(KNSI) – The Sartell St. Stephen School District says they’ll end their agreement and relationship with Equity Alliance Minnesota after community outrage over a survey and equity audit.
“This board, as well as members of the community, have struggled to make sense of the equity audit, and the frustrations that have ensued were compounded by the inability of Equity Alliance Minnesota to provide answers to this board, residents or the school community, [that] have led to these frustrations that clearly boiled over because of either missing or inaccurate pieces of information that have resulted in a division in our school community,” said Superintendent Dr. Jeff Ridlehoover during a special school board meeting on Monday night.
Ridlehoover then gave his recommendation.
“This noise, as I call it, has distracted us from our most important work. And instead of us focusing on us getting ready for another school year, we’ve been caught in this quagmire that now needs to end. At this time, I’m making an administrative recommendation to part ways with Equity Alliance Minnesota so that we can focus on our students.”
Ridlehoover says he and board members aren’t satisfied with how Equity Alliance conducted, analyzed, and presented the audit.
The school district has decided it will work on the issues students face together.
“I am also recommending that we immediately begin the creation of a community equity and students experience committee composed of staff, parents, community members, and most importantly students. Internally and throughout our district, we have the collective capacity to tackle our issues and turn them into opportunities of growth. We will work together to define equity, address mental health, growing empathy and understanding, and create a student experience that demonstrates the value of each and every student that walks through our schoolhouse doors.”
The committee’s size hasn’t been determined, and it will depend on how many people are interested in serving on the committee. The school plans to form the committee quickly but didn’t give a timetable of when the working group would start meeting.
Ridlehoover says the district will ask for part of its $80,000 payment to Equity Alliance Minnesota to be returned for services that weren’t completed. It’s unclear how much money the district could get back.
The school district hired Equity Alliance Minnesota to conduct an equity audit. The audit included surveys for students, staff, and the community. The results came back in June, and the 72-page report recommended multiple changes including changes to the curriculum to empower students to see the world from a broad range of various perspectives.
Concerned parents say the changes amount to critical race theory. Parents say they weren’t shown the survey questions ahead of time, which could be a possible violation of district policy. Parents say students were told not to discuss the survey questions at home. District 748 says it would never impose a policy that prohibits students from talking to their parents or guardians about any part of their learning, including the equity survey.
A group that formed after the audit, Concerned Parents and Community of ISD 748, is asking for the resignation of School Board Chairman Jeremy Snoberger and Vice Chairman Jason Nies. The group says they were the driving force behind Equity Alliance Minnesota getting involved with the district.
Last week, Congressman Tom Emmer wrote a letter asking the U.S. Treasury Secretary to look into the district using $80,000 in COVID Relief funds to pay for the audit. Emmer says he’s concerned utilizing the money in that way “appears to be beyond the scope and appropriateness for which the relief was initially intended.”
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