Parents, students upset about Tam High letting go of Black success program staff

(KRON) — Parents at Tamalpais High School in Marin County still hope to change the minds of the school board who have repeatedly chosen not to renew the contracts of the two people who ran a successful program for Black students on campus.

Following a spate of racial incidents at Tam High, the school launched a Black Students Success Team and a Tam Hub drop-in center to help Black students, who make up just about 3% of the student body, feel safe and thrive academically.

“It’s taught me how to advocate for myself,” said Tam High student Kiyah Freeman. “It’s taught me time management. It’s taught me how not to procrastinate, and it’s simply taught me how to stay on top of my work and responsibilities.”

Parents say it’s been a great success as well.

“They have reduced the D and F grades of Black students on campus by 20% in just one year,” said Cristine DeBerry, a Tam High parent. “They have increased the sense of belonging by 80%, and we haven’t had the kind of incidents that we had the previous year.”

But earlier this month, the school board voted not to renew the contracts of Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin, the two who run those programs. Instead, it let in-house Tam High employees do it come the next school year.

“Now we’ve seen kids do better, feel better. The data is out that these kids were super successful this year, unlike last year and previous years,” Austin said. “So it’s like, how do you fight against data? Why would you want to change a program that’s working? If anything, you’ll want to build on that.”

The school board majority’s refusal to renew the contracts has led to protests by students, parents and teachers, an online petition, and an offer of private funding from the parent group known as the “Friends of Tam District.”

“We offered to raise the money,” DeBerry said. “We identified some from a foundation. We’re talking to the superintendent of public instruction and trying to just solve that problem for them, and even that they have refused to accept.”

In a statement, the school board’s president says private funding of consultant positions is neither advisable nor was it sought by the board. As for reasons why they are not renewing the contract, she cites budgetary concerns and questions how much of an actual difference these consultants made in students’ learning outcomes.

Still, parents are hopeful.

“We have a working, functioning, highly successful program, and we’re hoping that they will come around on this and stop digging in,” DeBerry said.

At this point, the school board hasn’t even agreed to put the item back on the agenda. Even if they do, the next board meeting isn’t until August, but by that time, the new superintendent will be in place, and friends of Tam District are hopeful between now and then, they can change some minds.

Tamalpais Union High School District board president Cynthia Roenisch responds

Note: The statement was edited for brevity and clarity. Statement (see below) emailed from Roenisch to KRON4.

Mr. Austin and Ms. Tate Austin are not the Black Student Success Team. The Black Student Success team has not been shut down. These consultants are simply two members of it. Much of the Black Student Success team are Tam High employees, including a dedicated paraprofessional, a Dean of Student Success, an assistant principal and a counselor, all of whom are returning to Tam High next year and have already started working with Dr. Goode to continue to support and strengthen support of Black students at Tam High.

There are many reasons the $250,00 contracts for two half-time consultants were not renewed, including, but not limited to:

1. Questions as to how much of an actual difference these consultants made in students’ learning outcomes. 

2. Determining how much of any measurable positive outcomes were instead due to a layering of supports that Tam High already had in place with its employees including a dedicated paraprofessional, a Dean of Student Success, all teachers trained in culturally responsive teaching and multi tiered supports/interventions (Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports) , counselors, outside tutors who worked pro bono with students in the Hub and licensed therapists at the Tam Wellness Center; 

3. Concerns regarding best practices for executing consultant contracts, including determining fair and reasonable value, determining whether the consultants have relevant experience and expertise for the scope of work and assessing. whether employees are already doing these services and/ or could be doing these services; and

4. Budgetary concerns.

For a public school with five campuses, private funding of consultant positions is neither advisable nor was it sought by the Board. The Board has turned down many requests by parents to privately fund positions at one of the five campuses.

The planning for support services for the 2025-26 school year is now well underway. People who continue to be certain that Dr. Goode and Tam High will fail in providing these student supports are now working at cross purposes with the Board’s direction, with Dr. Goode’s leadership, experience and ongoing efforts to date, and ultimately at cross purposes with the students’ best interest.  They are creating a harmful narrative for our Black students, implying that all Black students must be terrified and cannot possibly learn, as Mr. Austin and Ms. Tate-Austin are not returning to Tam. The Board and Dr. Goode believe that students will continue to achieve higher levels of learning, success and belonging in 2025-26.  The Board is confident that Tam High will center the interests of our students as they pull together and work with Dr. Goode to continue supporting Black students and, indeed, all students in their learning and daily experiences at Tam High School.  We also hope the community will stop telling kids they will fail next year because the Board did not renew two consultant contracts.

Roenisch has made false claims, according to DeBerry.

DeBerry’s clarifications were sent to KRON4 via email. See statement below in italics.

Ms. Roenisch continues to press an expanding array of false claims to support her opposition to the BSST leadership contracts.

Roenisch’ Claim: Tate and Austin were just a small part of the BSST that was operated primarily by district staff. 

Truth: Tate and Austin founded and led the BSST with the assistance of a single paraprofessional employed by the District to work under their leadership. The other three district employees mentioned in Roenisch’s letter (the Dean, assistant principal and counselor) are indeed Black, but have full-time jobs in the District that are wholly separate from the BSST.  

Roensch’s Claim: Tate and Austin’s services are merely duplicative of the standard Tier 1 and Tier 2 academic interventions provided by regular teachers and counseling staff.

Truth: Tate and Austin are delivering highly specialized, targeted, trauma-informed Tier 3 Services, designed to meet the unique needs of Black students at Tam. The Black Student Success Team was developed in response to an alarming rise in racist student behavior at Tam that brought new urgency to the othering, alienation and deep educational inequities faced for decades by Black students at Tam. 

District administrators and staff worked for months with the Coalition for African American Achievement and Belonging in a public process to develop community-informed solutions. Tate and Austin were selected as part of that process to establish the Black Student Success Team because of their extensive experience and professional qualifications, and because of their deep and longstanding ties in the local Black community. Tate is a seasoned educator and former Tam Vice Principal with unparalleled experience addressing racial equity issues in Marin County Schools. Paul Austin is the founder of Play Marin and an esteemed youth leader and mentor in the local Black community. Well before he was hired, the District frequently called on Austing for when racial issues erupted on the Tam Campus.  racial issues erupt on the Tam campus.  The two professionals are trusted leaders in the local Black community, an essential qualification in 

Roenisch’ Claim: The substantial improvements in Black student achievement (a 17% reduction in D, F, and I grades), and belonging (87% of Black students surveyed reported an increased sense of belonging) might be the result of a variety of in-house academic supports rather than the work of Tate and Austin.  

Truth:  District faculty and administrators pointed out to Roenisch that the only thing that had changed in the year when Black student improvements were shown was the addition of the BSST under Tate and Austin’s leadership.  Furthermore, at all other district high schools—where there was no BSST—academic outcomes for Black students showed a pronounced decline. Over 100 district faculty and staff have written and spoken to the Board unanimously calling for the renewal of Tate and Austin’s contracts because of the profound difference they have made for Black students by providing services that current district staff are incapable of delivering.    

Roenisch’ Claim: People who object to the cancellation of the BSST leadership contracts are not being supportive of the new Superintendent whom the Board has directed to develop an alternative program.

Truth: The Board is needlessly placing an impossible burden on the new incoming Superintendent to invent a new program in the few remaining weeks before school starts on August 20. The Board created this emergency by rejecting the BSST leadership contracts despite the unprecedented success of the program.