The City Schools of Decatur (CSD) board is bringing back equity policies after it previously voted to rescind them to comply with a directive from the Trump administration.
The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday evening to reinstate its equity and school board governance policies, as well as a previous version of its gender equity in sports policy.
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) required school systems to commit to removing diversity, equity and inclusion policies or lose federal funds, as outlined in a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter and an April 3 certification request. The communication from the department states that DEI programs are in violation of federal non-discrimination law.
According to a letter obtained by WABE from Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods to USED’s Office for Civil Rights, all local educational agencies in Georgia submitted the April 3 certification, including CSD Superintendent Gyimah Whitaker.
However, three rulings by federal judges in separate lawsuits last week have temporarily barred the U.S. government from cutting funding. One of those lawsuits was filed by the National Education Association. Lisa Morgan, the president of the NEA’s state affiliate Georgia Association of Educators, told WABE last week that she was “thankful and hopeful that we can move forward addressing the reality of our public schools,” adding that public schools have a diverse student body.
According to attorney Bob Wilson, the recent court orders mean the City Schools of Decatur would not be in violation of federal law for having equity policies unless all three rulings — two injunctions and one temporary stay — were overturned. Wilson spoke before the board Tuesday to give a legal assessment of implementing equity policies given the fact that the lawsuits are ongoing and that USED could appeal the rulings.
“I think it’s far more unlikely that all three of those would be lifted at the same time,” Wilson said. “You can go back to your trial judges, the U.S. district judges, and ask them to lift them and say, ‘We have additional information why you shouldn’t put an injunction in’ or whatever, but to succeed on all three things is highly unlikely. Their greatest chance is to go to their circuit courts of appeal, and that’s three separate circuit courts. It’s highly unlikely they would hear them and rule on the same day.”
Wilson added that this means the board would have time to determine whether to meet again over these policies if only one or two of the rulings are overturned.
After some discussion, the district’s school board decided to reinstate policies without an added condition that they would automatically be rescinded again if the injunctions and temporary stay orders issued by the court were lifted.
Hans Utz, vice chair of the board, said he would prefer the opportunity to discuss whether they want to rescind those policies again if the injunctions issued by the courts are lifted.
“We would have the time to come back and talk as a body and assess the risks that we face at that point in time. And if at that point in time, the risks are basically nothing until we get a Supreme Court ruling, I don’t want an automatic thing in our policy right now that still strips the equity policy away,” Utz said.
Dr. Jana Johnson-Davis, a member of the board, said she didn’t support rescinding equity policies in the first place and that they were priorities for the board prior to the Trump administration’s certification request.
“These policies were very important to us three weeks ago,” she said. “We had them in place, and they were things we upheld. They were kind of our guardrails and reminded us of what it is we need to be doing for all of our students at CSD.”
The policies now reinstated by the board relate to CSD’s stance on equity through identifying and addressing disparities related to socioeconomic status, race, gender and other areas, and recruiting and retaining “diverse workforce by using an equitable hiring tool.” The school board governance policy that is reinstated adopts a “Theory of Action” for budgeting and strategic planning that is intended to create equitable outcomes for students.
The gender equity in sports policy that the board voted to return to states that no student will face discrimination or exclusion from intramural and interscholastic sports, and that a complaint process for this policy will provide a “prompt and equitable resolution.”
According to board chair Carmen Sulton, the body received mixed responses from CSD community members on whether they wanted these policies in place.
“It bears stating that the community feedback was very mixed. There were a lot of people who were very much telling us to bring these policies back as they were written 100%, don’t modify the language; a lot of people who felt like we shouldn’t do this at all; a lot of who felt we should bring these back but modify them,” she said.
Board member Tracey Anderson, who had raised concerns about compliance with federal law, said it’s not clear what might happen next, but she wanted to make sure the public understood the board’s plan.
“We’re living in unpredictable times. So, you know, the good news is, I guess if there’s any good news, that it sounds like it’s going to be more difficult for the federal government to do what it has wanted,” Anderson said.
If injunctions are lifted and the board plans to meet again to discuss equity policies, they will give a 48-hour notice.
