WANTS CHANGE: Allison Duquette is running for school board in Milton while the current board is entrenched in social justice-themed policies.

Two concerned parents in Milton are running for seats on the Milton Town School Board, largely on positions that deal with getting back to academics and away from political distractions such as equity policy.

The two parents are Allison Duquette and Nick Smith, who have been vocal opponents of a proposed school equity policy that has become mired in controversy.

The policy included definitions of white people being those “whose skin color and culture lead to a lack of racialization.” In addition, a proposal would let Superintendent Amy Rex decide “what constitutes misinformation” or “hate speech.”

Since a public meeting on the topic in early December, the concerned parents have gathered more than 1,000 signatures from the community stating that the school should put the policy up for a vote by the community on Town Meeting Day. The board has ignored the petition and is continuing with its work.

RUNNING FOR SCHOOL BOARD: Nick Smith is running for the Milton Town School Board.

Smith told True North Reports that a radical equity agenda rallied parents to get involved.

“Me and a few other community members have been really invested in just figuring out what’s really going on with the school system at Milton Town School District,” he said.

Smith said the equity policy would be harmful to the community.

“Rather than try to build together a strong school system, we thought it was a divisive policy,” he said.

When he and other parents realized that their engagement with the board and the petition weren’t going to make the board change course, he decided to run.

“At some point in the last month and a half now we really decided that the only way to make a change is to get on the board,” he said.

On other matters, Smith said despite the district’s ever-increasing budget, students’ education performance is on the decline.

“We continually have an increase in the budget at the school district level that’s 5 percent-plus of an increase each year. And if you look at that rate of return versus what we’re getting for student education, the proficiency rates are plummeting,” he said.

He added that his first priority will be to restore a focus on core academics, which includes “removing politics from the classroom.” He also would like to see the board be more responsive to the public.

“Board transparency is kind of a key item as well. There’s been a lot of issues we’ve had with the board, violations of open meeting laws and things like that,” said Smith.

Allison Duquette

Duquette said she’s running because she has a child currently in the school system, and she likes to be involved in her local community.

“Running for the school board is something I always thought I’d do at some point,” she said. “It just kind of seemed like the right time, and I mostly want to be involved. I’m seeing proficiency rates aren’t where they should be, and I feel like the current board isn’t really paying as much attention to it as they should.”

Duquette lamented statewide testing scores in Vermont being below national proficiency standards, and said the situation is worse in Milton. She also noted that the school is using a technique to teach kids how to read by having them memorize the shapes of the words “instead of sounding out the word and actually reading the word.”

As part of her campaign, Duquette has knocked on more than 1,500 doors to seek support from residents.

“Usually people are just pleasantly surprised that you are making the effort to come out and meet them,” she said.

Duquette also said the school budget keeps going up despite the fact that the number of students keeps going down as enrollment drops.

“If we had more students, if the demographics were changing, then maybe I could see some need for it. But with student enrollment continuing to decline, what are we doing here?” she said.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.