Office of Education Equity

Saint Peter Public Schools recently named long-time Saint Peter High School social studies teacher John Warren as the district’s new equity coordinator. Warren will work in his new role during the morning hours and continue to teach two blocks of social studies at SPHS in the afternoon.

Warren, who began the new role at the start of the school year, has taught social studies at SPHS for 29 years and is a member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation here in Minnesota.

According to Warren, the equity coordinator position was established at SPPS to, “To further diversity, equity and inclusion in the Saint Peter Schools, increase the success of students, nurture positive relationships throughout the community and to provide quality staff development."

“Quite honestly, I was a bit surprised at being named to this position because I didn’t lobby for it in any way,” Warren said. “My involvement with the Joy Days conferences at the high school (Indigenous Peoples Joy Day in November 2023 and Black Peoples Joy Day in February 2024) in the past gave me a good background and understanding of what this position entails, and our administration knew that and approached me last spring about possibly taking on this new role.”

“I’m very excited about the position, and I know that with the limited time I’ll have each day that there will be some challenges but I’m also looking forward to working with our staff and students. My expectations are realistic with what I hope to accomplish, but my goals are lofty and I’m excited to get started.”

Among the goals/tasks that Warren hopes to accomplish in his new role as he gets started includes:

1. Creating a repository, Google Classroom, that will house vetted, authentic, standards based resources for our educators to use in their classrooms and instruction.

2. Establish a District Equity Committee.  “My hope is that we can get representation from each of our buildings who like to meet occasionally and put our heads together to help me to make the most of this position for educators and learners in our classrooms and in each of our buildings,” he said.

3. Opportunities to visit various classrooms throughout the district when teachers are doing something that is providing our learners culturally responsive learning opportunities. 

4. Encouraging staff to meet with him to discuss culturally responsive content in their curriculums.  “I look forward to opportunities to help any way I can to support their efforts,” Warren said.

Hispanic/Latino Peoples’ Joy Day set for Oct. 11

One of the first things Warren set up when taking over as SPPS equity coordinator was continuing the Joy Days conferences and SPHS will host its first-ever Hispanic/Latino Peoples’ Joy Day conference on Friday, Oct. 11. 

This will be a full educational day of activities for all SPHS students, and Warren was excited that some student groups have already stepped forward to run some of the breakout sessions.

More details on Hispanic/Latino Peoples Joy Day will be released in the coming weeks, according to Warren.