During its June 10 meeting, the Gorham School Committee (SC) voted unanimously to publicly declare that the SC condemns recent racism in the country against people of color.
The committee further directed superintendent Heather Perry to deliver the draft proclamation created by the GHS Civil Rights students to the Gorham School Committee Policy Committee to use as a core document for the development of a new Anti-Racist Policy for the Gorham School Department. The policy will be developed with significant stakeholder feedback and brought back to the SC as a potential policy in the fall of 2020.
In the proclamation, members asked that the policy include: a request for a more diverse environment, which includes speakers sharing stories; curriculum that educated students about racism from early grades; a more diverse staff; honoring holidays of different religions and cultures; and, making school-welcoming programs more diverse.
The Policy Committee has met once already to map out a plan for creating the policy and will meet again on August 12 at 6 p.m. Their work will begin in earnest later in August/ September.