Like so many, I believe in the promise of New Rochelle. I was born here. I graduated from New Rochelle High School. I returned to teach here, bought a home here, and plan to send our kids to the public schools here.

The problems that exist in New Rochelle are not unique to our district, but we might just be uniquely equipped to overcome them. Our strengths, including our diversity, our collective passion, and our ability to be open-minded, are exactly what we may need to move forward in a direction that addresses our situation.

… but let’s not kid ourselves. Problems exist. By middle school, the majority of students in advanced classes are white, but the majority of students in “grade level” classes are black and brown. This is wrong. Something must be done about this. And by “something must be done about this,” I explicitly do *not* mean that we must all sit around blaming other people. I mean we must take action.

This year, the world is facing a pandemic as well as the growing realization that, if Black Lives Matter (and they most definitely do), then we must do things differently to make improvements in our systems. Yet, I have zero confidence that the administration will either (A) train, (B) support, or even (C) encourage teachers to have conversations about the pandemic OR about Black Lives Matter. Without training, support, or encouragement, teachers will not feel comfortable addressing either of these issues, but if we don’t address them, what are we even doing? Are we going to pretend that the same curriculum we’ve been using for 5, 10, or 30 years should remain static? When the world is filled with people who aren’t prepared to sift through the internet to know what is true (and what isn’t), should not teachers be equipped to help students become responsible adults? The world is changing, but our educational systems are not.

Not yet, anyway.

Let’s do something.

- a teacher in the New Rochelle district