About Us

Strategic Drivers for the Kinkaid School

Educational Excellence

We will prepare our students with a high-caliber, well-rounded academic experience to ensure they achieve their full potential and are prepared to succeed in their collegiate experience and beyond.

Balanced Growth

We will educate the wholly healthy child, including the mental, physical, and emotional, through a balanced curriculum that includes academics, arts and athletics while incorporating character, personal, and life skills.

Learning Environment

We will work to embrace and protect our natural campus while creating spaces, structures, and environments to facilitate our children’s learning, development, and growth. We will promote a welcoming and supportive learning environment for every student.

Challenging

We will always be a school that values rigor in academics, arts, and athletics and holds our students to high standards.

Safe

We are intentional in our commitment to create an emotionally, physically, and intellectually safe campus and environment for our teachers to teach and our children to learn, explore, and to share their individuality with confidence. We seek to form a diverse community welcome to all. Consequently, The Kinkaid School administers its educational programs without regard to to color, gender expression, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, physical disability, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

Inclusive

We will foster an environment where every person is accepted for their individuality and uniqueness. We are committed to engaging students in activities designed to increase their appreciation of individuals from different backgrounds. We will never encourage division or segregation of any kind - be it socioeconomic, racial, religious, or other.

Sound character

We will hold every person in our community, including our students, faculty, and staff, to a high ethical and moral standard guided by our core values.

Talent, Interest, and Uniqueness

We will embrace the uniqueness of every child and support their individuality to live up to their full potential. At the same time we will emphasize commonality rather than divisions.

Encouraged and Nurtured

We will foster an open, healthy, and safe environment where each child feels he or she is valued, appreciated, and supported in achieving the best of his or her abilities. We will encourage freedom of thought and respectful expression.

Lead, Serve, and Become Contributing Citizens

We will produce leaders and people who will positively contribute to the wellbeing of society and other people. We will encourage diversity of thought and not impose political perspective on students or penalize students for their views.

To Kinkaid

We will value contributions to our school and encourage actions that support our mission and values. We will strive for excellence and celebrate achievement.

Our Country and the Global Community

We will teach and embrace the understanding and action around the ideals, work ethic, history, systems, and dreams that define America; preparing our students to be a part of something bigger than our school and community. Simultaneously we will teach and celebrate global cultures.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commitment

A community grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential for The Kinkaid School to fulfill its mission and truly embody its core values of honesty, responsibility, respect, and kindness. A diverse community enhances our intellectual curiosity, inspires creativity, and cultivates empathy, all of which are essential to developing critical thinkers and leaders.

Important differences at Kinkaid include culture, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, family composition, neighborhoods, physical ability, political philosophy, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and talent. Recognizing, supporting, and honoring the unique contributions of our diverse community creates a stronger Kinkaid for all.

Members of the Kinkaid community will foster a school environment where respect is paramount and every member is valued, safe, and included. This responsibility extends throughout the entire community, including but not limited to students, faculty, staff, school leadership, board of trustees, parents, guardians, families, grandparents, caretakers, and alumni. 

Through institutional decisions and policies, Kinkaid is committed to creating and enhancing programs that foster diversity, equity, and inclusion as foundational aspects of our school community, including academics, arts, athletics, student life, admissions, community engagement, and employment practices. Community members will challenge bias and stereotypes, embrace differences, stimulate collaboration and teamwork, and honor viewpoints that are presented in a civil and respectful manner.

In concert with our mission and core values, our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion will equip students with the skills to serve, lead and become contributing citizens to the communities of Kinkaid, Houston, our country, and the world.

Approved March 30, 2021
The Kinkaid School Board of Trustees

Expression Policy

Purpose

As a college-preparatory institution, Kinkaid is committed to creating an environment governed by its core values in which every student can gain the knowledge, develop the skills, and build the confidence necessary to participate productively in a vibrant marketplace of ideas. Fostering an environment where members of the community engage in effective and responsible conversations is an essential part of the School’s educational mission. Learning how to have a conversation, not what view to hold, lies at the heart of a student experience that cultivates individual purpose in communities. To this end, Kinkaid encourages students to freely express themselves through their verbal speech and non-verbal speech acts – i.e., those actions intended to communicate substantive messages to others, while promoting the robust exploration of ideas through the supportive teachings of the faculty.

The freedom to discuss and debate the merits of competing ideas does not mean that students, faculty, or staff may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish. In addition to being consistent with Kinkaid’s core values, student, faculty, and staff speech and acts must not disrupt the ordinary educational and extracurricular activities of the School or violate any policy set forth in Kinkaid’s Student or Employee Handbooks. In short, students, faculty, and staff may express themselves to the extent that their speech or acts are appropriate for Kinkaid’s learning environment. The appropriateness of particular speech or acts is determined at the sole discretion of the Division Head or Head of School.

The Kinkaid School will not make official pronouncements on issues of public concern, except when those issues directly affect Kinkaid’s ability to accomplish its mission and/or directly impact the daily interactions of our students on campus. The School, as an educational institution, will remain neutral in our discourse and respectful of all of our community members.

Principles for Civil Discourse

The Kinkaid School believes that civil discourse is a conversation based upon respect and civility; its purpose is to enhance learning, understanding, and trust.

The Kinkaid School welcomes individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, disability, uniformed service status, veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Kinkaid is committed to providing equal opportunity in all actions and in the administration of all policies and programs.

• Kinkaid’s intellectual and social environment is diverse, with many opportunities for its students, faculty, and staff to learn from each other and to enhance their own understanding of the world around them.
• Kinkaid values each individual’s ideas, experiences, and worldview.
• Kinkaid is committed to remaining a place for the healthy expression of diverse ideas, the exploration of various viewpoints, and the use of civil discourse.

Guidelines for Civil Discourse

As members of the Kinkaid community, we are expected to:

• Respect everyone’s right to hold individual views
• Approach social, religious, and political conversations with a willingness to listen respectfully to ideas that differ from our own
• Ground discussions in fact and reason

As members of the Kinkaid community, we are expected to avoid:

• Antagonism (insults, demeaning or discriminatory language, mockery)
• Hostility (personal attacks, uncontrolled emotion, threats)
• Excessive persuasion (misrepresentation of facts, emotional manipulation, logical fallacies)
   

Faculty and Staff Responsibilities to Foster Civil Discourse

While the Principles, Core Values, and Guidelines for Civil Discourse are shared community-wide, faculty and staff members have a responsibility to create a space for civil discourse within the classroom while modeling how to engage in effective and responsible conversations. Because we believe that it is the role of all Kinkaid employees to encourage students to think deeply about complex topics, we endeavor to foster civil discourse with and between students in these specific ways:

• Build confidence in this process by creating space for civil discourse and open dialogue among students when expressing opinions. Establish community norms and prohibit bullying or harassment of any kind.
• Help students express, explore, and be challenged on their own viewpoints as this is essential in the development of critical thinking. Avoid sharing personal viewpoints on social, religious, or political topics in order to facilitate a learning environment for students to participate.
• Encourage students to take their own reasoned positions when responding to discussion prompts and instill confidence that students will not be penalized for disagreeing with what they perceive as the employee’s viewpoint.
• Demonstrate Kinkaid’s four core values when redirecting a student or discussion.
• When grading class participation or work that involves the sharing of student viewpoints on social, religious, or political issues, be explicit and specific about what is and is not being assessed and avoid the employee’s personal viewpoints affecting a student’s grade.

Religious Expression Policy

Kinkaid is a non-sectarian school that welcomes students, families, faculty and staff of all religious faiths, as well as those who do not profess religious faith.

As a non-sectarian school, Kinkaid does not sponsor, promote or favor any particular religion, but the School recognizes the importance of religious faith to many members of the school community. The comfort, strength and guidance many derive from religious faith are significant, and religion plays an important role in the moral development of many young people. Kinkaid believes that its community is enriched by the contributions of individuals representing diverse views, religions, cultures and ethnicities.

In recognition of the importance of religion to many members of our school community, Kinkaid permits the exercise of religious expression outlined below in a manner that is consistent with the School’s standards of deportment, honorable and civil behavior, and the four core values Kinkaid has identified as being central to the life and work of the School—honesty, respect, responsibility and kindness.

1) During free time in the school day and in the times immediately before and after school, students may gather for prayer, for the study of religious texts or for religious discussion. Students may not be led or accompanied in such gatherings by non-students, and they may neither proselytize other students to join in these gatherings nor exclude students who wish to take part. Students must obtain permission from the administration to post on-campus notices of such gatherings and to use school buildings for these gatherings.

2) With the approval of the Headmaster, religious student organizations may use school facilities outside of the school day for meetings. Non-student members of such organizations may be present at the meetings, but may not be present on campus for any purpose associated with the organization during the school day or outside of the approved meetings. Such groups must obtain written approval from the Headmaster for on-campus notices of these meetings. Members of these organizations may not proselytize on behalf of these groups on campus nor exclude students who wish to take part.

3) As has been traditional at Kinkaid, nondenominational prayers or selected religious readings may be offered at baccalaureate ceremonies, graduations and other school events where such prayers and readings are customary or otherwise appropriate.

Approved November 19, 2002
The Kinkaid School Board of Trustees

Statement of Philosophy

Kinkaid emphasizes both academic attainment and character development. Margaret Kinkaid encouraged her students to seek honor as well as achievement, and she described her ideal student as "the intellectually capable boy or girl of sound character whose talents, interests and uniqueness are educational assets for other Kinkaid children." Today's Kinkaid remains faithful to its founder's calling, valuing its students for their potential, as well as their achievement, and striving always for their balanced growth-intellectual, physical, social and ethical.

The primary goals of Kinkaid are intellectual endeavor and achievement. The School also believes that a well-rounded education includes experiences in the arts, athletics and a variety of extra-curricular activities.

Kinkaid further believes that every student is and will continue to be part of a community and, therefore, seeks to strengthen his or her moral responsibility and service to it. To that end, the School actively promotes honesty, respect, responsibility and kindness.

Kinkaid also believes that participation of parents in their children's education is essential to accomplishing its mission. The School makes every attempt to inform them of the School's purposes and goals, and expects their strong support in the pursuit of these aims.