Suggestions to Lansing School Distraction to address inequality

• In 2022, The Lansing School District released a review that shows racial disparities within the district.
• From there, the district formed the Equity Advisory Committee, who recently provided recommendations to the district, that is supposed to address the problem.
• Watch video above to see how parents feel about it.

Karen Gilmore said after reviewing this systemic equity review of the Lashing School District, action needs to be taken, especially since she has a son in the district.

“The city and the school district could do better for our children,” Gilmore said.

The review, done by a third-party firm, was released in 2022. Some of the key findings included that not all students are presented with the same opportunities and that disciplinary actions against minority students are greater than those against their white peers.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE ON THE EQUITY REVIEW:

Equity audit shows racial disparities within Lansing School District

“That's kinda disheartening, because I want my child to grow and reach his full potential and have access to all the resources I feel everyone should have access to,” Gilmore said.

Shortly after the review was released, the district formed the Equity Advisory Committee to address some of the issues.

"The Equity Advisory Committee is comprised of teacher representation, principal representation, we have students on the committee as well as parents who are interested in doing this work,” said Rachel Willis.

Willis is the Lansing school board president, she also sits on the committee and after two years of strategizing ways to make the district more equitable, on Thursday, the committee provided some recommendations, which included changing deficit verbiage on report cards to sound more supportive, working with parents, and bring in an additional resource.

“One of the recommendations were to create a staff member where students and parents can report racial experiences and then we could better investigate these things,” Willis said.

We're told the school board will be reviewing the recommendations from the committee over the summer and in the fall will decide how to proceed. As for how parents feel them.

“It's a step in the right direction, but it cannot be the only thing,” Gilmore said.”It can’t be just a check off the box. We need to have consistent change.”