Creating a policy ‘that will express commitment’
Dr. John Simpson has led the Webster Groves School District since 2018. He has faced numerous challenges around racial equity and inclusion issues and now the pandemic. In an interview with Richard Weiss in late July 2020, he described how he has approached the work. Here is an edited transcript of his remarks.
Richard Weiss: I wanted to just touch base with you on how the racial equity initiatives have unfolded in Webster. The way I’m understanding it, there’s a group of folks who have been organizing around anti-racism, also known as ABAR. They wanted the district to appoint a director of diversity and inclusion and four coordinators, Then I saw last month that the district board did create a position for a director of diversity and inclusion. So you’ve embraced at least that part of those demands.
John Simpson: I saw that somebody had put something out, but truthfully I’ve never seen it. I will say that the postion for a director of diversity and inclusion was already out, or maybe it wasn’t already out, but we already approached the board for it.
One of the things that we have to do is to get more extensive professional development for people. We have to make curricular changes to reflect our commitment to this work. While we all have a responsibility around doing this, itt would really benefit us to have a director to lead the effort.
Weiss: And yet you have so many other things on your plate… Can you afford to do this?
Simpson: This year we’ve lost a lot of money from the state due to the economic downturn. It’s just where we were as a school system and where the community, the region, the nation is, the world really. We felt like, yeah, we could really use somebody. And so that’s why we went and drafted the idea for a director and went to the board, and they were supportive. We were able to articulate what we wanted but they wanted to see the job description and the financial impact. So we went back the next time and got it approved. We’re super excited. We’ve got all kinds of candidates. If we had a candidate pool for all of our jobs like we have for this one, we would be in a really good spot.
Weiss: Are we talking like dozens of candidates, hundreds?
Simpson: About a week in, we had 60. Which is a lot. I have hired an assistant superintendent for curriculum, two principals. I don’t think I had 60 for either of those positions.
Weiss: There’s been a lot going on around many issues in the Webster Groves district. You’ve had a redistricting of the school boundaries that raised issues around race..Was that a surprise to you? Given that, did it sharpen your ambition to do more around racial equity as a result?
Simpson: So two things happened about the same time. We had the survey. We had a community-wide survey that we agreed to post the results, and a lot of people commented. That’s where a lot of those statements were made. I knew some racist remarks would come through indirectly or directly, but seeing them in print, publishing them in print, making them public. That really showed the good and the bad sides of the community. Then on the heels of that we had an incident at one of our schools with racist images and social media. Those things together prompted us to bring together our staff of color as a group and then also bring together our white staff to process it.
And while we had talked about a director of diversity and equity and inclusion before, it was really our staff of color who were processing what we needed to do. That’s where the director idea came from. Another one of the ideas that started with them was developing an anti-racism policy.
We have anti-racism, anti-bias like a board resolution. We have policies that prohibit racism and discrimination, but we don’t have anything that addresses it more broadly and also more specifically. We’ve been working with staff, students, board members and administrators this summer to create a policy that will express commitment. It will articulate language. It will also talk about things that from a strategic standpoint, from an action standpoint, that the district’s going to be committed to. Professional development of all staff. Making the staff and students aware of this policy. So I would say that we were doing the work in the district. I would say that teachers of color group, that also has a leadership group among them, has really been holding us rightfully to expectations. And we’re trying to follow suit, because we need to.
Weiss: Have you gotten any pushback from residents regarding these anti-racism efforts, from people who say, “Keep your eye on the ball. Focus on opening schools safely during this pandemic.”?
Simpson: I have not gotten any push back really related to that. I’m getting pushback on my decision related to how we’re going to open schools. I’ll say I got one email questioning the investment in positions. It was done respectfully just suggesting if that money could be dedicated to other things for the same cause. But no, I have not, which is good.
Weiss: There have been many rallies and marches for social justice across the region. You spoke at one such rally.
Simpson: I did speak at our March for Change event. I did.
Weiss: And who, organized that one?
Simpson: It started off as some staff members from Edgar Road, one of our elemetaries. They just were thinking they were going to initially do something that was more specific to the school. And then they had bigger thoughts and they invited different teachers and administrators from the district in. And it became this big event.
Weiss: You know in some places administrators have said or might say, “Hey, what are you doing? This could be divisive and difficult.” But you just got on board with it?
Simpson: Yeah. I did get push back for the decision to make it a district sponsored event. I felt it was one of those things the district’s going to say that you commit to it and you recognize that you have things you got to do. You’ve got to be all in. You can’t be all in sometimes and not at other times. I did receive some pushback from the community from that and from some staff from that. I spoke, I supported we endorsed as a district, but all the credit goes to the teachers and staff of those groups who put it all together. They did a great job.
