The prompts were the same, as were the issues Tuesday night at Jefferson City Public Schools' second community meeting on diversity.
JCPS has been asking the community for input on solutions to its diversity issues for weeks, through the district's own first community meeting two weeks ago and two recent town halls hosted by local churches that included invitations to Superintendent Larry Linthacum.
The discussions have been spurred by a racially-insensitive photo on social media in September. The photo featured four young people, three of whom are Jefferson City High School students. The youths posed in the photo in front of a car that had racially-insensitive and offensive imagery drawn into dust on the trunk.
As at the previous community meeting, three prompts were given to the 45 or so people in attendance in addition to district staff and Board of Education members at the community room of Hawthorn Bank on Amazonas Drive.
The prompts asked small groups of community members to answer what roles schools, parents and the community play in helping the district address its diversity issues.
One recurring theme on the schools front was a desire to move away from teaching strictly Euro-centric readings of history, that aren't necessarily inclusive of everyone's history - "then you develop this marginalization of any and other ethnicities," Sylvia James Wilson said of the effects of that approach. She is the director of Lincoln University's Office of Alumni Affairs.
"Whose history are we teaching?" Simonsen 9th Grade Center physics teacher Alex Edge asked, reporting his table's thoughts on black history and others' contributions to society ought not simply be confined to singular recognition months or elective courses, but integrated into core curriculum. Other groups concurred with that point.
Similar sentiments have been expressed at other diversity discussions in the wake of the photo incident. JCPS's Chief of Learning Brian Shindorf said Tuesday while the district's primary responsibility in its curriculum is to meet state standards, "there's always opportunity" to incorporate diversity.
"Teachers have a lot of flexibility" in how they can incorporate auxiliary texts beyond what the district provides, Shindorf said. He added this is especially true in English and social studies classes, "any content area has that flexibility."
Empowered parents was another desire of progress several groups expressed - parents helping other parents to be able to effectively communicate with teachers and being able to support or hold teachers accountable.
Issues of diversity, representation and inclusion go beyond the school district. "Look at everything as if it's connected, because it is," board member Pam Murray said of including city institutions in the dialogue.
Jefferson City's Mayor Carrie Tergin told the audience she looked forward to the district's findings.
At the beginning of the event, Linthacum gave some updates about the district's efforts, including professional development for staff on diversity scheduled for Jan. 2.
He also said he's met with Columbia Public Schools' superintendent to learn about what's worked there and what hasn't about making progress on diversity issues. He said JCPS will be submitting a "disproportionality, comprehensive review of student discipline" to the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
"I can't do anything about what has happened in the past, but I am in a role to where I can have a part of it," Linthacum said, addressing feelings the district has been in such a moment before without using the opportunity to make meaningful changes.
The district's third scheduled diversity discussion will be 6-8 p.m. today at Mid-America Bank in Holts Summit, 580 Karen Drive.