Members of the public, including Concord School District alumni, are continuing to push for anti-racism policy changes in the district, even though recent efforts to officially air their grievances have fallen short of a full discussion.
They were set to discuss the topic at last Monday’s Concord School District meeting, but technical problems forced a postponement.
At Thursday’s rescheduled meeting, though, racial justice and inequity in the Concord School District emerged as a fervent point of discussion, even though it wasn’t on the agenda.
Martin Toe, who graduated Concord High School in 2014, was the first to bring up the topic of racial inequity during the public comment period Thursday, asking the board how they plan to address racism in the reopening plan.
School board chair Jennifer Patterson responded by saying the board would discuss race and discrimination at the rescheduled August board meeting later in the month, a response many on the call interpreted as dismissal of the issue.
“I find the board’s intentions to disassociate anti-racist work from the specifics of reopening plans at this time disheartening, since we know COVID-19 disproportionately affects Black and brown people,” said Nick Muccio, who graduated from Concord High School in 2012. “The response ‘this is not the time for these discussions’ has been used far too often to stymie discussions of racism.”
Concord parent Mose Jones-Yellin said he found the board’s response “disheartening.”
“I found it shameful that the questions around racism and discrimination are met with irritation from board members, and avoidance,” Jones-Yellin said. “It’s a difficult thing for me to explain to my children.”
Mohan Mandali, a 2012 graduate of Concord High, spoke about experiencing racism and bullying while in the district.
“In a situation right now where you’re saying we have to potentially bring students back to their classroom where they are experiencing more than one disease, one of them is COVID-19 and one of them is racism that is happening systematically at Concord High School, and the fact that none of that is being addressed by any of the Concord School District’s board members is scary,” Mandali said.
A group of more than 20 Concord alumni created a petition in July calling for the Concord School District to publicly condemn racism. It contains a list of specific actions the district should take to improve racial equity, including hiring more employees of color and changing curriculum for students. The petition has been signed by 1,730 people.
The board was undecided at first about whether to respond to public comment at Thursday’s meeting. The comments were numerous, and mainly about the subject of the fall reopening plan, and responding to each would have extended the length of the meeting well past midnight. But as comments about racial inequity continued to come in, some school officials responded.
Concord High School principal Mike Reardon talked briefly about some steps the high school is taking to address racial inequities, including releasing discipline data and looking into hiring more people of color.
“At Concord High School, we are far from perfect,” Reardon said. “But we do recognize the struggles of a lot of our kids, in particular our kids of color.”
Reardon said the high school has convened three remote listening groups of 10 to 12 students this summer to talk about issues of racism in the school and the Concord community. They are also starting a series of “Who Am I?” talks where students can speak to their peers about identity and making Concord High a better place.
He said one high school junior is starting a Black student union this year that will be open to all students to join, and departments are looking to make curriculum more inclusive as well.
“Our social studies and history department is already looking at a curriculum review based on some of these issues,” Reardon said. “The Concord School District takes this stuff very seriously and we’re acting on it. We are willing to do that work and we have started to do that work.”
Interim superintendent Kathleen Murphy expressed regret at being unable to discuss racial equity at the special reopening meeting, saying she is eager to share the district’s work around diversity and inclusion.
“I so wanted to discuss equity tonight,” Murphy said. “I can’t tell you the [amount of] work we have already done in putting together a plan to address the recommendations, and they don’t know that, so I felt bad tonight.”
School board member Barb Higgins was the first board member to address the issue directly, agreeing that racial equity is an important consideration for the reopening plan.
“This COVID situation and the whole pandemic affects people differently. There is absolute medical evidence that people of color suffer drastically differently than white people in this particular illness. And whatever we put together for our students we have to make sure we are covering specifics for every student represented here,” Higgins said.
Later in the meeting, board member Jim Richards expressed his support using the phrase “Black lives matter,” something other board members and district administrators have not done. One of the demands of Concord alumni on the July petition is for the district to make a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The board plans to discuss the race and discrimination at the August monthly board meeting, which will be rescheduled soon.
“I agree with the points that were made about how important it is to incorporate the anti-racism model into our reopening, whatever model we choose,” Patterson said. “I do think it is the perfect opportunity to really look at what is happening on a systemic level.”