Brookline’s School Committee on Thursday declined a $188,455 gift that would have partially reinstated the district’s equity office, which was eliminated in March to help close a budget gap for fiscal year 2026.
The money, which was raised by a coalition of Brookline groups over the past two months, would have funded one assistant director position in the equity office as well as some “equity lead” positions within schools.
The committee voted 6-3 on Thursday against accepting the money, meaning the office that has been hanging in limbo since early March will shutter for good at the end of the school year.
The March vote to eliminate the office sparked town wide discussions about its purpose and debate about whether it was helping students. With the Trump administration slashing federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the cut in Brookline also became a political flashpoint, both in public and in private conversations among parents and educators.
Jesse Hefter, a School Committee member who has expressed concern about accepting the funds in meetings and in interviews with Brookline.News, said on Thursday that taking funding from a private group is a disservice to other community members.
“If we vote to accept this grant, we are telling the community that if you want a program that doesn’t exist, just raise the funds on your own and grant the dollars to the district,” Hefter said.
Hefter cited a Public Schools of Brookline policy on grants and gifts, which advises that grants and gifts from private sources be “unrestricted.”
Proponents of accepting the funding argued that, while the money was technically restricted in purpose, it met the PSB policy requirement of “use consistent with an established priority of the School Committee.”
Hefter voted against accepting the funds, alongside School Committee Chair Valerie Frias and members Andy Liu, Danna Perry, Carolyn Thall and Bob Weintraub.
School Committee Member Mariah Nobrega pushed back against Hefter, saying the School Committee should accept the fund in an effort to continue Brookline’s “strategic, district-wide efforts” toward educational equity.
“We really cannot be cutting off this program, especially … at this time in our country when we’re seeing active efforts to dismantle equity,” Nobrega said at the meeting.
Nobrega voted in favor of accepting the funds alongside School Committee members Sarah Moghtader and Suzanne Federspiel. All three disclosed that they had donated to the fundraising campaign to reinstate the equity office after consulting with Town Counsel and filing perceived conflict of interest forms with Town Clerk Ben Kaufman.
Raul Fernandez, executive director of Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity, a Brookline nonprofit that helped coordinate the fundraising campaign, said on Thursday night he is in “disbelief” about the committee’s decision.
“This School Committee now has no funding, no staff, and no plan to address the wide gaps in educational outcomes by race and also the significant identity-based bullying and harassment that’s been occuring in our schools,” Fernandez said in an interview.
Weintraub, who cited equity as one of his top priorities during his campaign for School Committee, said that while the Office of Educational Equity staff “most certainly wants the same results that all of us want, their model has not and will not produce those results.”
“If I had $200,000, I would begin the Calculus Project in fourth grade, and I would consider a power literacy program modeled off the Calculus Project,” Weintraub said.
Thall and Perry, who did not share their reasoning on Thursday, have previously expressed concern about accepting one-time funds for salaried positions, both in public meetings and in interviews with Brookline.News.
Liu, who was School Committee chair when the committee voted to remove funding for the equity office, cast his vote against accepting the funds.
“It goes against my personal feelings about the valuable work the office has been doing but I don’t feel able to vote yes consistent with our own policy,” Liu said.