Who is driving the DCSD Equity Policy train?
As we continue to attempt to keep pace with all the changes that the BoE majority is trying to implement in our district, we thought it would be interesting to share a blog that we had worked on last week but hadn’t yet published.
It's reassuring that it has become easier to predict what “Kids First’ directors will do, but it is also maddening that they continue to do what they do and get away with it.
We have included the original blog copy and superimposed commentary and graphics to support our predictions of their playbook moves.
Estimated Read Time: 10 minutes
At the end of the Douglas County School District Board of Education Study Session on April 11, during his President’s Report, Mike Peterson spoke about the packed agenda for the upcoming BoE meeting scheduled for April 25 (2:26:10). He mentioned that almost everything discussed that evening tied back to April 25th, and began to list some of the agenda items, “We have policy updates on mental health, bullying, parent engagement, equity policy…”
Wait, what?!?!
Upon rewatching the video, Director David Ray’s head turned towards Peterson when he said “equity policy,” but the other directors did not visibly react. Peterson’s comment about the equity policy seemed to go unnoticed until Director Susan Meek asked for clarification during her report (2:38:35), and Peterson responded that he planned to share a first reading of his revisions to the equity policy at the April 25th BoE meeting.
This is shocking that Peterson is unilaterally attempting to change the DCSD Educational Equity Policy without board direction. And it’s starting to feel as if we are witnessing a slow-motion train wreck in progress.
What changed?
Pushback on the district’s equity policy (Policy ADB) from Peterson and his fellow “Kids First” directors isn’t anything new, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up either. All three minority Directors, Elizabeth Hanson, Meek, and Ray, spoke up about their uneasiness with his plan, but it appears that Peterson isn’t convinced that their objections have any merit.
And this majority bloc just may approve his suggested changes to the policy because they have the votes to do so – we have not seen any of the “Kids First” directors challenge Peterson thus far. Our concern is that once again, Peterson’s actions are driven by his political agenda rather than in the best interest of the students and staff or the district.
Development of the Equity Policy
Equity work in DCSD began as early as the 1990s, and more than 11 years ago, a group of DCSD leaders and educators began working on a diversity/equity committee. This work led to the development of the 2018 Strategic Plan, and updates made to this Plan in 2019 included Equity, Inclusivity and Safety as the main tenets to foster a culture of belonging in the classroom. From the guidance of the Strategic Plan, the need for an Equity Policy was revealed.
In March 2021, the ADB Educational Equity Policy was adopted after many revisions, meetings with stakeholders, and publicly debated changes on the dais. It was a thorough and transparent process involving multiple stakeholder groups.
Resolution to the Equity Policy
Implementation of Policy ADB went into a holding pattern on Jan. 25, 2022, when the new BoE majority introduced its “Resolution Concerning DCSD’s Culture of Individual Excellence and Inclusion.”
This resolution was presented by “Kids First” Director Kaylee Winegar, who, by her own admission, drafted with input from far-right activists leaders in the Douglas County chapter (formerly known as “Douglas County Wokebusters”) of the Foundation for Intolerance and Racism (FAIR). FAIR is a national organization that launched in 2021; although it claims to be nonpartisan, FAIR’s advisory board is almost entirely composed of anti-“woke” media figures and academics (read more about FAIR in the "Was the Resolution Warranted" section below).
The Resolution directed then-Superintendent Corey Wise to recommend potential changes to the district’s Educational Equity Policy by Sept. 1, 2022. Not long after the “Kids First” coalition passed the Resolution, it fired Wise without cause, and he was replaced by Kane a few months later.
At a BoE meeting on Aug. 23, 2022, Kane was slated to present her plan to review the Educational Equity Policy and asked for an extension of that timeline to June 2023. With the MLO/Bond on the ballot, the “Kids First” directors chose to kick the equity can down the road. This resulted in real consequences in the form of losing MLO/Bond support from both the voters who traditionally support MLOs/Bonds, but had lost trust in the board, as well as some “Kids First” supporters, who were disenfranchised to see their directors promoting a tax increase.
For more in-depth detail around the district’s Equity Policy and its history, catch up by reading our blog, “Separating Fact from Fiction in DCSD’s Educational Equity Policy.”
In a word, no.
Third-party research and data have confirmed that nothing in the policy needs to change. Superintendent Kane also recommended no changes to Policy ADB. And it turns out, the “Kids First” campaign promise about doing away with the Equity Policy was a nothingburger.
The Resolution and its directive to review the Equity Policy have been the result of targeted misinformation and moral panic campaigns designed to create fear and panic, and resulted in the disruption of equity efforts. This strategy was featured prominently with the “Kids First” candidates in the 2021 school board campaign, and has continued with the actions of those same individuals since taking office.
As mentioned earlier, FAIR was involved in drafting the Resolution, and the relationship with the “Kids First” directors is undisputed. Peterson openly praised them during the Jan. 11, 2022, BoE meeting (4:53).
FAIR has successfully found itself a seat at the table in equity discussions with Douglas County and State chapter leader Laureen Boll serving on the DCSD Equity Advisory Council.
One look at one of FAIR’s founding advisors, Christopher Rufo, is all you need to know about the organization and its goals. If you didn’t already know, Rufo is the self-proclaimed architect of the CRT moral panic nationwide. He tweeted the following on March 15, 2021.
“We have successfully frozen their brand—"critical race theory"—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category. intentionally to bring fear to conservative voters.”
The leaders of the Douglas County chapter of FAIR have not only far-right agendas of their own, but a history of linking arms with other extremist organizations like FEC United (the radical, right-wing extremist group led by Joe Oltmann, who embraces election conspiracy theories – to the point of being a speaker in Washington, D.C. on January 6th – and accuses educators of grooming children to be gay so they can molest and abuse them).
Reinforcing what we already knew
When Superintendent Kane shared her “Educational Equity Path Forward” with the public at the March 28, 2023, BoE meeting, she said that she did not have any recommended changes to Policy ADB. Kane’s next step is to create an ADB-R (“R” is for regulations) that will focus on the policy’s implementation into academics, student wellness, human resources, resource allocation and parent engagement. This is an appropriate route for the superintendent to make recommendations for policy implementation, and likely what should have been originally requested in the “Kids First” Resolution.
As part of her efforts to review and provide recommendations to the Equity Policy, Kane contracted with longtime DCSD vendor partner, Hanover Research, to conduct surveys and focus groups with stakeholders. The resulting data included feedback from the parents and community members, along with educators and students (all of which Peterson was elected to represent), and also supported Kane’s recommendation to maintain Policy ADB in its original form.
Yet, Peterson continues to push his own ideologies and “Kids First” campaign promises no matter the evidence to the contrary.
We imagine it must be difficult for him to have campaigned on a platform of anti-masking, CRT and anti-equity, only to have mask mandates removed by the state weeks after taking his oath, having to publicly admit that CRT does not exist in DCSD and see (though not admit) that equity is desired and supported by the DCSD community.
Perhaps he is feeling ineffective, out of touch and getting pushback from his far-right supporters. Remember that he campaigned in support of a tax increase for DCSD, alienating many of the supporters who donated and volunteered for his campaign. Peterson’s comment (2:37) during the BoE Study Session on April 11th about presenting his own recommended changes to Policy ADB is consistent with his modus operandi of disregarding policies and norms when they don’t suit him. Peterson has continued to disregard the data that doesn’t support his agenda and pander to his base as recently as a few weeks ago about his intentions to eliminate or dilute Policy ADB and create a “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”
The “Parents’ Rights” movement is yet another fear mongering trope driven by far-right extremist views and backed by multiple conservative PACs. The false narrative that parents don’t have rights when it comes to their children’s education is more accurate when one acknowledges that “parents’ rights” aim to impose some parents’ views on other parents.
In Colorado, it is legal for children ages 12 and older to make some decisions for themselves like acquiring mental health services without parental permission; Peterson actually took this provision out of the JLDA-R Policy.
Recently formed local “parents’ rights” group Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN) headlined a rally at the state capitol to protest HB23-1003. The bill creates a 6-12th grade mental health assessment screening program administered by the department of public health and environment. Although there is a parent opt-out feature to this bill, minors ages 12 and older would be allowed to opt themselves back into the screening without their parents’ permission, consistent with Colorado state law.
We find it extremely concerning that the influence of organizations like CPAN and FAIR are clearly evidenced in the language and direction that some of these policy revisions seem to be headed.
What’s next?
As an organization dedicated to supporting public education in our community, DougCo Collective is extremely concerned to see our BoE president continue to push his political agenda in an attempt to unilaterally alter the district’s Equity Policy, despite overwhelming recommendations to leave it as is.
We anticipate that Peterson’s revisions will include FAIR terminology like common humanity, individual potential, immutable characteristics, equal outcomes, meritocracy, colorblind, pro-human and other misleading and loaded phrases.
Peterson’s actions contradict the intention of the Resolution that was presented and passed by the “Kids First'' coalition more than 14 months ago. And his disregard of the data from the Hanover study as well as the recommendation from Superintendent Kane is a clear display of how Peterson continues to prioritize his far-right extremist politics over serving DCSD students and staff.
Implementation of the DCSD Educational Equity Policy has been stalled for the past 14 months since the ADB Resolution was passed 4-3 by Peterson and his “Kids First” BoE majority. We continue to see students and staff reporting overt (and covert) racism, homophobia, ableism and hate speech in our district. And we continue to see this board majority waste time and money, duplicating past efforts, only to produce the same conclusions that were reached in 2021. This has to stop.
