its

response to cases and notices of close contacts, exercising frequent communication among families, faculty, and staff and by making accommodations to those required to be out of school for illness. The School instituted a vaccine mandate for members of the community consistent with age-appropriate recommendations by the CDC and FDA. While the pandemic presented a number of challenges throughout the 2021–2022 school year, the school community came together to offer the best possible educational experience under the circumstances. The School made essential investments in classroom technology, hardware, virtual learning/meeting platforms, and made possible professional development opportunities for those engaging with these new tools. Many pandemic-era practices and virtual options will continue to be offered. At the start of the 2022–2023 year, the School confidently welcomed students and employees back under these normalized conditions as the virus moves into a more endemic state.