NEW YORK (PNN) - December 22, 2020 - The posh Dalton School in Manhattan is mired in controversy after an eight-page memo of staff and faculty’s anti-racist demands was leaked, proposing sweeping changes to staffing, training and curriculum at the elite preparatory school.

Frustration had already been mounting at the Upper East Side school, where the $54,180 annual tuition is unchanged despite in-person classes remaining cancelled since March - even as other New York City schools reopened.

It comes a month after television journalist Megyn Kelly pulled her two sons from the elite Collegiate School, on the Upper West Side, when a letter was sent around to faculty there that claimed “white school districts across the country [are] full of future killer cops.”

Then this week, the contents of the lengthy Dalton memo were first reported by The Naked Dollar blog, written by a finance author who knows parents at the school.

The memo signed by 129 faculty and staff members listed extensive proposals including the hiring of 12 dedicated diversity officers, giving half of all donations to New York's public schools, and the elimination of AP classes if black students’ scores don't equal those of white students.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say these demands, if implemented, would destroy Dalton altogether,” argued Scott C. Johnston, author of The Naked Dollar.

“The demands for additional staffers alone would add millions of dollars to Dalton’s annual budget. Siphoning off 50% of donations would dry up funding. Eliminating AP classes (referred to as ‘leveled courses’) would destroy college admissions,” he wrote.

The list of proposed changes includes:

• The hiring of twelve full time diversity officers and an additional full time employee whose entire role is to support black students who come forward with complaints.
  
  
• Hiring of multiple psychologists with specialization on the psychological issues affecting ethnic minority populations.
  
  
• Paying off the student debt of incoming black faculty.
  
  
• Re-route 50% of all donations to New York City public schools.
  
  
• Eliminate AP courses if black students don't score as high as white students.
  
  
• Overhaul entire curriculum and add required courses that explicitly center black liberation and challenges to white supremacy.
  
  
• Reduce tuition for black students whose photographs appear in school promotional materials.
  
  
• Require public anti-racism statements from all employees annually.
  
  
• Mandatory Community and Diversity Days to be held throughout the year.
  
  
• Required anti-bias training to be conducted every year for all staff and parent volunteers.
  
  
• Mandatory minority representation in (otherwise elected) student leadership roles.
  
  
• Mandatory diversity plot lines in school plays.
  
  

Parents at the school, which is considered a pipeline to the Ivy League, have expressed frustration at the proposals - though few are willing to do so on the record.

”This supposed anti-racist agenda is asking everyone to look at black children and treat them differently because of the color of their skin,” one parent said on condition of anonymity.

“The school is more focused on virtue-signaling this nonsense than it is in actually helping students of color. More parents are going to be pulling their (children) out.”

“Parents are terrified to speak up for fear of retribution. Parents are acting like spineless wimps,” another said.

The memo was apparently written in August, as protests over racial injustice were raging nationwide, but was not widely known among parents until recently.

It appears to have been originally conceived as a list of preconditions that staff demanded in order to return to in-person learning.

Parents have fumed that Dalton has remained remote-only, even as nearly every other New York City school returned to the classroom this fall.

A petition signed by more than 70 lower-school parents asked for the return of on-campus classes. “Zoom-school is not Dalton,” it said.

But that petition itself was called racist by some who argued that non-white faculty were more likely to live in the outer boroughs and have to commute longer on public transit.

The school now says all teachers and staff are expected to return after winter break for in-person classes.

Dalton officials said the document is just a set of thought-starters created last summer by a group of faculty and staff responding to Dalton’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution.

“The school does not support all the language or actions it contains,” the school added in a statement.

“Dalton's commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism is grounded in our deep appreciation for the dignity of all community members, an understanding of differing life backgrounds, empathy for one another, and the ability to engage and listen with respect across differences,” the school said.