Greater Egleston High School Governing Board | 80 School Street | Roxbury, MA 02118

Dr. Anshul Jain & Dr. Joanne Allen-Willoughby, Co-Chairs

CONTACT FOR INQUIRIES: Dr. Anshul Jain (anshuljain01@gmail.com)

September 27, 2017

PUBLIC STATEMENT ON RECENT EVENTS AT GREATER EGLESTON HIGH SCHOOL

The Governing Board of Greater Egleston High School (GEHS) is charged with the obligation of advancing the best interests of
students learning, achievement and equitable access to a safe, stable and competent learning environment. We are aware of recent events
concerning the disenrollment of GEHS students, abrupt disruptions to school leadership, and the profoundly negative impact on the
students. The Board has received urgent inquiries from students, faculty, parents, families, alumni and community partners about what has
devolved into an unacceptable ongoing crisis at the school. A number of statements have circulated across various news outlets, with
varying degrees of accuracy, often marked by considerable information gaps. Furthermore, conflicting information and information
sources have added to confusion in the public domain. To gain a proper understanding of what has transpired, the Co-Chairs of this
Governing Board have spent the past month communicating with and interviewing faculty, staff and students at the school in order to
gather and assess information objectively. To date, the leadership of the Board has learned the following facts, which occurred in the
following sequence:

On August 28, 2017, the GEHS Administration discovered that over 100 students had been removed from enrollment at the school.1
These 100+ students were first notified by GEHS that they had been unenrolled. They were never notified by the District that they had been
unenrolled, and no explanation was ever provided to students or the school as to why they were disenrolled.
Upon this discovery, the Headmaster, Ms. Julie Coles, and the schools Administrative staff immediately requested the re-enrollment of
these students at the school.
The District re-enrolled a number of the affected studentsonly to disenroll them immediately afterwards.
A District administrator requested that GEHS provide documentation, with the stated purpose of using this information to facilitate the reenrollment
of the disenrolled students.
GEHS Administration proceeded to collect the requested informationMs. Coles then informed the District that this documentation had
been collected and was available for review.2
The District never responded to Ms. Coles update that the requested student documentation was available for review.
During the week of September 11-15, Ms. Coles informed the District againon multiple occasionsthat the requested documentation
was available for review.
During this same week the District, again, never responded to Ms. Coles relaying of the requested informationand on September 13, the
Office of Engagement notified the school that they had been instructed to reject new enrollment.
From August 28 onwards, Ms. Coles relentlessly advocated for the re-enrollment of these 100+ students, reaching out to the District and the
community.
On September 19, the District abruptly placed the Headmaster on Administrative Leave, with no substantive justification provided to her.
Students continue to face disenrollmentwithout any resolution or explanation from the District.

Based on a review of these events, it is apparent that Ms. Coles persisted in her efforts to restore students to their rightful place
in the classroom. Moreover, the facts confirm that Ms. Coles maintained open communication and offered, on multiple occasions, to
provide the District with the specific information that they had requested. Her longstanding advocacy for a consistently underserved
cohort of studentsoverwhelmingly of color, and overwhelmingly subjected to a host of structural and institutional obstaclesis now
further undermined by these events. Moreover, her relentless support of the students is consistent with a 15-year track record of
irrefutable long-term gains in MCAS, graduation, college entrance and broadly successful student reengagement and achievement. On
September 25, 2017, this Governing Board wrote to the Superintendents Office to formally request the immediate reinstatement
of Ms. Coles as Headmaster at Greater Egleston High School so that competent leadership can once again steer the resumption of
safe and effective learning at the school. The Board also requested the immediate re-enrollment of the 100+ disenrolled students.
Both of these requests are in keeping with the Boards most fundamental responsibilities to the students, their learning, and their general
safety and well-being. This Governing Board sincerely hopes that the District will do what is right, and put the students first.

1 These 100+ students fall into two categories: i) those who had applied, interviewed, and been accepted for enrollment to begin in September, 2017; and,
ii) those who were already attending GEHS the prior school year and were simply continuing their education.
2
The Board Co-Chairs were copied on this communication.
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