To President Champagne, Vice President Havenstrite, Trustee Paull, Trustee Balthazar, Trustee Bybee, Trustee Sheffield, Trustee Spradley; Superintendent Leonard, Deputy Superintendent Arnett, Interim Associate Superintendent Rawlings, Chief Student Support Officer May, Chief Human Resources Officer Lee, Chief Learning Officer Fambrough; Principal Ramsey, Principal Sullivan, Principal Carter, Principal Phelps, Principal Meek, Principal Wirht, Principal Ryan, Principal Spraberry, and Principal Dusek:

We are reaching out with 5 requests (below) that we believe would help Eanes ISD become a school district where all individuals are treated with dignity and respect. We appreciated the message from Eanes ISD trustees and administrators on June 7, which directly acknowledged the death of George Floyd -- and of the many others who were unjustly killed by police -- and the recent abhorrent video on social media of Westlake graduates using the n-word. We were disappointed that Superintendent Leonard’s message on June 3 regarding the Green Glasses Initiative only obliquely mentioned these monumental issues, and also that the initial statement regarding the Westlake students using the n-word showed a disturbing lack of accountability, consequences, or rehabilitative / restorative / educational efforts made for the individuals involved. However, we were glad to see Eanes ISD follow up with this additional message that directly addressed the kind of systemic racism that not only harms people of color, but also “kills the soul of a community.”

We are all aware of Westlake’s troubled racial legacy - in particular, that the school was founded after Brown v. Board of Education to resist integration; that the faculty and student body remains overwhelmingly White; and that racist incidents continue to be committed time and time again. It is not enough to react to and denounce visible acts of racism merely as they occur; we must commit to an active and ongoing pursuit of an inclusive, anti-racist culture at all levels of our district. We believe that addressing these flaws in our classrooms and in our community is the beginning of the fight against racism. All of us -- including Eanes ISD at an institutional level -- must commit to substantive actions in order to ensure progress.

We have great respect for our Eanes community and are grateful for the education that our schools provide. For the most part, our students are graduating academically well-equipped to tackle a collegiate-level education. However, without sufficiently grappling with issues like racism before graduation, our students are woefully unprepared to participate in discussions about what it means to be a citizen in a diverse country, much less a country where a significant portion of the population is harmed by the state itself. Equipping our students with nuanced, empathetic understandings of race, gender, sexuality, and more will allow them to be better thinkers, citizens, and people.  

For Eanes ISD to not engage meaningfully with these complex societal issues is a disservice to students and families. As a predominantly White district, Eanes ISD as a whole may be relatively sheltered from the direct impact of this moment. However, to equally support all students, our community must actively stand up and support families and students of color, particularly Black students and families who are extremely underrepresented in our district. All students and families will be better served when Eanes schools can set the example of how to be actively anti-racist.

Here are 5 actionable items that would help Eanes ISD educate students to be anti-racist, thoughtful citizens of the world:

1) Superintendent Leonard, Deputy Superintendent Arnett, and Chief Learning Officer Fambrough should work to hire a third-party consultant focused on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”). This consultant should survey our existing curriculum and culture; identify opportunities for each and every Eanes ISD school to improve on this front; outline initiatives to tackle those opportunities with clear timelines and deliverables; and continue to monitor the progress and results of those initiatives.

2) The board should create a DEI-focused subcommittee to ensure that these initiatives are an ongoing priority. This subcommittee should make DEI initiatives an agenda item for the full board meetings once a quarter.

3) Given the timing of these incidents and in response to parents’ expressed desire for district guidance, by the end of July, Superintendent Leonard should send out a newsletter to families containing resources on how to speak with their children about racism. While we understand these newsletters typically are not sent over the summer, we believe the importance and timeliness of these issues requires this level of affirmative support.
 
4) Each and every school should continue including materials around diversity, equity, and inclusion in required classes. It is heartening to hear that Social Studies and English classes are adjusting their curriculums to discuss issues beyond the White canon. To augment this effort, we suggest the following actions:
4a) Superintendent Leonard, Deputy Superintendent Arnett, and Chief Learning Officer Fambrough should conduct reviews with faculty to ensure that actively anti-racist materials (e.g., as in the link below) are included in that education.
4b) All faculty should revisit their curriculums and identify points at which they will be including non-White perspectives. These reports should be submitted to department heads and DEI-focused staff at the beginning of every semester. Summaries of these reports should be presented to Chief Learning Officer Fambrough, Deputy Superintendent Arnett, and Superintendent Leonard on a yearly basis, and should be available to the public online. Any faculty member who feels ill-equipped to handle this curriculum requirement should be able to access and attend focused DEI-training to support them on this curricular effort.
4c) Eanes ISD should explicitly acknowledge its racist history (e.g., Westlake’s founding after Brown to resist integration) on its website. Only by addressing past injustices can we work towards a better future.

5) Students who commit racially charged acts should face disciplinary action. Statements that Eanes ISD does not “condone their behavior or their actions” fall flat when students are nevertheless allowed to be racist with no consequences.
5a) The board, along with legal counsel, should amend the student handbook to include precise language that racial slurs in any context are not acceptable. The handbook currently addresses racial slurs in the same clause as “name-calling;” these are two drastically different issues and should be treated accordingly. Eanes ISD should clearly establish and outline a transparent and zero-tolerance policy that is consistently implemented towards incidents of hate speech and other injurious behavior.
5b) In continuation of the work to change culturally insensitive traditions, all Eanes ISD schools should work with the aforementioned DEI consultant to review and approve all school-sanctioned events, whether organized by students, faculty, or administrators.

We are happy to help provide any support that you need on any of the 5 items above. Here is a link to additional anti-racist materials that could be used to educate faculty, staff, students, and families about these issues. If you are interested, we would love to meet with you all to speak more about our own personal experiences with racism on Eanes’ campuses, and to continue the conversation about how our schools can better educate their students on the most important issues facing our country today.

Best,


*Link to anti-racist materials: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/anti-racism-resources
*June 3rd message from Superintendent Leonard: https://is.gd/lHXRZl
*June 7th message from Eanes ISD trustees & administrators: https://is.gd/eGZVtU