Consultant monitoring plan for Black, disabled students in Sacramento steps down
.png "Carl Pinkston in a public comment at a Sept. 5, 2024 Sacramento City Unified School District board meeting.")
The independent monitor tasked with creating and enforcing the Black Parallel School Board action plan at Sacramento City Unified School District stepped down Monday, according to a joint news release from the school district.
Gregory Peters of the San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools worked with the district to draft the original action plan which was published last fall.
Both parties are working collaboratively to find a new independent monitor that will oversee the five-year plan to improve conditions for Black and disabled students at SCUSD.
Black Parallel School Board (BPSB) Chair Carl Pinkston said that the change is part of a new era for the action plan.
“You bring someone in to help you get your start and then you have to bring someone in to take it home,” Pinkston said.
Last year the independent alleged problematic delays in implementing the plan to improve conditions for Black and disabled students due to bureaucratic district behavior.
Pinkston echoed this frustration more recently, telling The Sacramento Bee in July that BPSB and the independent monitor had trouble working with the district to roll out early steps of the plan.
The district did not share why Peters stepped down as independent monitor and Peters did not respond to a request for comment.
It is not yet known when a replacement will be hired, but the replacement will be mutually agreed upon by the district and BPSB, Pinkston said.
“I’m feeling more hopeful now even though I was frustrated before,” Pinkston said. “We’re finally getting the reset at the table that will get some things moving.”
BPSB will have a fleshed out plan for the following year at the end of November, which Pinkston said will detail where they stand in terms of data collection, personnel training and how they will continue to implement the plan in the midst of a budget crisis.
“SCUSD and BPSB remain jointly committed to the Action Plan’s purpose of eliminating racial disparities, improving services for students with disabilities, and ensuring every student in the District receives a high-quality, equitable education. “
What is the Black Parallel School Board action plan?
In 2019, the Black Parallel School Board (BPSB) alongside three students petitioned the court to reform the district’s procedures to identify and provide accommodations for all eligible students, claiming that the current system resulted in segregation and mistreatment of students with disabilities, particularly Black students with disabilities.
The two parties settled the case four years later with terms that the district implement an action plan to achieve 22 directives to improve conditions for these students. The settlement agreement required that an independent monitor would create and enforce compliance with the action plan over the following five years.
Directives detailed in the plan include reducing segregation of students with disabilities in school classrooms, reducing the disproportionate use of discipline on Black and disabled students and developing best practices for individualized education programs.
