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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Aleesia Johnson pushed new initiatives to promote equity and called out Indiana decision-makers for asking district officials to accept scarcity and to “do more with less.”
“That’s a pretty management phrase to paper over a kind of racist neglect and indifference that our schools and our community have suffered under for far too long,” Johnson said during her second “State of the District” address Wednesday night at Crispus Attucks High School.
Johnson called out public policy decisions that left out Black and Latino communities and created challenges for the district.
“The African American community particularly has not been at the forefront of decision-making,” Johnson said.
Indiana needs to invest in young people, she said. At the next legislative session, she will lobby at least for funding stability for the district, which faces looming budget constraints because of the pandemic and recession.
She said she was proud the school board granted teachers raises and credited the community, which passed taxes to fund them.
“Without our community’s direct support, those raises would not have been possible,” Johnson said. “And while that should not be our reality, I will be up front about the fact that it is.”
But, she said, in a district like IPS, officials have had to make sacrifices that other school systems elsewhere haven’t had to make.
During the 38-minute address, Johnson, who has been vocal about having hard conversations about racial disparities, focused on how the district is supporting those hit hardest by the pandemic — Black and Latino families.
Highlighting a promise that the district made in June, she introduced the district’s Racial Equity Policy 1619. It includes a rigorous curriculum to develop critical thinkers, racial equity training for first-year teachers, and discussions about race with IPS staff.
“In the end, our new policy can be a pretty piece of paper, dutifully recorded and filed,” Johnson said. “Or it can be an electric shock. It can be an exemplar for our city.”
“In Indianapolis, it’s been a hard struggle and, for too long, the people of this community who look like me have been the afterthought in the pragmatic decision-making processes to advance our city,” Johnson said. “We have been relegated to having access to less than fair and adequate conditions to achieve the American Dream that is so often touted.”
The hardship that the pandemic imposed on Black and Latino communities that have lost jobs or faced food or housing insecurity has influenced district decisions, Johnson said, including on starting the school year virtually. The school district was just one of two that started the school year virtually in Marion County. This is the second week all IPS students have the option of in-person learning.
Also to further equity, Johnson said the district is strengthening English-language arts and literacy in every grade level and launching a Freshmen on Track initiative to support students’ transition from middle to high school.
She also talked about an apprenticeship program that would help students get paid work experience during school.
Johnson said the district soon will have “challenging decisions and hard conversations” about how to meet students’ needs.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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Don’t disagree with her comments, but she needs to examine her own budget. Let’s look at Broad Ripple High School for example. How much does it cost them to keep that building running when they could have just sold it years ago as the community requested? They keep trying to control the conversation as to what the future of the site should be which is the not the business of a school corporation. They could have millions for that site alone if they moved forward with a For Sale sign and this is just one their many empty properties.
I thought they were hamstrung on BRHS because of the sell-it-for-$1-to-privatizers law. Am I wrong?
So, what exactly are they doing with all the funds from the “two” additional taxes on real estate for Center Township property owners, that were both approved in referendums 2 years ago? I have not heard of any big raises for teachers, and big improvements within IPS that those millions of dollars have gone towards. Is there even an accounting of where those additional millions of tax dollars have gone?
I recall Purdue Polytechnic offering many millions for the Broad Ripple High School site. IPS rejected the offer. Initially, I felt so positive when Johnson was selected to lead IPS. It’s a huge job, and her focus on being Black and the usual accompanying racism allegations are a distraction.
Check out this link: https://myips.org/blog/district/ips-board-approves-racial-equity-policy-and-black-lives-matter-resolution/
The usual racial excuse making does not bode well. The 1619 Project is largely a work of fiction and has been roundly criticized by leading historians for its inaccuracies, yet the district is intent on force feeding minority students a steady diet of victimhood. That’s not setting anyone up for success. And blaming ‘not having a seat at the table” for massive minority academic underperformance is just gliding past the most obvious problem and that’s the parents. We have immigrants who come here from places with substantially fewer educational and public resources and get farther ahead, but people like the superindendent aren’t interested in asking hard questions about what cultural traits these newcomers possess that too many of our own citizens don’t.
Easy prediction – whenever this lady leaves this job, the racial academic performance gaps will be just as large as the day she started, and we’ll hear the exact same excuses.
21R, you are absolutely clueless as to what many students of color are faced with. Go schedule a visit to one of the inner city schools and then compare it to a Zionsville or Carmel School. And all students can learn and thrive given the right environment for learning