BREAKING: Desegregation Order Workgroup Cancels September Meeting. Required by Federal Court to Meet Monthly, It Hasn’t for 6 Months.
Are the IRC-NAACP and School District at an impasse? Or, is it politics?
Late Friday, the School District of Indian River County (SDIRC) and the IRC-NAACP canceled their September 19th Joint Equity Workgroup. Monthly meetings are required under the Desegregation Order. According to the District calendar, on September 3rd the meeting was scheduled only to be canceled 4 days later.
The workgroup has not met for 6 months straight.
The last meeting held by the workgroup was March 7th. At the beginning of that meeting, lawyers for both sides agreed to hold their next meeting on April 11th. However, that meeting was canceled by the District. At the April 22nd school board meeting, the board voted to have Jackie Rosario replace Peggy Jones on the team representing the District. Yet, Ms. Rosario has yet to participate in a workgroup. She said, “The work to reach unitary status is critical, yet both sides have canceled and we haven’t met in months. At this point, it’s not good. This is incredibly disappointing. It needs to be a priority for all involved.”
Scheduling conflicts and a change of members.
The Workgroup is required to biannually file with the federal court their “Joint Status Report.” The report explains status of progress made toward the goals outlined in the 2018 Joint Action Plan (2018 Joint Plan). The 2018 Joint Plan is the contractual agreement between both parties agreed to and presented in federal court. Judge Kathleen Williams ordered it approved September 13, 2018. Little progress was made under its original organization. The 2018 Joint Plan was amended in 2022 to create the Workgroup ordered by Judge Williams to meet monthly. On July 31st, the IRC-NAACP and the SDIRC submitted their report to the court.
In that status report, the school district noted the cancellation of the June 26th meeting too. No meetings were attempted for May and July. To cover for the parties’ dereliction regarding the order, the joint status report said in part, “The Workgroup will conduct an all-day, in- person Workgroup meeting during the month of August to make up for the cancelled meetings.”
The commitment to the court for the "all-day, in person Workgroup” for August also wasn’t honored by the parties. Ms. Rosario remarked, “For August, I was told the NAACP’s lawyer had a scheduling issue. Then we had a tentative date scheduled for September only to find out they had another conflict and canceled that one too.”
Yet, why is it that the Joint Equity Workgroup hasn’t met since the appointment of Ms. Rosario? Dr. Jones has been an advocate for the NAACP since arriving to the school board. On December 15, 2020, one month into her first term, she made an overture to the plaintiff that the NAACP should be a community partner of the District. In the winter of 2022, Dr. Jones fought against the mandatory repeal of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion policy which was found to be against the law. When she took up the false claims of Vice President, Kamala Harris, that the Florida’s African American History Standards stated “slaves benefitted from slavery,” she wrote a letter to the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). In her letter demanding removal of the misstated standard, Dr. Jones recommended, “I also ask that you call in representatives from our state and local NAACP branches for input on all of these African American Standards.”
At the time of Peggy Jones’ replacement on the Workgroup, IRC-NAACP president, Tony Brown, went to the media against Ms. Rosario’s appointment. In the May 6th issue of Vero News, Mr. Brown praised the progress that had been made with his advocate, Peggy Jones, on the other side of the table. He then described that “everybody’s concerned” with Ms. Rosario being seated at the workgroup.
In the past, the IRC-NAACP has openly campaigned against Ms. Rosario, the only minority on the board. In that same article, Mr. Brown stated that he thinks she is joining the workgroup to be “divisive and disruptive,” adding that she wasn’t “going to get away with the stuff she pulls on the School board.”
During the the March 7th meeting, IRC-NAACP President Brown asked the SDIRC not to “keep throwing in my face, the 2018 [Joint] Plan” abandoning his court ordered duty as the plaintiff. The desegregation order is entering its 60th year of litigation. For the last 8 years, estimated legal costs for SDIRC average $105,000 annually. The IRC-NAACP admitted in that meeting it receives pro-bono legal counsel.
Unitary status or not?
On more than one occasion this year, Superintendent, David Moore, has publicly declared that the District has achieved unitary status. Following that March workgroup, at the board workshop on the 18th, he unequivocally stated, “To you all, I want to remain consistent as your superintendent, I think we have met all of the requirements and we are entitled to unitary status.”
Dr. Moore’s comments were made in a discussion regarding the delayed implementation of Policy 2130 - Achievement Gap Workgroup. At last month's business meeting, in an effort to address the increasing Achievement Gap, board member, Kevin McDonald, proposed amending Policy 2130 to address the needs of underachieving kids immediately.
During the discussion at the August meeting, Chairwoman, Teri Barenborg asked Mr. McDonald if he wanted his legacy to be about this proposal. She said, “I also have a very hard time with putting lines through anything referencing the NAACP and all the work that’s been done on the [2018] Joint Plan. I think that sends a really bad message. Is that what you want for your legacy?”
On the dais, he responded, “Well, the intent is to establish something now under the framework that exists. To take that action now. It’s not striking out the NAACP who we continue to be in litigation with. It’s using that idea, and that concept and that framework to proactively and immediately do some good things in the community.”
When asked by The Sunshine Journal about the reference to his legacy, he said, “I would be blessed if my legacy was an action to help the kids.”
The question remains whether the kids get help now, or long after the Workgroup decides to meet again.