Dean controversy update: Superintendent addresses students
Intended to create a greater student voice, Homeroom Congress meetings occur sporadically to gain student input on issues at UHS.
But on March 8, 2018, a greater issue took precedence over others. Starting next fall, the district plans to eliminate six dean positions across Urbana Middle School and Urbana High School, a decision which quickly became controversial. The prevailing concern from staff and students seems to be why this decision was made so quickly, why those who created it did not announce it personally, and why those working at or attending UHS were not consulted beforehand.
However, the conversation began with a discussion on school violence.
“The most powerful group to address school violence,” Stark declared to students. “Is all of you,”
Stark continued that having students report matters of emotional and physical discomfort ensures a safer school environment. He stated that the attitude toward reporting to staff members needs to change from one of snitching to one of support.
Senior Saskia Bakker brought up the need for students to be able to access and trust a source. “Some people don’t know we have social workers,” she pointed out.
She says UHS needs to change the attitude of academics over mental well-being. Students need more publicized information to help them succeed.
One student replied to Stark’s report with a personal experience. She stated her friend had been the victim of false accusation because of another student with a grudge. Assistant Principal Erin Ludwick assured students that each situation is individually investigated.
At the meeting, Principal Matthew Stark and Superintendent Don Owen both clarified the matter, which had begun to pick up rumors.
In response to the change of the deans’ positions, Stark said he knows the deans personally and that they are amazing people and what they have done is tremendous.
“Three people are not enough for 1200 students,” he said. Because of the critical concern of the deans’ fates, he also mentioned that the expertise of the current deans would be placed into the new disciplinary system at the high school along with additional staff to ensure quicker and faster processing of matters at UHS, though this was not confirmed to staff in several meetings held to discuss the issue.
He later prided UHS for having such a supportive and welcoming environment. “You’re in Urbana,” he said he often hears. “We don’t do that here.”
To continue that environment, Stark said restorative justice is needed, which cannot happen when there is the idea of a disciplinary system where a student does something wrong and needs to be punished.
Despite his role as principal, he admitted he did not have all the answers. There was no clarification as to what the new disciplinary plan would look like, nor what the new roles of the three deans would be. He did say that there was a solid plan of awareness to find qualified people in a short time, with the goal for hiring being May 15.
In response to the question of why neither students nor staff were consulted, Stark said that whether a change is small or large, both are disruptive.
“You don’t get to decide everything we do.”
Superintendent Don Owen then stepped in.
“It’s not the indictment of the deans,” Owen said. “The things they do aren’t what deans do.”
He said while the disciplinary referrals and suspensions are going down with the current system, the disparity between white students and students of color keeps getting worse. A sense of urgency came with the pulled data. The chance of a student of color being suspended is a several hundred percent more chance than white students.
“That’s not the school district I want my daughter to go to,” he said. “That’s not the school district I’m proud of.”
With statistics like this comes the need for drastic change, Owen declared.
Students made clear that the severity of the reaction elicited from the decision was partially due to the lack of information being provided. The question of how exactly the new plan would change the disparity rates was brought up as well.
“I don’t have clear answers to that,” Owen said. “But I know we have the brain power in the district to create something better. You can’t leave things in place and tweak around the edges.”
Owen says they are taking information from other school districts who went through similar situations to create a new system, a new Urbana Way.
“Several hundred percent can’t be chalked up to one issue. What is inherently causing this [disparity]?” sophomore Khaled Messai questioned.
Owen replied that that was a complicated question, but that the new plan would ensure being more proactive instead of reactive, stopping issues before they begin.
“We can’t give feedback unless we know more information.”
He advocates that one starts addressing a situation by looking at the needs of the people first.
“You address the need and then build the structure.”
Whether the building of this structure is approved by the school board remains to be seen. A vote will take place Tuesday March 13.
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