In this meeting, I had asked for the Utah Consolidated Achievement Plan (2014-15) to be taken off of the consent agenda and placed the action item agenda. I made the point that although we have noble goals when it comes to addressing “Achievement Gap Disparities” we are not following our own plan.
I cited the example of the “Equity Audits” referenced in section 1.4.4.
The last time the district conducted Equity Audits was in 2011. The school bureaucracy failed to inform the school board, although they have been voting for a plan that calls for these audits in 2012 & 2013.
That’s what happens when the school board goes through the motions and places items of this importance on the consent agenda. I later discovered that some members of the board have no idea what Equity Audit is.
At one point in the meeting the following exchange occurred in reference to the Equity Leadership Team meetings:
Board VP Bennett: “Some of us didn’t get the message about the last meeting on the 22nd”
Board President Swett: “And also, my question back out, is, you know, what is this committee? What is our role on this committee? I mean none of us knew that we were even a part of this committee”
It is a sad commentary on the state of the school district, when the school board president knows nothing about this 6 year old committee.
Here is a copy of the letter I distributed in the school board meeting:
CREATE: Associate Superintendent of Educational Equity and Diversity