School board working with protesters and Equity Committee on better education for students of color

Hunter
06/25/20

The Iowa City Community School Board is taking suggestions from the district’s Equity Committee and local protesters on how to provide a better education to students of color.

The Press-Citizen reports that among the recommendations is limiting police presence on school campuses.

The Equity Committee is recommending a series of steps to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan. They include a resolve to require a supermajority vote to approve adding school resource officers; removing racist instructional materials, increase funding for school counselors and social workers, begin a tracking system to determine how often teachers and administrators of color leave the school district and conduct exit interviews; increase engagement with parents, students and community members from underrepresented groups in the district, and retain the Equity Program Facilitator position.

The Press Citizen says that the board was going to consider the recommendations but decided to postpone the vote until it could meet with the Iowa Freedom Riders, who have submitted their own list of demands.

The group’s demand to add a Black History course to the high school curriculum has been championed by student protesters, who have brought that request to the ICCSD school board several times in the past few years.

The board unanimously agreed to meet with IFR at a soon-to-be-determined date.

Hunter
06/25/20

The Iowa City Community School Board is taking suggestions from the district’s Equity Committee and local protesters on how to provide a better education to students of color.

The Press-Citizen reports that among the recommendations is limiting police presence on school campuses.

The Equity Committee is recommending a series of steps to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan. They include a resolve to require a supermajority vote to approve adding school resource officers; removing racist instructional materials, increase funding for school counselors and social workers, begin a tracking system to determine how often teachers and administrators of color leave the school district and conduct exit interviews; increase engagement with parents, students and community members from underrepresented groups in the district, and retain the Equity Program Facilitator position.

The Press Citizen says that the board was going to consider the recommendations but decided to postpone the vote until it could meet with the Iowa Freedom Riders, who have submitted their own list of demands.

The group’s demand to add a Black History course to the high school curriculum has been championed by student protesters, who have brought that request to the ICCSD school board several times in the past few years.

The board unanimously agreed to meet with IFR at a soon-to-be-determined date.