Lakeville school board votes to remove ‘inclusive poster series’

After hours of debate, a series of amendments and interruptions from the crowd, the Lakeville school board voted 4-3 to remove a series of “inclusive” posters from school buildings. They will be replaced with posters aimed at promoting academic excellence, the board decided.

More than 100 parents, teachers, students and community members packed the board room, many of them holding signs with messages including “You Matter” and “Everyone is Welcome.” Dozens more watched the meeting from an overflow room.

“If our schools require a poster series to make students feel welcome, we really may have a bigger issue on our hands that we need to address,” said Board Chair Matt Swanson after encouraging the board to vote to remove the posters and “shift to a new focus” of “aggressive neutrality” and a focus on academics.

Public comment included voices both for and against the removal of the posters. The teachers and students who spoke at the meeting all urged the board to vote to keep them.

The “district-branded inclusive poster series,” created in the spring of 2021, features drawings of groups of different students with messages about welcoming everyone. Two of the eight include the message “Black Lives Matter.” Two others say “We Are Stronger Together.”

Those designs were created with student feedback and supported by students, staff, and advisory groups, according to Grace Olson, a district spokeswoman.

Olson estimates about 3,000 of the posters have been distributed across the district, which serves roughly 12,000 students in the south metro. Several people who attended the meeting brought the posters — or held up other signs they made with similar messages.

Carrie Popp, the president of the Lakeville teachers union, said the ongoing debate has heightened the sense of divisiveness in the district.

“No matter the results of the vote, even by just having this discussion, you make people feel like they’re not valued,” she said on Monday.

Swanson pushed back on that idea and said the interpretation that “any board member does not value each and every child in our schools ... is ridiculous.”

The posters are also at the center of an ongoing legal dispute:

In June, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated a case alleging that Lakeville Area Schools discriminated against parents who were critical of the district’s “Black Lives Matter” posters. Parents had requested but couldn’t get Blue Lives Matter posters installed.

The dispute began in 2020, when district leaders initially directed Lakeville teachers not to display “Black Lives Matter” signs, citing a goal of maintaining political neutrality.

Then, months later, the district approved the inclusive poster series, which features two designs that say “Black Lives Matter.” At the bottom of those two posters is a message in smaller print that reads, “At Lakeville Area Schools, we believe Black Lives Matter and stand with the social justice movement this statement represents. The poster is aligned to School Board policy and an unwavering commitment to our Black students, staff and community members.”

In a court filing last year, the district argued that school boards are “responsive to the electorate” and that they can later change a stance.

In November, Lakeville voters elected three new school board members: Amber Cameron, Paul Carbone and Matt Swanson. A fourth new member, Brett Nicholson, was elected by the former board to fill a vacant seat.

The new members were sworn in on Jan. 7. A week later, the board was briefed on the litigation in a closed session.

“While it may seem to the public that this issue is coming out of nowhere, I can assure you that it can not,” said Swanson, adding that the vote was not related to federal efforts to revoke diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Board Member Carly Anderson said lawyers advised that removing the posters will not affect the case. And she encouraged the board to table the conversation to allow for more discussion, a community survey and a possible determination of what district policy the posters might have violated. She voted against the removal, along with Cameron and Kim Baker.

“Has the [Black Lives Matter] organization been politicized? Yes,” Anderson said. “But it doesn’t make those three words political in our schools. Part of this is we don’t have inventory, we don’t have data on what these signs are doing in our schools.”

A few parents and community members who spoke during public comment Tuesday encouraged the board to remove the “Black Lives Matter” posters in an effort to resolve the legal dispute and distance the district from what they said was a political message that excludes white students. Several of those comments received boos from others in the room.

Board Member Brett Nicholson said the issue has divided the district for years.

“I think we’re all better than this,” he said. “I think a lot of this is driven by adults. This isn’t the kids at all.”

He then looked at the crowd and asked, “How do we move forward?