Report denies discrimination against Latinos cited in complaint by North Kitsap parent
Approximately 7 months after a parent in the North Kitsap School District submitted a formal complaint citing 90 concerns about discrimination from Latino parents and students, including inadequate access to English-language learning, reports show the district's outside investigator found most of the complaints baseless or without enough evidence to prove that they were against the district's policy.
The findings were documented in reports from two third-party investigators, as well as in a notice of right of appeal sent to the parent who filed the complaint.
The district separated the investigation into two parts: allegations of discrimination and programmatic allegations. The first part was investigated by Gregory Jackson, an attorney at a Renton-based law firm, Jackson & Nicholson, while Jeff Granson, an attorney at Haggard & Ganson LLP in Bothell, investigated the programmatic allegations, according to the district's response.
In responding to the allegations regarding access to programming, Granson's report said the district's English Learner Program is generally compliant with the guidance and best practices for such programs, but provided further measures for the district to consider.
"The investigator did not find discrimination against Latinos based upon race in violation of school district policy," Jackson wrote in his report. "The investigator did not find harassment, intimidation, or bullying in violation of school district policy," in addition to the statement "The investigator did not find widespread violations of the Language Access Policy as alleged."
The report doesn't claim that discrimination and/or harassment has been eliminated in the district, but merely states that the 90 complaints didn't provide sufficient evidence to prove the parent's allegations, according to the report.
While disappointed about the district's investigation results, the parent, Danielle Castillejo, told the Kitsap Sun she will not appeal the case but instead will continue to seek other ways to bring justice to the Latino community.
"We still want to talk to the district about those things and have restorative justice practices," Castillejo said. "I don't know how that necessarily looks, but I am not convinced that these procedures bring justice for our students and the change that we want, so I think we have to wait and listen to community leaders and look for another way of engaging the district."
Castillejo said she next hopes to take action that is healing, rather than spending district money to go through an appeals process in a system that she calls ineffective.
Having been consulting with other community members, Castillejo said another community meeting will be planned within the next two months for further discussion. This will be the fourth event to hear experiences from Latino parents and students in the district. Others were a meeting at North Kitsap High School in November last year, a meeting in a cafe in Poulsbo in February, and a rally near and at the district's office building in May.
Investigator: Most allegations lacked sufficient evidence
According to the investigation report written by Jackson, among the allegations only one was proven to have violated NKSD policy. Another allegation was proven to be false, and most of them didn't have enough evidence provided to the investigator, according to the report.
"In all but a few instances, the 90 emails that comprise the complainant's complaint, the identity of the witnesses with knowledge of events are identified as anonymous or not identified at all," Jackson wrote in the report. "In other instances, the complainant's emails made allegations without supporting evidence."
Incident at Vinland was resolved, but labeled as 'false'
The investigator referred to one case in which he believed that Castillejo made an allegation where evidence proved that she knew her allegation was "false," according to the report.
In the 27th allegation submitted to the district on February 14, Castillejo wrote that a teacher started a "Dress Like a Mexican Day" at Vinland Elementary. Rather than addressing the systemic nature of these incidents in the district, she wrote in her complaint, the school's principal was left to hold the responsibility and the district did not respond.
Citing an interview with Vinland Elementary Principal Travis Smith, the investigator said that Smith confirmed that the school's fifth-grade Dual Language class won a school-wide competition and was given a task to pick five themes for a school-wide Spirit Week in April 2021.
The class was comprised of 70% Latino students, Smith said. One of the five themes the class proposed was to celebrate Mexican heritage and the fifth-graders named it "Mexican Style Wear...Wear your favorite Mexican style clothes," according to the report.
When a teacher forwarded the proposal to the school's leadership team, 7 of the 9 leadership team members immediately rejected that theme because it was race-based and therefore improper. The class and the teacher changed the theme to "Dress Like Your Career Interest Day," which was approved, the report said.
The principal also spoke to the class and explained why the original theme was inappropriate, the report said.
"Unfortunately, after the new theme was selected, an email with the old theme with Mexican Style wear was inadvertently sent," according to the report. When the principal learned of the mistake, he notified parents of the mistake by personal phone calls, provided parents and the school with the new flyers, and the parents appreciated the correction, the report said.
Several months later, Castillejo complained to Smith that the school had sponsored a "Dress Like a Mexican Day" in violation of the district's policy. Smith explained to her the students' original proposal, that he and the leadership team rejected it and corrected it to the career theme, how the original email was sent, and the steps he took to correct the mistake, the report said.
Castillejo, who submitted the 27th allegation for a Latino parent who brought the issue up in the November meeting at North Kitsap High, said that while she's heard of the issue before, the parent who mentioned this case in November didn't feel like the issue has been addressed. And the investigator didn't interview the parent, Castillejo said after reading the investigation report.
Four parents from initial meeting interviewed for report
In Jackson's report, Poulsbo Middle School Principal Joshua Emmons, Vinland Elementary Principal Travis Smith, North Kitsap High School Principal Megan Sawicki, and Castillejo and her husband were interviewed. The investigator also interviewed four of the 23 people who signed up for the November meeting at North Kitsap High.
The investigator said he emailed a letter in Spanish to the 23 names listed on the sign-up sheet of the meeting, and the investigator’s office has sent a text message or made a phone call with a Spanish interpreter to those who only wrote down their phone numbers without email addresses and four of them agreed to be interviewed.
“Three of the four parent witnesses stated that they were happy with the support provided by the school district and three of the four stated that whenever they asked the schools for help, including interpretive services, the schools provided it,” the investigator wrote in the report.
The three parents "denied any knowledge of widespread school district discrimination against Latinos and thefourth parent terminated the interview before the investigator reached that question," according to the report.
The four interviews were not recorded and they were attended by a Spanish language interpreter who translated the investigator’s questions to the parents and the parent’s responses to the investigator, according to the interview summaries in the report.
In one of the interview summaries with a parent, whose name was redacted in the records, the parent said her son attends North Kitsap High School, and “she feels that her son is treated differently because he is Mexican.” When asked by the investigator, the parent said her son didn’t tell her much. The parent said she spoke to one person at school about the way her son was treated or asked for help, but she didn't tell the investigator the name of the person and "indicated that she did not wish to answer any other questions because she did not want something bad to happen to her son."
“When I asked her what she feared would happen to her son by her speaking to me, she hung up and terminated the interview,” according to the report.
Communication provided in Spanish, though not all sign up
Several other allegations that the investigator found to be "baseless" claimed that important district communications were not available in Spanish or to those who don't have email addresses and that it was a violation of the district's policy 4218. It is alleged that two emails from Poulsbo Middle School Principal Joshua Emmons to parents regarding a student's death and a rumored threat sent in February weren’t available in Spanish to inform the parents.
The investigator said the emails were translated into Spanish and copies of the Spanish translation were included in the report.
Some complaints included instances where Castillejo’s husband received general school communications and student-specific emails and notices in English, rather than in Spanish, and pointed out that school communication isn't provided in Spanish or other languages in the district representing students of other national origins, according to supplemental records.
According to the records, Superintendent Laurynn Evans said in an email in May to the husband that the district-wide data system, Skyward, shows that the"home language" for his family is English.
“As such, all communications that go to you and your spouse are sent in English,” Evans wrote in the email, where a screenshot from Skyward was provided below. “Those families who have indicated Spanish as their home language receive Skyward based system communications in Spanish,” Evans said.
Castillejo explained the system doesn't work to help the Latino community because many families, not just Hispanic families, may select English as their primary language in the district’s system because they don’t want to look like they’re immigrants.
“So many immigrant families will write English regardless of what they speak at home, because they're trying to fit in or be part of America,” she said. “They don't understand that if they mark that, they might not get the services their children need.”
The investigator didn’t interview families who were trying to identify themselves as needing language access, Castillejo said.
“So, the investigator report's conclusions of the district adequately fulfill its obligations is unwittingly based on the false assumption that the district is accurately identifying students needing such assistance. And I don't think they're able to accurately identify those students.”
“The system is not working,” Castillejo said.
Counselor's failure to translate emails cited as a policy violation
Among the 90 complaints, the investigator found two allegations where the district has violated its policy. In the 58th and 59th allegations, Castillejo said that two emails were not provided in Spanish. The emails were sent from a school counselor to students regarding the North Kitsap High School's graduation requirement. The counselor admitted that the two emails weren’t translated into Spanish and that they should've been, according to the report.
"The violation found involved in a single Counselor who admitted the violations and from all accounts appears to be violations based upon expediency rather than disobedience or discriminatory animus against an ethic group or groups with limited English," the investigator wrote in the report.
The district said the counselor has been counseled and made aware of the need to comply with policies and procedures regarding translating vital information for students and families, according to the district’s response.
The district has also completed its implementation plan for a new communications platform, Parent Square, that automatically offers translation of over 100 languages for families, according to the response.
Suggestions for improvements to English Learner program
While investigator Granson concluded that the district’s Language Access Program is appropriate and compliant with guidance provided by federal and state authorities in his report on programmatic allegations, Granson suggested improvements the district could make.
Granson said it’s not clear that the English Learner (EL) program has any staff who are bilingual in English and any of the languages other than Spanish, and the District may review the robustness of services it can offer such students whose primary languages are not English nor Spanish, according to his report.
The investigator also said that NKSD should consult the staff to identify any instances where adequate and appropriate space used for EL services isn’t available and address any of these instances.
Granson said the district should follow its plans to closely monitor its new curriculum and EL strategies, students’ success in relation to the curriculum, and offer the district’s staff support in these efforts.
In response to Granson's conclusion, NKSD said the district will monitor the new curriculum adoption in the same manner in which they monitor all adoptions, by reviewing school and system-wide data, and providing ongoing staff support for the implementation of the curriculum, said NKSD spokesperson Jenn Markaryan in an email.
"NKSD routinely solicits staff feedback regarding needs for professional development and we update offerings based on that feedback," Markaryan said.
When the district posts bilingual positions to serve EL students, the district doesn't specify a second language in the postings, and it strives to find qualified applicants in multiple languages, the spokesperson said.
"The district continually re-evaluates its services for EL students regardless of language," Markaryan said. "All campuses have devices and digital programs available for EL students so that they can see things and interact in their heritage language as well as in English."
The district also routinely consults with other districts who have a number of languages spoken to gain insight as to how to best serve students, the spokesperson said.
Regarding spaces for EL services, the district has facilities and space challenges for a number of programs, and it struggles with providing flexible space for small-group instruction, Markaryan said.
"This has led to a comprehensive capital projects program as well as the consideration of a bond resolution by the school board to provide modern learning spaces that meet the needs of our students and staff," Markaryan said. "In the short term, the EL program staff works with the building leaders to identify appropriate spaces in the school when they are needed based on the model of service delivery."
The Kitsap Sun received the investigation reports, summary response, and supplemental records regarding the complaints through multiple public record requests to the district.
Read the stories below for background on the community meetings where complaints originated:
Meeting in Nov.: Latino parents, students say they face racism, discrimination at North Kitsap High
Meeting in Feb.: Parents plan to continue discussing discrimination, lack of resources at North Kitsap schools
Protest in May: 'Not being heard': NKSD parents protest over response to racial discrimination claims
Op-ed by Danielle Castillejo: Latino parent group presents steps toward safety, inclusion in schools
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: NKSD investigation denies complaints from Latinos students and parents
