23-04-2025
Over 100 people address Virginia Beach School Board in meeting outlining DEI removal
Virginia Beach's School Board unveiled its first steps on Tuesday night to remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies from its schools.
Though no program offerings, clubs or special education plans have been halted since the board approved an anti-DEI resolution on April 8, the division has suspended the educational equity policy and equity dashboard. It tracked student achievement of vulnerable students, until further review.
After the last board meeting, Superintendent Donald Robertson and division leadership got to work on reviewing hiring practices, program offerings and the division's strategic plans to put them in compliance.
The federal Department of Education put out a notice on April 3 calling schools to certify that they weren't using DEI, lest they lose federal funding. The division currently receives around $74 million from the federal government, said Board Chair Kathleen Brown.
Though other school divisions have certified in compliance with federal guidelines, Virginia Beach was the first in Hampton Roads to draft a resolution.
The division is in the beginning stages of tweaking their policies, mainly removing content, such as the Department of DEI webpage and references to the current 2025 strategic plan, from schools and online. The content has to be reviewed by the Policy Review Committee.
Chief of Staff Cheryl Woodhouse said some school programs are believed to be in compliance, such as Beach Girls Rock, a female empowerment program, and the Making Waves Mentoring Program, which pairs students with staff to mentor them.
Other programs, namely the African American Male Summit and the Equity Council, are still being reviewed and might have to be altered or renamed.
The criticism of the board's handling of the resolution continued Tuesday night. Board member David Culpepper drafted and sent it to the board the day before their vote. Two board members weren't present at the previous meeting due to personal reasons.
'This resolution to suspend the division's DEI policy was passed in silence, without a hearing, without an impact study and without a single student voice being heard,' said board member Sharon Felt, who didn't attend the April 8 meeting.
Robertson and other board members argued that due to the compressed timeline imposed by federal authorities, they had to act quickly.
'Frankly I'm surprised that everybody on this dais didn't feel a sense of urgency for the school board to weigh in on this issue,' said Culpepper.
Virginia Beach's NAACP organized a town hall meeting on April 14 to discuss the impact of DEI programs and rallied speakers to express dissent. The Virginia Beach Education Association, also encouraged speakers to attend the meeting. In total, 113 people, including 10 students, signed up to speak.
The public was split on their decision, some speaking in favor of DEI and others defending the board's decision in the wake of losing federal funding.
Students accused them of perpetuating partisanship and placing money over students' feelings. Educators, parents and former school board members expressed concern and confusion about potential program changes to clubs and academies. Many continued to criticize the board for voting for the resolution without public comment.
'Your actions clearly show that you don't really care how your constituents feel on this issue,' said Heather Sipe, VBEA president.
Those opposed to DEI asserted that it was eroding merit based success for students and was pushing 'woke' politics into the classroom. They said that the policies were exasperating differences between students instead of celebrating individual achievement.
'These three words, diversity, equity and inclusion are the essential elements of DEI and are not pure but are linked together corrosively in a destructive political propaganda formula,' attendee Paula Chang told the board.
