The auditorium of Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad was packed Wednesday night ahead of a contentious school board meeting.
Adoption of the school district's diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) plan was on the agenda, but the board president wasn’t at the meeting, so the vote was postponed.
That didn’t stop dozens of people from speaking both in favor and against the district's DEIB plan.
"We support education, not indoctrination. The DEI plan is just a new language for the critical-race theory agenda," said one speaker named Kelly.
"DEIB is not divisive, it is not CRT. It’s supported by the National PTA, by the board of education, because they are in it for the children. Not all this other craziness," said Stephanie Wells. "They are there to make sure our students are educated and well-rounded and ready to move on to a diverse future."
"DEI is failing worldwide. Industries and companies who have embraced DEI are failing," said Liam Ferguson. "Companies like Disney, Victoria's Secret, Target, Netflix, Bud Light, just to name a few ... are losing billions of dollar — have fired CEO's and their DEI staff. Why set up our children for failure?"
"Rejecting the DEIB plan based upon religious beliefs or biases against LGBTQIA+ individuals or any other historically marginalized group, will be seen as discriminatory," said Carlsbad Unified teacher and parent Katrina Waidelich.
While no DEIB curriculum was presented during the meeting, a presentation showed the plan would be phased in over 3 years.
The first year to include reviewing policies and training staff at an initial cost of $85,000.
"The large bulk of the cost is around staff training ... There is some student training once the student groups are identified, but the large bulk is around professional development that they would do through out the course of the first year," said a district staff member.
Staff added that the district hopes to launch a website that would host information for parents and community members to view the DEIB curriculum, staff development, and activities students are involved in at each campus.
A vote on the adoption of the DEIB plan was not scheduled but is expected to happen at a later meeting when all board members are present.
