Residents and a board member urge Bethel Park SD to keep equity focus as plan is revised

At the Bethel Park School District board meeting, two residents and a board member urged the board to restore a previously adopted equity-focused element in the district’s strategic plan and to retain the task force name that references equity and inclusion.

Pam Dobis, speaking during public comment, asked the board “to restore the 6 buckets to the revised strategic plan and to retain the name of the EIB task force.” She said, “To eliminate the bucket of diversity, equity, and inclusion is insulting to those of us who spent long hours studying the data around the DEI issues in Bethel Park,” and suggested removing the bucket created the appearance of trying to “hide something, something that is uncomfortable.” Dobis invited board members to attend task-force meetings to see the work firsthand.

Jillian Kaltzman, also a resident commenter, told the board she supported Dobis and urged directors to “rethink reducing the buckets,” saying the change risks obscuring the district’s focus on diversity and the student voices involved in the original task force.

A board member who identified herself as the board liaison to the student-experience committee responded in support of keeping equity explicit. She said the district has “an obligation to ensure that every student who comes to school here is treated well,” and urged colleagues to attend task-force meetings. The board member described professional involvement with the PEAL Center and the state special-education advisory panel, and said, “I am an adult with a disability. I openly ran for this seat as an autistic adult,” framing her appeal as both professional and lived experience.

The comments came during the public-comment period; the board did not take immediate action on the strategic-plan revisions during the session. Several administrative items and policy updates discussed earlier in the meeting were moved to the consent agenda for a single vote next week, which is when related plan or policy approvals would be expected to appear on the docket.