A Statement from the Garfield Heights Board of Education
Statement from the Board of Education
June 9, 2020
On behalf of the Garfield Heights City
Schools, the Board of Education is compelled to share with the community our
heartbrokenness and sadness over the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud
Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Desmond Franklin, and the countless others whose lives have
been taken due to injustice. As members of the Board of Education, we are
working collectively to dismantle institutional racism through our unwavering
commitment to racial equity in our own school district and society. We assure the
community that as elected officials, we will continue to serve the community of
Garfield Heights and we are committed to creating a school culture that
embraces and implements racial equity practices, thereby holding ourselves
accountable to advance equity in our district.
On Sunday, June 7th, our
Superintendent, along with educators, staff, and members of the Board attended a
city wide event focused on racial healing in our community. During this event, the voices of our citizens
were heard. In listening to these voices
, it was evident that the recent tragic events created the desire for a heightened level of accountability for what the Garfield Heights
City Schools will do to keep each student safe, secure, and free from harm’s
way.
The GHCS has worked diligently over the
years to take the necessary steps toward advancing equity in our district. Our
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Consultant, has worked to provide District-wide
support and training for employees, as well as support in reviewing &
creating equitable policies and practices. More recently, we have introduced the new role
of Family and Civic Engagement Coordinator, whose focus is to ensure that all
families in our district are supported by bridging gaps in communication
between the district and parents and ensuring that parents are supported by
removing barriers to accessing needed resources. While these roles are
evolving, they demonstrate our efforts in moving things forward.
In addition, there are other initiatives
that have been implemented to elevate
our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion( D.E.I.) work such as Project Mosaic, a
platform created to engage students as diversity champions, and our District-wide
D.E.I. week, which focuses on various facets of diversity, equity, and
inclusion, including improving cross-cultural relations, inclusion for students
with different learning abilities, and mental health. More importantly, we are
working to create a revised strategic plan for the future of our District,
which will include D.E.I. as one of the four pillars. The plan will consist of a clearly defined
equity statement to serve as the compass for our District’s equity framework.
We acknowledge that there are racial
disparities within our district, and we are working to better understand the
experiences of racial groups and identify strategies to address the existing
disparities in our district. We also recognize that as we move forward in this work,
it will require us as members of the Board to remain vigilant in examining our
own personal journeys and implicit
biases that would have an impact on our practices, policies, and
protocols. We acknowledge that this is
required to effectively initiate and create structural changes in our district
that challenge the status quo and support equity for each student. At the same
time, we condemn violence and will not permit the communications channels of
our District to be the arena for hateful or hurtful speech. We all can elevate,
and we must lead by example.
As we are continuing on this journey, we
ask for your support and we encourage each member of the Garfield Heights
Community to join us during this time of unrest as an opportunity to talk with
your families, particularly our children, about embedded injustice and how we
can purposefully, peacefully and compassionately take a stand against racism. These conversations are important to begin the
change in community and in our world.
Listed below are some resources below
that can help you in your discussion with your families. With a need for any additional support, feel
free to call the Board of Education at any time.
Sincerely,
The Garfield Heights City Schools
Board of Education
How to talk to your children about protests and
racism
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/protests-racism-talk-to-children-wellness/index.html
George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor.
What do we tell our children?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/31/how-talk-kids-racism-racial-violence-police-brutality/5288065002/
Talking to Kids About
Racism and Justice (books, websites, articles):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s0lCA3FlulVhK6DFE2d3uYCipc6ApY8Gn2rMwm6fYqw/edit?usp=sharing