NAACP starts talks with Poplar Bluff

Kevin Ellis, interim vice president for the Butler County NAACP, approached the Poplar Bluff R-I school board about forming a relationship with the goal of benefiting students.

“Our objective is to engage into dialogue and negotiation with you, as a school board, and any relevant stakeholders to assist in achieving every aspect of educational equality, from curriculum to discipline and through graduation,” Ellis said.

“We believe this objective can be accomplished through forging a friendship and a partnership, working together toward one common goal to achieve the best practices and the best policy for all of our students and all the citizens of the Poplar Bluff School District.”

The desire for this dialogue, he said, is coming when the country is going through a major cultural shift with the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements.

Ellis said he hopes through a partnership, the area can become a beacon for this change.

The goal, he said, is to “eradicate systemic racism or favoritism within our schools and to create the best practices and the best policies that lift us all and provide the very best opportunity for children to succeed.”

This can be achieved, Ellis said, through open dialogue, listening to each other and a desire for progress.

“I would love to have in about six to nine months, the counties around us asking, ‘What are you guys doing over there that is bringing the city together? What are you doing that we’re not doing?’” he said.

Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill said the district has a diversity and equity committee, which meets monthly and invited Ellis and others with the NAACP to attend and work with the committee.

He said the district is planning a professional development day in the coming semester, focusing on “dismantling racism.”

“I think that you’ll find willing ears and willing hearts at the Poplar Bluff School District,” Dill said. “This is good work in which we are already deeply engaged. We look forward, I think, to a long partnership.”