Elyria Schools continues work around equity, focuses in on racism

ELYRIA — About a year ago, Elyria Schools started looking at equity and racism in education. That effort has a new emphasis with recent events across the country and in the city. The district started rethinking education when it began its work a year ago with the Schlechty Center, a nonprofit agency in Kentucky that partners with educators. Amy Higgins, director of the communications and marketing department, described the "intense" work as revolving around getting to know who the school district serves and how that needs to translate in the classroom. "It's really a redefinition of education," Higgins said. "It's less about scores and more about the true value of what you're teaching and the relationship with your students. It's about addressing the culture of your organization." Much of that work is still ongoing, as are the recent developments that occurred after the death of George Floyd which spurred a conversation on racism at Elyria's City Hall. Superintendent Ann Schloss said the listening event brought focus to the work, but it also showed they still have a lot of listening still to do. Several people who spoke at the June 2 event were students at Elyria Schools who brought examples of racism from fellow students and sometimes staff members. "We're making sure we look at what's going on in our own school system," Schloss said. "I don't think there's any organization that doesn't have work to do. That's really where we're coming from. Right now we just have a small framework of people; we're working on who else needs to be on the teams and how do we roll this out in the fall." A small group of people have had three meetings so far since the listening event. Included in that group is Parris Smith, CEO of the Lorain County Urban League, and Marsalis Hammons, founder of Leaders of Today. In partnering with the Urban League, conversations have specifically focused on antiracism in education. Schloss said they hope to bring students into the conversations and begin training staff in racism and sensitivity. Although the district is looking at equity as a whole -- racism, sexuality, disabilities, etc. — Schloss said organizers zoomed in on racism right now. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Higgins said the district had held multiple trainings with staff, students and parents. Dr. Annissa Roland, a senior associate with the Schlechty Center, conducted multiple focus groups with students and parents. Before the shutdown, the district had just started to analyze the data. "But fast forward, a lot of the info we've gleaned thus far relates to a lot of issues you're hearing today," Higgins said. "Not necessarily in the same words, but the underlying feelings. It's very timely, and we're happy we started this work early on." In a letter following the death of Floyd in Minneapolis, Schloss promised that the district would look deeply at Elyria's policies and staff. "Racism is real with deep, unwelcome, ugly roots that spread and grow into foul feelings and behaviors," she said. "We witness intolerance and inequity in covert ways and in ways that are so obvious they smack you full in the face. I wish I could declare schools free of prejudices and behaviors that discriminate and belittle others. I cannot." Higgins said the district is doing, and will continue to do, all-staff trainings around equity and antiracism. At the building level, she said it will develop teams to address the culture for that specific school. There's still more meetings to come and more conversations that will happen before anything is officially rolled out, but Schloss said the key is that officials are looking at how to change as a school district. "We're in the planning stages of how we continue this work," she said. "... I feel like there is work we already started, but I know there's still work to do. We have an obligation to make sure we're doing what's best for our children and our staff." Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.