Much Ado About Diversity

Editor's Note: Nine candidates are vying for former Board Director Gail Morrison's spot. On Thursday night, the group was subjected to an extensive, three-hour interview with the sitting member of the board of Education. Over the next few days, Patch will release portions of this interview question by question. The finalist will be chosen on Aug. 18, when the board will put the matter to a vote.

Chair Ron Hill: As our district becomes increasingly diverse, what should be done to make sure that students of ethnic and demographic groups have same opportunity to advance?

Bill Randall: I would work on increasing awareness of our diversity. One thing that struck me as remarkable was a program I saw at Rahn School where it was a music and dance costume review. It was just a really enjoyable experience to learn about Thai dancing or Chinese dragons. It was just really interesting to learn about aspects of the culture. That might be one example of how we could increase awareness of diversity, with maybe a spring carnival. Another piece I think would be having student focus groups.

Steve Dove: Another piece I think would be having student focus groups and have students get a chance to do some after school tutoring to get the students engaged and also at the elementary or junior high level have the parents get involved through volunteering to assist there. And then I think staff training and staff development activities are very, very important.

Caryl Beecher: I think in the area of language, most are English-speaking but now we have other languages being spoken. We might try to encourage our students to take foreign language. I myself am very deficient. It was never required in my education to take another language. Now especially Spanish and French are languages we should explore a little bit more. As to customs of other ethnic groups, I think it’s very, very important to know what holidays and what things are meaningful to their families at different times of year. There might be a lot of other holidays we should consider.

Sheryl Burkhardt:  It might be time to think outside the box. We’ve always put students in their classroom by their grade based on their birthday. Perhaps it’s time to do some grouping by ability. I know that would just be such a difference but for some students we cant do it the way we’ve always done it. We also have to look at our buildings: Are we overloading one building with high-needs kids and not another so we’re stressing staff. That’s not fair to the students or the staff and we need to be aware of that. Then we have to look at the cultures: How is a Hispanic culture different from a Somali culture different from a white culture? How do we involve those parents?

Seema Pothini: This is a passion I have. I think as a district we need to look beyond celebrating diversity and ensure equity. I was a first-generation college student and my parents from India. They had trouble navigating the school system — either because of cultural differences or language barriers or even socioeconomic barriers— and as a student I saw that. I learned to navigate the system on my own. And I feel like a lot of our students are doing the same. I don’t think our students should bear that burden. We should be able to provide a system where parents feel comfortable and empowered, regardless of their background. Ensuring equity: A lot of that has to do with definitions. What is equity what is equality? To me, equality would be saying ‘We’re giving every child running shoes.’ Equity would be ‘We’re sizing them all for their running shoes.’ We need to be able to understand the what is equal and fair and equitable and have an understand what it truly takes to overcome those barriers in order to see academic results.

Clynt Reddy: Moreso than anything, I think this question focuses on the socioeconomic inequalities that we have and how those are unfortunately very tied to ethnic and diverse backgrounds.  You have to approach this in two ways. You want to level the playing field in a sense, talk about access and engagement. It seems that what separates some students from others falls into those categories, whether it is access to right tools and resources to get certain tasks done (for instance access to internet or calculators). So I think initiatives by the school district to level that playing field will go a really long way. The second part of that is exposure: A lot of kids know a lot about business, politics or science simply because of homes they grew up in. They were taken to museums and tours of the capitol. They begin to get outside understanding to how the education is applicable. We should provide some sort of opportunity to give those kids exposure to how that education is applied in our world. Some students have a great opportunity for that and some do not. We need to make sure all the kids — no matter what background or socioeconomic status — have the same tools and experiences.

Mark Korman: A good way is to make sure the parents get involved because even though they’re from different ethnic backgrounds, if they get involved that just builds more relationships to help out the kids. What I would do is talk to the parents when I could to hopefully let them know what they can do to help their child become more and more likely to succeed. Another thing we could do is pairing them with a peer in class. Some are more outgoing than others and then there are kids who are kind of different and they can both learn from each other. That would be best for both of them. I also think to some of the kids because of their ethnic grouping don’t know English as well. So I think we need to help them learn English they’ll be more confident in school.

Steve Cherney: One of the first questions I would ask is why is our district becoming diverse? What is the attraction to Burnsville? I know on the street there I’ve spoken with quite a few Somali folks. I used to manage a Snap Fitness here in Burnsville and there was a halal grocery right next to us. You talk about getting down to grass roots and talking to folks. At first I was a little reluctant to do that, but wow, little bit different skin tone, a little bit different dress, but they have the same concerns you and I do. So going back — identifying diversity, figuring out why they’re coming and then who is our best representative for the school district? I asked myself that question: The teacher.

Bob Vandenboom: You might argue that all students have same opportunity to succeed, but not all students can achieve at the same levels without overcoming more obstacles than others. One of the things we do well in this district is that we have additional resources available to students. We integrate (English as a second language) programming into almost every class. So there are a number of things we already do to give them access to resources. But access isn’t enough. A lot of times there are resources available that they’re not using. There are also gaps to fill. So we ought to be looking at the gaps where resources don’t exist. You have to be a little bit more proactive.