The year 2020 has been remarkable in many ways, but none so potentially course changing as the local and national debates, rallies and protests around racial injustice.
As events in Des Moines unfolded early in the summer and students and staff made their voices heard among the protestors, Superintendent Tom Ahart issued a challenge to the district’s administration and staff to become actively “anti-racist”, opening the door to a series of Anti-Racist Town Hall gatherings involving hundreds of parents, students, DMPS staff and community members to examine systemic racism within our schools. The district also gathered Black employee experiences and thoughts about what needed to change in the work environment.
The results were a stark reveal of how far the district has yet to go toward racial equity.
Anti-Racist Town Hall results:
Finding #1: The current approach to teaching, learning and assessment is driven by adults using whitewashed curriculum
Finding #2: The current approach to recruitment, selection and retainment of staff produces a majority white staffing population
Finding #3: There is not consistency across all positions within the district to create positive, supportive school experiences for students
Finding #4: The current school system is perpetuating systemic racism
Black Employee Experience results:
The Black employee experience within DMPS is filled with trauma, racism, racial microaggressions and lack of career advancement that has led to frustration and exodus of Black staff at all levels of the system.
Peter LeBlanc’s movement from middle school principal to Principal on Special Assignment was one of the first answers to come from the questions raised about the challenges DMPS faces. His position was created late in the summer and he began anti-racist employee trainings this Fall.
“This work has to do with what we believe and how we believe, and it will require us at times to question our beliefs, and question actions that we take or don’t take,” LeBlanc told a group of supervisors gathered for one of his trainings.
It’s a guide for all of the work underway, as curriculum and instruction methods are examined, recruiting and hiring practices are changed, student and staff voices are lifted up in race discussions and transformation in our schools and buildings, and systemic racism is rooted out of Des Moines Public Schools in all of its facets.
“We are taking steps forward that I am very proud of,” LeBlanc said. “There’s a lot of work being done and my hope is that we start to see some improvements as early as next semester.”
But he cautioned that anti-racist work is deeply personal for everyone, at every level of the school district.
“We are not going to train equity into you and we are not going to train bias out of you,” he said. “That is work you’re going to have to own and do yourselves.”
As the school year progresses, we will share more information about the changes underway at DMPS, remaining accountable to the hundreds of people who shared their time and experiences with our Anti-Racist Leadership Team, and to all of our staff, students and families.