Williamson County School Board members voted unanimously this month to hire a firm to help stamp out what they said was a pattern of racism within the school district.
This, even though parents told board members that they researched school disciplinary records and, going by that, racism was not as rampant as suggested. Those parents also said this move falls well beyond a school system’s primary function and might indoctrinate students politically.
School board members will pay Fostering Healthy Solutions $55,000 for a contract that ends in July. School board members have the option to renew the contract afterwards for the 2021-222 school year, according to the document.
On their Facebook page, Fostering Healthy Solutions staff members recently congratulated U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for winning last year’s presidential election.
In an email, Fostering Healthy Solutions co-founder Anita Foster told The Tennessee Star that, as a business practice, she does not discuss clients.
Parents at a Williamson County School Board meeting last week said schools should focus only on reading, writing, math, science and history.
“Items that fall outside of that primary purpose should be left to families,” said Brentwood resident Lynn Holcombe.
“That includes teaching or indoctrinating students into any political position.”
Josh Spradlin, also of Brentwood, said he filed a public records request with the school system last month and, according to his research, “racism is not and has not been an overriding issue in our schools.”
“For the last two school years there were 108 and 159 reported cases of harassment. Intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying investigations indicated that bullying occurred. There were 12 investigations involving race in one year and 24 in the next. An average of 13 percent of the total harassment cases were racism-related. Let’s put that into perspective,” Spradlin said.
“There are 40,000 students in WCS. There are 177 instructional days. If you do the math that means there are just over 7 million student days for incident opportunities. [Exactly] 1 percent of 7 million would be 70,000 incidents. WCS is at an average of 18 incidents per year, which is .00026 percent rounded up to the closest 100,000. Congratulations WCS. You don’t have a macro-racism issue. You have isolated incidents. You are handling it quite well.”
As The Star reported last month, WCS Superintendent Jason Golden said the school district needed “a comprehensive plan” to address racism.
As reported two years ago, WCS officials required teachers to watch a series of videos showing county school employees advocating for social change and social justice. The “White privilege” training videos, as part of a Cultural Competency video series, showcased local teachers buying into the idea of “White privilege.”
School board members said at the time that news of this curriculum caught them off-guard. The Star talked to various parents that year who said they feared speaking out against the “White privilege” training, due to a possible backlash against them either personally or professionally.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Diversity Training” by Fostering Healthy Solutions.
Another waste of taxpayer money.
Past time to replace ENTIRE school board!!
must have something to do with the battle of franklin only explanation. something that happened 150 years ago.
Fools! Why do we have such foolish idiots on the school board??!! They are fools who have also been intimidated, so that makes them cowards too! STOP wasting our tax dollars! Perhaps it is time to abolish the property tax and assess maybe a sales tax with the initial purchase of property. Then, make it law that anyone over 65 need not pay property taxes again! This has to stop, people. I have been on the front lines of political activism concerning education for years. We are not winning anymore. We must work harder and get the attention of the legislature. What is the super majority doing anyway when they allow such stupidity to continue in education??
Time To Fight. Your arguments make too much sense to be implemented. I always thought that Americans had the right to own property but we only rent it from the government. Don’t believe that? Just stop paying your outrageous property tax.
I have been over 65 for many years and live on a fixed income but my property taxes have increased over 50% in the last 6 years. Why, because I was successful and my retirement is too high to qualify for the lame property tax exemption that Tennessee has. In other words I have once again been punished for my success but it is not called punishment. Rather is is given the sweet name of “means testing”. Well, I have just about been means tested out of my home.
I guess the well-to-do in Brentwood are feeling guilty about their success and are wanting some salve to soothe their feelings. As AWM said – just teach the basics and leave teaching social values to the families. Stop spending our money on indoctrinating our children with misinformation.
Amen
Thank God, I teach in another county . . . our school board hasn’t gone down this path of stupidity . . . at least not yet.
Why is taxpayer money being spent on something that is NOT part of the school curriculum? Can’t we just have teachers TEACH the basics and leave out the social issues? You want to stop racism, stop using labels such as white supremacy, black lives matter, etc. etc. The more these labels are “headlined” the more you will incite the parties involved. Address the overt race issues on an equal level as they occur. STOP the labeling of specific groups.