Kendra Wastun
Aug 22, 2017 · 5 min read

Wait a second, #90…is that a picture of the Presidential Ballroom in the White House? Is Trump really looking to rent out rooms in the White House like a common convention center?

Regarding #25…this was taken out of context by Fox Unfounded Opinion. http://jhhs.wps.k12.va.us

August 9, 2017

Greetings Winchester Families and Community,

Yesterday, the Todd Starnes Show on Fox News Radio ran a news story with the following

headline: “School: Honors Classes Will be Decided By Skin Color.” This headline and

subsequent dialogue was taken out of context. The Winchester Public Schools does not employ

quotas in any way; we do not discriminate; and we remain committed to equal educational

opportunity.

As a follow up to our community, we believe it is important to formally respond to this story.

On July 24, 2017, all John Handley High School (JHHS) families were sent a Welcome Back

letter from their principal, Mr. Michael Dufrene. In addition to the letter, an insert was included

that outlined division and JHHS initiatives for 2017-2018 that are a byproduct of the Winchester

Public Schools’ Strategic Plan. The intent of the insert was to communicate various initiatives to

the JHHS community, such as project based learning and professional learning communities.

Each initiative included the “Why,” “How,” and “Vision” of the work being done.

One of the initiatives that was communicated related to equity. Currently, the demographic

makeup of our 5th - 12th grade advanced courses is inconsistent with our overall demographic

makeup. The division has developed specific strategies in hopes of encouraging a more

diverse, high achieving student body to pursue honors and advanced level courses. These

strategies include, but are not limited to: universal screening for gifted potential for all 2nd grade

students, having all 10th grade students take the PSAT, and the development of an after school

program for 3rd and 4th grade students that show promise in math and science.

Our hope is that through dedicated, focused work in the younger grades, we can ensure that

more students are prepared and capable of enrolling and succeeding in honors and Advanced

Placement classes. Our vision is that through these strategies, our advanced classes will

increasingly reflect our entire student body over time. That is the vision being described in the

last line of the insert sent to JHHS families. We are proud of this work and committed to a

continued focus on equitable outcomes for all of our students.

You can read the portion of the letter in question below:

Equity Work

Why

Winchester Public Schools, like many divisions across the country, continue to see

outcomes that are disproportionate by race and social class. American demographic

trends indicate that America will be a majority minority nation in the next 25 years.

Therefore, the new work of American public schools is to develop systems to address

disparate outcomes.

How

The WPS equity committee has three subsets - community engagement, culturally

responsive practices, and proportional outcomes. Each subcommittee presented

strategies for implementation in the upcoming year. Examples include the AMPed UP!

(Accelerated Math Progressions for Underrepresented Potential) for rising fifth graders,

giving the PSAT to all tenth graders in order to generate the AP Potential report for 11th

grade registration, universal screeners for gifted identification in elementary school, and

culturally responsive training through a train the trainer approach.

Vision

Through our collective work, advanced classes such as AP and Honors will have

proportional representation. Proportional representation is 40% White, 35% Hispanic,

12% African American, 10% mixed race.

The language used above under the “Vision” heading was not intended to imply or infer that

Winchester Public Schools would utilize race to place students into advanced coursework. We

sincerely regret that these two sentences were significantly misinterpreted, and that we were not

given the opportunity to respond to the concerns at the local level. To the best of our

knowledge, prior to this story reaching the national level, the Winchester School Board nor any

Winchester Public Schools’ employees had received any concerns related to the insert that was

sent home.

The academic criteria that exists for entrance into advanced coursework has not changed, and

we will continue to have high academic expectations for all students in Winchester Public

Schools. In addition, we will continue to support students that demonstrate potential for

academic success in order to ensure they are prepared and have the appropriate structures to

reach their full potential. Through these efforts, we strive to increase enrollment in advanced

coursework, such as honors and Advanced Placement classes.

Finally, we would like to address our use of social media during our response to this news story.

When we learned of the news story on Tuesday morning, we immediately responded to the news story with a statement of clarification. In addition, we posted the same statement on the

John Handley High School Facebook page and the Winchester Public Schools Facebook page.

Many of the comments generated on both the JHHS page and the Winchester Public Schools’

page were inflammatory, and some included personal attacks on school personnel and

community members. As a result, we chose to delete both of the posts keeping the best

interests of our students at the forefront of our decision. We welcome constructive dialogue

through email, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings.

Our School Board policies can be located here. In addition, minutes of School Board meetings

are available here. We encourage our community to review both our School Board policies and

minutes. You will find that the assertions included in the original news story have never been a

part of any discussion by the Winchester Public School Board and are not represented in our

policy manual, minutes, or the values held by Winchester Public Schools.

Thank you for taking the time to engage in this critical conversation for Winchester Public

Schools. We look forward to seeing students in our school buildings tomorrow for our first day

of school!

Sincerely,





Jason Van Heukelum Erica Truban Mike Dufrene

Superintendent School Board Chair Principal

Winchester Public Schools Winchester Public Schools John Handley High School

The issue school districts and state school boards across the country are grappling with is how to close the achievement gap. In my area, and I understand across the country, AP and Honors classes are filled with students whose families are affluent and caucasian. The questions facing us are 1)is there implicit bias at play and, if so, how to counter it, 2)how to prepare all students to achieve regardless of economic status, race, religion or gender.

I’ve seen similar numbers at our school board meetings as one metric toward achieving equality in our education system. No one is advocating using race as a qualifier for AP and Honors classes.

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