PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BROOKLINE:
We Demand Action on Equity
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BROOKLINE:
We Demand Action on Equity
Add your name • Endorse as an organization • Tell a friend • Provide testimony • Add your name • Endorse as an organization • Tell a friend • Provide testimony •Add your name • Endorse as an organization • Tell a friend • Provide testimony • Add your name • Endorse as an organization • Tell a friend • Provide testimony •
Advance Equity in Brookline Schools
Brookline may be known for our quality public schools, but our district is failing the kids who need it most. Our reputation masks deep gaps in outcomes and experiences for students of color and high-needs students, who collectively comprise more than half of district enrollment.
In 2025, the School Committee eliminated the Office of Educational Equity and rejected $188,455 raised by the community to preserve it. Since then, district leaders have put forward no funding, staff, or plan to address these inequities. The School Committee chair has expressed a commitment to equity, and the superintendent has taken some promising early steps, but the OEE closure made clear that progress can be lost without community pressure to protect this work.
Join hundreds of educators, students, and families in holding the district accountable and demanding bold and urgent action on equity.
Advance Equity in Brookline Schools
Brookline may be known for our quality public schools, but our district is failing the kids who need it most. Our reputation masks deep gaps in outcomes and experiences for students of color and high-needs students, who collectively comprise more than half of district enrollment.
In 2025, the School Committee eliminated the Office of Educational Equity and rejected $188,455 raised by the community to preserve it. Since then, district leaders have put forward no funding, staff, or plan to address these inequities. The School Committee chair has expressed a commitment to equity, and the superintendent has taken some promising early steps, but the OEE closure made clear that progress can be lost without community pressure to protect this work.
Join hundreds of educators, students, and families in holding the district accountable and demanding bold and urgent action on equity.
Students
Educators
District
We’re calling on the Brookline School Committee to direct the Superintendent to:
At a minimum, the plan should include strategies to:
CLOSE THE GAP: Set specific, public numeric targets for closing educational outcome gaps affecting students of color and high needs students, with progress reported annually against a public baseline.
RESPOND TO BIAS: Restore a dedicated, qualified staff position to ensure consistent, districtwide response to identity-based bullying, harassment, and discrimination. The role should support affected students and publish an annual, anonymized report on incidents, resolutions, and patterns.
RECRUIT & RETAIN: Recruit, retain, mentor, support, and fairly compensate a diverse, qualified educator workforce, starting by raising paraprofessional pay to be competitive with peer districts and reflective of Brookline’s cost of living.
PROTECT EXPRESSION: Protect the programming and spaces students and educators use to engage with issues of race, identity, and equity, free from district-imposed restrictions, delays, or removals.
BRING THE PLAN INTO SCHOOLS: Make sure every teacher, staff member, and student knows what the equity plan says, what it asks of them, and where to turn with concerns. That includes a clear process for reporting violations, with protection from retaliation.
Publish annual data in an accessible public equity dashboard, so any resident can track progress without a public records request. Where applicable, the data should be disaggregated by race/ethnicity, English Language Learners, income, and special education status, and include:
Number of out-of-school suspensions, number of emergency removals, school attendance and chronic absenteeism, number of Child Requiring Assistance (CRA) filings, enrollment in advanced coursework, number of dropouts, and assignment into special education.
For years, students, educators, and administrators of color have sounded the alarm about inequities in Brookline’s schools. This advocacy led to the creation of the Office of Educational Equity (OEE) in 2018, which did crucial work: managing crises, training educators, and recruiting and retaining educators of color. But the office was never given real institutional support. The former director resigned, writing that the work “often feels isolating, tokenizing and unsafe in my brave Black skin.”
On March 13, 2025 — as equity work came under attack nationally by the Trump administration — the School Committee voted 5–4 to eliminate OEE, cutting both its director positions and, in a second vote that same night, another $67,500 for 22 school-based equity leads. The district blamed an $8.2 million shortfall, but the roughly $400,000 saved covered less than 5% of that gap and just 0.3% of its $136.6 million budget. A shortfall this size shouldn’t be closed on the backs of students of color.
One committee member who voted to keep the OEE described the office’s day-to-day work as “firefighting.” The Brookline Asian American Family Network called the elimination of the OEE “a retreat from PSB’s commitment” to fighting educational disparities. A coalition of community members raised $188,455 to preserve equity work in the district, no strings attached. In a stunning move, the School Committee voted 6–3 in May 2025 to reject it outright, without even suggesting another use for the money.
Earlier this year, the state conducted a Comprehensive District Review of Brookline Schools. District leaders told reviewers that the closure of the OEE has constrained the district’s capacity to advance equity initiatives: “It’s actually made it much harder to move work that we’re probably ready to move or trying to move” (p. 16). That includes recruiting and retaining educators of color, which the superintendent acknowledged has been challenging following OEE’s closure (p. 51).
This summer, the superintendent hired an equity consultant and a data director, and the school committee chair indicated to us a commitment to improving equity in Brookline’s schools. We take these as a start. But a consultant is not an office, and a commitment is not a plan.
There is still no replacement for the 22 equity leads, no comprehensive anti-bias training for staff, and no plan to close the gap in educational outcomes. Meanwhile the work falls heaviest on educators of color, who are already leaving at a high rate. We cannot continue another school year under these conditions. Absent real change, we must use every means available to ensure our kids get the education they deserve.
WHAT THE DATA SHOW
Students
Educators
district
OUR DEMANDS
We’re calling on the Brookline School Committee to direct the Superintendent to:
HOW WE
GOT HERE
For years, students, educators, and administrators of color have sounded the alarm about inequities in Brookline’s schools. This advocacy led to the creation of the Office of Educational Equity (OEE) in 2018, which did crucial work: managing crises, training educators, and recruiting and retaining educators of color. But the office was never given real institutional support. The former director resigned, writing that the work “often feels isolating, tokenizing and unsafe in my brave Black skin.”
On March 13, 2025 — as equity work came under attack nationally by the Trump administration — the School Committee voted 5–4 to eliminate OEE, cutting both its director positions and, in a second vote that same night, another $67,500 for 22 school-based equity leads. The district blamed an $8.2 million shortfall, but the roughly $400,000 saved covered less than 5% of that gap and just 0.3% of its $136.6 million budget. A shortfall this size shouldn’t be closed on the backs of students of color.
One committee member who voted to keep the OEE described the office’s day-to-day work as “firefighting.” The Brookline Asian American Family Network called the elimination of the OEE “a retreat from PSB’s commitment” to fighting educational disparities. A coalition of community members raised $188,455 to preserve equity work in the district, no strings attached. In a stunning move, the School Committee voted 6–3 in May 2025 to reject it outright, without even suggesting another use for the money.
Earlier this year, the state conducted a Comprehensive District Review of Brookline Schools. District leaders told reviewers that the closure of the OEE has constrained the district’s capacity to advance equity initiatives: “It’s actually made it much harder to move work that we’re probably ready to move or trying to move” (p. 16). That includes recruiting and retaining educators of color, which the superintendent acknowledged has been challenging following OEE’s closure (p. 51).
This summer, the superintendent hired an equity consultant and a data director, and the school committee chair indicated to us a commitment to improving equity in Brookline’s schools. We take these as a start. But a consultant is not an office, and a commitment is not a plan.
There is still no replacement for the 22 equity leads, no comprehensive anti-bias training for staff, and no plan to close the gap in educational outcomes. Meanwhile the work falls heaviest on educators of color, who are already leaving at a high rate. We cannot continue another school year under these conditions. Absent real change, we must use every means available to ensure our kids get the education they deserve.
