Dignity in Schools Campaign Week of Action
Candidates Forum
In keeping with our membership in the national Dignity in Schools Campaign, we participated in the 2017 Week of Action. This year the theme of the Week of Action was – Education is a Human Right! Don’t give up the Fight!
On October 26, 2017 the Black Parents Workshop held an “Access and Equity” Board of Education Candidates Forum to focus on racial disparities and the achievement gap in the South Orange-Maplewood School District. Our community partner for the event was the MapSO Freedom School. The forum was unique in that the questioning of candidates was done by students representing the MAC Scholars Program and the Black Student Union at Columbia High School in the school district. Students at the high school were also offered the opportunity to submit questions earlier in the week and the principal of Columbia High School invited students to do so during the morning announcements. All eight candidates for the Board of Education attended the forum and appeared before a standing room audience at the Maplewood Memorial Library. The moderator for the forum was Nina Kambili, a 2016 graduate of Columbia High School, former student representative to the Board of Education, current sophomore at New York University and a CHS Alumni Trustee on the Board of the Black Parents Workshop. The timekeeper was Black Parents Workshop Trustee James Davis.
Media Coverage
The Village Green
Read the local newspaper coverage in the Village Green newspaper of our Candidates Forum held as part of the 2017 Week of Action.