Santa Barbara Unified Establishes Committee Advancing Black Achievement, Wellness, and Excellence

Black parents had one pressing question at this week’s Santa Barbara Unified School Board meeting: Where are the consequences?  

Consequences for kids who commit racist acts, they said, seemed strikingly absent from the resolution the board adopted on Tuesday night, which formally established the Committee Advancing Black Achievement, Wellness, and Excellence (CABAWE).

CABAWE — an acronym multiple board members struggled to pronounce — is a new and improved standing advisory committee built on its predecessor, the Combating Anti-Blackness Working Group that was first formed in spring 2022 to develop strategies to combat systemic racism within the school district, following anti-Black incidents in schools. 

In September 2023, the district first conceived of a formal oversight committee for addressing anti-bias and anti-Blackness, as recommended in the district’s Racial Climate Survey that year. But community members felt that Black parents, students, and staff were underrepresented. 

Since then, committee members said they have been “listening and learning,” resulting in a new makeup for CABAWE, including Black Student Union representatives from all three high schools, classified staff, and a to-be-determined school boardmember, while employing “intentionality around recruiting Black membership.” They’ll begin recruiting members in the coming months.

With the new 10-year resolution endorsing the committee, it will not slip through the cracks between changing boards, nor will it need to be full to operate. 

“The formation of this committee will make sure our Black children are protected beyond today, no matter what happens to the committee, no matter what happens to the board,” said parent and committee member Kemba Lawrence. “This work needs to continue — our children need to feel safe, our parents need to feel heard, our staff also needs to feel protected.”

The resolution states that the committee is “entrusted with monitoring, evaluating, and providing feedback” on resources, programs, curriculum, and staff training supporting the achievement and wellness of Black and African-American students, families, and staff. 

That includes overseeing annual anti-bias programming, regular reports on racist incidents, and ensuring that mental health resources are available to students experiencing anti-Black racism. 

But, “I didn’t hear any consequences,” said Belma Michael Johnson, a Black parent in the district. “This sounds like nothing is going to change. We’ve lived here for two years, and there’s been this committee, and that committee, and this meeting and that report, and nothing has changed for my sons, who were called the n-word this week,” he exclaimed.

Other parents agreed, calling the adoption a “first step,” but expressing concern that there will be no change over the 10-year life of the resolution. 

Boardmembers said they also want to hold students accountable, and made comments about wanting to pursue and define consequences for racist incidents, involving parents and community members. They emphasized that they want to ensure the resolution is not “performative.”

“There are plenty of places where we fall short, and we need to acknowledge that and embrace this as an opportunity,” said boardmember Gabe Escobedo. “I think, absolutely, there is a need for consequences, and I don’t want to skirt that part of this.”

However, he added that “the consequences themselves and what they are are really important. If it is just punitive … if there’s no opportunity to do better, and that includes the families themselves, then it’s a vicious cycle. And what we’re trying to do is break out of a vicious cycle.”

Connie Alexander, president of the Santa Barbara NAACP, said that the NAACP stood before the school board in 1951 and asked “for this very thing,” noting the historic feeling of the resolution. 

“Black students need and deserve a place to thrive … they are, unfortunately, right now, still a part of the groups that are lowest performing,” she said. “But I think we are making some strides.”

Read the full resolution here.