After much uncertainty regarding the Affinity Summit that was set to be held on April 17, it has officially been confirmed that the Summit is postponed until the Fall of 2024. This decision was made after weeks of attempting to plan the Summit, but ultimately realizing that waiting until next year would provide both Niles North and West with more time to plan the best Summit possible.
As the weeks have passed from the first announcement of a new Affinity Summit, changes have continuously been made. Starting on Feb. 5, an email was sent out to all D219 families explaining on April 17, all students will attend a “Cultural/Identity Anti-bias Education Summit.” This Summit was said to include “interactive learning experiences, student-centered activities, affinity spaces, cultural celebration, educational awareness, student selected breakout sessions and much more.”
From this first announcement, concern and confusion from both students and staff began to rise. The first confusing question was simply as to why the school decided to erase the previous Affinity BSU and MENA Summits, and replace it with something new. The answer given to this question was because the new idea for a Unity Summit was more inclusive for all students.
However, this only seemed to raise more questions. People were concerned from the beginning what this Summit was set to look like, whose ideas it would use, and who was in charge. Starting Feb. 16, emails were sent to staff members asking them to sign up for different workshops to run during the Summit. Two subsequent request emails were sent to staff due to low volunteering. Students were also told that they would be able to collaborate and share their ideas in the context of planning the event. In spite of that claim, only three student voices were asked to contribute and were expected to advocate for all North students.
As far as the schedule for the day is concerned, the original summit was supposed to be an all day event. The idea then shifted to be more of an assembly. Looking closer to the launch date, both students and staff still had questions about what was actually happening. In March West had already announced that their Summit was going to be pushed back to May to give them enough time to plan. Students and staff at North also advocated for a postponement and at first there was pushback in regards to postponing/canceling the Summit.
Throughout the entire process of trying to create this new Affinity Summit, there has been a lot of uncertainty as to how it will look. There is also worry about whether or not this Summit will live up to students’ and staff expectations. Although there isn’t a lot of information right now, a general outline for the Summit has been released.
As of right there are a few parts of the Summit that are supposed to take place. This includes inventory/feedback from virtual groups like MENA, BSU, and others. There are also supposed to be surveys from students and feedback from staff. An additional Summer 2024 district-wide Unity Day Summit project, with both students and staff is said to occur.
In an email from Chief Equity Officer Dr. La Wanna Wells, she states all changes being made to the Summit are made with one goal in mind, “We want our students to feel valued and safe within their cultural and identity groups and outside of them.”
