Federal court rulings reassure board members
The Haldane school board plans to reinstate the district’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy at its Tuesday (May 6) meeting, two weeks after suspending the standards in a bid to safeguard $450,000 in federal funding threatened by the Trump administration’s opposition to DEI programs.
The reversal came after federal judges in Maryland, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., on April 24 temporarily blocked the administration from cutting funding to schools with what the White House characterizes as “illegal” practices.
Those rulings occurred the same day the administration chose as the deadline for local school districts to certify they had eliminated DEI policies and operated in compliance with Title VI the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in federally funded programs. The Haldane board also passed a resolution asserting the latter.
A day later, New York and 18 other states filed a federal lawsuit challenging the certification requirement. They called the directive “unprecedented and unlawful,” and said DEI initiatives actually support civil rights law.
Haldane voted unanimously on April 22 to suspend its DEI policy pending “clarification of the conflict between the respective positions of the state and federal governments regarding Title VI and DEI,” according to the resolution.
On Wednesday (April 30), the district issued a statement that said its legal counsel had advised that the federal rulings could be interpreted to mean “there is no longer an imminent risk of losing funds.” The statement said the board will reinstate the DEI policy “without modification and will continue to address all policy revisions through its standard review process.”
Carl Albano, the interim superintendent, said the five-member board made the decision after meeting in a closed session on Tuesday with Michael Lambert, its attorney from Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert, which represents and advises many area districts.
Haldane Statement
On April 29, 2025, the Haldane Board of Education met in executive session with legal counsel from Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert. Counsel advised that, based on the April 24, 2025, rulings by three federal court judges temporarily blocking the U.S. Department of Education from implementing and enforcing its Feb. 14, 2025, Dear Colleague Letter, the Feb. 28, 2025, Frequently Asked Questions and the April 3, 2025, certification requirement, there is no longer an imminent risk of losing Title funds related to the Title VI certification requirement. As a result, the Board intends to reinstate its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy at its May 6, 2025, meeting without modification and will continue to address all policy revisions through its standard review process.
“The board was surprised by the level of acrimony” from the community in response to its vote, said Peggy Clements, its president. “Many of us wish we had said more during and after the [April 22] meeting to explain that the suspension was temporary, that this was a difficult decision for us given our commitment to the aims of the policy, that we believed federal funding was truly at risk if we didn’t act by April 24, and that we were making the decision because we believed that protecting the funds was in the best interests of students.”
Clement said that she and another board member will be at a Haldane PTA meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Monday (May 5) at the Butterfield Library in Cold Spring to answer questions about the DEI policy.
Albano said that district residents told him they had hoped the board would take a more defiant stance, as Harvard University did when it refused changes demanded by the administration despite a threat to end $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts. “We don’t have a $53 billion endowment like Harvard,” said Albano.
The Haldane district has an annual budget of about $30 million. The $450,000 in federal funds are used to educate students with disabilities, provide school lunches and fund other initiatives, he said.
The Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery district, which includes O’Neill High School, which Garrison district students can attend, quietly voted last month to suspend its DEI policy. Halfway into its April 10 meeting, the board went into executive session for an hour. When it reconvened, the members voted unanimously to rescind the policy, without discussion, then adjourned. The board also uses Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert for its counsel.
“To protect our district from the potential loss of federal Title VI funding, we reviewed our policies for inconsistencies,” Superintendent Michael McElduff told The News of the Highlands. “This review led to the decision to remove Policy 3430 from our policy manual, as we believe it serves our best interests.”
Across the country, a handful of districts rescinded their DEI policies ahead of the Trump administration’s deadline, including in Palm Beach, Florida; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Decatur, Georgia, according to news reports, although Decatur, like Haldane, on April 29 reversed its decision.
State education officials in at least 15 states, including New York, refused to comply with the administration order. “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity and inclusion,’ ” wrote Daniel Morton-Bentley, a lawyer for New York’s Education Department. “But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.” He added that the government has “yet to define what practices it believes violate Title VI.”
The Haldane policy provides guidelines for integrating DEI into family and community engagement, student support, discipline and training. Regarding curriculum, it asks educators to “incorporate diverse perspectives, materials and texts so that students are taught topics not just from one single perspective, but from multiple perspectives.” Additionally, it directs the district to create a workforce “that is not only diverse and inclusive, but one that recognizes and values the differences among people.”
A more accurate headline is that the board is planning to reinstate the policy. I stand by my vote based on the information I had at the time. Based on new information, we plan to reinstate the policy at our next meeting. I will do so with delight and relief. I am a major proponent of schools and organizations having DEI policies because they provide a formal way of codifying our values. They provide a framework and a lens through which to view everything that goes on at the school. My vote on April 22 to suspend the policy was a practical decision, not an ideological one. We want our elected officials to be thoughtful and strategic, and that’s what I was demonstrating with my votes.
Kupper is a member of the Haldane school board.
I was disappointed to hear that Haldane had suspended its DEI policy but happy to see that it is planning to reinstate that policy in response to pushback from the community. The Trump administration’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion is morally repugnant, legally dubious and obnoxiously intrusive — a clumsy attempt to roll back decades of moral progress. I applaud the school board’s willingness to reverse course and stand strong against intolerance and overreach. Now more than ever, it is critical for institutions and organizations, both private and public, to hold the line against forces that would tear us apart as a community and as a society.
Why is the “Accessibility” in DEIA constantly being dropped? Seems worth including to emphasize that the whole point of these policies is to enable access to historically denied opportunities. After all, there may be a reason Trumpelstiltskin doesn’t ever mention the A when he’s attacking these policies…