Clayton School District Must Implement an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racism Plan for 2020-2021
We, the undersigned parents, students, and community members, are disheartened by persistent instances of racism in the School District of Clayton. Committees have been formed (like the Equity and Excellence Committee); yet, their recommendations were not put into practice. Members of our community have worked on committees, spoken at School Board meetings, helped to develop specific recommendations, met individually with district leaders, shared stories of harm, and pleaded for anti-racist change. In every instance, district engagement has ended at listening and earnestly professing good intentions. Many of the recommendations in this petition, are, in fact, mirrored right now on the District’s own website; they simply have not been implemented. This is the power of conditioning, of a system preserving itself through an interlocking web of habits and fears that prevent change.
We are at a crossroads, and the time for talk, good intentions, and small changes has long passed. Therefore, knowing that the District has already gathered the data, has already analyzed and listened, has already requested and been granted our patience, and has in hand clear and specific suggestions for action, we insist that concrete change begin immediately. We plan to support these efforts in ongoing commitment to anti-racist practice in our homes and community.
Specifically, we request immediate action be taken toward implementation of a Clayton Anti- Bias, Anti-Racism (ABAR) plan: A plan that uses anti-bias, anti-racism best practices and that explicitly outlines SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) changes in Curriculum, Culture, and Communication, with the goal of creating an intentionally anti-racist school district.
To be effective, the proposed Clayton ABAR plan must:
- Be developed by 1 September 2020 for implementation during the 2020/2021 school year.
- Be included in the District’s Strategic Plan, and include year-end goals along with 5-year goals for the stated areas: curriculum, culture, and communication.
- Dedicate financial resources toward implementation.
- Include an update of the District’s Equity and Excellence website per the recommendations of the Equity and Excellence committee in 2017.
***Curriculum: The ABAR plan must specify:
- A cycle of reviews of bias, to ensure that curriculum and core texts include history and perspectives of Black people as well as the creation of whiteness.
- ABAR learning for all students, from Pre-K to 12.
- Goals for enhanced access of Black students to gifted and advanced courses.
- Alternatives to gatekeeping and tracking in math, literacy, and gifted classes.
***Culture: The District must:
- Define the culture Clayton wishes to have, including anti-racism, anti-bias in the definition.
- Own and work to dismantle the systems of white privilege and white supremacy that set up barriers for Black students and staff.
- Believe students and families who bring stories of harm.
- Consolidate existing data and address each school’s particular issues with racism.
- Implement steps toward reconciliation, including
- Administrators, teachers and staff taking responsibility for harm to Black students
- Opportunities for students and families that have been harmed to speak, be heard, and have their stories recorded; and
- Restorative practices to heal the students and families that have been harmed.
- Embed ABAR values in yearly expectations, professional development, and evaluation of all staff members, including repercussions for those who fail to meet expectations.
- Create rules and practices that shield District employees who speak out about racism in schools.
- Support the right and need for staff of color to meet in affinity groups and to share their experiences in a safe environment.
- Apply recognized hiring practices that help reduce bias in the hiring process and preference candidates of color when all other qualifications are equal.
- Update District rules and processes to reduce or eliminate bias.
- Create a mechanism to both receive and document feedback from anyone in the District on race-related issues, and grievances. Publicly report only the aggregate data.
- Define the process by which the District will respond when racist incidents occur.
***Communication: The District must report at least quarterly to the Board of Education and directly to the full community about progress on the Clayton ABAR plan, using accurate and specific data about all areas of the ABAR plan.
Radical transformation will require that parents and community members be part of this process. However, we expect that the District staff will do the work, which includes seeking out existing best practices, and implementing required changes.
Should the steps outlined above fail to occur by 1 July 2021, we demand that the Board of Education begin the process of conducting a search for new administrative leadership that is adept in the implementation of an ABAR culture. We must not only hold anti-racist, anti-bias values; we must act in accordance with those values for the good of our students and our community.
Respectfully,
Laurie Anzilotti
Andrea Denny
Laura Horwitz
Lori Markson
Betsy Meyland-Smith
Becky Patel
Pam Washington
Suzanne Whitman
/// Not ready to sign on yet? See our FAQs here https://cutt.ly/FAQsClaytonABAR. ///
/// Please note, after signing, you may be invited to donate. Those donations go to ipetitions - the free online software we are using to collect signatures, and not to this specific petition or any related antiracism effort in Clayton Schools. ///
Updates
July 8, 2020
just saw we passed 250 signatures. it is wild to see that many people ready for the district to finally stop talking and start doing the work.
Reached 250 supporters
July 6, 2020
July 6, 2020
just saw we hit 100 signatures today. its wild that so many people are finally saying enough is enough for our district.
Reached 100 supporters
July 6, 2020
July 4, 2020
we are almost at 250 signatures and it would be huge to hit that mark before the board sees this. please send the link to someone new so we can keep this momentum going strong.
13 Comments
I just read this more carefully. I DO NOT support the removal of SEAN DOHERTY. I signed this petition. BUT I do not support this clause.
I appreciate the sentiments to retain Sean Doherty. I also believe whole heartedly he has the integrity to be both responsible and responsive in this critical moment.
Hello- it was brought to my attention that “ we demand that the Board of Education begin the process of conducting a search for new administrative leadership ” may actually mean that we are asking for Sean D our superintendent to be replaced. Can someone please address this with me? Thank you.
Oopsie! I, Eileen McGaughey, actually wrote the above comment. Those of you who know my family may have been confused as to how my adorable 8-year-old wrote such a well-phrased response to the concerns for Dr. Doherty's position. Just wanted to clarify :)
Felice- I couldn't agree more. I've loved Sean Doherty ever since he welcomed my daughters and special needs son into the fold when he was Captain Elementary's Principal. I believe he can be an integral part of the solution. These efforts are about racist systems, not individuals.
I strongly suggest that everyone who has signed this petition should also read the following New York Times op-ed piece before making your family's plans for educating your children this fall: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/opinion/pandemic-pods-schools.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage. If it is behind the paywall, here is an important take-home message with regards to setting up learning pods to help parents and children navigate online classes: "For parents who need to work and can’t supervise their children’s learning, joining a pod may feel like the only way they can educate their kids and keep their jobs. Based on what I’ve seen online, the learning pod movement appears to be led by families with means, a large portion of whom are white. Paradoxically, at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted a national reckoning with white supremacy, white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children. As a result, they are actively replicating the systems that many of them say they want to dismantle." While we ask our administrators and board members to do better, we must also do better ourselves.
This is great, but I think there is almost too much emphasis on the administration and not enough on the board of education. The board has provided zero leadership nor has it shown any interest in performing real work on the topic. During the bimonthly meetings the members seem totally unprepared to discuss anything of substance or seriousness. They have no interest in public opinion. Their primary purpose seems to be the maintenance of the status quo, making sure that meetings are over by a certain time, and social prestige. As a community we have long accepted this as long as the kids are getting into good colleges and the administration is doing their work for them, however, we are finally at a point where real action and effort is required from the board. Their lack of effort has done a great disservice to our community and to the administration who are getting no help from them.
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Clayton School District Must Implement an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racism Plan for 2020-2021
We, the undersigned parents, students, and community members, are disheartened by persistent instances of racism in the School District of Clayton. Committees have been formed (like the Equity and Excellence Committee); yet, their recommendations were not put into practice. Members of our community have worked on committees, spoken at School Board meetings, helped to develop specific recommendations, met individually with district leaders, shared stories of harm, and pleaded for anti-racist change. In every instance, district engagement has ended at listening and earnestly professing good intentions. Many of the recommendations in this petition, are, in fact, mirrored right now on the District’s own website; they simply have not been implemented. This is the power of conditioning, of a system preserving itself through an interlocking web of habits and fears that prevent change.
We are at a crossroads, and the time for talk, good intentions, and small changes has long passed. Therefore, knowing that the District has already gathered the data, has already analyzed and listened, has already requested and been granted our patience, and has in hand clear and specific suggestions for action, we insist that concrete change begin immediately. We plan to support these efforts in ongoing commitment to anti-racist practice in our homes and community.
Specifically, we request immediate action be taken toward implementation of a Clayton Anti- Bias, Anti-Racism (ABAR) plan: A plan that uses anti-bias, anti-racism best practices and that explicitly outlines SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) changes in Curriculum, Culture, and Communication, with the goal of creating an intentionally anti-racist school district.
To be effective, the proposed Clayton ABAR plan must:
- Be developed by 1 September 2020 for implementation during the 2020/2021 school year.
- Be included in the District’s Strategic Plan, and include year-end goals along with 5-year goals for the stated areas: curriculum, culture, and communication.
- Dedicate financial resources toward implementation.
- Include an update of the District’s Equity and Excellence website per the recommendations of the Equity and Excellence committee in 2017.
***Curriculum: The ABAR plan must specify:
- A cycle of reviews of bias, to ensure that curriculum and core texts include history and perspectives of Black people as well as the creation of whiteness.
- ABAR learning for all students, from Pre-K to 12.
- Goals for enhanced access of Black students to gifted and advanced courses.
- Alternatives to gatekeeping and tracking in math, literacy, and gifted classes.
***Culture: The District must:
- Define the culture Clayton wishes to have, including anti-racism, anti-bias in the definition.
- Own and work to dismantle the systems of white privilege and white supremacy that set up barriers for Black students and staff.
- Believe students and families who bring stories of harm.
- Consolidate existing data and address each school’s particular issues with racism.
- Implement steps toward reconciliation, including
- Administrators, teachers and staff taking responsibility for harm to Black students
- Opportunities for students and families that have been harmed to speak, be heard, and have their stories recorded; and
- Restorative practices to heal the students and families that have been harmed.
- Embed ABAR values in yearly expectations, professional development, and evaluation of all staff members, including repercussions for those who fail to meet expectations.
- Create rules and practices that shield District employees who speak out about racism in schools.
- Support the right and need for staff of color to meet in affinity groups and to share their experiences in a safe environment.
- Apply recognized hiring practices that help reduce bias in the hiring process and preference candidates of color when all other qualifications are equal.
- Update District rules and processes to reduce or eliminate bias.
- Create a mechanism to both receive and document feedback from anyone in the District on race-related issues, and grievances. Publicly report only the aggregate data.
- Define the process by which the District will respond when racist incidents occur.
***Communication: The District must report at least quarterly to the Board of Education and directly to the full community about progress on the Clayton ABAR plan, using accurate and specific data about all areas of the ABAR plan.
Radical transformation will require that parents and community members be part of this process. However, we expect that the District staff will do the work, which includes seeking out existing best practices, and implementing required changes.
Should the steps outlined above fail to occur by 1 July 2021, we demand that the Board of Education begin the process of conducting a search for new administrative leadership that is adept in the implementation of an ABAR culture. We must not only hold anti-racist, anti-bias values; we must act in accordance with those values for the good of our students and our community.
Respectfully,
Laurie Anzilotti
Andrea Denny
Laura Horwitz
Lori Markson
Betsy Meyland-Smith
Becky Patel
Pam Washington
Suzanne Whitman
/// Not ready to sign on yet? See our FAQs here https://cutt.ly/FAQsClaytonABAR. ///
/// Please note, after signing, you may be invited to donate. Those donations go to ipetitions - the free online software we are using to collect signatures, and not to this specific petition or any related antiracism effort in Clayton Schools. ///
Updates
July 8, 2020
just saw we passed 250 signatures. it is wild to see that many people ready for the district to finally stop talking and start doing the work.
Reached 250 supporters
July 6, 2020
July 6, 2020
just saw we hit 100 signatures today. its wild that so many people are finally saying enough is enough for our district.
Reached 100 supporters
July 6, 2020
July 4, 2020
we are almost at 250 signatures and it would be huge to hit that mark before the board sees this. please send the link to someone new so we can keep this momentum going strong.
13 Comments
My children started and finished in the Clayton School District from Kg - High School Graduation. I have been on every diversity, inclusion and parent committee they invented. It's a shame that it took the deaths of more black people for a real change to happen. So all I can say right now is IT IS ABOUT DAMN TIME.
I just read this more carefully. I DO NOT support the removal of SEAN DOHERTY. I signed this petition. BUT I do not support this clause.
I appreciate the sentiments to retain Sean Doherty. I also believe whole heartedly he has the integrity to be both responsible and responsive in this critical moment.
Hello- it was brought to my attention that “ we demand that the Board of Education begin the process of conducting a search for new administrative leadership ” may actually mean that we are asking for Sean D our superintendent to be replaced. Can someone please address this with me? Thank you.
Oopsie! I, Eileen McGaughey, actually wrote the above comment. Those of you who know my family may have been confused as to how my adorable 8-year-old wrote such a well-phrased response to the concerns for Dr. Doherty's position. Just wanted to clarify :)
Felice- I couldn't agree more. I've loved Sean Doherty ever since he welcomed my daughters and special needs son into the fold when he was Captain Elementary's Principal. I believe he can be an integral part of the solution. These efforts are about racist systems, not individuals.
I strongly suggest that everyone who has signed this petition should also read the following New York Times op-ed piece before making your family's plans for educating your children this fall: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/opinion/pandemic-pods-schools.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage. If it is behind the paywall, here is an important take-home message with regards to setting up learning pods to help parents and children navigate online classes: "For parents who need to work and can’t supervise their children’s learning, joining a pod may feel like the only way they can educate their kids and keep their jobs. Based on what I’ve seen online, the learning pod movement appears to be led by families with means, a large portion of whom are white. Paradoxically, at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted a national reckoning with white supremacy, white parents are again ignoring racial and class inequality when it comes to educating their children. As a result, they are actively replicating the systems that many of them say they want to dismantle." While we ask our administrators and board members to do better, we must also do better ourselves.
This is great, but I think there is almost too much emphasis on the administration and not enough on the board of education. The board has provided zero leadership nor has it shown any interest in performing real work on the topic. During the bimonthly meetings the members seem totally unprepared to discuss anything of substance or seriousness. They have no interest in public opinion. Their primary purpose seems to be the maintenance of the status quo, making sure that meetings are over by a certain time, and social prestige. As a community we have long accepted this as long as the kids are getting into good colleges and the administration is doing their work for them, however, we are finally at a point where real action and effort is required from the board. Their lack of effort has done a great disservice to our community and to the administration who are getting no help from them.
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My children started and finished in the Clayton School District from Kg - High School Graduation. I have been on every diversity, inclusion and parent committee they invented. It's a shame that it took the deaths of more black people for a real change to happen. So all I can say right now is IT IS ABOUT DAMN TIME.