The Gateway School Board approved a resolution Jan. 19 that urges members to engage in diversity training.

The resolution, approved 6-1 with board member Mary Beth Cirucci abstaining, was drafted by board member Scott Gallagher. He said he hopes it will lead to better interaction with the district’s equity committee as it moves toward implicit bias training, cultural understanding and sensitivity training, religious differentiation training and gender identity training.

Gallagher said the resolution was not meant to force school board members to do such training. Instead, it is a way to encourage further diversity awareness and open a line of communication between board members and the Gateway Equity Committee, which comprises district teachers and administrators.

All the topics are training programs that Gateway staff undergo through the equity committee, officials have said.

But board members have also already undergone similar training, said board member John Ritter, who cast the lone dissenting vote.

“In theory, I agree with the fact that all school board members need to take the training from (Pennsylvania School Board Association) or other folks, but PSBA has already done a terrific job of offering a full suite of training,” he said, adding that he’s taken three equity trainings from PSBA’s director of school equity services, Heather Bennett, since September.

Ritter said his vote against the resolution does not mean he will not participate in the training.

Cirucci called for Gallagher to withdraw the resolution after a lengthy prepared statement she read during the Jan. 19 meeting. However, since Gallagher’s resolution had already received a motion and a second, the board was under obligation to vote on it.

Cirucci said the resolution is not required in order for diversity training to be offered to board members. She said requiring or strongly suggesting board members – who are not employees of the district – go through with training not already required by state school code is illegal. Cirucci pointed to the school code that states elected board members “shall not engage in illegal discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color” and encouraged the board to look to PSBA and the law for guidance on programs for equity.

She said she will consider reading materials and training offered to her that is above and beyond what is already required by the school code.

“I certainly support self evaluation and self improvement,” she said.

Nevertheless, she said, the call for more diversity training has been prompted by former board member Paul Caliari’s “mistake.”

Caliari resigned earlier this month amid an ongoing lawsuit that claims he called a job candidate’s husband a racial slur in a text message, and that the text cost her a job with the district as its athletic director.

She said the fallout from Caliari’s resignation has become a distraction from getting the district’s students back in the classroom after months of disruption from the covid-19 pandemic.

“Right now we have 3,200 kids that have had their academic lives flipped upside down regardless of their race, gender, religious or political views,” she said. “That is where the time, energy, and money should go. We need to focus on getting our kids back in the classroom and back on track.”

The original role call was 5-1 with two board members – Cirucci and Val Warning – abstaining. Warning, during her report to the board at the end of the meeting, changed her vote to a “yes.” She did not explain her change in direction and did not respond to a request for comment.

Board member Susan Delaney said she doesn’t think anyone could ever be “overtrained.” She said the events around the world over the past year should make everyone more mindful.

“Being more mindful, we should want to, in every way, better ourselves,” she said.

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