The superintendent of Elmwood Park School District 401 is proposing steps to address racial inequity at the district, including the hiring of a consultant to advise the district and reviewing the district’s policies and procedures.
In a letter to students and parents, a video featuring administrators from the district’s schools, and a memo to the district Board of Education, Superintendent Nicolas Wade said the district is working on a plan to create improve equity and inclusiveness in the district.
“The last few weeks have continued to remind us all about the centuries-long series of racial injustices, particularly against the Black community and people of color, that continue to exist in this country,” Wade wrote in the letter to parents and students. “The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are only the most recent instances of individuals who have lost their lives, brutally and unnecessarily, due to these injustices and the systemic racism that permeates this country.”
Wade recommended creating a multi-year plan that includes additions to the social-emotional learning programming and communicating the need for equity with the public.
The steps would address fairness, sensitivity, and access to opportunity in regards to race and ethnicity, students with disabilities, students from low-income backgrounds, those learning English and those who have experienced trauma, he told the Pioneer Press.
He called for a special board meeting in July to approve the hiring of an outside consultant, who will help evaluate the district’s programs, policies, and procedures and recommend changes. Internal reviews could be “unintentionally impacted by bias” that already exists, he said, so it can’t be address solely through his own “personal reflection.”
“To have an outside party come in and be able to look at your policies or practices and how you conduct yourself as an organization, that’s monumental,” Wade said. “Being able to have a clear-eyed view about what you have to address, no matter what it will actually look like.”
The district office had already begun developing a strategic plan to address student needs that have increased due to the coronavirus pandemic, and administrators will be working to include more programming about cultural competency, race relations, bias and equity, Wade told the board in a memo.
“It’s definitely going to have to be a comprehensive effort … not just basically engaging with students about these difficult conversations, but also training and equipping all of our employees to have those conversations, and the comfortability and familiarity to do so,” Wade said at the meeting. “And also engaging with the community on these on these sensitive topics as well.”
Since 2017, the school has had a “Social Justice League” committee that’s helped incorporate more equity in the school district. One of their efforts was to create a more measurable way for teachers to assess students’ ready for acceleration, as well as identify who needs help, to avoid relying solely on teacher’s opinions, which could be subject to personal bias.
As recent civil unrest and protests against police brutality have come to the forefront, Wade saw an opportunity to put forth more changes.
“This can be an uphill conversation with a number of stakeholders and it’s unfortunate what it took to get to this point,” Wade said. “But it seems like there’s a far higher level of positive reception towards the steps that you have to take as an institution from all the stakeholder groups.”
Activists in Chicago have called for Chicago Public School district to end its relationship with Chicago Police Department, saying it criminalizes students and the money should be redistributed to fund mental health programs, though Mayor Lori Lightfoot has not supported this idea.
Wade said District 401 has one school resource officer shared between the buildings, and while the district will be discussing and evaluating the role of the officer, the district plans to continue its relationship with Elmwood Park Police Department.
“We really feel like in order for us to really have this type of constructive conversation, law enforcement has to has to be a part of it,” Wade said.
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