The Kutztown School Board has taken heat from district parents over its suspended equity policy.
After a labor-intensive effort, the Policy and Curriculum Committee will present the revised policy to the full board at its next meeting on Monday.
After a debate over the language in the purpose section of the policy, the committee approved that the policy be a discussion item only on the agenda for the in-person school board meeting but anticipates the policy will be sent back to committee for further review.
During the Policy and Curriculum Committee’s first reading of proposed Board Policy 809 – Educational Equity on Monday night held in person and virtually, board member Dennis Ritter said: “We have a constituency that would like to see this move forward and we have a constituency that would like to not see it move at all. I think we have come close to finding some middle ground and I would hope we keep pursuing that for the best interest of our students and the district as a whole.”
“It should be discussed at the next board meeting and not just ignore it,” said Al Darion.
While some were hesitant to present the policy to the board as a whole when there is still need for discussion, Darion argued that school board members not on the committee will have the opportunity to share their concerns before further committee discussion.
Community feedback
“Over the last couple of months, I spent a lot of time with the feedback from the community conversation and basically sorted it so that we could get a better picture of all the comments there were,” said board member Caecilia Holt.
Many commenters agree generally in terms of aspirations for the district and wanting to provide students with what they need so that they can achieve to their best potential, continued Holt.
A lot of people had questions about definitions for the policy. Everybody has to come to a consensus for what a definition is going to mean in the policy, she said.
“I worked on applying a lot of the language and definition comments from the community conversations to the first reading of the policy to try and clarify some of that,” said Holt, referring to the policy being reviewed that night.
Board member Eric Johnson pointed out that there have been a number of revisions to the policy, noting a lot more hours were spent on this policy than an individual board member has spent on anything for a very long time.
“A couple of things that I’ve learned over the past couple of months while we’ve been debating this, both among the members of the board and getting feedback from the public, one thing I took away from the community meeting last month is that we also have a very strong desire or wish to have an equity policy and so we can’t just jettison this without disregarding another very significant part of the school district,” said Johnson.
One thing Johnson learned is that the district demographics have been changing quite rapidly over the last couple years with about a 4% increase in non-white students, which equates to about 50 students. Through talks with elementary teachers, he was informed that learning cultural cues would be helpful. What he likes about this policy is that it is proactive.
He said the important part of this policy is the committee that works with students “and try to think of the ways that knowledge of their background might help us do better by them.”
“I’ve heard a lot of counterarguments about this, but I really haven’t heard anything yet that would explain why it’s so desperate that we do absolutely nothing,” said Johnson.
Committee comments
During committee discussion, Ritter answered Charles Shurr’s question as to why the policy is necessary.
“The need for this policy grows out of it. More than any other policy we have, this will make equity one of the ongoing foci of our district,” said Ritter. “Right now, we deal with equity in very limited ways when the law requires us to … or at times when it becomes perhaps an issue.”
Ritter said this policy says the district looks at equity on an ongoing basis and it is broader in scope than all the other policies. Comparing it to an umbrella, the policy brings into focus of providing quality educational equity so all students truly have an opportunity to succeed to the best of their ability, he said.
In the policy presented to the committee, the purpose states that the board adopts the policy to tie together the varied board policies that seek to ensure that the principle of educational equity through the fair and just allocation of resources, opportunities and treatment of students based upon each individual student’s needs remains a priority of the district.
“Society as a whole benefits from all students meeting their goals, dreams and full potential. The pursuit of educational equity requires the continuous and collaborative effort of identifying various aspects of district programs and operations in which consideration of educational equity shall be analyzed, incorporated and prioritized,” states the policy purpose.
“If we’re, as a district, committed to maximizing student achievement for all students and committed to making students having the best chance of success that they want after high school and that we’re striving to do that without the policy, then why shouldn’t we have a policy to actually expressly state that’s what we’re doing,” said Randy T. Burch, wanting more of an emphasis on maximizing student achievement in the purpose statement.
Darion also addressed concerns expressed by the community that educational resources and opportunity would be taken away from one student to benefit another.
“Instead, I’d like the policy to emphasize that our intent is to raise everybody,” said Darion
Darion suggested adding the following, “The intent of this policy is to maximize all student achievement and have it determined by their ability and not be limited by being part of either a minority or mainstream racial, religious, ethnic, economic, or gender identity group. Nothing in this policy shall therefore be used to justify withholding resources or opportunity wants one group to benefit another.”
Darion also hoped that making this statement more prominent within the purpose statement would alleviate some concerns by those who object to the policy.
“I certainly don’t have an issue with prioritizing that and working in language into that very first paragraph so it’s front and center,” said Holt.
The board also discussed changing some of the wording in the statements listing the district commitments. “Cultivate” was changed to “cause” in “promptly identifying and addressing barriers that cultivate achievement and/or opportunity gaps for students.”
Also, “authentic relationships” was changed to “meaningful relationships” with and among students, staff and families.
There was no public comment regarding the policy, but there was one comment questioning why the board did not choose to hold meetings off-site so attendees do not have to wear a mask.
The Oct. 18 school board meeting will be held in-person in the Middle School Commons at 7:30 p.m. and via Zoom and YouTube. Per the Pennsylvania Department of Health Order for School Entities, all guests are required to wear a mask while indoors on school property.
Those with a medical exemption to the order are admitted with a letter from the health care provider.
Source: Berkshire mont
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