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On Monday July, 21, the Sudbury Public Schools School Committee voted unanimously to advance a proposed Gender Identity and Inclusivity policy to the next step in their policy adoption process—legal review. (Page 88)
During discussion, member Nicole Burnard raised questions about the exact nature of the legal review, suggesting that the district’s legal counsel should be asked to evaluate if the district would risk losing federal funding should they pass the policy.
“I certainly appreciate that voting this in is a way that we can validate and show our support for the LBGTQ+ community, but I also think that as school committee members we need to fiscally look at this as well. Like we could lose, if someone were to challenge it, I don’t know, what’s our federal funding, like $700,000 or so? So I just would like some sort of risk assessment from the legal team and if other districts are doing anything different to also validate and show support that may not put us in the situation of losing funding.” (2:07:19)
Burnard went on to reference a citizen email to the Sudbury Select Board, suggesting that the committee should find out how the Select Board would support Sudbury’s school districts in the event they lost federal funding. “Part of that email did sort of ask how the Select Board would support the schools. I don’t know if that would be, it’s one thing to get verbal support, it’s a whole nother if they’re going to financially support should something come up where we do end up losing federal funding. So that would be another outlet I think that we should just follow up on as well.”
It’s unclear what type of financial support Burnard thought the Select Board could provide. In Sudbury, the Town Meeting has the final say on budget appropriations and the Town Charter gives the Town Manager responsibility for “all the financial management functions of the Town.” The Select Board did have control over American Rescue Plan Act relief funds in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but all of that money had to be allocated before a deadline last year.
Vice Chair Jessica McCready asked Burnard if her concerns pertained to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at the federal level. “You mean they’re going to withhold our IDEA funding because we passed this, because it’s [they’re] like anti-DEI or something?”
Burnard said yes, and McCready added “I think that’s a risk we have to take.” Chair Karyn Jones agreed with McCready. Member Mandy Sim later pointed out that the district prides itself on its diversity, equity and inclusion work, and alluded to other existing district policies which she thought could already be considered “DEI work.”
The committee is expected to discuss legal counsel’s feedback on the draft policy at a future meeting.