Without identifying which ones were poisonous and which ones were not. Or are we back to all of them poisonous? For someone who demands such percision from others, your responses are, at best, imprecise.
Since you are now expressing particular interest in my opinions, I'll run through some of the policies and I will provide my reaction to them.
Proposals
Equitable Outcomes and Self-Evaluation
Commit to racial equity in leveled courses by 2023; at that time, if membership and performance of Black students are not at parity with non-Black students, leveled courses should be abolished.
Poison. Mentions
nothing about examining the course content for bias. Mentions nothing about examining the teacher for bias. Not suprising, as this is in line with boilerplate CRT reasoning about inequitable outcomes meaning racism.
Dalton’s student body, faculty, staff, administration, and trustees should be representative of New York City in terms of gender, race, socioeconomic background, and immigration status by 2025. Dalton should publish yearly updates regarding the demographics of each of these groups.
Either meaningless, virtue-signalling fluff (since they propose no enforcement and they use that word you so delightfully drew my attention to - "should" and not shall), or, actual, idiotic,
poisonous policy that assumes that there is some reason that Dalton should reflect NYC in this way, and that Dalton is doing something wrong if it does not.
As “an intentionally diverse community,” “an inclusive, democratic community,” and to ensure access and equity in the institution, Dalton should reflect the city in which it is located.
Idiotic. Is it going to reflect the number of people in NYC with criminal convictions? The age profile of NYC?
Anti-Racist Pedagogy
Adopt a two-pronged approach to course-related content changes: 1) Institute a divisional requirement for courses that explicitly center Black liberation and challenges to white supremacy.
The requirement should be equivalent to or greater than the smallest requirement for any other department.
Idiotic.
2) All other existing course content and departmental work via Dalton by Design should undergo an audit to ensure that content is guided by Dalton’s commitment to anti-racist education and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Could be innocuous if you trust 'Dalton by Design'.
In the same way that subjects such as English, art, physical education, and mathematics have been embedded within the Dalton experience, so too should coursework that is explicitly anti-racist. No Dalton student should graduate without taking classes that center race, identity, difference, and social justice.
Why? Has the Dalton staff heard overwhelming demand from parents to institute this and make it compulsory? To turn Dalton from an ostensibly secular school into a religious one?
All faculty, staff, administration, Parent Association volunteers, and trustees should undergo yearly anti-racist training.
No requirement to measure the effect of the anti-racist training, if any. Just a compulsory requirement foisted on everyone including volunteers.
Administrators, faculty, and staff should produce individual public anti-racism statements.
Fucking deeply poisonous. It is not enough to be silent. You will publically confess your sins and your heartfelt desire not to sin again.
Expand the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to include at least 12 full-time positions: one Director, one Office Assistant, three full-time staff members per division, and one full-time staff member for PE/Athletics.
No idea how big this Office is right now, but how can a school take on so many staff not dedicated to teaching any course content without fees going up significantly?
Implement name-, school-, and salary history-blind recruitment and hiring practices for faculty, staff, and administrative roles;
Really good idea.
require diversity statements as part of every application;
Poison.
Implementing explicitly anti-racist safeguards for recruitment, hiring, and promotion can be effective ways to reduce bias in recruitment and hiring. Research suggests the use of diversity statements early in a hiring process can be an effective strategy to improve equity in faculty hiring.
I'm certain research suggests it because despite the 'blind' recruiting suggested above, diversity statements allow for applicants to divulge their race and other details and for recruiters to pick favoured categories (women, people of colour).
Dalton should commit to publicly explaining the mechanisms that it employs to prevent discrimination in recruitment, hiring, and promotion.
Sounds okay.
Review and audit all vendor and third-party contracts to ensure that Dalton is partnering with Black-owned businesses wherever possible. Publish yearly reports detailing Dalton’s vendors and third-party contracts.
Discriminate against businesses by race of the owners.
Poison.
Retain all security/maintenance/dining/other contracted staff without reduction in salary or benefits, regardless of whether Dalton is able to physically re-open facilities.
"We are going to wish away the financial repercussions of our hiring frenzy".
Delusional.
Black workers have suffered record job losses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are disproportionately represented among essential workers who must risk their health in order to continue working. Dalton must prioritize the health and security of its staff—no one is disposable. Our staff are beloved members of the Dalton community, and they should be supported in the same way that we are supporting administration and faculty.
Not really a policy, just virtue-signalling fluff.
Provide child and elder care support for faculty and staff, and any families who qualify for financial aid, especially if Dalton remains primarily online due to COVID-19. Dalton should also restructure its parental leave policies for employees; rather than 6 weeks of paid leave and 6 weeks of unpaid leave, Dalton should follow the lead of companies like Netflix and offer a full year of paid leave for new parents.
Favours reproducers over the childless, younger staff over older staff, and introduces financial pressure (and work pressure) that will be paid by either staff members or parents or both.
Commit to paying all Dalton employees—especially staff and independent contractors—at minimum a living wage for New York, as calculated by MIT’s Living Wage Calculator. Ensure racial equity in the proportion of full- and part-time workers; independent contractors; faculty, staff, administration, and associate teachers; and publish information regarding the racial makeup of each of these categories every year.
Deeply delusional.
First, the MIT tool calculate living wages according to household composition, so is Dalton going to pay a single teacher differently to a married one with two household earners? Is it going to pay more to people with children?
Second, the living wage of a single earner is US$34,195 in NY. Have the signatories examined what this would mean for the ongoing Dalton budget? Is everyone already getting more than this, in which case, what's the point?
Double individual faculty and staff professional development (PD) allotment if it is used to service student debt.
Seems stupid but not necessarily poison.
Publish the endowment investment portfolio and immediately divest from private prisons and detention centers; companies that manufacture technology, equipment or weapons for police;
Idiotic and childish, 'all cops are bastards' mentality.
Going forward, any Black student or student of color who appears in Dalton’s promotional materials should receive reduced tuition, or be retroactively compensated the equivalent amount if they graduate before their likeness is used.
Discrimination by race.
Poison.
