LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — The Lee's Summit School Board called an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss its equity plan moving forward, including a closed session on personnel.
There's been a battle over Superintendent Dr. Dennis Carpenter's proposal to bring diversity and equity training to teachers and staff. In a regular meeting May 16, the board voted against the plan.
In that meeting, school board president Julie Doane asked the consultant put forth to conduct the training if he will teach white privilege as part of the material. When he responded that he would, Doane replied, "I just don't like the word privilege."
She went on to make other comments that several parents tell 41 Action News they take issue with.
Over the course of the meeting, Doane went on to say, "If they're looking for a Spanish, they might choose J. Lo over me." Later, Doane equated having blonde hair to the experience of being an African American.
Megan Marshall, who has two children in the district, is calling for Doane to step down.
"The fact that she could just say those things without even giving it a second thought it just proves that the equity plan that was voted into place initially, with thoughts like that, you can't move forward," Marshall said.
Dr. Carpenter suggested that the board should not renew his contract and instead find someone, "they can trust."
On Monday, Doane released a newsletter which reads in part:
"An important topic from last week's Board meeting included the Educational Equity Consultants vote. The Board of Education voted 'no' on the Educational Equity Consultants proposal. As a BOE, we do have differences of opinion on our approach; however, we are confident we can move forward together. Our commitment is to move forward in finding the right equity solution for all of our students. The Board of Education will meet soon to discuss our next steps and to engage with the Superintendent. We will continue to keep the staff and community updated, and we will be forthcoming with information as available.
With this, I would like to apologize for my comments at the Board of Education meeting last week. I'm sorry for the insensitive manner in which they were made. I look forward to learning more about how we can all work together moving forward in this conversation."
The school board will hold an emergency meeting to determine next steps on its equity plan at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22. A closed session to address personnel issues is set for 5 p.m.
