By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Efforts to ensure Westport public schools are inclusive for all students continue, but a two-hour presentation to the Board of Education this week showed some members remain uncomfortable with parts of the initiative — particularly the focus on equity.

“I guess it cuts to the heart of the issue of what is going on in this town,” said board member Dorie Hordon. “Not everyone buys into the equity movement.”

A hot-button topic that precedes Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice’s tenure in the district, the two-year effort to make students comfortable, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, culminated in a 72-page report this spring.

Focus of plan outlined

Over the summer, a team of 19 Westport educators prepared a three-year plan that will focus on:

• Developing a welcoming and affirming school community where everyone feels safe and differences don’t equate to deficiencies.
• Increase access to education programing for every student, including Advanced Placement courses and extracurricular activities.
• Overhaul the school district’s data system as it applies to discipline referrals and make restorative practices a key component of the student code of conduct.
• Invest in ongoing professional learning and development for staff in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Faith Sweeney, a reading teacher and member of the team that made the presentation to the board, said the plan will focus first on development work, taking stock of resources the district has and creating a mission and vision statement to guide the process.

In year two, there will be more professional development, a collection of baseline data, an analysis of academic groupings and access to extracurricular programs and development of a plan to increase access and participation.

Year three, which Sweeney said is not set in stone, would be to implement the plan and update the code of conduct.

Different perspectives on equity

Some board members were impressed.

“This is so good,” said Chairwoman Lee Goldstein. “It’s not lip service. It is such high-quality work, specific to Westport and important to us.”

Board member Kevin Christie said he was excited to be at this point in developing the plan, and wondered what additional resources the district would need to carry it out.

Board member Christina Torres said she liked the community-building aspect of the plan and asked staff to consider how special education and English language learners could contribute to the mission development.

Others had questions.

Hordon wanted to learn more about the restorative practices called for in the plan.

“I feel so much of what Westport does already is so great when kids are in trouble,” she said.

Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer wondered what benefits there are to creating a separate statement when the district’s existing mission statement already talks about appreciating diverse cultures.

“For me, having separate mission and vision statements devalues some of the other work we are doing,” Heyer said. Time spent on crafting a mission statement might be better spent taking action, she added.

Assistant Supt. Anthony Buono said that ultimately there should be one mission statement for the school district, but that for now there needs to be clarity around what the equity work is trying to accomplish.

“Actions matter, but you need a guiding north star,” added Christie.

Heyer wondered if, at some point, the board would vote on the equity project.

Goldstein said the board’s endorsement is implicit in its discussions so far.

“If the board wants to stop the work someone would have to make a motion to stop it,” Goldstein said. “Otherwise, this is the work of the district.”

Staying focused on equity, Goldstein argued, is in keeping with town values. The town also has a robust equity, diversity and inclusion statement, she said.

Board Secretary Neil Phillips said a mission statement that speaks to equity aspirations is a positive thing, even if there are some in town who object to it.

Public weighs in

Residents on both side of the issue spoke at the meeting.

Some continued to voice concern about help the district received from New York University’s Metro Center for Research on Equity at the start of the project. They said they consider the work biased and designed to indoctrinate students.

Rich Hightower called it foolhardy to alter access to AP classes on the assumption that there is systematic discrimination, and said the action plan is short on specifics.

“It is impossible to know if promises will be kept,” he said.

Other parents praised the work.

“What I heard tonight made me feel hopeful,” said parent Becky Martin.

“I am excited to hear about the community building,” added Danielle Teplica, another parent. Teplica said an effort to increase the number of girls in sports and science, technology and math programs also began with a look at the numbers.

The roles of race, proportionality at issue

Hordon said questioning the equity work doesn’t mean that she does not support having every student feel supported in school.

She said she is opposed to her mixed-race children bucketed into groups or taught differently based on assumptions about their race or gender.

“That personally makes my hair stand on end,” she said. “I want people to feel welcome and a part of the school community.”

Focusing on race, Hordon worried, is not the right way to achieve that end.

Heyer questioned if proportionality was the right metric to determine access to key classes and opportunities.

“If we spend 1,000 hours trying to increase access and we get three more students was that a good use of our time?” Heyer asked.

Buono said it is important to know if the schools’ staff holds different expectations for different students. It is healthy, he said, to dig into why the makeup of high-level classes may not be proportional to the student population.

Christine Wanner, a district health coordinator, who helped facilitate development of the action plans, said the idea is to create sound pathways to help ensure more students gain access and are successful.

Board member Robert Harrington said he supports the equity study, but understands the concerns expressed by his Republican colleagues. Harrington said he was pleased the action plan seems to leave NYU’s influence in the rear-view mirror.

“This is the first sign of evidence of Westport educators deciding what they want to look at and the direction they want to take,” Harrington said.

Goldstein suggested a board work session with staff to answer any questions they have.

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.