Following the recent resignations of two prominent Black staff members, some Shawnee Mission parents are expressing their concern the district’s ongoing efforts to serve Black and brown students might be hampered.

Tyrone Bates Jr., the district’s first-ever diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator, and SMSD’s lone student success coach Andre “Coach Dre” Carnegie are both leaving at the end of this school year.

Several parents spoke at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, voicing worry over the impact the departures could have on the district’s years-long push to better meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body.

A partial response to the parents’ concerns came later that same night, when the board approved the hiring of a new DEI coordinator to replace Bates.

“While the resignations you mention create holes in our team, we are working hard to fill those positions (one of which we hired at the meeting on Monday evening.),” Chief Communications Officer David Smith told the Post in an emailed statement Wednesday.

The new DEI coordinator starts July 1

• Kaitlin Shulman is taking over the DEI coordinator position from Bates, who was first hired in 2019 after a parent group’s push for Shawnee Mission to improve its diversity efforts and is leaving to focus on a diversity consulting business he founded.
• According to a LinkedIn profile, Shulman currently works as the facilitator of recruitment and retention for Lawrence Public Schools.
• Meanwhile, Smith told the Post in an email statement that the district plans to post the success coach position soon “and find a high-quality individual to fill it.”
• The success coach position is changing from one in which Carnegie roved around schools across the district to one focused on a single school, Apache Elementary, which district officials say has a higher proportion of students of color than the district as a whole.

Parents voice worries

• Parent Jill Jolicoeur told the board Monday that Bates and Carnegie leaving seems like a “step back” in the years-long push to hire more teachers and staff of color to represent an increasingly diverse student population.
• Alma Friendt, another parent who spoke Monday, said students of color need representation and white students need to see people of color in leadership roles.
• Wanda Vaughn, who worked in Shawnee Mission for 18 years and had two daughters who graduated from SM North, told the Post in a separate interview that she’s heard from Shawnee Mission educators that diversity issues in the district have gotten better, but she still thinks more could be done to hire more people of color.
• “They give you all the reasons why they haven’t been able to get representation but … I belong to a Black sorority and a lot of my sisters are teachers, so what do they mean they’re not out there?” Vaughn asked. “And, they’re teaching in the public schools in Kansas City, Mo.”

District maintains that diversity is a priority

• Smith told the Post in an emailed statement that all building principals and 32 other district-level staff have undergone diversity training in recent years.
• There are also staff-led teams devoted to diversity issues at each building in the district.
• Additionally, a Youth Equity Stewardship program at each high school offers students a chance to have a seat at the table for decisions that impact them, Smith said.
• “This just scratches the surface of the work we are doing around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging,” Smith said in an emailed statement. “This is work the district is committed to, and it will continue despite changes in district staff. One of the reasons for having a community-developed strategic plan is that it is not dependent on any one individual.”

Go deeper: Read the district’s full statement below.

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