My Thoughts:

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In the last three years, this Board has shown a movement away from implementation since 2021:

 

Constrained (rather than keep the door open to add) CRT via Policy.

Rejected (rather than accept) SEL implementation.

No DEl program (per my opponent).

Defined the E as Equality, not Equity.
 

I signed it because I felt that the Board needed to address the things listed in the petition, take action if they needed to, and move on and settle the issue. Instead, there were items that were known to the Board that probably shouldn't have moved forward, but did, and things that they were not aware of happening (the book club).

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Sometimes I think it’s important to have these conversations to ultimately put an end, or try to put an end, to some of the back and forth. You have to address the argument and take a stand. I felt it was important to address this particular topic and move on.

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You may not agree with the tactics, but it's hard to argue what the results have been.

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I just think that there are times when the board needs to simply take a stand - like when we voted to go mask optional and when I stated I’m against requiring the COVID-19 vaccine. If you don’t address it, the argument will just linger and start to take away from actually trying to move forward with the important work or topics.

 

What ended up happening between June 2020 and June 2021?

There was a social justice initiative that was initiated in August 2020.

 

The books - “Me & White Supremacy” and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” - circulated amongst staff as part of a book club.

 

There was a “reading and reflection” day for everyone who didn’t participate in the book club.

 

The Advisory Council on Equity (ACE) Committee was formed and began to meet as a Board sponsored entity.

 

To be clear, I don’t think the Board at this time was getting all the information that they should have been. They maybe should have asked more questions to make sure they were told what was going on, however, I feel very strongly that the person who is no longer in the Teaching & Learning position as well as other leadership weren’t as forthcoming as they should have been regarding things going on in the DIstrict.

 

Right before I took my seat on the Board, they voted to ban CRT. When I took my seat on the Board in April 2021, the majority voted to reverse the ban on CRT. I voted for that reversal, not because I was for CRT. I voted for the reversal because I believed that the Board didn’t do all the things that they needed to do to fully vet how CRT played a role in the District. After a couple of months of asking for more information and researching the topic, I was pleased to find that CRT wasn’t as pervasive as initially thought. The Board voted to limit CRT to two high school courses, one being an Advanced Placement class. We added a requirement to make sure that parents are signing off on their student taking those courses.

 

In June 2021, the Board took action on the CRT issue in the GSD. We addressed DEI and where we stood on it. We have not adopted any DEI curriculum. We also addressed the social justice book club.

 

https://www.gsdwi.org/article/483519

 

We ultimately also took a stand against SEL.

 

I’m not interested in increasing our CRT offerings. I’m not interested in adopting any DEI materials. I’m not interested in increasing our offerings in SEL.

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So keep this in mind when Mr. Voyer accuses me of not being transparent about my stance on DEI and of his opinion that CRT and DEI (and SEL for that matter) are going to spread throughout the District:

• On transparency: My original Facebook post is still available for all to see. Everyone can see my original post and comments. When asked, I have always given my opinion on why I signed the petition - See December 26, 2023 comments on Current Campaign Page

• Since I joined the Board, we have reversed the addition of ACE.

• Since I joined the Board, we have constrained the teaching of CRT and, in effect, disallowed additional offerings unless explicitly approved by the Board.

• Since I joined the Board, we defined DEI as Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion.

• Since I joined the Board, we prevented the implementation of Second Step Social Emotional Learning at Kennedy Middle School.

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For someone who has “followed, watched, learned, and participated,” Mr. Voyer would know this timeline and would know all the activities that have happened over the past few years. His claim that this District has plans to start to implement a CRT/DEI/SEL plan for all of K-12 is intellectually dishonest at best and just a flat-out lie at its worst. (CRT & the GSD: The Last Three Years) 

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