Jefferson City Public Schools' diversity meetings wrap up

JCPS enters next phase of developing progress on issues

Warren Solomon talks about ways to increase diversity during Wednesday's community discussion hosted by the Jefferson City Public Schools at Mid-America Bank in Holts Summit.
Warren Solomon talks about ways to increase diversity during Wednesday's community discussion hosted by the Jefferson City Public Schools at Mid-America Bank in Holts Summit.

Jefferson City Public Schools hosted the last of its three scheduled community diversity meetings, leaving the district with the task of coming up with a specific plan to move forward, based upon the community's input and forthcoming discussions with staff and students.

Wednesday night's meeting at Mid-America Bank in Holts Summit had the smallest attendance and the smallest venue of the three community discussions in the past two weeks, but JCPS Superintendent Larry Linthacum estimated about 130 people in total have been to the three meetings.

The district's three community meetings on diversity and two church-hosted town halls were spurred by a racially-insensitive photo posted on social media in September.

The district's decision to discipline the students involved for behavior off-school property and hours came up for a time Wednesday; staff and board members present felt the district was obligated and legally capable to act in the interest of the safety of all students.

Beyond the incident itself, however, the photo created an opportunity to discuss broader issues of diversity equity, inclusion and representation in the school district's processes, staff, curriculum, and relationships with parents and the community, as well as in other local institutions like city government and businesses.

Participants at the district's meetings wrote down ideas for improving diversity on notepads and larger sheets of paper, and district staff also took electronic notes.

Linthacum said Wednesday after the meeting district leaders like central office staff and principals will look over those notes and develop goals and actions.

He hopes to have "a general plan to move forward" by the Board of Education's December meeting. In the interim, he said there will be district-wide staff discussions and similar discussions with students in grades six-12 to get their input.

In essence, the district is at this point figuring out how to measure progress on issues of diversity; "it's going to be ongoing," Linthacum said of the efforts to make meaningful changes.

He anticipated a "where we are so far" update at Monday night's board meeting, with more updates to continue in the future.

After three district-hosted meetings, a consensus seems to be progress on an array of issues will take focused, community-wide involvement, especially regarding communication, partnerships and economic development.

One idea brought forth again Wednesday was to have a way to empower families. More specifically, there were ideas for providing advocates or liaisons for families to help them navigate the educational system, especially given the district's high rate of poverty and the barriers for families in being involved in their children's educational experience and achievement.

"I think it'd be great," Linthacum said of the idea, adding he wants ways to get more community members involved in the district.