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Massachusetts Charter Public School Association Calls on Mystic Valley Regional Charter School To Take Meaningful Action to Address Racism
BOSTON, MA – July 8, 2020 – Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) Executive Director Tim Nicolette issued the following statement today in response to The Boston Globe’s coverage of ongoing racist policies and practices at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School:
While Mystic Valley Regional Charter School is not a member of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, we call on the school to take meaningful actions to address ongoing racist policies and practices as well as to address allegations of ongoing racist incidents against students and families.
These practices do not reflect the values or beliefs of charter public schools in our Commonwealth, and we urge Mystic Valley’s Board and school leadership to take swift and decisive action. We also urge the school to do the necessary work to authentically engage families and the community in the process to dismantle systemic racism within their school, and to ensure that student and family voice is central to this work moving forward.
While it is essential that we point out racism and take a stand against it, this moment in our nation’s history also calls on all of us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what we are doing to perpetuate racism and to commit to doing the work to become truly anti-racist.
Charter public schools in our Commonwealth were founded to try to address issues of educational inequity and systemic racism in public education. But that does not mean that charter public schools are immune to the racism that permeates every facet of our country. What it does mean is that we are held accountable – and we hold ourselves accountable – to the promise that makes up the “charter” in charter public schools, which at its heart is a commitment to equity and quality on behalf of the families who make the decision to send their children to our public schools.
Like all public schools in our country, it is essential that charter public schools in our state partner with the members of their school communities to determine the steps they need to take to dismantle systemic racism. Every public school is in a different place on their journey to engage in this work, and our Association stands in support of its member schools as they commit to anti-racist principles and practices so that we can continue to deliver on our educational promise to over 44,000 students across the Commonwealth.
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The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) is a school membership organization representing 74+ schools (of which Mystic Valley is not a member) that is committed to ensuring that children and families of the Commonwealth have access to high-quality public schools. As the voice of one of the nation’s highest-performing charter public school sectors, MCPSA engages in public policy advocacy, communications, and best practice sharing and training aimed at strengthening educational programming.
