BREAKING: Peggy Jones Votes Against Unitary Status Policy.
Dr. Jones is the lone holdout against continued school integration.
On Monday, December 9th, Dr. Peggy Jones voted against the school district in its continued work of sustaining the administration of unitary status after the desegregation order case ends. Written by Dr. Moore, Policy 2750 is to establish commitment by the school district to continue the work of unitary status once there is resolution to the 60 year old case. Before she voted “no” Dr. Jones read from a prepared statement. She said, “This is nothing new to the board about how I feel. 2750 does not align itself with the federal court order with black students.”
Dr. Jones statement was incorrect. Policy 2750 is named, Board Commitment to Unitary Status and Reporting. Under the section named, “Superintendent Commitment,” Part B states, “Monitor data to make recommendations to the Board regarding the constitutional obligation to eliminate vestiges of de jure segregation to the extent practicable, and operation of a unitary school system.”
De jure segregation means to divide people by law according to some characteristic such as skin color, religion, or other group type. This case was first brought in 1964 after the US Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, mandated an end to segregation in public schools.
Policy 2750 goes on to address 7 specific areas of which 3 are directly related to black students. They are, “African American student achievement/resource allocation; student assignments; and extracurricular activities.”
There are two additional focus areas consisting of “strategies for recruitment of African American teachers,” and, “representation of African American teachers and instructional staff.”
From her prepared remarks, Dr. Jones added, “Not that I dislike Dr. Moore’s revision, I just think that were going down a path that is not showing a commitment specifically to all of the components of the joint plan and the federal court order.”
Dr. Moore’s “revision” is actually a new policy. It includes a declaration by the school board that states, “The Board (and all schools in the District) shall take active measures to maintain a unitary school system. Active measures shall be defined as those which promote supportive educational environments that are free from discrimination.”
Dr. Jones referred to it as a “revision” because it replaced Policy 2130 - The Achievement Gap Oversight Workgroup which was repealed on November 18th at a special meeting of the board. In August, former board member, Kevin McDonald, proposed amending Policy 2130 to monitor the work on the achievement gap being done currently with active oversight by the board.
At a September 9th discussion to amend policy 2130, chair Teri Barenborg and Dr. Jones stood against helping kids immediately because it meant diminishing the NAACP’s role in the newly reformed committee of the board. After Dr. Jones vehemently exclaimed her being against removing the NAACP, Mrs Barenborg 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?”
Mr. McDonald 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.”
Policy 2130 was removed because Dr. Moore demonstrated during that September 9th workshop that he was already tackling the Achievement Gap. Furthermore, formal work of the Achievement Gap Oversight Workgroup created by policy 2130 would not begin until unitary status was awarded in federal court. Since that date is unknown, Mr. McDonald remarked that nobody could determine when kids would get help.
However, Dr. Moore clearly demonstrated kids were already receiving much needed assistance. In a presentation during the debate of the proposed amendments to Policy 2130, Dr. Moore shared how Indian River County was the only school district on the Treasure Coast that saw growth in assessments across all identifiable racial subgroups.
The greatest rate of growth was among black students. He cited figures pertaining to the assessment areas of Math and English Language Arts (ELA). He compared Indian River’s student performance to the counties of Brevard, Martin, and Port Saint Lucie as well as the state of Florida. At the end of his presentation, board member, Dr. Gene Posca said, “The data shows that we are doing the work and our growth is outpacing many in the state.”
After some discussion, Dr. Moore shared his thoughts on Policy 2130 proposed as amended. He said, “We are doing the work now. I do not need that policy to do the work. This is a priority of the board. If I don’t do this work, then fire me!”
Board member Jackie Rosario agreed. She said, “You don’t need this particular policy to determine the current work that you are already doing.”
Recognized for his work, in October, Dr. Moore was given a 22% raise by the board. At the Florida School Board Association and Florida Association of State Superintendents Joint Conference last week in Tampa, Dr. Moore was given the FASS 2025 Superintendent of the Year award.
Peggy Jones is emotionally involved and not able to make a sound decision. It’s been a major part of life in education . One wonders