Update on Diversity Now’s Activities

Diversity Now has been working on several initiatives this fall.

1. We are organizing a visit in the spring by Oscar Santos, Superintendent in the Randolph, MA school district to discuss with the Board, the District, and Diversity Now his efforts to provide quality education for all students and to expand parent involvement.

2. Diversity Now requested and received data from the Burlington School District by race, gender on student performance, tracking, and disciplinary actions. For a copy of a preliminary analysis of that data, go here. We hope that this data analysis will become a starting point for discussions, that data will continue to be collected, analyzed, and relied on to shape policy.

3. We continue to engage in outreach, discussing diversity and inclusion issues in the school district:

• We met with Superintendent Collins to discuss, amongst other things, the pending recruitment for a new principal of the Integrated Arts Academy;

• We have met with members of the District’s Diversity Task Force to provide input and perspective on their goal of developing a strategic diversity plan;

• And we have met several School Board Commissioners, and with Dr Fayneese Miller, Dean of the College of Education and Social Services at UVM and Chair of the State Board of Education;

• We recently met with Commissioner of Education Armando Vilaseca.


The steering committee meets biweekly on Saturday mornings. The group has several new members, and includes the following:

Vince Brenna, Patrick Brown, Naomi Clemmons, Suzy Comerford, Naima Dennis, Kyle Dodson, Jill Evans, Janie Mardis, Marianne McCoy, Tuipate Mubiay, Stephanie Seguino, and Sherwood Smith.

If you have issues or concerns you would like to bring to us, feel free to email Patrick Brown (patbw@hotmail.com) .