Sewickley parents back diversity plan
Meeting held with academy officials
A group of Sewickley Academy parents has asked the school’s leaders to publicly commit to the academy’s diversity, equity and inclusion plan approved this spring by the board of trustees and denounce an anonymous letter that had been sent from a different parents organization earlier this summer that said the initiatives amounted to political and ideological persuasion.
The request came Friday afternoon during a meeting at Sewickley Academy in which four parents spoke with three academy trustees and three faculty members for about three hours over concerns that the diversity initiatives would be dropped because of extensive changes of school leadership over the past month. Ashley Birtwell, the interim head of school, and Kate Pigman, chair of the board of trustees, were among the Sewickley Academy representatives in the meeting.
“They gave us a significant amount of time to air our concerns,” said Dominic Odom, one of the parents who met with academy leaders. “They didn’t give any promises, but they did indicate that they would take that back to the full board.”
Sewickley Academy’s longtime head of school, Kolia O’Connor, its director of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, LaVern Burton, four other administrators
and a teacher were all let go by the school in July. One of the administrators, Douglas Leek, the school’s former director of admissions and financial aid, filed a federal lawsuit against the school Wednesday, claiming that his firing was racial discrimination. Ms. Burton, Mr. Leek and the teacher, Brandi Lawrence, are Black.
All of the personnel moves came
less than two months after a group called the Sewickley Parents Organization wrote to the academy’s families and leaders and said that the school’s diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice initiatives program — adopted by the trustees in April — was “actually Critical Race Theory dressed in sheep’s clothing.”
Ms. Odom said that the letter had clear racial overtones and made many fearful for their physical and mental wellbeing. She said it appeared as though the dismissal of the administrators and teacher was influenced by the Sewickley Parents Organization, which academy leadership has strongly denied.
The parents who attended Friday’s meeting said they voiced their concerns about the employees who were let go but withheld judgment on the people who the academy put in their places.
“It was an incredible loss of talent, and we’ve gone on the record with that concern,” said Karris Jackson, another academy parent who was at the meeting. “We can only move forward in an evidence-based manner as that progresses, and we won’t see that until the start of the school year.”
The personnel moves left some students puzzled and angered, including Caroline Cox, 19, a recent Sewickley Academy graduate who was a member of the school’s student diversity leadership council and worked closely with Ms. Burton.
“I had some of my greatest memories with the student diversity leadership council,” she said. “I learned so much, it allowed me to grow, and it was a major part of my high school experience.”
Ms. Cox and her friend, Jill Pollon, 19, another recent Sewickley Academy graduate, held signs outside of the school Friday afternoon in a display of support for the parents who were going into the meeting.
The upheaval at the school has also garnered attention from the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference, which said it would continue to monitor the situation.
“The NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference is concerned about the direction the Sewickley Academy has taken in the recent removal of African American leadership of its school,” the conference said in a statement Friday. “Clearly Sewickley appears to be a little misguided in the meaning of the philosophy of diversity, equity, and inclusion when it comes to staff.”
Ms. Birtwell said the personnel moves were based on enrollment and performance and had been under consideration long before the Sewickley Parents Organization had raised issues with the school’s diversity initiatives. She also said the school remained fully committed to those initiatives.
After the meeting, Ms. Birtwell released a statement that said she appreciated hearing what the parents had to say and wanted to continue the discussion.
“Today, a group of parents brought their concerns to our attention and specific experiences of their children at Sewickley Academy over the years,” she said. “We value their willingness to engage with us in a safe place and to be vulnerable. We are looking forward to further conversations with them and all members of our community to be the best we can be moving forward.”
The parents said they gave school leaders a list of follow up expectations that they would check on when the academic year starts and school climate and culture has time to develop.
“There’s trust to be built, there’s work to be done, and that trust will only be built by actions,” Ms. Jackson said.