A St. Paul Public Schools committee is calling for an end to student suspensions in a district that continues to kick Black and American Indian students out of class at high rates.
“We cannot do our jobs if the students are at home,” William Hill, restorative practices coordinator at Central High School and a member of the district’s equity committee, told the school board Tuesday evening.
The school board created the equity committee in late 2019 at the request of Superintendent Joe Gothard. The eventual end to suspensions was just one of several recommendations made during a presentation Tuesday.
Asked whether he supported the idea, Gothard was noncommittal.
“We’re going to have to review them all,” he said of the recommendations. “Do I want less students suspended? Absolutely.”
In 2013, under previous leadership, the district adopted a racial equity policy and began to address disparities in discipline. But little has changed.
Black students, who made up 26 percent of district enrollment, received about 73 percent of out-of-school suspensions in 2019-20, according to reports to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which is monitoring the district’s discipline data. American Indians made up 1 percent of enrollment but around 5 percent of suspensions that year.
Riverview West Side School of Excellence Principal Nancy Paez, who serves on the equity committee, said students who get kicked out of school feel shamed and miss instruction, peer interaction and opportunities for restoration.
Hill said that to stop all suspensions, the district should research alternatives and create a task force to move in that direction. He emphasized the role that teachers play in suspensions, suggesting the district identify teachers who never remove students from class so they can train those who do it often.
The district, Hill said, must correct “misconceptions educators have about our children” and say to teachers who object that “this might not be the district for you.”
The equity committee identified several other disparities they say the district also should address:
- There aren’t enough non-white teachers — just 21 percent compared with 79 percent of students — and staff generally lack cultural and racial awareness.
- High teacher turnover prevents schools from maintaining a positive school climate.
- The curriculum does not sufficiently reflect students of color, causing them to disengage from school.
- There is “an ingrained belief” that there’s only “one path to success” and it’s by doing “the same things white people do.”
- Parents whose first language is not English struggle to navigate the Individualized Education Program process for their special-education students. Meetings move too quickly, and interpreters are provided only during the meetings, making it difficult for parents to follow up.
Gothard said the district will have to prioritize the ideas and build them into its strategic plan.
“A lot of this work is underway, but a lot of it is new,” he said.
