D215 delays action
on proposal aiming to boost board’s diversity
Board President Michael Bolz said the group’s proposition to replace at-large voting with a system that ensures each of the district’s feeder communities can elect its own representatives merited consideration, but would require more time to study and “won’t happen within the suggested timetable.”
The Concerned Citizens of School District 215, a coalition of Burnham, Calumet City, Lansing and Lynwood residents who have criticized the board’s lack of diversity, had asked the governing body to place
The group’s members argue the current system, in which all voters can choose any of the candidates and board members may live anywhere in the district, hurts Black and Latino candidates and contributes to a cultural disconnect between the nearly all-white school board and the predominantly minority students and families they serve.
While only 7% of District 215’s students are white, its seven-member board has six white members from Lansing and one Black member from Burnham.
The citizens group wants each of the four communities that are part of the district to have representation on the board commensurate to their population within the district.
Their proposal would allot three seats to Lansing residents, two to Calumet City residents and one each to Lynwood and Burnham residents.
Residents of each municipality would vote only for candidates running to represent their community’s seat or seats on the board.
The District 215 Board said in a statement Wednesday that its attorney was in the process of reviewing the citizens’ proposal, but did not provide a timetable for how long that might take.
Referendum questions must be filed by Monday to get on the November ballot.
“The primary concern right now is that the Board has not had adequate time to fully consider and discuss the proposal, especially in light of the extra time and consideration that has had to be given to the re-opening of schools in a few short weeks under COVID-19,” the board said in its statement. “Given the importance and long-term nature of this proposal, the Board wants to give this proposal the appropriate time and attention that is warranted.”
Tonya Reed, a Calumet City resident who backs the concerned citizens group, said she hoped that after further consideration District 215 would support putting a referendum on the April ballot. If it does not do so voluntarily, Reed said residents were prepared to collect the signatures necessary to get the question placed on the ballot themselves.
She said her group also was in the process of recruiting a diverse slate of candidates to run in next year’s election, where four board seats are up for grabs, and already had identified at least two strong potential challengers.
Former board member Sheryl Black, who had been the board’s only Black member before losing her reelection bid last year, said it was important to run more candidates of color while simultaneously pushing to revamp the district’s voting system.
“Even with a successful slate, we recognize it’s important to change the system so there will never be another opportunity for one community to dominate the school board,” she said.
Black, who is undecided about running in 2021, said the current system offers all candidates a “perceived opportunity” to serve on the board, but that a strong white voting bloc in Lansing has made getting elected an uphill battle for minority candidates from other communities.
The board, which has made efforts in recent years to address residents’ concerns about racial inequities in the district, on Tuesday approved an equity action plan, a resolution in support of racial justice and the creation of two equity-focused student clubs.
The equity plan contains a commitment to “an overall culture of equity” and lays out measurable equity goals. It is the culmination of more than 18 months of focused equity work in the district, Superintendent Sophia Jones-Redmond said.
It aims to ensure all students have access to high-quality, rigorous and culturally relevant instruction, and that all staff members engage in professional learning that examines racial and cultural identity and its impact on teaching and learning.
Other goals include increasing community and family engagement and working to recruit and retain diverse staff and faculty.
The district’s newly formed student organizations are an equity student leadership club and a future teachers club. Both would function independently at each of the district’s schools, but would also meet with the school board’s equity subcommittee to offer input, according to the district.
The equity club will meet twice a month to discuss equity, cultural relevance and navigating current issues while the future teachers club will meet two to three times monthly to introduce students to teaching careers in the hope of encouraging them to return to District 215 someday as instructors.
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