Milford Schools Update Its Work On Racism And Social Justice

Written by Superintendent of Schools Anna M. Cutaia,

Dear Members of the Milford Public Schools Community,

The purpose of this letter is to provide an update to our work on racism and social justice in Milford Public Schools. About one month ago, the entire Milford Public Schools administrative team wrote a letter expressing our thoughts and feelings about the mistreatment of people of color and the instances of civil unrest that followed.

Since then, our administrative team has started working toward the goal of equity in our communities, strengthening social justice, and erasing racism, locally and beyond.

As we begin to develop concrete plans for the next school year, one of the first steps is to identify what we already have in place.

Here in the Milford Public Schools, we have some foundational practices but clearly recognize that we are not doing enough. Below I will share some of those foundational practices along with our next steps.

■ Access to Rigorous Courses. Our team is already working on revising curriculum to ensure that all students have access to content that directly addresses racism and social injustice. Our students will see evidence of revised learning experiences as early as this fall. Alongside revised curriculum is the effort to acquire resources that better represent people of color. These include books, textbooks, visual aides, etc. While our efforts will yield immediate results for the fall, this work will be ongoing and require a multi-year approach.

■ Advanced Placement Courses Open to Everyone. We will be conducting an analysis of enrollment of higher level courses by student group. While Milford Public Schools has had an open access policy to all Advanced Placement courses, we believe we can do a better job of ensuring diversity in class enrollment.

■ School Climate Teams. Every school in the district has a School Climate Team. We believe this is an opportunity to include student voices to better understand their experiences in school. School Climate Teams will engage in a special focus on racism and social justice in the future.

■ Social/Emotional Learning (SEL). Two components of SEL can be found in the very familiar ‘Morning Meeting’ and ‘Advisory’ sessions we hold with our students. These two practices help students and staff make connections, build relationships, and offer a time of reflection and guidance. Moving forward we will develop specific lessons and discussion topics in the areas of racism and social justice.

■ School Counseling. Last year, we committed to an external review of school counseling and support services in Milford Public Schools. Through that process, we plan to understand how to better address racism and equity using our counseling staff. Additionally, we hope to learn how to better support our students of color in post secondary planning.

Moving Forward

In June, high school and central office administrators met with students of color to better understand their experiences in Milford Public Schools. Moving forward, we plan to establish a district-wide student advisory committee that will meet regularly to inform our work on racism and social justice.

We know, as a district, we still have a lot of work to do. Our goal is to gain insight from all stakeholders in our community through surveys, community conversations, strengthening partnerships with local organizations, and more.

I will continue to update you in the months ahead and look forward to working with you.

In partnership,

Anna M. Cutaia, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools