“This has been a challenging summer for our little community,” said School Board Chair Leah Slye at a back to school meeting with school staff on Aug. 25. “We have done a lot of soul searching,” she said. The shooting of Philando Castile by a St. Anthony police officer, and responses afterward, she said, led to deeper examination of questions of how the district treats students of color.
“This isn’t a new conversation for you, because you have already been doing this work,” she said, outlining some of the programs in the schools aimed at dealing with disparities. “There are going to be more stories to be heard, questions to be asked, and discussions and conversations, sometimes some difficult conversations,” Slye said.
“Our small caring environment is under duress,” Superintendent Robert Laney said, “We have kids who are going to show up here on Tuesday, some impacted more than others.”
He asked teachers to reflect on the question “Can you be successful with students who are different than you?” He spoke of his days as a young teacher, telling a story of his less-than-skillful attempts at working with an immigrant student, which he said he’s reflected on many times over the years. He also cited specific examples of “skilled adults in the district who accept the challenge and find solutions,” in working with students who are at an academic disadvantage.
A couple weeks earlier, during the school district’s annual update to the St. Anthony Village City Council at the council’s August 9 meeting, Laney said that the district’s focus this year would be addressing racial equity.
“Equity equals opportunity,” Laney said. He said that all courses, programs and activities are being reviewed for participation of students of color, to see how the numbers compare with the proportion of students of color enrolled, and that each school will hold a meeting to present the school’s specific equity objectives and plans and to solicit feedback.
“We want to make sure that the opportunities are there, that the students are prepared, feel welcome and are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities available,” he said.
Wendy Webster, community services and communications director, presented demographics showing 29 percent of the students in the school system are students of color and of the 37 percent of students who live in apartments and other multi-family complexes in the community, 65 percent are students of color.
Laney and Webster discussed programs addressing equity, including Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) classes that were instituted in two apartment complexes four years ago when ECFE staff recognized that the families attending classes at the St. Anthony Community Center were not representative of the demographics of the city.
The district has been working with the Science Museum’s NEXUS program for nine years to address disparities in science, technology, engineering and math education.
Laney described two collaborative programs with the Columbia Heights district, one involving combined third grade classes and their teachers working together in a science and cultural awareness program directed by Equity Alliance MN (formerly East Metro Integration District). Equity Alliance will provide facilitators trained to work with culturally diverse student groups; those facilitators will also help train the teachers to work in diverse classrooms.
The other collaborative program with the Heights system is for 8th and 9th graders, a writing- and research-intensive summer program that helps prepare students who need to improve their skills in order to take honors and AP classes in high school. This past summer’s class covered the 1862 Dakota War and the Mankato hangings of Dakota men, Laney said.
Laney also talked about several high school programs, including two offered through the West Metro Education Program collaborative. In Dare 2 Be Real, students explore their racial and cultural identities through study, cultural experiences and leadership training.
Laney closed the council presentation by reiterating the school district’s commitment to looking at inequities and barriers to student participation. “We understand that we have a long way to go in this journey and it’s going to be challenging and difficult work because we’re trying to counter 300 years of history,” Laney said.
St. Anthony Middle School held its meeting about its equity plans on Monday, Aug. 15; The Wilshire Park Elementary School meeting will be September 19; and the meeting for families involved in Community Services programs such as ECFE and preschool will be on Thursday, Sept. 29 at the Community Center, Webster said. She said the high school meeting will be sometime in October.