Certain additions to the school budget this year have sparked an emotional debate around issues of equity, race, and mental health as some community members have protested investments in educational and structural moves by the district aimed at addressing inequality and serving marginalized students, families, and staff.

Playing out around the budget process, the lynchpin has been three or four items totaling around $110,000 in total expenses.

At budget hearings last week, residents on both sides of the debate shared their beliefs. A letter written by Susan Weber and addressed to the Board of Finance (BOF) opposing these additions garnered support from a number of other community members. At the same time, other people spoke out in support of the initiatives and decried some of the concepts outlined in Weber’s letter.

The specific items in question are a proposed new social worker at Guilford High School (GHS) at an approximate salary of $50,000, a part-time family equity liaison at $25,000, and a residency program at a cost of $35,000 that would bring in a person of color, likely a graduate student, to work temporarily in the district while he or she earns a degree and teaching certification.

School administrators have additionally said they are confident there will be grant money available to offset the residency program, which is a state-wide initiative.

The pushback seemed to focus on the equity work, with some residents bringing up the previous use of school funds to buy an anti-racist non-fiction book for teachers at a cost of $6,000 last year as well as other prior complaints.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman, made it clear he felt all of these positions were needed as well as worth their cost, calling them “important, impactful investments.”

The social worker is important to provide support in social/emotional wellbeing, Freeman said, particularly against the backdrop of rapidly expanding mental health crisis among young people during the pandemic.

The equity liaison position is based on models followed both by other districts and the military, according to Freeman, and would essentially serve as a resource and conduit between the district and families and students who self-identify as part of a “marginalized group,” as well as advising Freeman himself on “patterns or flaws in the system.”

“We want to provide an environment where people are comfortable having these conversations,” he told the BOF last week.

Pushback on Funding

A number of residents have made it clear they think most, if not all, of these positions should not be funded, with a wide-ranging series of objections that seemed to focus mostly on the equity work, but with some objecting to the social worker position as well.

Weber spoke at a BOF hearing on March 2, saying she didn’t think the social worker position “was justified at all.”

Resident Danielle Scarpellino said that she thought the $25,000 for the equity liaison could be better used for more mental health resources, and questioned how many students or families would use that person.

Another resident, Elizabeth Wilson, questioned why the district wasn’t using what she characterized as “free resources” for mental health in the community, referencing two specific groups.

Freeman said he would have to speak to high school administrators about the referenced groups, but added he didn’t think the district could abdicate its own responsibility to care for children’s mental health.

“[Mental health] has been a focus of this board for some years,” Freeman said. “This is not the year to back away from that.”

“I think we do need to consider COVID very seriously this year and take that $25,000 and put it into our children’s mental health that has greatly diminished this year,” Scarpellino said.

While saying he didn’t have any exact numbers, and arguing that a quantitative measure might not be the best way to approach the issue, Freeman referenced “issues of bullying, of intimidation, and even of blackface in this community.” He referenced the schools’ current investment into mental health positions: 8 social workers, 6 psychologists, and 10 full-time equivalents for guidance counselors, according to schools business manager Linda Trudeau.

“I do not feel it is a competition,” Freeman said.

Weber also spoke at the March 2 public hearing, particularly against the equity position, and questioned the district’s use of “social justice” curriculum, asking how much was being spent on those initiatives and adding there were many parents who felt the district was being less than transparent as it implemented “critical race theory” and “social justice” curriculum, something that Scarpellino has also publicly raised as a concern in the past.

Freeman denied the existence of a “critical race theory agenda” in Guilford and said there was no “specific dollar amount” for the broad category of work toward equity and social justice, though he acknowledged it would be fair to group the equity liaison and the teacher residency position generally under that designation.

He added that anyone can access Guilford’s curriculum and initiatives, and residents can participate in the public meetings where those things are discussed by Board of Education committees.

Critical race theory has often been misconstrued as a type of curriculum or an area of study when it is actually an extremely broad and sometimes nebulous framework used to approach various academic disciplines focused on modern structural racism, according to the American Bar Association.

A letter written by Weber and supported by many other community members that expanded on her criticisms of alleged “indoctrination” in the schools was only read in part at a March 4 public budget hearing as BOF Chair Michael Ayles said it was too long at more than seven pages, though it was entered into the record and received a large amount of support and signatures, according to BOF members.

In the letter, Weber also spoke against the teacher residency program, saying that “minority teachers who may be hired that need additional financial assistance” could live in affordable housing currently being constructed in town.

Freeman has many times in the past written and spoken about his support for integrating concepts of race and examinations of racial justice issues across subject areas, emphasizing that any connection to critical race theory is “broad” and at the “foundational” level, and that teachers focus on allowing students to use multiple tools or frameworks when approaching material.

Those in Favor

A handful of people spoke out in favor of the new positions and Guilford’s equity and racial justice work at the March 4 meeting, with a couple offering emotional rebuttals and testimonies in response to those who objected, and Board of Education members said they received a large number of emails and other communications also in favor of the equity positions and work.

Rachel Daniels, who said she has four students in Guilford, spoke in support of the equity position and another residency program meant to recruit people of color to teach in the district, saying they were “critical to the overall wellbeing of our schoolchildren and our community.”

Bob Herrington, who said he was part of a bi-racial family, said Weber’s point about minority teachers is proof of “why we clearly need an equity position.”

“There are too many people who are blinded by their own whiteness and can’t see the things that happen to people who aren’t. And [these initiatives] are for the people who are experiencing it—people who are not white who need equity, and people who need to see what they would otherwise be blind to.”

Emily Perillo said she had previously seen equity work at a magnet school that her children attended before coming to Guilford, and that she was “proud to be in Guilford...and hopeful for the environment [children will] be learning in.”

One person read off several headlines detailing multiple racist incidents that have occurred in Guilford in recent, including racist graffiti found across town in 2017 and a case where a Guilford High School student wore blackface to a football game in 2019 against a much more diverse school from Hartford.

“It shouldn’t be in the headlines, it shouldn’t be in our town. Our town has no place for racism for any kind of discrimination, and [the proposals in the budget] are going to help it and shame on anybody who tries to stop it,” the resident said.

When asked to share their name, the speaker chose to remain anonymous “as a person that is not part of the 90 percent of white residents in this town.”