Thank you again to all that have taken the time to sign, and especially to those who commented with their experiences. We are grateful for your input. To update those following this situation, a formal letter was sent to the Queen Anne's County Board of Education on behalf of the Sunday Supper Committee. It reads as follows:

"Dear Queen Anne’s County School Board Members,

On behalf of the Sunday Supper Committee, I would like to formally state that we are in full support of Dr. Andrea Kane and the ongoing efforts to address racism in our schools and county.   In fact, we believe much more work is needed to create meaningful dialogue about the experiences of members of our community who face discrimination, which is often overlooked, and whose experiences are poorly understood.   This is an essential step in making QAC a better place for all of its residents.  

We believe Dr. Kane’s intentions are to create safe, compassionate, and respectful environments in the schools.  In doing so, she is building on equity work that was already underway before she became our superintendent of schools.   Problems of racism in our schools were formally documented in a 1994 audit by the Maryland State Department of Education.  The first step suggested in the Action Plan created by the QAC schools was “To improve dialogue on race issues in schools”.    This effort has stalled and been avoided for more than 25 years during which time persistent gaps in student achievement, college access, lack of employment of a diverse staff and administration, and more have continued.  

We have had seven Sunday Suppers, Conversations on Race and Equity, bringing together over 550 local people of different races, ages, and backgrounds to share their experiences in QAC as a way of building respect and empathy across diverse groups.   These conversations have been revealing, helping us understand that minorities have had a different experience than the majority white population.  Far from being divisive, these conversations have built a stronger sense of community based on mutual good will and empathy.   We believe there can be no more patriotic activity than engaging in dialogue that helps us understand our neighbors and helping each other enjoy equal opportunity to access the benefits of our democracy.

It is so exciting for us to see that young people want to engage in these open and welcoming conversations too.   Dr. Kane’s permission to circulate an invitation for voluntary participation in conversations seems to us totally appropriate and in keeping with the spirit of work to bring a deeper level of understanding among young people in QAC.  The future work force and world that ALL of our students will inhabit is a diverse one and they all must learn and be prepared to navigate it effectively.

We are not only asking you to support the equity work happening in our schools, we are actually asking you to do much more to address historic inequity and injustice that exists there.   We are asking you to help all our children learn to respect each other and learn to engage in the types of sometimes difficult conversations that will help them in their careers and personal lives for a long time to come.    

Thank you for supporting Dr. Kane and for having the courage to lead during what is clearly a challenging and emotional time for our community.   We are here to help and sincerely want to achieve what is best for our children and our county!

Respectfully,

Lee Franklin and The Sunday Supper Committee"