But will school districts actually vote for it?
The Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Board of Directors has recommended two resolutions to be forwarded to its Resolutions Committee for consideration by the organization’s membership.
The resolutions address funding for COVID-19 related expenses, and ask member School Committees to to commit to change on issues of racism, equity, and diversity that have finally seized the nation’s attention. The resolutions will eventually be considered by MASC’s 2020 Delegate Assembly this Fall (last year’s Assembly took place on November 8th).
This is the wording of the anti-racism language in the MASC resolution:
SCHOOL COMMITTEE ANTI-RACISM RESOLUTION
NOTE: This has been revised for general distribution (6/14/20)
WHEREAS, as schools have the responsibility to equip students with their civil right of obtaining a free and appropriate public education, it is the responsibility of each school to ensure we create a welcoming community for ALL students; and
WHEREAS, it is the responsibility that every district provide to all district staff, including School Committee members annual professional development on diversity, equity and inclusion; and
WHEREAS, every district will commit to recruiting and retaining a diverse and culturally responsive teaching workforce; and
WHEREAS, every district will examine their policies for institutional and systemic racialized practices and implement change with sustainable policies that are evidence based; and
WHEREAS, every district will incorporate into their curriculum the history of racial oppression and works by black authors and works from diverse perspectives; and
WHEREAS, we as school district leaders can no longer remain silent to the issues of racism and hate that continue to plague our public and private institutions;
RESOLVED: that [District] and all the school districts in the Commonwealth must guarantee that racist practices are eradicated, and diversity, equity and inclusion is embedded and practiced for our students, families, faculty and staff.
We must ensure our own school culture and that of every district in the Commonwealth is anti-racist, that acknowledges that all lives cannot matter until black lives matter.
