We were glad to hear of your decision to return Mr. Williams to his students with back pay. This was an important first step to restore the community’s faith in ECS administration; however, it is merely a first step.

In order for the ECS community to heal and become truly equitable, leadership must set an example of active, truthful citizenship. Leadership must work hard to improve ECS’s organizational culture and advance equity at all levels.

We, members of the ECS community, demand that ECS administration continue building trust and equity by undertaking to:

---Publicly apologize to Mr. Williams, and publicly acknowledge that he engaged in no wrongdoing;

---Publicly commit to invest school resources in a comprehensive, externally coordinated racial-equity audit; an externally coordinated restorative-justice process; and full implementation of auditors’ recommendations. All steps of this process should be inclusive of and communicated to all ECS stakeholders;

---Publicly commit to comprehensive organizational truth-telling.