The all-white board running the Francis Howell School District voted to rescind a resolution displayed throughout school buildings that acknowledges the impact of racism on staff and students.
A previous board governing the public school district in St. Charles County originally approved the resolution in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis ignited a push for racial justice. The majority conservative board, of which most members were elected in the past 15 months, voted to rescind the resolution, along with all other resolutions approved by previous iterations of the board, Thursday night.
All resolutions adopted by the board will now rescind within 75 days after a majority of board members who signed the resolution are out of office. The board could choose to bring the certain resolutions back, however.
The anti-racism resolution says, in part: “We will promote racial healing, especially for our Black and brown students and families. We will no longer be silent. We are committed to creating an equitable and anti-racist system that honors and elevates all, but one that specifically acknowledges the challenges faced by our Black and brown students and families.”
Several people spoke against the rescinding on Thursday night. Those opposed to the vote packed the board’s meeting room and shouted “shame on you” when the majority of the board voted to end the resolutions. Many held signs saying “move forward, not backward.”
Several of those in opposition were part of Francis Howell Forward, a nonpartisan PAC created in opposition to conservative-backed PAC Francis Howell Families. The latter supported the board’s newer members. They say they pleaded with the board not to rescind the anti-racism resolution.
Jamie Martin, president of Francis Howell Forward, says the community has repeatedly pleaded with the board not to revoke the anti-racism resolution. Their concerns have gone unheeded, she says.
“Most of them did not respond to the emails sent by our community members and our families,” Martin says.
The stated purpose of rescinding the resolutions was so the board could express its own views on matters relevant to current times, supporters said. They rebuffed claims that the proposal was targeted specifically at the anti-racism resolution. Yet the new policy requires rescinded resolutions to be removed from display in school, as only the anti-racism resolution is, multiple parents said.
The policy states: “The board recognizes that such resolutions are a reflection on a moment in time — specifically, the time the resolution was adopted — and resolutions shall not be used as a rationale for decisions within the district or act in any way to obligate the district to take a specific course of action.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported news of the board’s intent to rescind the anti-racism measure. Only two current board members, according to the daily, served on the board when the resolution was approved three years ago. The other five members of the seven-person board were elected in April 2022 and April 2023.
Janet Stiglich and Chad Lange were the two members on the board at the time of the resolution’s passage in 2020 and were the only two members to vote against rescinding it.
Stiglich questioned why, all of a sudden, the board needed a policy to sunset resolutions.
“If your concern is the wording of the resolution… Let’s get together and come up with a solution we can all agree with,” Stiglich said. “That’s what elected people do. We expect our students to problem solve, why can’t we as a board do the same thing?”
Another member of the board, Jane Puszkar, said she’s yet to hear proof of how the anti-racism resolution actually prevents a child from harm. But she has, however, known a child who endured religious discrimination.
“My thought on the policy is, what has it really done?” Puszkar said. “How effective has it been? Show me proof. I haven’t gotten any. All I’ve gotten is a lot of hateful email.”
This comment caused the crowd to loudly guffaw. “You’re out of order,” Puszkar said to people who objected. “So are you,” someone said from the crowd.
Even if its impact wasn’t clear, the anti-racism resolution gave minority members of the Francis Howell School District hope, residents who spoke to the RFT said.
“It was such a spark of hope after all the years of trauma we experienced as brown and Blacks and non-traditional students,” Kimberly Thompson said. “And now they want to take that hope from us.”
Both of Thompson’s children are graduates of the district, and Thompson also attended, or, in her words, “survived,” the district. She recalled multiple racist incidents she endured as a student. “I experienced so many needless and senseless wounds, sometimes on a daily basis, simply because of the color of my skin,” Thompson says.
For Pastor B.T. Rice, whose two teenage grandchildren attend the district, rescinding the resolution was a major step backwards. He says Black children in the district have been called a litany of names meant to degrade people of color, including “Aunt Jemima,” “coon” and “Blackie.”
“Enough is enough,” Rice says.
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