Constant, OPS Equity Task Force identify issues to address

July 13, 2020 | 12:10 am

Updated July 12, 2020 | 11:52 pm

Graphic by Owensboro Times

After a handful of virtual listening sessions with staff at all levels, Owensboro Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Constant said the OPS Equity Task Force has begun to identify issues they intend to address regarding racial issues within the district.

“We identified some issues that they either saw were going on, knew were going on, or felt like needed to be going on,” Constant said. “There are some definite categories that we can identify of probably needing more conversation and action around.

“Some of the categories that sort of sprung up as a result of the conversations were student issues — how students are dealing with racial inequity inside our classrooms and outside our classrooms in terms of being at home or being at work or being in the community.”

Constant said many areas of concern revolved around the students, there are also things the OPS staff can address.

“There’s staff issues in terms of further training, in terms of cultural responsibility, equity, sensitivity, that kind of thing came up … in terms of recruiting African-American staff members and how to more effectively do that so that our African-American students have somebody that looks like them as a good role model for what they can achieve,” Constant said.

He said the district can also look at what is being taught to make sure “we cover especially social studies and history curriculum that it is actually inclusive of all the African-American historical achievements in the time period that we are teaching.”

Constant was clear that while there were plenty of issues that were voiced during his meetings, they weren’t necessarily negative — they were things that simply needed more attention and focus. 

He said as the new superintendent, it was a good time to re-evaluate how things were being handled in the district anyway.

“Its always time when a new leader takes over to look at ‘what have our priorities been, what should they be moving forward?’ I think these conversations are having an impact on what should be happening moving forward,” Constant said.

Though he created the Task Force, Constant said he didn’t feel like he should be the one calling all the shots.

“I told all of my listening sessions when I started them that I feel wholly inadequate to facilitate a process like this because I realize that I am a white, privileged individual … I had an upbringing that was different than a lot of our African American students and families,” Constant said. “So I just called that out at the beginning that I was totally inadequate, but I still feel like we need to talk and be transparent with issues.”

The next step for the Task Force will be to ask teachers which issues they can focus on addressing. Constant said he’ll also soon begin reaching out to parents to conduct listening sessions with them.

“They can be honest with us in terms of what they are seeing or hearing from their own child,” he said.

With the majority of the focus on how to safely reopen school for the 2020-21 academic year, Constant said they’ll have to prioritize what topics can be addressed by the Task Force.

“We’ll have the ongoing conversation, but as prioritized action items come up, we will go ahead and deal with those,” he said. “As things come up and we’re able to tackle them, we will in terms of a short-term win, but we’re also looking at identifying what in the long term is going to take some work, take some more community involvement and input and action and resources.”

July 13, 2020 | 12:10 am

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