Friday is the deadline to apply to be a member of the advisory council to the Dallas Independent School District’s Racial Equity Office, which is dedicated to leveling the playing field for minority students in a large, urban public school district.
The Racial Equity Office was created in 2018. Its job is to find inequity in the district – policies, practices or procedures that lack fairness or justice – with respect to students who are racial minorities or students for whom English is a second language and then recommend changes that will correct those problems.
The Board of Trustees appointed a nine-member Advisory Council last year, tasked with increasing communication between the Racial Equity Office and the general public, but the Dallas ISD wants even more public participation.
There have already been at least 140 applications submitted from people interested in being considered for 13 open positions on the Advisory Council.
The Racial Equity Office will begin reviewing applications on Monday, September 16, and the first meeting of the newly-formed Advisory Council will be on October 8.
Correction: A previous version of this article mentioned that the Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office may be the only one of its kind in the country. That statement was made based upon a claim made by a Dallas ISD administrator, and a Dallas ISD publication. But other districts, including the Fort Worth Independent School District, have made similar strides toward racial equity.
