By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The school district’s equity effort remains a work in progress.

After a detailed update from staff, the Board of Education spent three hours Monday night questioning nuances of the multi-year plan that aims to make all students in Westport’s public schools feel that they belong.

Some members pressed for specifics and challenged some of the document’s terminology, particularly as it related to culturally responsive practices.

“What is that?” board member Dorie Hordon asked at one point. “I feel if we are putting that as the centerpiece, we should have a clear understanding of where we are going with that in the district and what it looks like in the classroom, in the community and how it impacts children.”

Board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer, meanwhile, questioned the district’s need for a mission statement tied specifically to equity and its focus on groups — such as race and gender — rather than on individuals. More than a dozen groups are spelled out in the proposed mission statement.

“It turns it into a negative for me,” Heyer said.

One member of the audience, however, who waited out the discussion, told the board she was not discouraged by the critique.

“I really do feel that there is a huge amount common ground,” said Elaine Whitney, a former school board member.

Whitney called reducing barriers and increasing support for all students a huge undertaking for the district, one it’s been grappling with for some time.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a district climate survey found some students did not feel a sense of social or emotional security and a number of students came forward with stories about being made to feel uncomfortable.

“I’m pleased we reached this stage,” Whitney said. She encouraged the board to add language to the document that makes sense to them and then move forward.

Since the district was presented with the administration’s Equity Study Action Plan last fall, work has revolved around three areas: creating a mission and vision statement, revising the district’s Code of Conduct for students, and training of staff.

Mission and vision

The draft mission statement, developed after looking at what the school district already has in place and what other districts have done, seeks to change things perceived as unfair and barriers to student success.

 Here’s what they came up with:

“Westport Public Schools believes in fostering an inclusive environment that promotes mutual respect, empathy, and diversity of perspectives and ideas. Our community has a responsibility to nurture socially responsible contributors to an ever-changing and interconnected world. We are committed to ensuring equitable access and opportunities for all students, including but not limited to race, age, sex, body type, gender expression, gender identity, color, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, language, culture, sexual orientation, nation of origin, religion, physical or intellectual ability … to reach their fullest potential and pursue their dreams.”

 To accomplish that, the mission calls for the district:

∙ To provide academic and social-emotional resources necessary for every child to succeed.

∙ Engage in ongoing professional learning to develop skills to support culturally responsive practices for staff, parents and the community.

∙  Design a rigorous and engaging curriculum for all students advancing collaborative problem solving and inquiry based learning.

∙ Teach self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making explicitly to successfully learn and grow with each other. 

∙ Build safe spaces that empower stakeholders to share their lived experiences and express what they need to succeed.

∙ Establish ongoing practices where students, staff and community members are engaged in collaborative conversations and gatherings to learn about diverse perspectives, ideas, and people.

“Help me to understand why it’s necessary to have an entirely different vision statement for this initiative,” asked Heyer. 

Anthony Buono, the assistant superintendent for instruction, said it helps anchor the work.

Goals of the equity mission align with the district’s overall stated mission, he added.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said it is important because there have been many questions about where the equity work is going.

“This will provide clarity for the community,” he said.

“It underscores its importance,” added board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein.

If it is so important, Heyer said, the equity statements should be made part of the district’s core mission statement.

Board member Robert Harrington said perhaps the district’s main mission statement needs to be clarified.

He said he’d hate to see the equity initiative, which he said he has supported since day one fail to receive unanimous board support because of language some members do not like.

“I do respect that ‘culturally relevant’ is divisive phraseology,” Harrington said. He suggested it be stripped from the equity mission statement.

Hordon said she also is disappointed that language used to describe the equity work seems to keep shifting. Instead of a focus on student strengths, the document presented Monday talked about culture.

Hordon doesn’t want students treated differently based on assumptions made about their backgrounds.

In researching culturally relevant education, Hordon said she came across the work of Gloria Ladson-Billings, a pedagogical theorist, who Hordon described as radical in her thinking. Beyond expanding access and support, Ladson-Billing’s work focuses on helping students in developing identities and critical consciousness.

“It is a very different approach than what we are doing in Westport public schools,” Hordon said.

Christine Wanner, coordinator of health and physical education for the district, and co-chairwoman of the district’s equity committee, said the group did lots of research and is moving forward with things that make sense for Westport.

The idea is to honor life experiences no matter what, she said. It started in the fall, with district efforts to make students feel welcome and connected. Those efforts are ongoing.

Hordon tried to get the group presenting the plans to explain what culturally relevant efforts would look like on the first day of kindergarten.

“It is not a strategy, it’s a mindset,” Faith Sweeney, a Coleytown Elementary School literacy coach, told Hordon.

Making sure schools get to know every student sounds amazing, Hordon said. She said she remained uncertain how race plays into that equation.

So did Heyer. “Some of us are not as comfortable with how it plays out,” she said, or how teachers would be trained.

How would it be different from current practices, Heyer asked. When it comes to academics, she said she wants the focus to be on raising achievement for all students, not just those who struggle.

If she didn’t want to talk about race, did she feel people in those groups are not marginalized, Goldstein asked Heyer.

Scarice said it was important that implicit biases, even those not recognized, be addressed.

It matters, he said.

Board Secretary Neil Phillips said the use of the phrase culturally responsive education falls in line with the state’s position statement on the topic.

“I don’t care what the state says” on the matter, Hordon responded.

Board member Christina Torres said she favors an equity-specific mission statement because it will provide clarity to the work.

“I don’t think you are there yet,” she added.

Code of conduct

As for the code of conduct, an initial review has been conducted and a committee is working to revise and edit it to include how bullying and hate-based conduct would be handled starting in the new school year.

Specific language will be inserted regarding “identity-based incidents.”

Christine Cincotta, a Staples High School assistant principal, said age-appropriate responses are being developed.

The focus would be on safety first, getting the facts, educating students, informing stakeholders and implementing consequences that include restoration.

The goal, the board was told is to change behaviors and strengthen or repair relationships, she said. Baseline data would be collected to measure effectiveness.

Harrington asked that consequences, particularly for bullying, not be watered down.

Cincotta said they wouldn’t.

Professional development

As for professional development, the school board was told efforts are being made to make staff become culturally competent and reflective educators, by developing awareness, learning about implicit biases, micro-aggressions and subtle acts of exclusion.

Training would start with administrators and then educators.

Over time, the training will evolve and change, said Coleytown Elementary School Principal Janna Sirowich.

One component would focus on athletic coaches.

Staples Athletic Director V.J. Sarullo said his coaches will receive training in ethical standards, cultural sensitivity and character building in addition to sportsmanship.

There is a plan to develop a Captains Council in the next school year made up of leaders from all Staples sports teams.

 Reaction

The length of Monday night’s discussion thinned the audience before public comments were allowed.

Those that stuck it out were asked to focus their remarks on advice to the school board.

Lori Freeman, a parent, told the board she trusts the work being done. There are students who leave school feeling marginalized by micro-aggressions or worse, she said.

“It defeats the purpose to take race or culture out of the equation,” Freeman added.

David Kershner, another parent, warned the board that perceived micro-aggressions can be misinterpreted. It turns into a mind-reading game, he said.

He urged that all students be treated fairly. “Please leave race and gender divisions out of it,” he said.

Kathy Wei, another parent, said she fully supports work to make all students feel seen and heard. It worries her, though, that equity could limit opportunities for some students.

“I am just asking that we don’t count up the number of Asians [in a particular course] and say that is too many,” she said.

Harold Bailey Jr., the chairman of TEAM Westport, a town committee with a mission to make the largely white town more welcoming, commended the work done so far.

“These are really concrete steps you are taking to move forward and get something done,” Bailey said. “For the last decade we haven’t been able to get to the main point, which is how do we help students, howdo we do something for students that feel disconnected, who don’t feel safe.”

Definitions are important, Bailey added, but they should be broad enough that the district can try them out and see if they work.

“You don’t want to hamstring yourself,” he said.

The board was told staff would return in the fall with next steps.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.