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West Hartford Public Schools reportedly dropped $20,000 on a contract with an "education consultant" to inject equity and racial justice into the district's hiring practices.
Defending Education exposed the 2023 contract between West Hartford Public Schools (WHPS) and Recenter Race & Equity Inc., which consisted of years-long equity-based goals, DEI training for Board of Education members, and facilitation of District Equity Diversity Council Meetings.
Note that Hartford-based Re-Center closed in 2025 after 33 years of service.
The organization had promoted anti-racism, educational equity/DEI, anti-oppression, social justice and restorative practices.
The founder of Re-Center had praised her “commitment to decolonizing systems and operationalizing justice.”
The approach employed by Re-Center was "based on shifting mindsets in order for participants to understand where they are situated in term of historical and contemporary oppression, how their identities align or intersect with those of communities they serve, and how their ideas, relationships, and practices are informed by their positionality.”
The organization understood the importance of activating youth as well as Mao did, and even supported clients by helping to establish "youth equity squads" so young people could learn to become social justice warriors and "transform" their schools.
At least 17 "Colleagues & Comrades" had joined Re-Center's struggle for equity in education.
To this very day, West Hartford Public Schools maintains a strong commitment to equity and anti racism, boasting about its core values of "equity, diversity and inclusion" right on the website.
The district obviously feels no threat whatsoever by the Trump Administration's attempts to eliminate racist and discriminatory DEI policies.
"Equity" is quite literally at the "center" of everything West Hartford does.
All staff have been trained in anti-bias, culturally responsive teaching, and social emotional learning, and now some are focused on trauma informed-practices.
The district seems to have absolutely no intention of backing off the focus on anti racism.
West Hartford even implemented an Equity and Diversity Council (EDC) to "examine systemic policies, programs and practices to guard against inequities, barriers and oppression in order to create equitable systemic approaches"
The EDC's equity agenda is reflected across all of leadership structures, within Professional Learning and Evaluation Committee, and even in parent organizations.
Jason Buehler, a first grade teacher at Morley Elementary School in West Hartford, says the "value of the EDC" is to "continue to push us as educators" in the mission of "equity" which he says is really to "challenge what we know to seek new knowledge" so they better serve all of their students.
So the value of the Equity and Diversity Council is that it pushes the district's equity mission, gotcha.
The EDC 2024 “Year in Review" actually focused Morley, and featured a slide asking if Morley students would feel the impact of equity efforts.
The answer was a resounding YES!
Defending Education obtained access to one of the presentations used in West Hartford's training which detailed a host practices that the BOE could utilize to help advance equity and racial justice.
The training promoted the definition of “privilege” from Tiffany Jewell’s This book is antiracist, and the definition of “intersectionality” from one of the architects of critical race theory herself, Kimberlé Crenshaw.
West Hartford was previously exposed for developing equity goals for elementary schoolers.
You can read the full report on Defending Education.
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