Winooski Students for Antiracism Demands
This page provides transparency on decisions made and actions taken in the district with regards to the demands presented by the Winooski Students for Antiracism (WSA). It is intended to be a space to hold ourselves and each other - as members of the Winooski community - accountable to the work needed to become an antiracist school district.
Demand Action Groups orientation on Oct. 4, 2021
WSA Demand Action Groups
Use the links on the right to learn about the work happening in the district related to the WSA demands.
WSD Antiracism Steering Committee
A steering committee comprised of Winooski community stakeholders is overseeing the work of the demand groups and serving as a hub of feedback and communication. Click here to learn more about the Antiracism Steering Committee and see updates about its work.
* Note: The Steering Committee will decide how it would like to approach Demand #2 and Demand #3 (the two demands that have not been officially adopted by the WSD School Board yet). The tabs for Demand #2 and Demand #3 linked here include the latest information and archived updates related to each demand.
- Form a Truth & Reconciliation Committee
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Status: The action group has formed and began meeting monthly. Click here to see updates from the Demand #1 action group.
WSA Demand Adopted by the Winooski School Board:
"Immediately form a Racial Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with organizing hearing campaigns related to the occurrences of racial biases, prejudice, and injustices at Winooski School District (WSD) in the past. The Commission must communicate with current and former Winooski students and their families using communication methods and language accessible to them. It must also guarantee that information shared by students and their families and WSD staff of color will be kept confidential, unless they agree in writing to go public with their testimonials. The Commission must comprise community members, students, parents, and school board representatives (2 maximum), and its racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and gender composition must reflect that of the WSD student population. WSA may decide to collaborate with a third-party facilitator to carry out these hearing campaigns. The Commission must be provided with training, resources, and funding to ensure a commitment to impartiality and integrity is reflected in their work.
"The Commission must release its findings within six (6) months of its formation to the public. The Board must take appropriate actions to remedy the effects of the past while also ensuring that similar incidents do not occur at WSD in the future."
2. Launch an Anti-Racism Committee
Rejected: August 12, 2020
The Winooski School Board decided not to adopt this demand due to legal questions and concerns. The Board expressed interest in consulting legal counsel to explore the premise of the demand further. The Winooski Students for Antiracism have changed the language of the demand to address the concerns of the Board. The revised demand will be presented to the Board for approval in an upcoming School Board meeting.
Click here to see updates from the Demand #2 action group.
WSA Demand Rejected by the Winooski School Board:
"At the beginning of 2020-2021 academic year, launch a permanent Anti-Racism Committee as a part of the Restorative Justice program at WSD to which students facing racial prejudice, biases, and discrimination can directly report the occurrences of these incidents. Upon receiving such complaints, the Committee must immediately begin the investigation process and the findings be presented to the Board. The Board must then take appropriate actions, based on the recommendation of the Committee, to remediate the situation and to ensure that same incidents do not occur in the future at WSD. The primary goal of the Committee shall be to repair the damage caused by the wrongful action (racial prejudice, biases, and discrimination) and restoring--insofar as possible--the well-being of all those involved. The Committee members, Board, WSA representatives, and WSD faculty shall receive professional development/learning related to legal aspects of receiving complaints, investigations and subsequent actions about racial prejudice, biases, and discrimination. To ensure legal compliance on the work of the Committee, the representatives of the Committee shall consult Board-designated legal counsel.1 As discussed above, the composition of this committee must reflect the diversity of our community."
1 We are informed that the said investigation process may face some challenges due to the existing system of reporting harassments and discriminations at school. If such a scenario is determined, the WSA team will work with stakeholders - including WSD Leadership Team and the Restorative Justice Committee - and will propose a mechanism that is in compliance with existing regulations no later than the Board’s September meeting.
Note: Winooski School District is currently working with Spectrum Youth & Family Services to run a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project to begin a district-wide shift toward Restorative Justice.
3. Replace the School Resource Officer with Trauma Specialists
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Rescinded: September 15, 2020
The Winooski School Board reversed its decision to adopt this demand due to concerns around process. At the time, the Board vowed to conduct a community engagement campaign to facilitate discussions around safety and security at school with all community stakeholders.
Click here to read an archive of updates and details about the latest activities related to Demand #3.
WSA Demand Rescinded by the Winooski School Board:
"Replace the School Resource Officer (SRO) with two (2) trauma specialists trained in restorative justice practices/intervention at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. One trauma specialist will work directly with the elementary school and the other trauma specialist will work directly with the middle/high school. We demand that at least one of the specialists identify as (a) person of color.
"To make an advancement towards the use of trauma specialists and trauma-informed practices, the school must begin defining the role and recruitment of a trauma specialist at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year.
"In regards to the role of the SRO in the 2020-21 school year, we recognize that the SRO cannot be replaced since the FY20-21 budget has already been decided. Hence, for the 2020-21 school year, the SRO’s 2020-21 role must be revised such that the SRO is unarmed, wearing civilian clothing, and not parked with their police car in front of the school when on school premises. In addition, any incidents where an SRO is called to intervene must be reported. Such a report must contain specific details, including but not limited to the following:
The reason for the SRO being called;
Student’s personal narrative regarding the reasons for SRO being involved and their interaction with the SRO;
And action(s) taken by the SRO.
"To transition away from using the SRO as a means of dealing with ordinary school “discipline” issues, faculty, staff, and administrators should be provided with training to use restorative justice practices at school.
"The school district should develop a collaborative mechanism with the Winooski Police Department to coordinate a timely response in rare and unfortunate emergency scenarios."
Multi-Stakeholder Group Dialogue on School Safety Models (approved by the WSD Board on April 7, 2021, in response to Demand #3)
By Julian Portilla, Champlain College Center for Mediation and Dialogue, and Emily Hecker, WSD Communication Director
At a Special Board Meeting on April 7, 2021, attended by approximately 125 people, more than 60 individuals from the Winooski community, including parents, current students, alumni, and school staff members shared their thoughts, experiences, and feelings about the School Resource Officer (SRO) program in the WSD.
After four hours of public comments, the School Board voted 4-1 to retain the district’s current SRO program through the 2021/2022 school year. Within the same motion, the board approved the commission of a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) to further examine the SRO program in the district and research school safety models. Read more about the April 7 meeting at this link: bit.ly/April7WSDMeeting
At the May 12, 2021 Board meeting, the WSD Board approved a proposal by Julian Portilla, the Director of the Champlain College Center for Mediation and Dialogue, to create the Multi-Stakeholder Group and provide recommendations about school safety models.
Julian Portilla shared the following progress updates about the MSG in July. To read the full report presentation visit: bit.ly/MSGSROstatusupdate
Mr. Portilla had conducted 12 interviews with school and city officials, parents, the WSD Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), Winooski Police Department, restorative justice experts, and other Winooski residents.There are additional interviews scheduled with students, liaisons, SRO, parents of WSD students as of this update. He asked each individual the same questions about their connection to the school and their concerns about safety and security at the school district.
Among the group there was universal praise for the city and the school environment and community, including that the WSD is the “Best school district ever. Hands down.”
When discussing what safety meant to each individual, people responded almost universally that they were not concerned with threats from inside the school for the physical safety of children. Rather, the responses were most concerned with threats from outside the school such as shooters. People were most concerned with ensuring the proper systems and protocols were in place to guard against those threats.
However, there were people concerned with the emotional impact of an armed, uniformed officer in the building, especially among older students of color. Conversations about safety inside the school led to conversations about discipline and approaches to managing behavior in school. Some people were concerned about the potential disproportionate impacts of discipline on students of color and therefore their sense of safety at school.
When asked about how the SRO affects safety and the feeling of safety, the majority of people mentioned the usefulness of the SRO’s role in ensuring awareness and communication between the school and police department, especially in instances of police contact with a child’s family.
For those who were not comfortable with an armed officer in school, responses tended to be appreciative of the individual in the SRO role but also wondered whether these responsibilities could be accomplished by other people or groups.
Members of the Multi-Stakeholder Group shared their ideas for improving the safety of students. The idea behind many of these suggestions was to preserve the aspects of the SRO that provide safety and security to students and staff while reducing the time of having an armed, uniformed officer in the building. Many suggestions were an attempt at addressing the concerns of people on all sides of the argument.
The responses fall into a few different categories:
Keep the SRO but change the amount of time in the building.
Transfer the duties of the SRO to either a new individual or new group.
Increase the skills and training of existing staff and administration.
Next Steps:
While many solutions have been put forward, before discussing solutions and changes, the MSG will need to invest time to understand the work of the current SRO, the concerns of all relevant parties with regards to security, analyze relevant data and compare models used elsewhere before discussing changes to the SRO position.
In order to fulfill its charge, the MSG will hold conversations with various segments of the community, experts, other school districts, restorative justice experts and law enforcement. Regular updates will be provided to the board and will regularly post meeting times and minutes for anyone wishing to learn more about the process.
Mr. Portilla will complete nine more interviews scheduled with students, home-school liaisons, the current WSD SRO, and parents of WSD students. He will also develop a list of participants to represent specific groups. The MSG held their first meeting in August. After that, they will hold bi-weekly meetings in September, October and November in order to provide recommendations to the board about the SRO program for budget finalization.
4. Develop a Strategy & Action Plan to Hire Teachers of Color
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Status: The action group has formed and began meeting monthly. Click here to see updates from the Demand #4 action group.
WSA Demand Adopted by the Winooski School Board:
"By January 31, 2021, publicly release a fully developed strategy and action plan as it relates to hiring teachers of color at WSD. The Board will direct the WSD Leadership Team to develop a plan of action in collaboration with WSA and in consultation with parents and students of color, teachers and administrators of color, and community members. The Board must also make an explicit written commitment to hire highly qualified staff, teachers, and administrators of color by the 2022-23 academic year with the desired goal of the WSD staff, teachers, and administrators reflecting the student population. WSA and WSD students must continue to be an integral part of the teacher hiring process, with their opinions and feedback taken as key parts of the teacher hiring process."
5. Develop an Ethnic Studies Program
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Status: The action group has formed and began meeting monthly. Click here to see updates from the Demand #5 action group.
WSA Demand Adopted by the Winooski School Board:
"Immediately require its teachers to incorporate components of ethnic studies curriculum and anti-racism pedagogy within the existing K-12 curriculum. It must also begin to develop a concrete plan to launch a fully-funded ethnic studies program by the beginning of 2022-2023 academic year. The program should be led by an ethnic studies coordinator and the funding must be made available for ethnic studies training for social studies teachers, and ethnic studies education for all teachers within the district.
"The Board must commit to financially supporting the following:
Developing a PK-12 curriculum framework that articulates knowledge understanding, skills and dispositions of an indigenous, emancipatory, abolitionist, and anti-racist system;
Designating professional learning for staff in Winooski schools that advances the work of an indigenous, emancipatory, abolitionist, anti-racist education learning and system; and
Hiring an Ethnic Studies Coordinator by the 2022-23 school year at the latest.
"Ethnic studies, the interdisciplinary study of difference and power, and anti-racism, the active effort of working against racism’s unjust and multidimensional aspects, are essential subjects that the next generation of young people, especially students of color, must understand and use in their daily lives."
6. Form a Review Committee to Evaluate Curriculum & Policies
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Status: The action group has formed and began meeting monthly. A group has been chosen to perform an equity audit. Click here to see updates from the Demand #6 action group.
WSA Demand Adopted by the Winooski School Board:
"Form a review committee by the end of August 2020 tasked with the responsibility to review and evaluate existing curriculum, teaching practices, and policy structures to ensure that they conform to contemporary ethnic studies and anti-racism standards, expectations, and pedagogy. The review committee should consist of students, parents, teachers, community members, administrators, and school board members. If deemed necessary, the Review Committee may consider using a third-party to perform an equity audit at WSD.
"This committee must review the curriculum and their execution throughout the 2020-2021 academic year and present its findings and recommendations to the School Board and the school leadership board by August 15, 2021. These findings and recommendations must immediately be released to the public. Teachers should then be provided with training and support to ensure that the recommendations are executed by the 2021-2022 academic year."
7. Hire a Professional to Host Civil Rights Workshops for Families
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Status: The action group has formed and began meeting monthly. Click here to see updates from the Demand #7 action group.
WSA Demand Adopted by the Winooski School Board:
"Hire a professional on students’ civil rights to host biannual workshops that educate and support parents and students in understanding how to advocate for their children and their own educational rights at WSD. These workshops must focus on the federal and local regulations related to the rights of “ELL” students as well as students with disabilities, civil rights and anti-discrimination laws, and school’s responsibilities on areas such as family engagement and adequately supporting low-income students. These workshops must begin in the 2020-2021 academic year. The Board must ensure language accessibility through various language interpreters and accessibility of technology through digital live streams and recorded video for parents to easily access.
"In a long run, through the effective implementation of this program, families and students themselves shall be equipped to advocate for their rights at school. WSA will work with representatives from the ELL department and Special Education Department."
8. Launch a Mentor Program for ML Students
Adopted: August 12, 2020
Status: The action group has formed and began meeting monthly. Click here to see updates from the Demand #8 action group.
WSA Demand Adopted by the Winooski School Board:
"By January 2021, WSA will work with current programs/work to develop a plan to coordinate and communicate mentoring opportunities to students, families, staff and the broader Winooski community and present this plan to the Board and Administration.
"At the beginning of 2021-2022 academic year, launch a mentorship program for “ELL” students through which all students are matched with community mentors with the goal of improving their English language skills and finding an advocacy partner in the community. The mentors must be provided with anti-bias, anti-racism, and students’ rights training once they sign-up for the program."
Questions or Comments?
Please use this Google Form to submit questions or comments about the WSA Student Demands page.