The Wenatchee School Board is keeping track of the district's equity review, which was approved by board members.

The process is in its early stages, and the first meeting of its equity review working group was just completed..

Maria Iñiguez and Julie Norton are the board members who are part of the working group, and both had a positive response to the first gathering.

Iñiguez says the group has identified its priorities. "I really appreciated that the norms for the group, we're focusing on featuring the voices of people of color, people in the LGBT community," said Iñiguez.

Norton says she's hoping to hear more from students. "I would like to hear from the students on the committee," said Norton. "I think they're a little more intimidated to speak in front of adults, so it will be nice to see as this progresses the voices come out a little bit more.

The School Board voted 4-1 to go through the equity review, with only Norton voicing opposition, saying she wanted more time to determine students' needs. Norton said she was, otherwise, happy with the recent working group meeting.

The overall examination is being conducted by the equity research group Education Northwest, which will provide results by June 30.

The process was originally called an audit, but was relabeled by the group as a review in order to be less intrusive.

The School Board met Monday night, where the equity review was one of several topics of discussion.

Northwest Education's process for the review is focused on several different areas:

Curriculum policies

Discipline policies

Instruction policies

Hiring and Recruitment

Access to Learning Opportunities

It's not known whether the Wenatchee School District will adopt any policy recommendation put forth in results from the equity review.

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