June 17th, 2024: Juneteenth Tabling
Yesterday, On PAR had the opportunity to table for Juneteenth and Father’s Day at Waryas Park! We recruited new members and met different local organizations with which we can partner! Thank you to the City of Poughkeepsie for this opportunity and the On PAR members who showed up to support us! 🧡
June 5th, 2024: June Newsletter
HEY EVERYONE! Please read our June 2024 Newsletter! For more information, please feel free to contact us! 🧡
September 22nd, 2023: Community Fellows Symposium
On PAR members supported Soren Liu ’24 at the Vassar College OCEL Community Fellows Symposium 2023. Soren, the Community Fellow for On PAR this past summer, was incredible! We are thankful for all the work Soren did to advance On PAR forward. The Symposium was outstanding, we enjoyed hearing about all of the work students are doing in the Poughkeepsie area!
June, 2023: Summer Newsletter
February 23rd, 2023: HBCU Showcase at Arlington High School
On PAR is thrilled to have played an important role in encouraging the return of the HBCU showcase for Arlington HS. We are so proud of and grateful to out AHS administrators, House Principals Sharon Spencer and Deborah Bryant, and School Counselor Coordinator Michelle Hartman. Together we rise!
February 14th, 2023: Anti-Racism and Issues of Safety at the ACSD BOE Meeting
Three members of On PAR spoke at the Arlington Central School District Board of Education meeting on February 14th on remarks made by a member of the board, racialized and harmful language, and the discriminatory impacts of School Resource Officers. You can find the recording of the meeting here, with testimony beginning at 1.50.30.
November 8th, 2022: Feature on “The Good Work Hour”
Listen to the interview here.
November 8th, 2022: School Board Victory
On PAR members spoke at the November 8th Board of Education meeting against the donation of pocket Constitutions by the organization Moms 4 Liberty, which has a history of racist and homophobic rhetoric as well as being an explicitly political organization. Allies from Defense of Democracy and others spoke as well. You can find the recording of the meeting here, with testimonies from us and our allies starting at 32:56.
November 4th, 2022: Community for Choice
On PAR member Curtis Dozier attended and spoke at the “Community for Choice” event on November 4th. The event was an opportunity to meet pro-choice candidates and share personal stories in a safe space. Abortion bans disproportionately affect communities of color, making reproductive justice an essential part of racial justice.
September, 2022: Racism & Identity in Dutchess County Schools
On Wednesday, September 21, 2022 from 6-8:30pm we held an event at the Vassar Farm Ecological Preserve about racism and identity in Dutchess County, a panel including various stakeholders, and the opportunity for people to take action in a variety of ways on a variety of issues in smaller groups (from running for the school board to in the moment actions on specific topics from discipline schools to faculty representation).
Please check out this article about our event from Vassar College’s Miscellaney News. To take action on issues using the resources from the event, you can check out this link or go to: https://bit.ly/DCraceandschools-takeaction. Sign up for our email list to hear about future events organized by us and our allies!
February, 2022: Cases of Racism in the Arlington Central School District
On PAR member Eva Woods wrote an article for La Voz, a Hudson Valley Hispanic culture and news from Bard College. Read (written in Spanish) here.
February 10th, 2022: Poughkeepsie Community
Thank you to our beautiful allies in the Poughkeepsie Community Action Collaborative (PCAC) who sent out this powerful letter on our behalf of children in Arlington schools suffering from racism. We thank the PCAC for their solidarity and for modeling how angry and righteous we need to be when any children are suffering from racism anywhere, not just our own backyard. All of our children suffer when children are targeted by racism. Racism dehumanizes us all. That is why all of us need to be involved in dismantling it.
January 26th, 2022: “Racism in the Arlington Central School District and the 4H Program in Ulster County”
La Voz with Mariel Fiori spoke with On PAR’s Eva Woods Peiró about the cases of racism that she has encountered in the Arlington Central School District and what is being done about it through the group that she has founded, On PAR (Arlington Partners Against Racism). Listen to the episode here.
January 24th, 2022: On PAR member Taneisha Means on Spectrum News: “Dutchess County Mom Wants End to Culture of Racism and Bullying in [Arlington Central] School District”
Watch the video here.
December 22nd-28th, 2021: Arlington District Silences Discussions of Racism
On PAR Eva Woods’ letter to the editor of the Southern Dutchess News.
November 9th, 2021
In connection with the BoE’s stated interest in “safety”, On PAR member Kristin Dionne informed the board about racist and antisemitic violence her children have observed at Union Vale Middle School. Watch more here.
October 26th, 2021
On PAR member Taneisha Means presented action items to the BoE that, if implemented, would make the ACSD calendar more equitable and inclusive of diverse religious holidays. Watch here.
October 26th, 2021
On PAR member Eva Woods educated the board of Education about Racial Equity Detours. Watch here.
October 12th, 2021
On PAR member Eva Woods called on the Arlington Board of Education meeting about how district families can admire some aspects of the district’s work on wellness and belonging while still recognizing its failure to promote racial justice. Watch here.
September 28th, 2021
On PAR made the following statement at the funeral of Quraan Smith, an Arlington Central School District student who was murdered at an Arlington football game on September 17th, 2021. A recording of On PAR’s Shona Tucker reading the statement is also available.
March, 2021: My Brother’s Keeper Summit
On March 19, 2021, the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) group held a summit at Arlington High School. The purposes of the summit included “Insight into the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative” and to “Gain support from our local and global community members to provide mentorships, internships, guest speaking roles, and/or any other assistance deemed necessary to help us foster the young men of our program.”
The mission of MBK at Arlington High School is to “build trusting relationships between families, school, and community through empowerment and mentorship focused on improving outcomes for boys and young men of color. Our vision is that all students and families will achieve their goals together, in partnership with the school and community. We endeavor to prepare high school graduates who are life-ready and prepared to succeed in their future endeavors.
You can watch and share the recording here or using this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG_U91iAeLg. On PAR was very involved in bringing MBK to Arlington High School, and you can learn more about them here.
November 13th, 2020
Shona Tucker and Eva Woods Peiró on racism in the Arlington Central School District for Community Affairs Radio. Listen to the podcast here.