Fairbanks school district back on diversity-equity-inclusion bandwagon in meetings at Queer Collective

The school year has begun in Fairbanks and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee is in full swing. A standing committee of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board, it advises on matters relating to race, sexual orientation, and other social issues as part of the liberal agenda.

DEI is a form of reinforcing various self-selected identities, and critics say it breeds hatred and racial division.

Read what Sen. JD Vance had to say about DEI’s harmful agenda at this Senate link.

This year, two of the three parent representatives on the committee are also, in a nod to nepotism, spouses of school board members.

With roughly 12,000 students in the school districts, the spouses of School Board members Bobby Burgess (Kristen Schupp) and Meredith Maple (Kel Gitter) are the parent representatives on the DEI Committee. 

At the group’s first meeting of the school year, Aug. 21, the committee breezed through the agenda at the school district offices.

Agenda here.

The committee then adjourned and several committee members gathered at the offices of the Queer Collective. 

Queer Collective is a foundation-funded organization that organizes events for the community. The director of the Queer Collective is also a member of the DEI committee.

Some of the Queer Collective projects it advertises on its website are:

Fairbanks Queer Youth Council

∙GSA Network Building & Support

∙Youth Leadership & Mentorship

∙Peer Education

  & Free Fun Sober Youth Events for Queer Joy!

○ Quarterly free queer legal clinic & legal fund

○ Reoccurring Free Family-Friendly Events

○ Volunteer Outreach

○ Queer Winter Gatherings

○ Annual PRIDE Events

∙Gender Euphoria Party

∙Rainbow Picnic

∙Camp Queer

The DEI Committee trip to Queer Collective was not on the agenda, nor was it noticed on the agenda or in meeting materials.

The meeting at the Queer Collective was after the official meeting adjourned. Essentially, the group adjourned and then met at another location the public was not made aware of. According to witnesses, the attendees included April Scott, Kristen Schuppe, Erin Morotti, Kel Gitter, and Rinam Midelstat among others. These are all members of the DEI committee, and are clearly beyond the “three” allowed by the open meetings act. Since this is an official committee of the elected government of the school district, it is almost certainly subject to the Open Meetings Act. AS 44.62.310-.312.

If the meeting had been on the agenda and properly noticed, and if the committee meeting had been recessed and reconvened back  on the record, and if a record of discussions by the clerk had been taken, this meeting could have been done legitimately. 

One member who went to the meeting was aware of the Open Meetings Act, but thought it was OK because the Superintendent, Luke Minert, knew about the meeting after the meeting.

If that is the standard for the Open Meetings Act, then it’s been misunderstood for years. According to state statute, “governmental body” means an assembly, council, board commission, committee,  or other similar body of a public entity with the authority to establish policies or make decisions for the public entity or with the authority to advise or make recommendations to the public entity. 

The DEI committee is, indeed, an advisory committee to the FNSB school board, which makes policy for the school district. While there are carve outs of act for attending professional meetings, consideration of personnel matters, and legal matters, a private and non-publicly noticed trip to the Queer Collective does not meet that criteria.

Since there are no published notes of the meeting at the Queer Collective, it is unknown what decisions, if any, were made.