Spurred to action by the arrival of federal immigration agents in the Triangle in November, the Durham board of education revised its policy on immigration enforcement at a Dec. 11 work session. The unanimous vote follows sustained calls for policy change from community members and a recent district-wide resolution restricting federal immigration agents’ access to school property and student information.
The board also voted to extend Superintendent Anthony Lewis’s contract by one year. With the extension, Lewis will serve as superintendent until June 30, 2029.
“Please approve these policies…,” DPS freshman Yahir Rangel said earlier in the meeting, before the vote on immigration-related policies. “We don’t need talking points. We need a policy that will protect us from those who see us as less than human.”
The amended policies state that all law enforcement officers must have a “judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena” in order to access confidential student information. They call for publishing formal agreements (MoUs) with law enforcement on the school system website. The revised policies also call for the superintendent to have a role in approving any school-related requests by law enforcement and to maintain a record of all warrants served.
The district has tackled the immigration issue several times in recent years. It adopted a policy about investigations and arrests by law enforcement in 2017 and revised that policy in 2020. The 2020 revisions faced controversy, with many community members and some board members arguing that they weakened protections for students and families. Thursday’s vote restored several elements of the earlier policy, including legal restrictions on law enforcement’s ability to access student information.
“The things that were taken out [in the 2020 policy] were never voted on by the board,” board member Emily Chavez observed.
Board member Jessica Carda-Auten questioned whether the term “law enforcement” was overly broad, since it includes school resource officers as well as federal agents.
“This policy is trying to do a lot, and it’s including language related to SROs [school resource officers]…and other law enforcement,” Carda-Auten said. She suggested that it might be clearer to have separate policies for federal law enforcement and local school resource officers, as do some school systems, such as Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools.
Some refinement of the policies is still to come. Chavez said the policy committee will work to better define who is included under “law enforcement,” among other fine-tuning efforts, at the next committee session in January.
Board members also discussed interpretation services for students and families with limited English proficiency. The board’s 2017 policy stipulated that these services should be provided by law enforcement. No such clause is included in the district’s amended policy.
Tanya Giovanni, the district’s deputy superintendent, said the policy committee wanted more information on current DPS practices before moving forward. In general, Durham Public Schools often rely on “external agencies” such as live interpreters or telephone language lines to provide interpretation, she said.
Board members Bettina Umstead and Natalie Beyer questioned using law enforcement to provide interpretation services, citing potential conflicts of interest.
“The interpretation thing is super important for y’all to help us craft in a way that is…protecting students’ rights…,” Beyer said. “I don’t think that’s through a law enforcement interpreter.”
Board member Millicent Rogers disagreed, arguing that law enforcement officers should continue to provide interpretation services.
“I think that the resources the district has are already stretched…,” she said. “I also would be concerned about the liability…if a DPS agent or somebody working on behalf of the district got the interpretation wrong.”
In an effort to expedite passage of other amendments, the interpretation issue was tabled. The policy committee plans to discuss language interpretation in greater detail at its meeting in January, according to board member Chavez.
Another year for Superintendent Lewis
In another unanimous vote, the board extended Superintendent Lewis’s contract by one year to June 30, 2029. As part of the extension, Lewis was granted a $2,500 one-time payment to an annuity of his choice and 40 hours of annual compensatory time.
Umstead cited Lewis’s active community engagement, leadership amid budget deficit challenges, and academic growth in schools as reasons for the extension.
The superintendent thanked the board members for their support.
“I’m excited about the future,” Lewis said, “but yes, we have a lot of more work to do. And I’m ready to continue the work.”
At top: Board members Millicent Rogers and Natalie Beyer and Superintendent Anthony Lewis (center) listen to residents’ comments during a previous school board meeting. Photo by Kulsoom Rizavi — The 9th Street Journal
