Please sign the petition to add your name to this letter. It will be officially delivered to district leadership after our community has had opportunity to contribute support of the requests listed below:

Dear Renton School District Leaders,

We recognize the immense and continuing challenges that the coronavirus pandemic has created for our community and for you, our school leaders as you make decisions that affect all families. In addition, the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd (to name a few – there are many more) and accompanying demonstrations highlight pervasive and ongoing systemic racism in our communities and institutions.

How can we pursue equity and social justice at this time? If you haven’t already read this article (Some Students Should Go to School, Most Should Stay Home: Socially Just Schooling in the Time of Covid-19) by Shayla R. Griffin, PhD, MS, we strongly encourage you to. The entire article is worth reading, but this quote gives a sense of the issues addressed:

Here is the dilemma for those of us who care about equity, social justice, and science: there are (at least) two competing justice issues on the table — the risk of not having school for the students most marginalized, and the risk of schools spreading a deadly disease to the students and families who are most marginalized. Choosing to address one inherently worsens the other.

The author goes on to make a strong case for both/and thinking to address the unprecedented challenge with some specific ideas for action.

Recognizing that RSD recently announced its plan to begin the school year with online instruction only, the undersigned parents and supporters of Inviting Conversations About Race and Equity (ICARE), request that Renton Schools leadership consider taking the following actions next:

1. Listen to marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous and people of color and those with disabilities that rely on schools for support. Seek the stories of each family; disaggregate the survey data. Adjust course as needed to address their basic needs; failing these students would result in a failure for our whole community.

2. Support teachers and staff. For online instruction, encourage innovation and best practice sharing by creating/maintaining venues for teachers learn from each other. Provide premium pay for those that offer in-person services to students and families.

3. Sustain and expand technology supports and supplies for families. Ensure Chromebooks and assistance for internet access is available to everyone who needs it, in addition to traditional school supplies (pencils, notebooks, workbooks, and printed materials).

4. Continue to offer accessible nutritional services to those that depend on them.

5. As soon as practicable, consider offering a limited number of in-person classes for the most marginalized students. Perhaps at buildings that can support outdoor classrooms. Consider whether most spaces would be reserved for younger learners, who may otherwise be left unsupervised.

6. Continue to work with neighboring districts, PSESD and other partners to pilot new models of service delivery. Near term goal – collaborative problem-solving to meet basic needs of marginalized students and families. Perhaps a unique window of opportunity to prove new partnership models and demonstrate the need/benefits of policy change for more equitable education system.

We believe your courageous leadership in rising to meet those with the greatest needs will benefit our entire community.

Sincerely,

(insert names)

Facebook: We Are ICARE

article: https://medium.com/@shaylargriffin/some-students-should-go-to-school-most-should-stay-home-8a57894b8487