Belmont Public Schools will host its first “Bridges to Equity” conference on Nov. 7, months into a school year where discussions of racism and antisemitism have taken center stage.
The conference, which will be held at Belmont High School (BHS), will feature a variety of workshops aimed at facilitating dialogue about equity and belonging in the school community. The workshops include sessions on special education and ableism, communication between educators and families, the school-to-prison pipeline in Massachusetts, LGBTQ+ student support and more.
Experts and advocates in education will lead the sessions, with a keynote address by Maribel Carvajal, founder of Hispanas Amigas Inc.
“We’re in a climate that’s hostile to differences, so my vision here is creating a conference where we can begin to bring people together, build relationships through dialogue,” said Darnell Thigpen Williams, the school district’s director of diversity, equity, inclusion and well-being.
In the first week of school, school leaders reported two instances of racist and antisemitic graffiti found in a bathroom at the high school. Weeks later, parents and community members gathered for a forum on discrimination in the high school, where several parents said their children didn’t feel comfortable discussing or publicly expressing their Jewish identity at school.
“Belmont is not unique to these social and political challenges, but Belmont is a part of it,” Williams said.
Williams hopes the conference, which he plans to make an annual event, will serve as a starting point for conversations around discrimination.
“I have no illusion to think that one conference is going to change [things], but I do know by being in education for 30-plus years that professional learning is a key piece of transformation,” he said.
Since joining the district in 2025, Williams said he’s heard a desire for further training and professional development surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion. The conference, which is open to anyone in the community, including students, currently has about 200 people signed up to attend.
“I know that you can’t really move this work without training and without creating professional learning opportunities,” Williams said. “… I think in order to transform a district, you can’t just do it within the district itself.”
The Bridges to Equity conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 at BHS. More information is available on the district’s website: https://tinyurl.com/m8yyv5r8
