Video: A Superintendent Meets the Press
After months of criticism over the handling of a new strategic plan for equity and diversity in the schools, Burlington School Superintendent Jeanne Collins has responded with new plans to move forward. But questions at a June 1 press conference centered on what went wrong and whether the school board will extend her contract.
School Superintendent Jeanne Collins has admitted to making mistakes in her handling of race and equity issues. Standing in front of a dozen members of her administrative team last Friday on the front steps of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington’s Old North End, Collins said that her main error was responding to complaints as a bureaucrat rather than “letting my heart perhaps enter into the debate.”
“I guess what’s changed for me is my heart is here. I can no longer keep it behind the walls of an office up on the hill,” she said.
The purpose of the press conference was to discuss a new action plan for “closing the achievement gap” in Burlington’s public schools. But it soon turned to what has gone wrong and whether the school board will continue to support Collins.
“We have students who are receiving disparate treatment,” said the superintendent, who has held her current job since 2005. Recent public meetings and student protests have offered persuasive and disturbing evidence of bullying and “harassing” comments, she acknowledged. In response the administration is looking “at whether students are being denied access to programs or opportunities through a disparate use of discipline procedures,” Collins said.
Students who are newcomers to the United States have also raised questions about the “exit and entry criteria into our English Language Learner (ELL) program,” she added.
In a written introduction to the new plan Collins pledged to “eliminate race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation as predictors of academic performance, discipline, and co-curricular participation.”
The proposed initiatives include strengthening complaint procedures, upgrading professional development, reorganizing administrative staffing to improve the handling of equity issues, improving retention of a more diverse staff, and creating an Equity Climate Team to monitor and follow up on incidents.
Councilor Vince Brennan, who chaired the task force that released the Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion last October, listened quietly from the sidelines. But he was not convinced that Collins is the right person to handle the job going forward. “I feel like I’ve been here before,” he said afterward.
Brennan has called for Collins’ replacement. She lost his support, he explained, when she did not adequately defend the strategic plan from criticisms following its release, particularly a blistering analysis by math teacher David Rome. Collins’ action plan is “a little too late,” Brennan said. She should have “rallied us together before we reached this point.”
On June 12 the school board will begin to discuss whether Collins’ contract should be extended beyond one more year. If no action is taken by the end of June it will automatically continue until 2014.
Brennan suggests that the board vote not to renew, but invite Collins to re-apply. “If she executed everything in the plan she would be the top candidate,” he suggested.
Rabbi Joshua Chasan, a supporter of the superintendent who also attended the press event, said he “would be very concerned if the contract was not renewed.” Collins has demonstrated “tremendous courage,” he argued, and is “in the best position to effectively mediate between all constituencies and implement a zero tolerance approach to racism.”
Both Collins and School Board Chair Keith Pillsbury faced questions from reporters about whether she has the necessary support and credibility to continue.
“I believe in this plan regardless of what the board decides about who is superintendent,” Collins said. “We can’t wait.” Doing so “would simply delay progress for another year, or possibly three years,” she predicted.
“Equity has been at the core of my professional career as a special educator for 30 years, and I’m not shying away from this difficult conversation,” Collins said. “It is difficult to sit in front of a room full of people who are very angry at the lack of pace that the district has been taking. It’s difficult, but I’m not walking away from it.”
Collins recently announced that she has no plans to step aside. “I’m engaged, I’m committed, and believe I can move this forward,” she said Friday.
Pillsbury expressed confidence in the plan, which he called part of the board’s vision for Burlington’s public schools. Asked whether he also has full confidence in Collins, he replied, “I fully believe she can implement this plan.”
Pressed further he noted that Collins’ work on equity and diversity issues will be one aspect of an extensive evaluation process by the 14-member school board. “She should start this initiative immediately,” he said. “The extent of her contract is up to the board.”
The action plan does not involve more money or extensive “outside” hiring. “We are looking at reorganizing from within, with the exception of one position,” Collins explained. The decision not to fill an opening in the diversity and equity office allows for “affirmative recruitment” of a recruitment and retention specialist without an impact on the budget.
Hiring the new specialist is expected to intensify the school system’s focus on affirmative recruitment, “working to achieve the goal of a 20% pool of diverse candidates for each teacher position posting.” The job will also involve work on removing institutional barriers to “successful retention of adults of color, coordinating with the curriculum director to assign mentors, meeting with new staff to make sure they receive adequate support, and reporting to the superintendent.
Another anticipated change is better reporting and follow-up by the school system’s director of equity and the planned Equity Climate Team, which is supposed to include employees from every school. The team will meet monthly, review all incidents, provide technical assistance, and also report to the superintendent.
Collins nevertheless anticipates that “with intense awareness on this in the coming months we will see an increase before we see a decrease” in race and equity-related incidents. “That is typical behavior, so we need to have the capacity to investigate,” she explained. The information collected will also reveal whether the official response is prompt and fair.
A recent report from Diversity Now, issued after protests outside the school by ELL students from Africa, made a related point. “As minority groups increase their presence, a ‘tipping point’ is reached,” it noted. This can trigger a backlash, “the emergence of what had previously been dormant racial, cultural and class prejudice.”
The administration’s plan has five components: creating a welcoming climate for all students that does not tolerate racism or bullying; professional development for all staff on how to be “culturally responsive”; reorganization at the top; better data collection; and the increased focus on retention.
“We have set a goal of 20% candidates of color in each pool and we clearly communicate the criteria that must be met to work in the Burlington schools, with a special focus on cultural competence,” the plan states.
Rome’s criticism of the strategic plan takes aim at the focus on staffing. “Hiring teachers of color has little, if any, correlation to student performance,” he concludes, “but hiring competent teachers, regardless of color, does.”
He suggests that the district focus instead on “improving the economic situation of lower socio-economic families and educating them about the link between academic success and their future.”
As part of the administration’s plan, each school will have to identify two “designated employees” to respond to complaints and pursue investigations. Dr. Bill Howe, an expert on multicultural education for the Connecticut Department of Education, will work with Burlington Diversity Director Dan Balon on a professional development plan.
The first overview session is scheduled for June 22. Training for the board and key staff members will be held Aug. 13-14, followed by an Aug. 24 orientation for teachers, and mandatory participation in additional sessions throughout the year.
