Gainesville chapter of FAMU alumni association hosted education town hall meeting Tuesday

The importance of education and the current state of Florida’s Black history curriculum were among the issues discussed at an educational town hall meeting held Tuesday in Gainesville. Here is a look at what happened:

Sponsored by FAMU alumni

The meeting was sponsored by the Alachua County chapter of the Florida A&M University National Alumni Association. It was held at the Thomas Center and co-sponsored by the city of Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department.

Distinguished panelists

Panelists included state Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville; Alachua County School Board member Diyonne McGraw; Curtis Peterson, principal of Caring and Sharing Learning School; Carjie Scott, Ed.D., co-founder of the Education Equalizer Foundation; and Monekka Munroe, Ed.D, a FAMU professor.

Panelists speak

Scott said she strives to help middle and high school students prepare for college. “We want to prepare students to have a complete college application,” Scott said.

Scott referenced statistics pertaining to guidance counselors and the student-to-school-counselor ratio. According to the American School Counselor Association, a 250-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors is what ASCA recommends. However, according to ASCA, Florida has a 436-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors.

“Knowing this helps me make more strategic decisions and double down to help students sent my way,” Scott said.

According to www.flgov.com, the Florida Legislature passed a law in 2022 known as the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" that prevents faculty from presenting certain viewpoints related to race and sex.

"Stop W.O.K.E. Act" is an acronym for "Wrong to our Kids and Employees.” The bill is also known as the Individual Freedom Act (IFA).

“They won’t teach it, so we have to teach ourselves,” Hinson said. “We got to show up when we got some real issues.”

She also talked about Critical Race Theory and the state’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs. In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law banning the state's public colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Munroe has been working in the criminal justice field for over a decade and encouraged parents and community members to use churches to teach history.

“You can take a man’s money and he’s still a man,” Munroe said. “But when you take his mind, he can be anything you want him to be.”

Educators, students set high expectations

Peterson said staff and students at the Caring and Sharing Learning School, which is a charter school, set high expectations for themselves.

In August 2022, the school received an "A" on the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking test.

“If you can’t do it, then no one can, that’s the pressure we put on them and they rise to it,” Peterson said. “We don’t come here for a school, but to become a community.”

Peterson said the school prides itself on having a strong collaboration with parents, students, teachers and the community to be successful.

“Every parent has the same goal: They want their kid to be better than what they were,” Peterson said.

McGraw said her goals for the upcoming school year are for the school district to focus on professional development, behavioral lessons, curriculum and instruction improvements, and creating a multi-tier support system between students, parents and teachers.

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Public service is important

“It’s important that we understand that it’s not about politics, it’s about being a public servant,” McGraw said. “If the behavior is out of control, we can’t get to the academics. We have to understand that kids are acting out for a reason. That’s why we are working with families.”

Keep talking about the issue

Cherie Kelly, youth services manager for the city of Gainesville, gave the final remarks.

“Conversations like this will help us in our communities,” Kelly said. “Education and gun violence goes hand-in-hand. If we don’t do what needs to be done in our education system, our children can either become victims or perpetrators of gun violence.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Black history education discussed at town hall meeting in Gainesville