Following outcry, Missouri school board will revisit anti-racism policy

Randy Cook, who sponsored the policy to revoke Francis Howell School Board declarations, said the district doesn’t need “a resolution against every evil in society,” such as racism.

Public outcry has led to a Missouri school board’s decision to revisit an anti-racism policy before allowing it to expire in the coming months.

The Francis Howell School District’s board president, Adam Bertrand, wrote in a Facebook message on Tuesday that the three-year-old “Resolution in Response to Racism and Discrimination” may have support for a rewrite or modification, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Bertrand’s comments came after the board voted at its July meeting to revoke all previous resolutions within 75 days, sparking outrage from the local community of O’Fallon, a St. Louis suburb, and calls for solidarity from school officials.

The St. Charles County NAACP branch issued a statement labeling the group’s 5-2 vote “a significant setback in our collective work to create an educational environment where every student is learning, seen, heard, and valued.”

The previous Francis Howell board adopted the anti-racism resolution in the summer of 2020, shortly after thousands of demonstrators marched three miles down Mid Rivers Mall Drive in favor of Black students after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Demonstrators questioned Francis Howell’s hiring policies, disciplinary procedures and curriculum, which were perceived as biased against people of color, requesting changes to them all.

“We will promote racial healing, especially for our Black and brown students and families. We will no longer be silent,” the passed decree states, according to the Post-Dispatch. “We are committed to creating an equitable and anti-racist system that honors and elevates all, but one that also specifically acknowledges the challenges faced by our Black and brown students and families.”

Since adopting the non-binding resolution three years ago, the all-white school board has become a conservative majority.

Bertrand wrote that the racism resolution probably won’t be upheld in its current form, but the board will collaborate and consider community feedback “to move towards a draft the majority of the current board could support.” Board members who supported revoking the resolutions claimed it was unnecessary and had not improved race relations in the district.

About 80 percent of the 16,500 students in the Francis Howell School District are white. The district’s most notable instance of racial unrest occurred in 2013 when many people demonstrated against Black students transferring there from unaccredited schools in nearby Normandy. The Post-Dispatch reported that according to a letter just last month from Will Vanderpool, the Francis Howell compliance officer, a recent internal investigation of a Black student’s civil rights complaint found that the district’s policy against discrimination, harassment and retaliation had been violated.

Francis Howell Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos noted in a follow-up letter to “frustrated and hurting” parents that “moments like this” are when people can come together, work out problems and learn from each other, ultimately building a stronger community.

Roumpos stressed his commitment to helping all campus employees and students of diverse races, cultures and backgrounds feel welcome and valued.

The school board will convene again on Aug. 17.

In a statement made before the vote, board member Randy Cook, who sponsored the policy to revoke the declarations, said that he does not feel the school district “needs a resolution against every evil in society” one opposes, such as racism — and that this resolution’s lack of definitions for terms including “equity” and “systemic racism” left it subject to debate and interpretation.

“I believe the Board had the very best of intentions when they adopted this resolution,” Cook said, “but carrying out the commitments made by prior Board members has many challenges.”

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