UPDATE – March 4, 2021:

This event is now closed for registration. Thank you to parents and community members for all of the interest in this event.

Original: 

The Fairport Central School District is inviting parents and community members to an upcoming session on March 4, 2021 from 6:30-7:45 p.m. via Zoom (see below) on Racist Policy & Resistance in Rochester and Fairport Curriculum, featuring keynote speakers Shane Wiegand and Gabrielle Brannigan.

Registered participants will receive the presentation link on the day of the event.

This event will begin with a presentation that examines how federal and local policies like redlining, racially restrictive covenants in towns like Fairport, and urban renewal segregated Rochester, built wealth for its white citizens and disenfranchised people of color. It explores how local civil rights leaders like Dr. Charles Lunsford, Howard Coles, Dr. Walter Cooper, Connie Mitchell, Dr. Alice Young and many others fought back. Finally, it connects these past policies to the disparity and inequality we see in Rochester today and invites us to learn from and apply the activism of Rochester’s past to its present.

Wiegand is the co-lead of the PathStone Foundation’s Antiracist Curriculum Project and a Grade 4 teacher in Rush Henrietta CSD. He serves on the boards of Connected Communities and City Roots Community Land Trust. He is an adjunct faculty instructor in the URMC Department of Neurology, where he lectures, leads workshops on anti-racism and equity. He and his wife live in the Beechwood neighborhood of Rochester.

Brannigan earned her Masters in Education from the University of Rochester in 2016.  She is a 7th and 8th grade social studies teacher and track coach in the West Irondequoit CSD.

Following Wiegand’s presentation, Superintendent Provenzano will be joined by several other Fairport staff members to share about the new curriculum and new texts that are being introduced this school year. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about Fairport’s progress in the areas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.