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Assistant superintendent says Rutgers equity audit largely implemented; some recommendations to roll out later
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kevin Gilbert reported the district has implemented the bulk of Rutgers audit recommendations but identified affinity spaces and hiring of more teachers of color as items rolling into a later phase with a planned launch in September 2026; he said release from court monitoring will require further discussions with the monitor.
Dr. Kevin Gilbert, assistant superintendent for the South Orange-Maplewood School District, told the board the district has advanced implementation of most recommendations from a Rutgers equity audit and is moving from implementation into sustainability planning.
"Our goal is to have all of the recommendations implemented by the end of this school year," Gilbert said, but he cautioned that one recommendation ' hiring more BIPOC teachers and creating affinity spaces ' cannot be fully implemented before the next school year. He told the board those affinity spaces are planned to launch in September 2026 after contract and union checks.
Gilbert summarized completed work across multiple areas cited in the audit: curriculum and instruction recommendations (including a math growth mindset emphasis), a districtwide tiered system of interventions, and development of pedagogical capacity with an equity lens. He said the district has finished a culture-responsive curriculum audit of core subjects and is surveying families who withdrew from the district since 2018'19 to better understand enrollment shifts.
On the district's intentional integration initiative (Triple I), Gilbert said the algorithm uses household income and parental education levels as weighting factors and that annual reports from the Als Group are informing placements. He said new American Community Survey data are showing shifts in local income thresholds that require ongoing assessment and year-to-year adjustments.
Board members asked about monitoring by the court-appointed monitor (Judge Wallace). Gilbert said the district has not yet met with the monitor to discuss release criteria but anticipates future meetings will address what release from monitoring will require. "Getting these recommendations implemented is only the beginning," he said, stressing the difference between implementation and sustainability.
The presentation will be posted to the district website, Gilbertsaid, and board members will receive follow-up materials and survey results as modeling and analysis continue.
