Elmbrook Under the Gun to Remove Alleged Race Based Discrimination
A demand to remove alleged race based discrimination in Elmbrook's gifted & talented program is made public, meanwhile, the district may be in jeopardy of losing federal funding.
Elmbrook faces a public demand to remove alleged race based discrimination in its Gifted & Talented program. This may dovetail off instruction from the Department of Education on 2/14/25 via this letter to remove race, color or national origin discrimination in its entirety from educational institutions nationwide.
Compliance with the Department of Education instruction is required to receive federal funding and will be assessed within 14 days. The Department of Education has provided a public link to file complaints against any unlawful discrimination.
“The Department intends to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations based on the understanding embodied in this letter beginning no later than 14 days from today’s date, including antidiscrimination requirements that are a condition of receiving federal funding.
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. 9 Students for Fair Admissions, 600 U.S. at 230 (“[U]niversities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”). Page 4 Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.
Anyone who believes that a covered entity has unlawfully discriminated may file a complaint with OCR. Information about filing a complaint with OCR, including a link to the online complaint form, is available here.”
Is Discrimination Happening in Elmbrook?
As previously covered, Superintendent Mark Hansen oversaw the implementation of equity in Elmbrook via their work with ICS for Equity from 2012 to 2021 and the community has raised concerns for years of the seemingly discriminatory nature and negative outcomes stemming from this work.
2013
ICS for Equity began its work in Elmbrook with special education and ICS’ special education review stated that “Elmbrook will make a strong effort to serve all students in the schools and classroom they would attend if they did not have a disability.”
After that recommendation, it appeared that separate special education services were deprioritized and parents who may have felt their child would be better served in separate settings were often ignored. Based on comments from senior leadership, it appeared that teachers who raised concerns about this were not welcome by the adminstration. Graduation rates plummeted, special education staff turnover appeared to increase, and the administration said that Elmbrook’s Fairview South school was slated to be closed.
2020
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) workgroup was created by the Elmbrook administration in February 2020.
“The Workgroup consisted of 52 staff, alumni, parents, board members, and administrators, and met six times over the course of 11 months. The Workgroup produced several Equity Non-Negotiable (ENN) statements which were forwarded to the Board of Education and District Administration for consideration in February, 2021.”
An excerpt from the recommended reading list provided by ICS for Equity and included in DEI workgroup materials is below.
In October 2020, the workgroup materials included the slide below which claimed that there was “a culture of marginalization” in schools. This line of thinking appears to have opened the door to discriminate against certain groups to “correct” this alleged culture.
2021
To the ire of many community members, Elmbrook appeared to deny or obscure racist and discriminatory undertones of their equity work, including critical race theory (CRT). Elmbrook’s board heard in the May 2021 Listening Session that CRT was referenced on 11/23/20 in Elmbrook’s DEI Workgroup notes (which are no longer publicly available) and the community found repeated examples of CRT in the schools and board documents, often labeled as “equity.”
Days after the listening session, Chris Thompson, Chief Strategy Officer for Elmbrook, told the Journal Sentinel via email, “We do not teach Critical Race Theory to our students nor train our staff on its tenets.”
A few months later, a detailed review of ICS and Critical Race Theory was published about ICS and how they apply CRT to education.
In fall of 2021, a podcast expressed that ICS appears to recommend circumventing laws, being dishonest with parents and viewing the Board of Education as a rubber stamp.
In late 2021, community members reviewing Elmbrook’s new social studies resources noticed that one resource taught the idea of systemic racism and personal identities - both concepts in critical race theory.
An excerpt from that resource said “by the 2010s, some 50 years after the achievements of the civil rights movement [...], it remained true that African Americans still had not achieved full equality with white people.”
2022
On 3/9/22, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sent Elmbrook this letter reminding them that “All people are protected by federal and state nondiscrimination laws” when Elmbrook claimed a student “is not a member of any class that is legally protected from discrimination by state or federal law.” The student in question was white.
Elmbrook responded on 3/10/22 with a stern denial of any wrongdoing.
According to news article,
“The child in question was suffering from depression and her parents were working with doctors to address her health concerns, the mother who filed the complaint told the DCNF [Daily Caller News Foundation] on the condition of anonymity. The parents discovered their daughter was failing, but said they had no idea and administrators would not communicate with them unless they gave the school access to the student’s personal healthcare information and open dialogue with her healthcare professionals.
The student’s mother started going to board meetings and Elmbrook’s Teaching and Learning Committee meetings, which she said seemed to focus entirely on helping low-income and non-white students, often advocating for the use of many of the accommodations that she claimed the district was refusing her daughter.”
The parent of the student in question, in an interview on 3/24/22 (starts 21:25) alleged that Elmbrook went ahead and tried to access their child's private medical records. The provider denied them, but alerted the family of Elmbrook's attempt.
Additionally, a review published on 3/15/22 of Elmbrook’s district strategy and curriculum detailed the work of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion workgroup that aimed to “decenter whiteness.”
In May 2022, the 2022 - 2023 Employee Handbook was discussed. Notable, it says on page 1, "We develop teams and inclusive environments that embrace ideas and people with attention to diversity and equity."
2023
Elmbrook came under fire in 2023 for allegedly piloting unapproved textbooks in classrooms, giving an indication of how board approval may have been subverted by district leadership. This could potentially align with the podcast from 2021 where it was expressed that the Board of Education is viewed as a rubber stamp.
With Federal Funds Potentially on the Line, What’s Next?
Elmbrook’s district senior leaders may have a significant task ahead of them, and the Board of Education would need to properly oversee them to potentially avoid losing federal funds, which could negatively impact all Elmbrook taxpayers.
Only 12 days remain until the federal deadline.
Update: WI Institute for Ed states that Elmbrook is reviewing its Gifted & Talented policies.
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