Following an outcry from hundreds of students, parents, and teachers, the co-chair of the Anoka-Hennepin school board agreed to decouple the district’s 2024-25 budget from a list of diversity initiatives, ending an impasse that could have shut down the district.
But co-chair Zach Arco said he and two other conservative board members still planned to seek changes to a long list of diversity, equity and inclusion targets ranging from teacher use of students’ preferred pronouns to how the district complies with new state social studies standards.
“Let’s just say I’ll be tremendously disappointed if these items aren’t addressed in the way that we discussed, fully acknowledging that without the budget, I don’t have any other mechanism to force that to happen,” Arco said toward the end of Tuesday’s five-hour work session. “But also acknowledging that having had these discussions, I do believe the board seems willing to work on all these things.”
The end of the budget impasse came as a relief to many in the district. The three-member bloc, backed by conservative parents rights groups, had the power to freeze talks indefinitely on a six-member board, which is required by law to pass a budget by July 1.
Anoka-Hennepin students who led a rally and packed a school board meeting Monday night were elated at the outcome.
“To know real impact came almost immediately after student and parent pressure is unthinkable and extremely rewarding,” said Sydney Oundo, co-president of the Coon Rapids High School Black Student Union.
“I was really excited because our voices were actually heard and our feelings were not dismissed,” said Ileene Yang, a Champlin Park High School senior. “What we did really made an impact on their decision.”
Showdown over DEI
The controversy in the state’s largest school district began when school board member Matt Audette posted on Facebook April 12 that he and two colleagues, Arco and Linda Hoekman, would not vote for any budget unless the district eliminated a long list of racial and gender equity programs.
Students responded by organizing a districtwide rally, culminating with 300 people marching to the school board meeting on Monday. Many provided testimony during the public comment period. One of the items on Audette’s list to cut was “affinity groups,” which students interpreted to mean that groups like the Black Student Union and Gay Straight Alliance would be cut.
Evan Whipple, a student at Champlin Park High School, said at Monday night’s meeting he attributed his academic success to participating in student clubs, including the Indigenous student club he started.
“These clubs gave me a chance to see who I was as a person,” he said.
On Tuesday night, the board held a work session to address the items on Audette’s list and develop next steps for each item. Students, parents, and teachers packed the meeting room to hear the discussion. Toward the beginning of the meeting, Arco said that the board did not intend to cut student groups.
“No one is suggesting that student groups be canceled,” Arco said.
Throughout the meeting, the board discussed possible next steps for Audette’s list that could include clarifying the district’s policy around notifying parents about a student’s preferred pronouns; narrowing the list of professional development topics; and reviewing the district’s plan to comply with the state’s new social studies standards. Any changes to district policy would require the votes of four school board members.
After the school board discussed the list for more than five hours, district staff outlined consequences to a potential school district shutdown. They stressed the importance of signaling soon whether the district was on track to pass a budget. Summer programs needed to know whether to hire staff. Milk vendors were not submitting bids for contracts. Construction projects could get delayed. A clay vendor would not give the district’s ceramics program a quote because it was unclear whether the district would pay for the clay.
Kacy Deschene, the school board’s other co-chair, asked if the board was ready to “delink” Audette’s list from the approval of the budget.
Arco agreed to move forward with a budget.
“I am inclined at this point to decouple these items from the budget as we put solutions in place,” Arco said.
Amelia Eric, treasurer of the Coon Rapids High School Black Student Union, said she was “so happy” that the students’ pushback had an impact.
“We all know the fight isn’t over,” she said. Students wanted to see an expansion of the programs Audette sought to cut, like social-emotional learning and diversity training, she said. But, she said, “Our work meant something.”
Oundo, one of the lead organizers for Monday’s rally, said she had been impressed by how quickly young people mobilized around the school budget, and the rally’s immediate impact.
“Student power was able to make people in power think again about the decisions that they’re making,” she said. She said she had learned that school boards are complicated, and that students would continue to sit in on meetings as the school board works its way through its next steps to make sure the board’s actions did not go unnoticed.
For Ileene Yang, who started the petition against the school board’s actions, seeing the school board’s response gave her a sense of empowerment.
“I just feel so much more powerful,” she said. “My voice is going to be heard.”
District officials say they will provide a list of the next steps the school board discussed regarding Audette’s list in coming days. The school board plans to review a draft budget on June 10 and vote on a final budget June 24.
