Spokane Public Schools wants public input on how the district can boost equity

Spokane Public Schools is reaching out to the public for comment as it moves forward with a comprehensive equity policy.

Expected to be finalized this summer, the document is “intended to recognize the necessity to identify and change the practices and policies that perpetuate systemic racism and other social maladies that broaden opportunity gaps,” according to a draft document that was made public during a work session held last weekend by the district’s board of directors.

“We want to make sure that we build equity into every single level of our school system,” Board President Jerrall Haynes said this week. “We want to make it part of our everyday lives.”

The draft document, currently five pages, is the product of work that began last summer, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

During the meeting, Superintendent Adam Swinyard told board members that during the next two months, the district would “engage” the superintendent’s work group, the citizens advisory committee and other groups to solicit feedback on the document.

At the same time, board members agreed to contact stakeholders for their reaction as they consider potential revisions.

The goal, Swinyard said, is to reconnect with the school board in May and move toward adoption by summer.

The draft’s overarching message: to reduce “persistent disparities among students of color and other historically underrepresented students.”

The document lists three main goals: to address structural systems with a focus on eliminating barriers and improve access for students; raise the achievement of all students while decreasing gaps between the highest and lowest performing students; and decrease rates of disproportionality in program, services, interventions and student discipline.

“This document makes that commitment,” Haynes said.

Specifics include ensuring that “all students have equitable “barrier-free” access to rigorous content, high leverage teaching practices and dynamic resources to support high academic, social, emotional and behavioral growth.”

The draft also promises to provide staff with the tools to “achieve high quality teaching and learning, using culturally responsive practices; and relevant curriculum, teaching and assessment practices, in addition to providing differentiated pathways to academic success.”

Also mentioned are hiring and staffing practices, including a commitment to “recruit, hire, support and retain highly qualified diverse and culturally competent administrators, teachers, certificated support personnel and classified staff through broad outreach, inclusive hiring practices and culturally responsive retention strategies that support and value diversity in its staff.”

In the classroom, the draft promises to “review and remedy practices that perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps.”