The Greater Essex County School Board has released its long-awaited strategy to address anti-Black racism in the classroom, staffroom, and board offices.
The board will formally announce it at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night on Microsoft Teams, but a copy of the report, titled "Dismantling Anti-Black Racism," was released Wednesday morning.
It comes after the board formed a steering committee last year after mounting community pressure following the police death of George Floyd in Minneapolis the year before.
A background study highlighted the disproportionate rate of suspensions among Black students, the high number of students streamed into lower levels of academic study, and lower graduation rates.
"It is time to move beyond talk, hollow promises, performative gestures, and ineffective restructuring colonialist systems," proclaimed the study's authors. "Instead, it is time to press forward toward meaningful change at the Greater Essex County District School Board."
The Ministry of Education requires school boards to identify issues through surveys and system reviews.
"It is undeniable that Black students, staff and families have not always felt as welcomed, listened to, supported or encouraged as they should have been," wrote Director of Education Erin Kelly. "I apologize to the Black communities of Windsor and Essex County and to those individuals who have experienced anti-Black racism as a result of our actions or inactions."
The Turner Consulting Group supported staff and student surveys. The results of the student survey should come out soon. Fourty students, 173 parents and caregivers, 409 staff, and 58 others participated.
The board also conducted an Employment Systems Review to evaluate formal and informal policies related to recruitment, culture, accommodations, and accessibility.
The strategy sets out five priorities, including improving how Black parents and communities are engaged, supporting success for Black students, and hiring more racialized staff.
A draft plan to review Black resources used in schools is expected this spring, along with a pilot project teaching grade 7 and 8 students specifically about Black history in the Detroit River area.
According to the background study, the last segregated school in Windsor-Essex closed in 1965.