The board voted unanimously to adopt a one-year plan to improve the racial climate for district employees.
In June 2015, three African American employees complained about “outright discrimination and harassment.” They were Nikki Fuller, director of the diversity, equity and community partnership office; Henri Sparks, director of equity; and Da Verne Bell, who left the city school system earlier this year after working as diversity education director.
The three filed the complaint to the school board Diversity & Equity Committee. The full school board then agreed to hire an independent investigator to examine the claims. The report, completed this spring, found no specific instances of racially motivated conduct or retaliation, according to the school board, but it did find a culture of “pervasive racism” that needs to be addressed.
Fuller, Sparks and Bell did not respond to messages seeking comment.
School board chair Mark Porter said Wednesday that the investigation took some things out of context but that the board wanted to respond.
“We can say we don’t like the way [the report] was presented but it ultimately comes down to we have a zero tolerance for this,” Porter said.
“We can’t have this,” Porter said. “We can’t have any employees feel that because of their race or any other protected measure, that they feel they are being discriminated against. We just can’t have that.”
Superintendent Yaw Obeng will be in charge of the one-year improvement plan and will report to the board on progress, Porter said. The plan takes a district-wide approach.
“The improvement plan is not targeted toward any one individual, or even named individuals,” Porter said. “It’s geared toward all employees.”
The report noted that since Obeng was hired a year ago, the racial climate in the district has improved. Obeng is Burlington’s first black superintendent of schools and he has said that creating an atmosphere of fairness is a priority.
Obeng would not immediately turn over a copy of the investigation or the complaint. Seven Days has filed a public records request for these and other documents connected to the complaint.
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Nonsense
That pervasive culture of racism has been there for years and years. Every single person of color I know who has worked for BSD has has the same experience that the three people who filed the complaint have had. It doesn’t matter what Mark Porter thought was being taken out of context, a “pervasive culture of racism” found by an independent investigator is incredibly serious. It needs to be treated like the emergency it is.
jhitt23-on what do your base your “Nonesense” assessment?
doesn’t surprise me with a school board who has to leave the state, woops, the country TO FIND A SUPER! and spend thousands on getting him in the country- confidence level- ZERO
Of course there’s a pervasive culture of racism… this is America. Every school district has a race problem. BSD just spends hundreds of thousands of dollars more on administrative, non-teaching, personnel with no education experience or interaction with students, to go around and look as if they’re policing it. BSD snubs their nose at the VT AOE, claiming that there are too many demands put on them from the state. If you look you’ll see that the AOE are pushing actual preventative solutions for these challenges (UDL, PBIS, etc.) which are research supported frameworks and tools for improving school climate, inclusion of students of all backgrounds, and culturally sensitive practices.
It sounds like, based on their job titles, these three people who complained of racism are likely the ones implementing the improvement plan. It could be job security for this group of people to push this narrative, and then – just like Chipotle is doing with their signs at the counter – cover the issue of race in conversations and trainings with staff and students, creating the illusion of changing things. I still wouldn’t recommend eating at Chipotle.
Without more information about details of the investigation findings, this article isn’t particularly helpful.