Placer County school district votes to preserve its diversity, equity and inclusion statement

The Auburn Union School District Board of Trustees voted late Wednesday night to retain the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion statement after heated debate and a surprise vote from one trustee.

The five-member panel leans conservative, and the rescission was expected to pass. Three new trustees have been elected since the statement was approved in August 2022. Board President Greg Holt is Deputy Director of Constituent Services for Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove. Jayson Wedge and Renee Grigsby (formerly Dowd, when she was a candidate for her seat) were both endorsed by the Placer County Republican Party and the parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty.

The two other members, Sarah Brichler and Jamie Ross, were on the board when the statement was adopted.

Grigsby surprised fellow board members and the 50 or so community members who filled the small meeting room when she voted “Nay” on the motion to rescind after staying quiet during the discussion. Applause erupted when the motion failed to pass.

Despite opposition from some board members, it become clear Wednesday night that the DEI statement is popular among the Auburn community.

Sara Liebert, speaking on behalf of the local teachers union, admonished the board for focusing on the DEI statement instead of important infrastructure issues on school campuses, like mold in a kindergarten classroom and a lack of functional water faucets in others.

“Students missed out on precious academic time due to the loss of their classroom,” she said. The kindergarten teacher had to conduct class on the cafeteria stage after the mold was discovered.

“I can’t even believe that we are having an action item to rescind the DEI statement. This is absolutely ridiculous.”

Rescission seemed likely with the election of the three new conservative-leaning trustees. Holt spoke in favor of it at last month’s board meeting. Last year, just weeks before he was elected, Wedge said in an interview with Gold Country Media that DEI “is an attempt to introduce partisan ideology into the schools.”

“It’s a broad brush of division based on subjective interpretations of class, race, sexual orientation and the like. ‘Equality’ celebrates all students and ‘equity’ creates bias using faulty data,” he said.

In the same interview, Grigsby said she was “not comfortable with defining and dividing students by race, gender, sexuality, and other categories as outlined in the current board’s newly adopted Equity Statement.”

“I believe that offering exceptional educational opportunities to every student in a safe, non-political environment will produce exceptional outcomes with no child left behind. That is equality, not equity.”

But after twelve people spoke during the agenda item’s public comment, Grigsby shifted her position.

“In practice, equity means that we don’t all start from the same place, acknowledging that difference, and making adjustments to imbalances,” said Melissa Vale, an emotional support special education teacher at Auburn Elementary.

“Equity should be a part of everything we do, especially in education.”

Claire Walker, a mom of three in the district and a school administrator, spoke angrily about Holt’s November comments.

“Statements like these from a board president are alarming and should be called into question, as they ignore the basic needs of the diverse learners that he is supposed to be here to serve.”

She encouraged him to speak to constituents across the district.

“I am an active member of this community, I was your daughter’s cross country coach,” she said. “I suggest you reach out to all community members and not just your friends.”

“We as educators have a responsibility to evaluate and assess our effectiveness” in preparing students for their futures, Dr. Reyes Ortega, a professor at Sierra College and board member of the Latino Leadership Council whose son attended district schools, said. He asked Holt what data shows that DEI has a detrimental impact on academic success.

Holt stood by the comments he made in November, and elaborated on his dislike of DEI initiatives in general. He brought up anti-racist scholar Ibram X. Kendi and the recent controversy over free speech and antisemitism involving the president of Harvard.

In a tense exchange with Ross, Holt said that the district’s current statement “has no teeth ... but serves as a stepping stone toward further DEI centered initiatives and policies that are ultimately rooted in grievance politics.” DEI initiatives “make a mockery of the concepts of fairness and individual justice.”

He is “absolutely committed to helping shape this environment where each student can succeed,” he said.

He also said removing the statement will support students by preventing “blatant discriminatory hiring practices,” across the country from spreading to the district.

Ross made a motion to keep the DEI statement intact, which Brichler — who stayed quiet for much of the discussion because she was “just stunned” that the board was even discussing the dismantling of the statement — seconded. But the motion received no votes. Holt then made a motion to rescind it, which Wedge seconded.

After a long silence, Grigsby voted against it.

Gigsby’s vote was especially surprising considering a vote she’d made earlier when the board voted 3-2 to revise the district’s vision statement, adopted in 2020, which included a clause about students being part of a “global society.”

“Quite frankly, I think we need to be scaling it back towards America,” Holt said, “to the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.”

Holt, Wedge, and Grigsby voted in support of changing the vision statement while Brichler and Ross opposed.

“I think we have much more pressing and urgent matters to attend to,” said Brichler. Like “focusing on our students and focusing on our budget, and this feels like a distraction, and I am asking as a board that we get back on track with focusing on the work that is more pressing to our community ... this feels very political and I don’t want to spend my time on it.”

This is the DEI statement in full:

“In order to develop 21st century, lifelong learners, we must remove obstacles to accessing educational opportunities. Students, staff, and stakeholders have a legitimate expectation to have a barrier-free learning environment which includes the awareness of the historical impact of bias, prejudice, and discrimination which, for generations, has produced predictability of learning outcomes based on race, class, socioeconomic, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, cognitive/physical ability, diverse language fluency, and religion.

“We will exemplify these attributes:

▪ Respect and empower students through agency and advocacy, to ensure a student-centered approach to decision-making and provide a meaningful learning experience to prepare our students to be community leaders and world influencers.

▪ Reflect on the diversity of our community and students and the varied interests of our stakeholders.

▪ Treat our students’ health, personal well-being, and sense of safety as paramount to their individual growth and success.

▪ Encourage innovative thinking to equitably eliminate opportunity gaps and distribute the public’s limited resources.

▪ Provide access to high-quality diverse teachers, rigorous coursework and instructional materials (including technology), support services, and extracurricular opportunities.”