Four school districts, Diversity Focus create equity center

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids Community School District is partnering with Diversity Focus and three other school districts in the region on an initiative to improve equity.

There will be short-term and long-term goals, but the first item on the agenda is to recruit a more ethnically diverse staff, particularly African-Americans, that better reflects the makeup of the student body.

'Our goal is ...

to make this one of best places in order to develop educators that meets the needs of our community as the makeup and demographic of the school district changes,” said Chad Simmons, the executive director of Diversity Focus, an organization that advocates for inclusive communities.

The school board signed off on a memorandum of understanding to join the Creative Corridor for Center for Equity during a board meeting Monday evening.

During the meeting, the school board also set a public hearing for Sept. 22 for the sale of 3200 Pioneer Ave. SE, which is the former Monroe Elementary School building, for $250,000. This property is the last property put up for sale because of flooding or new boundaries, Superintendent Dave Benson said.

The Linn-Mar School District has signed on to the equity center, and the Iowa City and Waterloo school districts also are expected to join. Diversity Focus and West Wind Education Policy, which works to overcome inequity in education, are spearheading the effort.

'The center was set up to create and develop a systematic collaborative approach to overcome challenges in the Creative Corridor, or the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area, through partnerships that extend north to the Cedar Valley region,” Simmons said.

Among the core priorities will be to ensure equity is central to the districts' strategic plans, actively engage in an initiative to recruit and retain staff of color, and to track and report data on the initiative.

Many schools in the region and beyond struggle with racial disparities on several measures.

This equity center partnership comes on the heels of a federal probe that came to light on Friday into whether Cedar Rapids schools discriminate against black students when it comes to race.

Black students account for 18.6 percent of the Cedar Rapids districtwide enrollment, but 46.5 percent of all suspensions are handed down to black students.

'We know we have some disparate treatment and disparate results in the school district regarding certain subsets of populations of students,” Benson said in explaining why the district is participating.

School Board President Mary Meisterling acknowledged that recruiting ethnically diverse teachers is a challenge, and if the project can 'move the needle” it would make a big difference in the community's schools. She said the initiative could help the district confront its challenges, such as disparity in discipline between white and black students.

'Diversity has been a focus for this school board for as long as I've been on it,” Meisterling said. 'We think this program can help advance those conversations.”

Simmons said the project will take five to 10 years to show results. Part of his effort will be fundraising $2 million to $4 million.

While the equity center agreement requires equity included as a strategic goal and resources be put toward the goal, Benson said Monday's agreement doesn't specifically have any money tied to it.