CAPE ELIZABETH — In an effort to continue the conversation of diversity, inclusion, and equity in Cape Elizabeth schools, the school board approved of a task force to address these topics. The decision was made on Sept. 8.
The task force is to be comprised of several school board members, administrators, teachers and students, according to the meeting agenda.
Superintendent Donna Wolfrom said that back in June, when the board had a workshop on diversity, inclusion, and equity, there was plenty of great discussion on the topic and everyone felt that the effort should continue.
“The town council is developing a committee to work on this and we felt like the school district should do this as well,” Wolfrom said.
It was decided that the best way for the district to move forward is through a task force, School Board Chair Heather Altenburg said.
The plans to re-open schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic did impact an important conversation about anti-racism, Altenburg said.
“I think back in June, after the board workshop, where people came in to talk about anti-racism and the desire to have those conversations in the school, it became very difficult to come up with plans to reopen our school and handle such a big topic as anti-racism and what that means in our district and how we can deal with diversity,” Altenburg said. “It did have to take a little bit of a back burner, but I think it’s important for people to know that it did not fall through the cracks. We don’t have intention for it to fall through the cracks and this is our stepping stone to bringing it back into the conversation.”
The task force will decide if it wants to hold listening sessions, work on goals, and discuss how to better the schools with regard to diversity, inclusion, and equity, Attenburg said.
“That is us making hopefully an attempt to get this ball rolling again, get this conversation, now that we’ve started schools,” she said. “We’ve got our plans underway — things are moving forward. We can bring it back to the forefront a little bit more.”
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