12 Aug WCCUSD Adopts New Anti-Racism Policy, Asks What It Means to Be Held ‘Accountable’

(Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Despite being divided on a nearly identical statement earlier in the year, the West Contra Costa school board unanimously voted to pass a districtwide anti-racism policy last week.

The policy comes only months after board members shared their experiences with alleged racism in the district and the ongoing reports of racism, which is largely anti-Black, among staff and students in WCCUSD.

“This is a journey that we are taking with clarity and with caution,” Board President Jamela Smith-Folds said, “but with motivation to continue moving forward.”

The policy, which passed 4-1-0 with Trustee Mister Phillips abstaining, aims to create an anti-racist environment by dismantling racist ideas that, as it points out, sometimes come in the form of formally adopted district policy or in unconscious biases that contribute to racial inequity.

Part of upholding that policy rests on board members — and the WCCUSD community — holding each other accountable while moving towards its goal of anti-racism. The policy does not define what being held “accountable” means, which was behind the divide over the prior anti-racist statement the board reads before each meeting.

Phillips previously made an unsuccessful attempt to remove the word “accountable” from the statement because of how he said he had seen it used against past decisions by the board, namely Trustee Leslie Reckler’s censure.

“I do support the move towards anti-racism,” Phillips said at the Aug. 7 meeting,  “but due to all the political infighting that has happened, I am very uncomfortable with the language saying trustees are going to hold other trustees accountable.”

Phillips was one of the board members who said he experienced racism from community members.

Reckler, who abstained on the board’s anti-racism statement in March with Phillips, also asked for clarity on what “accountable” meant at that meeting and followed up on that clarification during the board policy adoption.

“When we go in to have a level of accountability, that level of accountability is going to look different at each form, at each state,” Smith-Folds said. “So we are dealing with intense conversations in interrogating our policy and what we need to do to hold those levels accountable, starting with our cabinet.”

Smith-Folds said cabinet members, which are those in Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst’s executive team, are now in the process of having conversations about what accountability looks like in each department and how those not in line with the anti-racist statement and policy can be held accountable.

“And then it trickles down from there,” she said, pointing to ongoing discussions on accountability among principals, human resources and the paperwork it might involve.

Racism has been a problem in WCCUSD, which serves a student body that is made up of over 50% Latino students and over 10% Black, and board members have previously said they’ve seen racist incidents reported every year.

Within the last year, calls to address racism have ramped up across the district, with district administration partnering with anti-racist consultant Harvest Consulting and students calling for an end to racist incidents they’ve experienced. Students have spoken out at board meetings and on campus against the use of the n-word and discrimination by students, staff and administration of Black Student Unions.

>>>From Our Archives: RHS Student Says Things Are ‘a Little Bit Better’ After Protest Against N-Word<<<

Rachelle Rogers-Ard from Harvest provided insight into how racism affects the district — presenting data that showed one in three Black students reported in a survey that they’d experienced explicit racism in the district during the 2020-21 school year.

Other groups of students were more likely than others to experience these incidents, including one in five East Asian Students and Latino Students.

Among adults in the district, Rogers-Ard said Black women were the group most subject to racism in the district.

The next West Contra Costa school board meeting is Aug. 28.