Comments on the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Initiative

 On March 16th, the School District D20 Accountability Committee presented the Superintendent's Initiative,  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), to the D20 Board of Directors (BOD). A DEI RFP Selection Committee was formed, consisting of 15 members.  There were 7 proposals and 4 Presentations.  The Award was made to Colorado Education Initiative (CEI).  Question:  Who or what group authorized the school Superintendent to proceed with this Equity Audit and Task Force, and on what basis of need?  What were the specific facts from which the Superintendent and the Board made this decision?

The Collaborative Input Model developed implies the following: "Increasing concern has been expressed in recent months by students, parents, and patrons regarding restricted educational opportunities based on race and/or skin color, disproportionate discipline statistics, exclusion of marginalized populations, expressions of hate and racism, and the absence of a culturally diverse staff in Academy District 20"  "This expression is concerning and has no place in our school district."

This  "concern" smells of boilerplate verbiage designed to create work for CEI, as it is apparent that their reason for being is to be paid for grants to identify "problems" that the school will then pay them to specifically "identify" so that the CEI staff can then suggest solutions that they will then be paid to monitor.  

Question:  As one reviews the scope of DEI programs across the U.S. and realizes that DEI is spreading...see Critical Race Training in Education , it becomes immediately evident that it is a multi-billion business built on the false premise that there is systemic racism EVERYWHERE.

Therefore, this (CEI) initiative must immediately be discontinued, UNLESS the Superintendent can identify a substantial number of students/faculty to verify that there is in fact continuing "victims" of widespread "systemic racism" and indicates that he is unable to handle such complaints within the policies of the school.  If the Superintendent indicates that he and staff are unable to deal with this false narrative, then the Board should reevaluate whether its policies are sufficient or whether the Superintendent should evaluate his hiring practices.

This Equity Audit should be scrubbed immediately because our American ethos does not uphold the concept of Equity, but rather Equal Opportunity for all, regardless of race.  To the contrary, the Equity Audit Framework includes, 

• Equity in student outcomes
• Equity in student access
• Equity in resources and supports
• Equity in students' school experiences
• Equity in families' school experiences and 
• Equity in staff members' school experiences

The D20 School Board should reexamine its policies with respect to maintaining any statistics on the race of students and faculty, because the keeping of these statistics is racist on its face and leads to decisions based on race.

DEI MUST be completely scrubbed!!!! It is no more than an adjunct to Critical Race Theory.  We must be DONE with classifying ANYONE by Race.  We must adhere to being a race-blind community.  

Dave Schultheis, Concerned citizen and D20 property taxpayer.