4/9/21: LCPS Equity Commando Committee Meeting (4/8/21)
Policy 7560 (lipstick on a pig), Professor Zeigler to unleash an “aggressive” counter “equity” narrative with the hope of proving that the media, PACT and all others have been so wrong about CRT, Equity, Culturally Responsive Framework. If it’s as bold as his emails, we’re in for a real treat.
- Public Comments (14) People Addressed the Equity Commando Committee: Starts at 00:35 – Ends at 14:15
- Professor Zeigler’s Update on Policy 7560 “Professional Conduct”: Starts at 56:15 – Ends at 1:03:30 (transcription below as the audio may be hard to hear). Listen closely and/or read below, the new approach will be: Policy is reviewed and implemented by the school board whereas the Regulations (the heart of the policy) will be controlled by the school administration
- Professor Zeigler’s Plan to “Aggressively” Define What Equity Is and Is Not in Loudoun County: Starts at 1:32:45 – Ends at 1:34:05
Professor Zeigler’s Comments on His “Updates” to Policy 7560 “Professional Conduct”
“OK go ahead so thank you for having me this evening you all have had a chance to review policy 7560 and I’ve had a chance to review your feedback in that area and this policy is currently in effect. It’s a much shorter policy that is pretty much about the first paragraph or two paragraphs in there and what we saw that HRTD was a need to have an expanded policy to better address consequences and conduct of staff members when they go sideways when they do something wrong and so that’s what this policy is. Many of you will recall that this policy was up for discussion some time ago HRTD committee and the HRT Department began working on this committee on this policy probably back in summer of 2020, and I’m sorry in the fall of 2020 and then it was brought to the full board and the full board sent it back to us the HRT committee for more revisions and then got slowed down by covid and then some significant edits based on stakeholder feedback to place and so this is the policy the red line policy that you have in front of you today.
I have looked at the feedback and a lot of the feedback and I have to take my glasses on and off tonight so a lot of the feedback had to do with the level of detail that’s provided in the policy and that some of the paragraphs and provisions seemed particularly vague and that is by design of the committee. These recommendations because when you get into a policy that talks about conduct, if we tried to spend and tried to list all of the things that employees can’t do we would have a policy that is pages and pages and pages long, because it’s impossible to encompass all of the misconduct likewise it’s impossible to list all of the possible consequences for engaging in conduct. That is not keeping with our expectations for professional conduct so this policy in some parts is vague and I appreciate that the draft that we had back in the fall add some more specificity to it and what we found in feedback from teacher groups and from other stakeholder groups was that level of specificity actually clouded of in their minds the policy so the vagueness here much of the vagueness here will be made up for in the regulation which once the policy is adopted a regulation 7560 will be promulgated by the superintendents office and put into effect and regulations are instituted in reviewed by school administration whereas policy is implemented and reviewed by the school board. You will see some increased specificity here but that will be contained in the in the regulation. There was one comment related to lines 20 through 26 that I took particular note of and will encourage the committee to reconsider that and that is that commitment to equitable treatment under the way that follows that paragraph is currently written only rejects racist and racially motivated behavior language. I do think we need to expand that language to include all of the language that’s currently in our division statement on equity, which includes not only race and racially motivated speech but also speech that is contrary to our equity related to ability related to gender, and gender expression, and orientation, and all of the different ways that we expressed to diversity and protect diversity in Loudoun County Public Schools. So that is going to be one comment that I make sure gets back to the committee and is addressed because I agree that under paragraph B we need additional specificity there and also that it needs to match our other division documents guide us in our equity discussions and in action. He referring to 1040 language when you’re talking about that right about yes definitely language and also the division statement on equity.
We have policy 1040 it’s also in our comprehensive equity plan the plan combat systemic racism, and the division statement on equity, so it’s my goal to have all of those documents and policies match and language and I think this one falls short of matching that other language that’s guiding our discussions on this from your perspective. Sure, so a policy is written intentionally broad to guide the actions and direction of the division so in this instance we have a policy for professional conduct that is broad as many of your comments and feedback pointed out that there is vagueness there and then what the regulations does is it set up the specific rules or specific guidelines that we expect the staff to see. After their adopted, both the policy and the regulation will then be written again into our employee Handbook so that it’s in many places across the division so the main one of the main differences is policies are broad and guided by this the school board regulations are specific and guided by school administration”
“I’m sure has seen some that communications we’ve done on the subject of equity and some community feedback around that. Emails that went out in the last several weeks, but I do want to let the committee know that in upcoming board meeting we do intend to give a comprehensive workshop type update to our entire equity plan and our umbrella of equity plans and elements that are in place in different departments around the division and that it’s going to be sooner rather than later I don’t have an exact date yet but we do plan to go on the record very aggressively about what equity in Loudon County means and what equity in Loudoun County does not mean. What our focus is moving forward and the broad scope of our programs and policies and practices that is vastly different from what’s been portrayed in some media outlets and by some public speakers show recently. So invite you all to come and hear that presentation and it will be well announced and also announced that this committee and also on the public agenda is that at an upcoming board meeting”
