Green Bay school board removes DEI language from job descriptions

A conflicted Green Bay School Board voted to remove DEI language from several job descriptions. 

The 4-3 vote Monday came after the U.S. Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter on Feb. 14, giving educational institutions 14 days to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal funding. 

“With this guidance, the Trump Administration is directing schools to end the use of racial preferences and race stereotypes in their programs and activities — a victory for justice, civil rights laws, and the Constitution,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor wrote.

In Green Bay, where 63 percent of the students are minorities, school board members were torn over the decision to remove DEI language from job descriptions. 

In the end, those who voted to remove DEI from job descriptions did so saying they didn’t want the district to lose $40 million in federal funds. 

But they also said they were “holding their noses” and casting protest votes.  

“I will vote for these job description changes, but it will be against my values and my best judgement,” said board member Lynn Gerlach. “I deplore the behavior we have been witnessing across our country in the senseless decimation of our federal government and now we see it in the Department of Education and now it comes home to our own schools.”

The federal funding at risk includes Title IV, state funding for curriculum development, free or reduced lunch programs and support for students with special needs. 

Kou Lee, who voted against the change, said he ran for school board because of the district’s inclusive culture. 

“This idea of cleansing and using other people as targets is not what I stand for and it’s not what my father raised me to be,” Lee said. “The district, the students is what I am (here) to protect. And if I vote for this, I just gave up everything that I stand for. Everything that is right.”  

The revised positions in Green Bay schools include the director of engagement and inclusion, family engagement coordinator, director of pupil services and equity and associate legal counsel/Title IX coordinator.

Words like inclusion, responsive teaching, cultural competency, affinity and equity have been redlined in the new job descriptions.

DPI advises Wisconsin schools not to immediately react to Trump administration

Statewide, the Department of Public Instruction issued guidance to school districts encouraging a “measured and thoughtful approach, rather than immediate or reactionary responses to the federal government’s concerns.”

DPI, the governor’s office, the state Department of Justice and the Universities of Wisconsin are working together on the issue, said Tom McCarthy, deputy superintendent at DPI.

“We are confident that Wisconsin schools and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction are spending federal dollars in compliance with the law,” McCarthy wrote. “In fact, federal spending is already subject to various levels of monitoring and approval from the US Department of Education and the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau.”

The Green Bay school district is already being looked at by the Trump administration. In January, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a Title VI civil rights complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging discrimination against a dyslexic student based on race.

Green Bay mother Colbey Decker alleges her son has been denied reading resources because he is white but minority students were receiving the services.

On Thursday, Lauren Greuel, who is representing Decker, said school districts should never consider race of any student or employee for any reason, even without Trump’s executive order.

“Are they doing it because of the Colbey Decker complaint? We can’t speak to tha. But we do have our eyes on Green Bay,” Greuel said.

A 2022 study from Brown University found teachers of color benefit all students by bringing specific practices and mindsets into a classroom.  

The random assignment of a teacher of color in an upper-elementary grade resulted in improved classroom engagement, year-end math and English language art scores and school attendance, the study found. 

“Teachers of color have large and lasting effects on the social-emotional, academic, and behavioral outcomes of their students,” the study found.