Kelsey Jones and Gabriela Tejedor, Brooklyn Independent Middle School

New York, I Love You But You've Changed

Kelsey Jones and Gabriela Tejedor, are the founders and Co-Heads of School and the respective Math and ELA teachers at Brooklyn Independent, a private middle school with a sliding scale tuition model located in Fort Greene. BKI names diversity and inclusion as keys to effective learning, and the school’s goal is to cultivate a community that sincerely reflects the racial and socioeconomic diversity of Brooklyn. Gaby and Kelsey started BKI as a response to the stark segregation and inequity that plagues New York City’s school system, two things they witnessed and felt in their decade-long careers as educators. Gaby and Kelsey opened the doors of BKI to their first class of 6th graders in the fall of 2019 after years of intense, and at times, disheartening, planning. BKI is now in its second year of operation, serving 6th and 7th graders, with plans to expand in the coming years.

This conversation is rigorous (to borrow an overused word from the ed world) and emotionally rich and thought provoking and very very honest. In this episode, Gaby and Kelsey discuss their protective, stubborn relationships with New York City, how to fundraise and recruit for a school with a social justice mission and different tuition tiers, the ugly truth about remote learning, and running a school during a pandemic and last summer’s uprising. They also reflect on the email they sent out last June in support of Black Lives Matter and the many iterations the school’s systems have gone through to most accurately actualize their mission and to better serve all of the students and families in their community. Alexis, Kelsey and Gaby also all share details about their own uncomfortable reckonings with how they have shown up (and not shown up) as educators in the past, and how to do it with more awareness.

Places on the Internet to Learn More:

• Brooklyn Independent’s Website and Instagram

• Initiate Equity

• Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards

• MCOD: Multicultural Organization Development Framework