The Monroe County Community School board delayed the final reading of its racial equity policy Tuesday night.
Some students who helped write the policy and the Monroe County NAACP branch said it lacks steps for implementation and asked for a vote to be delayed.
At Tuesday's meeting, NAACP Monroe County Branch President Maqubè Reese said the organization was available to help make revisions to the policy.
Read More: MCCSC considers racial equity
Bloomington High School South sophomore Sydney Crossley helped write the policy with with a group of student equity ambassadors and school administrators. Last May, she shared her experiences with racism with the board.
Crossley said students were promised an anti-racist policy, and a racial equity policy is different.
“When students sat down and helped draft sections of the policy, we felt dismissed and not valued," Crossley said. "With that being said, I'm asking you school board members to table this policy so we can better the policy for all MCCSC schools.”
The board said in December guidelines for implementing the policy will be created and voted on separately.
Bloomington High school North and former MCCSC student Olivia Jordan said a racial equity policy is a positive and necessary step for the district.
Read More: Students ask MCCSC to address racial discrimination, bullying
“I would have loved to have this opportunity and this policy when I was a student," Jordan said. "I understand that the next step are the guidelines. So I really hope that those are the next steps that we're able to take and that we can really outline those procedures."
Jordan said she came back to teach at MCCSC partly because of her own experiences with racism and desires to see education improve.
The policy’s first reading was in December. Its final reading is now set for February.
