After an emotional conversation in October about worsening racial slurs in classrooms, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District is beginning its efforts to address racism and incorporate more inclusivity into its systems and campus culture.
“What you allow will continue,” district Assistant Superintendent Erin Haley told the school board at a meeting on Nov. 12, requesting that board members approve a new Inclusive Excellence Program for the upcoming 2024-25 school year.
Having stemmed from the board’s approval of an Academic Inclusion and Excellence Training on Oct. 8 that centered on racism in Paso Robles classrooms, Haley said under the new program the district hopes to address racism and provide a more inclusive learning environment for students in elementary through high school.
She presented the program’s five elements intended to help the district better understand student climate. They include reviewing the district’s expectations of students and determining which students are thriving and why. Through this lens, they hope to eventually identify barriers that various groups of students face in the school system.
“This is going to be ongoing work,” Haley said. “This is not one specific answer or solution, or collaboration, or professional development, or training—so it’s just really important that when we continue to work toward inclusive excellence, that we are looking at our infrastructure as a school district and how it supports every child.”
According to district data, 65 percent of students in Paso Robles schools are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), 15 percent have identified disabilities, and 15 to 21 percent self-report as LGBTQ-plus. In addition, Haley also said some students feel staff do not address racism when they hear it and that some staff feel unequipped to address racism.
“This is our why. These are our students,” she said. “It’s really important to emphasize ‘some’ because not all of our staff feel that way, or not all of our students feel that way. But some do feel that way.”
When it comes to behavioral consequences, the Inclusive Excellence Program also provides a five-tiered system for staff to follow, depending on the impact of a student’s action and any prior offenses. Consequences begin with contacting parents and can increase to include suspension, according to the Nov. 12 staff presentation.
School board member Kenney Enney—who, according to Nov. 23 election results, was set to remain on the board—said he doesn’t think the program will work.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t think there’s not a problem in this community or in this school district—there is. I just don’t think this is the solution, and I’m sure I’m going to get labeled again as a white supremacist or something,” he said.
He also asked which groups of students were using the “N-word” the most.
“They’re mostly going to be immigrants; they’re not from here,” he said. “It is a new group to the community that probably has not, in my opinion, been educated on what is proper and improper.”
Overall, Enney said the district must focus on correcting behavior rather than changing a mindset.
“Unless you start punishing people for their actions and setting up policies that limit what people say or do, you may not change their heart, but you start establishing peace and order,” he said.
Assistant Superintendent Haley interjected and said that the program will provide consequences, but the district is also responsible for education.
“We cannot deny the fact that our data shows that not all students are achieving success at the same rate,” Haley said. “I don’t necessarily see this as frilly, or the hearts—it does impact behavior, and it impacts students’ achievement.”
School board member Laurene McCoy, who has likely secured another term as well, agreed and said, “We need to have structure and discipline … but also, beyond just Black students, all students, it’s about educating them versus punishing them first.”
The board approved the Inclusive Excellence Program 5-1, with Dorian Baker opposed. Δ
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2024.