Vashon’s school district announced last week that it will contract with an educational service organization to craft a plan to address racial awareness and equity within the district.

At a Wednesday afternoon meeting, roughly two dozen community leaders, parents and Vashon Island School District (VISD) administrators and teachers met with members of the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) to discuss plans to improve attitudes and conversations about race and racial issues in the community’s schools. The group agreed the district should move forward with a the project that could cost between $12,000 and $30,000 and involve PSESD officials working with school officials to train staff and host leadership development sessions.

The two PSESD officials stressed at the meeting that an exact plan for racial equity will not be known until more meetings are held and data from the schools is analyzed.

“Each (school) district is unique, and we don’t know what the final product is,” PSESD’s Nikum Pon said. “Equity in education is raising the achievement of all students, while narrowing the gap between the highest and lowest performing students.”

VISD Superintendent Michael Soltman said that the idea to address racial equity came from a number of converging events over the course of the last year. Soltman gave teachers a survey asking about diversity at the district’s schools and how prepared teachers felt about dealing with that diversity. According to the results that were made public at the meeting, less than 45 percent of teachers at each of the district’s schools feel they have opportunities to learn effective teaching strategies for the diversity represented in the schools. When surveyed about whether they are provided training to meet the needs of a diverse student population, 25 percent of teachers at Chautauqua, 23 percent at Vashon High School and 50 percent at McMurray said they were.

“I came to the realization that as a school district and a community, equity is somewhat foreign because of the makeup of our community,” Soltman said. “Development in this area screamed at us.”

Shortly after Soltman’s realization, islander and parent Spring Hecht approached him with an idea to ensure that the district’s students were well-versed in diversity and race and prepared to step into the diverse world outside Vashon’s borders. Hecht, who works for an adoption agency in Seattle and deals specifically with multiracial adoptions and families, said that she believes students have to be prepared and educated about discrimination and racial inequality.

“We want to elevate racial awareness,” Hecht said. “White privilege, white supremacy, racism, these are all topics that can shut people down. But we want to take a look at these beliefs and put the bias and stereotypes aside to engage in dialogue and educate children on how to safely and respectfully have discussions about race.”

Seventy-five percent of the school district’s population is white. Each school has a Hispanic population of between 8 and 15 percent. Other minority races make up the remaining 10 percent.

The district estimates that the racial equity process with PSESD will last through June of 2017.

The district’s effort is the most recent in a series of talks and events addressing racism on Vashon that began in August when a black island man was allegedly harassed and nearly assaulted by a group of white men. The incident kickstarted local activism, and a community meeting organized by islanders Swaneagle Harijan and Janie Starr took place shortly after the incident became public knowledge. Hecht attended the meeting and decided to head a committee to deal with race issues in island schools.

Meanwhile, Starr will kick off a related event on Thursday, June 2. Vashon Reads about Racism, Culture and White Privilege is an “all-island conversation,” according to Starr, that will urge islanders to read books that discuss race and white privilege.

“Our initiative is not about shaming or guilt — it’s about looking at ourselves deeply, at what it means to be white and how we might use our privilege to become a more inclusive community,” Starr said.