FCPS Racial Equity Committee gives first progress update

Jun. 25—For the first time since it formed a year and a half ago, the school system's Racial Equity Committee presented an official update to the Board of Education on Wednesday.

The committee — which first met in late November of 2019 — is charged with "identifying discrimination or harassment, raising awareness of implicit bias, and eliminating or mitigating racial inequity," according to its chair, Kisha Coa.

Each of the board's committees present annual reports to its seven elected members, said Coa, a parent of two Urbana High School students. She moved to Frederick County when her kids were babies, she said, and decided to join the committee to affect change in the district.

"We're really happy for this opportunity to address this really critical issue around racial equity in Frederick County Public Schools," Coa told the News-Post.

During her presentation, Coa — along with the committee's vice-chair, Elissa Andrade — briefed board members on the group's progress since it formed. Though its momentum was stalled by the coronavirus pandemic, the committee has spent the past 18 months hammering out its bylaws, collecting and analyzing school system data and setting goals.

It's made up of 25 people, Coa said, including teachers, school staff, students, parents and community members.

Toward the end of their presentation, Coa and Andrade identified seven FCPS policies the committee would like to see revised. Those recommendations came from a sub-group of the committee dedicated to reviewing the system's written policy through an equity lens, Coa said.

The committee has previously taken issue with the language of the board's recently passed policy on teaching "controversial issues." Coa expressed that again Wednesday night: Policy 501 was first on her list of recommended changes. She said the committee wanted to ensure teachers were trained in a standardized way on how to handle topics covered by the policy.

Coa and Andrade also singled out the system's policies on personnel, student discipline, extracurricular activities, graduation and attendance. In some cases, the suggestions were minor — adding a few words here and there to make the language more inclusive.

The committee suggested the board make some more concrete changes, too. For one, they'd like to see it take a more proactive stance in hiring and retaining diverse staff. Plus, Coa said, the district should consider altering its approach to student discipline — focusing on healing students, rather than punishing them.

Moving into the next school year, Andrade said, the committee has a host of goals. Among them: It hopes to help create a systemwide racial equity policy, connect equity-focused student groups from schools across the county and engage with the community on the issue of school resource officers.

"It's been a complicated and challenging year," Coa said. "But we feel like there's so much work that needs to be done, and we're just really excited about the opportunities for the future."

Follow Jillian Atelsek on Twitter: @jillian_atelsek