January 25, 2019
All attorneys and community organizations involved in the case are committed to keeping the District accountable to the promises they made in the settlement agreement.
In order to hear from community members on whether they are seeing changes being made in their schools and in order to share with the community data the District released to us, we held an open community forum on January 17, 2019, in Friendship Hall at Mill Creek Christian Church.
If you missed the forum, you can watch the full livestream here. Although we had Spanish translation at the event, the livestream recording is only in English.
You can also look through the following PowerPoint slides, keeping in mind that for full context you should listen to the livestream recording of the forum:
• Overview of the Civil Rights Lawsuit (English)/(Spanish), presented by Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance, Inc. (GBLA), providing details on the case and the July 2017 settlement.
• KHSD Student Discipline Data 2015-2018 (English)/(Spanish), analyzed and presented by California Rural Legal Assistance (CLRA), showing that even though overall rates of suspensions and expulsions at KHSD are down since 2014, African American students continue to be disproportionately punished in staggering numbers.
• Teacher and Staff Diversity Data 2015-2018 (English)/(Spanish), analyzed and presented by Equal Justice Society (EJS), showing that the District has a long way to go toward ensuring that the teaching staff is demographically reflective of the diverse student body of KHSD. For information on the data and studies showing the critical importance of having teachers of color, click here.
• Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) and the Behavior Matrix (English)/(Spanish), presented by CLRA, giving community members an overview of how the District has committed to handling discipline issues.
If you want to see a breakdown of how school officials in the District are supposed handle specific violations of the school code (from minor violations, like tardiness, to more serious ones, like bringing drugs to school), check out this Behavior Support Matrix. If your school is not following this Matrix, please fill out our survey or report a concern.
The District is holding a community forum on January 30, 2019, 7:00-8:30pm, at West High School, DeMello Hall, 1200 New Stine Rd., Bakersfield, Calif. Join us for an opportunity to hear updates from the District and ask them questions.
We look forward to hearing from you and continuing to advocate for our students!
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