February 2021 Update

Dear Avon Friends and Neighbors,

Thank you for your interest in hearing about our equity in education advocacy initiative! We are a small but mighty grassroots group of Avon parents and residents that has been meeting since last summer to discuss and develop a plan for pushing for more diversity, equity and inclusion in Avon Public Schools. We are a diverse group from different backgrounds that has been sharing experiences, insights, and perspectives as we research and strategize to advocate for and support this important work. 

We have been in discussions over the last several months with other Farmington Valley towns and school systems to identify what steps our neighboring communities have been taking, learn from them, and use the information to assess where we are at in comparison. We’ve acquired a lot of information and are using it to help us strategize our approach, as Avon Public Schools are significantly behind on this front. 

In January 2021, we met with the APS Superintendent Dr. Carnemolla, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Rusack, and HR Director Roberto Medic, who shared their efforts and concerns around this work. Our read is that they (Dr. Carnemolla and her team) believe in this work and welcome the help/pressure of community support when taking the necessary steps towards achieving DEI in our schools. Currently, DEI does not appear to be a priority of the Avon Board of Education.  Further many of the community voices who have spoken up have been loudly opposed to DEI advancements of any kind. We aim to change that. 

We have written a letter that will go to the Board of Education this week expressing the need for this work, our support for it, and inviting them to have a conversation with our group. If they choose to attend, our main objective will be to share what we've learned about the progress in neighboring towns, and express that we are here to help with the development of Avon's plan to catch up.

The name of our group is Friends for Equity in Avon Schools. We will soon be seeking grant funding to keep this work afloat, creating a social media platform, and expanding, with the goal of becoming a larger, community-based advocacy group for diversity, equity and inclusion in Avon Public Schools. 

Our BOE letter for co-signing consideration can be found on the ‘Resources’ page. The more signatures on this the better. Please reply to this email (or notify Jaime at jaimempolhamus@gmail.com) by 5pm today if you’d like to co-sign. By signing, you’d be supporting the initiative and will be invited to the proposed meeting with BOE members. If you don’t wish or aren't able to attend that's completely fine.

We’re happy to chat if you have questions, want to discuss more, or have ideas we should consider. Feel free to forward this email to additional Avon residents you think may be interested. We'd need names and email addresses of anyone who wishes to sign by 5pm today and the e-signatures completed by 5pm tomorrow.

Again, thank you!