Board is scheduled for vote on proposed anti-racism policy
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
The Board of Education for Burlington Area School District will consider formally adopting an anti-racism policy Monday during a 6 p.m. special virtual meeting.
Despite the district’s efforts to deal with what has become a hot-button issue and improve conditions for students of color, the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism along with other groups plan to gather in Burlington Monday to protest what the group’s members perceive as a lack of collaboration with the group on developing what it considers a stronger policy.
The BCDR is scheduled to hold a 2 p.m. socially distanced prayer vigil at Echo Veterans Memorial Park, 589 Milwaukee Avenue. Additional plans include creating a caravan of cars that is scheduled to depart at 2:20 p.m. to the homes of School Board members while calling on them to publicly denounce racism and bigotry, protect the safety of students of color as well as bolstering collaboration with BCDR on developing a stronger anti-racism policy/curriculum than the proposed policy set for consideration at 6 p.m. Monday.
The vigil and caravan were organized earlier this month after BCDR joined a Nov. 19 Zoom call hosted by the Racine Interfaith Coalition, WISDOM and Gamaliel Network.
The Zoom call titled “Solidarity for Burlington” attracted nearly 300 participants from Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, Madison and even Green Bay.
Racine Interfaith Coalition, which has 26 member churches, openly condemned allegations of racism towards children of color in BASD in a Nov. 17 press release.
“Racial epithets have been expressed in writing and verbally in many forms, including the interruption of Google Classrooms with racial slurs, vandalism, the disruption of school board meetings, and more,” the news release states.
“The situation has risen to a crescendo of threats against the lives of those in the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism who first brought this to the attention of the School Board.”
Shortly after the Nov. 19 Zoom call, BASD responded to the allegations in a statement.
The BASD statement outlines several steps the district has taken in recent years to address racism, including collaboration with the National Equity Project, Payne and Frazier, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Teaching Tolerance.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation, according to the district, provides the Hours Against Hate Program.
“For several years, the Burlington Area School District has been working to implement purposeful and systematic change to create a more equitable environment for all students,” the district states.
“There is always more that can be done to assist our students of color, students with disabilities, and students from economically disadvantaged families.”
BASD acknowledged it has had to address racial incidents, including groups of juveniles who vandalized two school properties with slurs.
“Our journey to become an anti-racist community has just begun. Unfortunately, while we have been seeking impactful change, we have also had to deal with hate crimes within our community,” the district states. “We have repeated, and will say again, that the district is full committed to serving as a learning community that is both anti-racist and healing-centered while rejecting all forms of racism.”
Additionally, the district has developed a website highlighting some of its efforts to quell racial incidents, with a goal of creating a safer and more equitable school environment.
As for the policy change, which had a first reading during a Nov. 16 virtual meeting, the district believes it is “critical first step” to implementing change.
“Policy is one tool, but it takes intentional action to create an anti-racist culture,” the Nov. 19 statement added.
However, according to BCDR President Darnisha Garbade, the policy change is not strong enough and did not include most proposals submitted by her group in April.
Monday’s virtual School Board meeting will be streamed live on YouTube. While district residents will not be able to participate in real time, they can submit comments that will be considered at the meeting by email to [email protected].
A complete version of this story appears in the Nov. 26 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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