Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the DEI Transparency topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Haslett resident urges board to publish DEI materials, cites FOIA packet
Summary
Jeff Kessner, speaking during public comment at the June 10 meeting, criticized the district's DEI work and said a FOIA request produced thousands of pages of training materials; he asked why professional development materials and the cost of DEI work had not been made public.
Jeff Kessner, a Haslett resident, used the meeting's public comment period to press the board on transparency around the district's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work. Kessner referenced remarks by a superintendent candidate at the board's May 28 meeting and said those remarks underscore the need to include parents as partners on DEI issues. He said information obtained through a FOIA request included voluminous professional‑development materials (he cited a packet of 11,515 pages) and asserted that parents had not been informed about the scope or cost of DEI activities.
Kessner alleged that staff professional development contained terms he associated with critical race theory and made broad claims about ideological content in some trainings; he asked why the district denied requests to post professional‑development slides publicly and why the "true cost of DEI" was not listed on the district website. He concluded by asking the board to respond via email.
Board procedure statements during the meeting said staff (the superintendent or Associate Superintendent Lindbergh) would follow up with speakers by email. Later in the meeting Superintendent Cook said consultant Stephanie Livingston had given a DEI update to committees and that the final PowerPoint had been shared and would be posted on the district website if it was not already available.
The public comment consisted of allegations and requests for transparency; the transcript records no on‑the‑spot denial or substantiation of Kessner's specific assertions about content or cost. The board recorded the correspondence (Nancy Colflesh's email) and committee minutes noting Livingston's DEI presentation.
