Amanda Forrester / news@whmi.com

The Hartland Consolidated Schools’ Board of Education voted unanimously to repeal the district’s DEI Committee during a special meeting Thursday afternoon.

Members of the public and board members voiced a variety of opinions on the committee, and the question of how to address diversity and inclusion in the district.

The resolution was amended based on the wording of the “Dear Colleague” letter, which was issued by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights on Feb. 14 and outlines the dissolution of similar policies and committees in schools across the country. The proposed amendment to the resolution also passed unanimously.

A passage of the letter read by Secretary Glenn Gogoleski said “all educational institutions are advised to: (1) ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law; (2) cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends; and (3) cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race.” He said this includes materials from organizations including the Castle Group or the Great Lakes Equity Center.

The amended version of the resolution called for the dissolution of the district’s DEI committee and would ask Superintendent Chuck Hughes to develop a plan to come into compliance with the letter.

“That the Board of Education disband the DEI Committee and subcommittee immediately,” the amended motion said. “Furthermore, that the Superintendent provide a report to the Board of Education prior to the March 17, 2025 meeting containing a plan to bring Hartland Consolidated Schools into compliance with the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights’ ‘Dear Colleague’ letter, sent to the district on Feb. 14, 2025.”

The board said the decision to end the committee wouldn’t end history lessons regarding race.

“There’s a difference between ‘consciousness’ and ‘fact,’” Gogoleski said. “If we’re teaching about slavery, that’s real. That existed and it was horrible.”

Multiple members of the public and several board members talked about a recent event held at one of the schools. Students wore different cultural items and held different flags. As an example, several people said a student wore a sombrero and waved the Mexican flag, while another girl wore a hijab and held the flag from Saudi Arabia.

Gogoleski said it was important for everyone to remember that eliminating the word DEI Committee wouldn’t be enough to bring them into compliance with the executive order. He said this would be only one step.

Trustee Cindy Shaw asked where the line would be drawn on what was and wasn’t considered DEI, Gogoleski said as long as the district was showing they made the best effort to do their “due diligence,” it would show they were working to meet the letter and executive order. Shaw said because there was no definition, everyone would have a different interpretation of various activities.

Treasurer Greg Keller read a letter sent by State Representative Jason Woolford.

“Superintendent Hughes,” the letter said. “It is my understanding that the Hartland Consolidated School Board of Education will soon be considering temporarily pausing a partnership related to diversity, equity and inclusion that Hartland Schools recently adopted alongside the U.S. Department of Justice. I would encourage Hartland Schools to repeal this partnership as soon as possible. The residents of Hartland, especially those with children in your schools, should be able to be perfectly certain that their community schools are complying with federal law. Because of President Trump’s recent executive order prohibiting DEI policies, Hartland Schools should definitely cease to enforce their racial harassment training and programming agreement with the DOJ. In addition to now constituting violations of federal law, DEI programs promote preferential treatment of individuals based on their race, which is definitionally racist. Furthermore, the direct involvement of a federal department, one with no direct ties to education policy for that matter, with one of our local schools, contradicts the notion that locally elected school boards ought to decide how to operate and dictate the policies of the schools under their supervision. Hartland Schools DEI partnership is completely backwards and absurd, both in content and in how it came to be passed in the first place. As one of the state legislators elected to represent the Hartland area, I believe advocating for our local communities’ parents and their interest in the children’s education to be among my chief responsibilities. Because of this, I encourage the Board of Education to not only pause their DEI agreement with the DOJ, but to permanently end this program as soon as possible.”

The next meeting will be held on March 17.