Concerns About Critical Race Theory At The School Board Meeting

MARIETTA, OH — On June 28 the Marietta School Board held its monthly meeting. A number of people came to the meeting to speak against the teaching of critical race theory.

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Superintendent Will Hampton said that was one of the loudest parts of the meeting. "The big issue of the evening was we had some people come in and speak about critical race theory." He said they were against it. "There were some parents, but community members more so."

The Marietta School District does not teach critical race theory. "We don't and we haven't." He said they stick to the state standard curriculum. "We don't have anyone giving us additional curriculum. No outside entities giving us curriculum. We stick to the state standards." He said when they adopt curriculum it's based on the state standards.

The group of concerned community members was only allowed to speak for three minutes. "What we said we're going to do is offer up into September at some point an opportunity to come back and talk. Because three minutes is not a lot of time to speak." He said he wanted to give them enough time to create an open dialogue. "So we will offer up more time once we get back into school."

Hampton said apart from that, the school district has a lot on its plate. "We've got a lot of projects with consolidation, the closing of two schools." He says there are issues with the playgrounds. They're finding they have delays with the playground equipment. But that's not the only issue."Some interruptions because, unknown to us, agreements had been had with some of the Native Americans." There are concerns from some Native American groups concerning the renovation of the playground next to Washington School. The library was built in 1918 on top of a Native American mound. Hampton said this mainly concerns deals between Marietta and the Native Americans."We're trying to be respectful about the artifacts that will be found."

He said there are a lot of personnel issues the school district is working through. "A lot of shuffling of personnel right now. Positions are coming open. We're going to be doing a lot of movement." He says there are a lot of transitions in the school district. "We've had about 18 retirements in the last year and a half to 2-years. That helps in that since we are reducing and consolidating those are positions we don't have to have difficult conversations over."

The school district will also be joining a new athletic league since the ECOL Conference is dissolving after the next school year.

"Essentially that's going to offer our athletes some new opportunities in some sports." He said some of the teams will elect to participate on a higher level. "You will get to choose where you go, it's like another pool of competition." This will be the school district's final year in the ECOL Conference.

There is also a facility improvement project going on at Marietta High School. "We are improving the high school cafeteria." He said because of the additional grades coming to the high school, it's high time they do something about the cafeteria. "It's going to be shiny and bright and something people are just going to love."

That's not all they're doing to improve the high school. "We are also going to increase the space for our concession stand at the high school gym." He says the offerings are limited due to their small space. So soon they will be able to offer more to families coming to games than candy and popcorn.

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