HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – After three hours in which nearly 30 members of the community addressed the Hampden Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) regarding the use of an equity audit, one thing was certain: all of them wanted what they thought was best for their children.

Superintendent Albert Ganem began the meeting by reading a statement explaining the difference between Critical Race Theory (CRT), which many residents had come to denounce, and educational equity. He used information from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) to explain that CRT is a framework created in the 1970s that has been used at the college level to help “school administrators and teachers better understand inequities in the context of education.”

Ganem emphasized that it is a college-level framework. “Critical Race Theory is not being taught in any schools of the HWRSD.” He noted that the Massachusetts curriculum framework for social studies has been “praised for its breadth and balance.” For those with concerns, he recommended reading the frameworks, which are available at https://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks.

“Of course, teaching social studies and history will, at times, require discussion about historic instances of racism or scenarios where race was an important factor,” Ganem said. “This, in turn, often prompts students’ questions and requests for additional discussion on how some elements of history continue to play out in our communities.”

Ganem went on to explain that educational equity refers to federal and state policies and requirements for K-12 education.

“It doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from, the color of their skin or the educational abilities they come from. It is our job as educators in the HWRSD to take our students as they come to us at no matter what grade and provide them all that they need to succeed and to be successful,” Ganem said. He finished by stating, “Inclusion and belonging to our community will lead to equity. Inclusion will lead to excellence,” Ganem said.

Pro Audit

The members of the public who spoke, both for and against the use of an equity audit, had several key talking points.

Many of the speakers in favor of the audit pointed to a need for data on the outcomes of current district policy and practices. “Without good data, there can be no change,” Lucy Brakoniecki said in a letter that was read on her behalf. She provided general statistics that showed students of color are less likely to pass classes, more likely to receive suspensions and, with the exception of Asian Americans, graduate at lower rates. “There are greater structural inequities at work here,” she said.

Resident Elizabeth Swain noted that the demographics of the towns and, therefore the school district, are changing. “They should all be welcome and feel safe in our schools,” she said of the students.

Renee Bracey, a child and family therapist and parent, presented a letter in support of the audit with 110 signatures and another with 300 signatures. She said that research in her spare time has found “significant disparities” between how students are treated that have been reported to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Bracey said she came across 200 documented instances of overt racism or microaggressions, ranging from the use of “the n-word” to a student being told they were not the author of an assignment because it was “too good” for a student “like them.”

One member of the crowd jeered at Bracey.

She later read a statement from her husband, Brian Bracey, who could not attend. In it, he said that an audit can teach the district how to find diverse staff and that the vast majority of the teachers in the district don’t look like his kids. He said a high number of kindergarten students of color had been placed in a class with one of, if not the only, Latino kindergarten teacher and wondered if that had been done on purpose. Ganem responded that skin color is not a factor in placing students with teachers.

Tom Hidalgo, a retired resident who had worked at DESE, said that identifying potential inequities is “not going to hurt anyone. It’s not going to take anything away from anyone.”

Some residents shared their experiences with racism in Hampden and Wilbraham. A former student, Kyle Langois, who called into the meeting via Zoom, told the committee and those gathered that when he was a student in the HWRSD, he wasn’t taught much about slavery or the Stonewall Riots, and neither Black History Month nor Asian American/Pacific Islander Month were celebrated in much detail. “But we did have time to learn about the white, excuse me, right side of history,” Langois remarked.

 Karen Louise Walker, a resident who had grown up during desegregation, spoke about her experiences as a Black student, including having rocks thrown at her and her parents fighting for her to have educational opportunities. She said an audit would allow the opportunity “to keep what is good and build off it.” She went on to say, “Truth is difficult and painful, but when we stick with it, we grow.”

Against the Audit

Despite Ganem’s earlier words, the majority of people speaking against the equity audit conflated it with CRT.

Jim Smith opposed language used at a previous meeting describing things “white supremacists say.” He noted that the comments identified in this way were talking points from himself and others with the same points of view. Smith also cited as inappropriate a sign that had been set on one of the bookcases, reading “I stand for the equity audit.” The sign was removed.

Smith conceded that CRT is not being taught in schools, but said he was worried about “CRT-inspired language,” that would be “telling white students they are oppressors.” Smith reported that neither his wife nor child had ever experienced racism in the towns. He suggested that “CRT- inspired racial division,” is what has led to students feeling afraid or unsafe in the district.

“Racism is evil,” said Anne Shepherd. “However, it doesn’t mean you can flip it around and make people feel bad about themselves.” She said her child was told he was a white oppressor, though no other details about the incident were shared.

“We don’t want our children indoctrinated,” said Paul McConnell, who called CRT “Marxist, political crap.”

One issue that was repeatedly mentioned was the cost of the audit. While the cost is not yet known because a firm has yet to be chosen, many people railed against a potential price tag in the tens of thousands of dollars. Julia Baker suggested the district do an audit of themselves with surveys and roundtables. She said the law already provides that students be treated the same. She asked why the district should spend money “to tell us to follow the law?” Jim Burke said the audit was “a solution looking for a problem,” and claimed that the audits are pre-written and that the district would be paying for something that was predetermined.

Committee Debate

Once the last member of the public had spoken, School Committee member Bill Bontempi thanked all of the participants and urged people who were “energized” to work on the upcoming strategic plan.

Committee member Sean Kennedy noted after reading through the Longmeadow equity audit, he had found it contained nothing offensive, despite many people at the meeting citing it as an example of how an audit would be segregationist and anti-white. Kennedy said from his discussions with residents, it was information on the school department’s webpage that had upset them; it was what had been done with the audit, rather than the audit itself.

Discussing when the audit could be done, Kennedy told the rest of the committee that he had spoken with Mac Reed of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS), which is helping the district create the strategic plan. Kennedy related that Reed had told him the equity audit should not be conducted as a “parallel process” to the strategic plan, but that the plan should prepare for the audit. Kennedy quoted Reed as expressing concern that doing them simultaneously would “water down” both. Kennedy’s suggestion was to put a placeholder in the strategic plan for the equity audit results to be added at a later time.

Committee member Sherrill Caruana insisted the audit must be done at the same time as the strategic plan. Planning work on the strategic plan has already begun by MARS, Ganem noted.

Kennedy, who had motioned at a previous meeting for the committee to “encourage” the district to do an audit, addressed why he felt the audit was needed. He spoke about a student of Mexican descent who described being harassed because of her heritage and about five students who had addressed that committee in April to talk about their experiences with bigotry in the district.

Bontempi said that no one even knew what an equity audit was two years ago. “What would we have done,” before audits were developed, he asked.

“Nothing,” said Kennedy. “But now there’s something we can do.”

Bontempi went on to ask for data showing equity firms are successful. “There’s no history with these companies,” he said, but Caruana objected and said some firms had been around for years.

Committee Vice President Maura Ryan interjected, “you go to people with knowledge,” referring to the firms that have been doing audits. She said they would vet firms and not just choose “someone off Facebook.”

The committee discussed having Ganem bring potential equity firms before the committee for vetting. A member of the crowd shouted, “Bring them in front of us, we’ll grill them.” The committee chastised the person for speaking outside of the public comment period. Later, someone again yelled from the crowd and committee Chair Michal Boudreau told the individual he was out of order.

Regarding why the audit was being considered, Ryan said she had experience with diversity, as she was originally from Worcester. “People treat people differently. We just want kids not to feel that way.”

An audit wouldn’t be a “silver bullet,” to fixing inequity, Bontempi said. He described a cartoon depicting equity and equality which showed three kids of different heights trying to see over a fence to watch a baseball game. In the example, when all three are given the same size box, the tall one, who could see over the fence to begin with, could still see. The medium-height child could also see, but the smallest one was still too short. The equity version of the cartoon shows no box for the tallest child, one box for the middle one and two stacked boxes for the smallest, allowing each one to see the game.

“In a perfect world, where there are no limits on resources,” equity makes sense, Bontempi said, but with limited resources, equity can be harmful. “From the tall kid’s perspective, he’s getting screwed,” Bontempi said, adding, “How you look at it will determine your feelings on it.”

School Committee member Patrick Kiernan said as a political body, the School Committee’s vote could make it harder for teachers and administrators to do their job as an apolitical institution.

Kiernan amended Kennedy’s motion to “support” the superintendent in gathering information on an audit, rather than encouraging him to conduct that audit. The new language was accepted by all but two people. In the end, only Caruana, who wanted the stronger language, voted against the action.