School district vies with contradictory federal orders

Presidential directives followed by revocations followed by re-revocations have made it hard to know what is happening or what program is threatened next.

Two big questions amidst all the uncertainty that Champlain Valley School District Superintendent Adam Bunting is wrestling with are what to do about the school system’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and how to respond to the threatened deportation of two Champlain Valley Union High students.

In regards to the initial directive from Vermont that came from Vermont Agency of Education Secretary Zoie Saunders on Friday, April 4, requiring each individual school system to certify, within 10 days, that it’s in compliance with the president’s declaration that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts were “illegal.”

A few days later, after a massive outpouring of complaints from citizens across the state and a joint letter from the Vermont Superintendents Association, the Vermont School Boards Association, the Vermont Principals Association and the Vermont-National Education Association asserting that schools should not be left alone to certify their compliance, Saunders reversed course. She has now said school systems do not need to certify individually, that the state Agency of Education would handle the certification for the whole state.

Before Saunders backtracked on the certification issue, Bunting had said the school system was trying to understand what the state and the federal government were asking for.

“We’re trying to understand what exactly is the Department of Education actually asking us to certify.” Bunting had said. “There’s a lot of unknowns at this point.”

Schools are caught between an avalanche of rocks and hard places. For example, since the passage of 1972 Civil Rights legislation’s titles VI and IX, it has been illegal to discriminate against someone, based on their sex, race, color or national origin, in programs that receive federal funding.

The way this legislation is being defined now, Bunting said, “is different in this era than it’s ever been.”

The question of certification is especially critical because, if a school system falsely certifies something, it is at risk under the False Claims Act.

The administration has threatened that schools that don’t certify they are complying with its order to discontinue diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives could lose federal funds. Bunting estimated the CVSD receives between $3-$5 million a year in federal funds.

He said he appreciated the state stepping up to handle certification in a unified statewide manner.

“What I think was more alarming, was that if individual school districts certified and did not match what the government’s definition is of Title IV compliance, then we could be sued, not only by the federal government, but by any citizen. That goes back to the False Claims Act that started in the Civil War era,” Bunting said.

Student deportation reversal

Another Gordian knot the school system is struggling to untangle is the issue of two Champlain Valley Union High students from Nicaragua facing deportation.

Bunting said the teenagers came with the families to Vermont legally under the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans parole program, or CHNV program, which was installed during the Biden administration. It gave legal immigrants two years to find a path to legal immigration, particularly for people coming from unstable governments.

On March 25, Trump shut down the CHNV program, and those in the U.S. under the program were given 30 days to leave the country or face deportation or detention. According to the administration, immigrants here under the CHNV program have to leave by April 24. In the meantime, the two students have been diligently working to complete all their graduation requirements before they have to leave.

“We hear stories about international students or immigrant activists at elite universities facing the threat of deportation. But this isn’t just happening to college students in big cities. It’s happening to teenagers who live and work in our community,” wrote Bunting and Emily McLean, who is president of the Champlain Valley School District employee association. “It’s happening to young people who are doing everything we say we want from immigrants: integrating, contributing, showing up, learning and caring.”

The students have done nothing wrong, the letter said. They are “suddenly being told they don’t belong. They came to the U.S. legally and have followed the rules as expected. Still, they have been given days to leave the country or face deportation.”

In a phone conversation, Bunting said these two are the only students he is aware of who are in the Champlain Valley School District under this program, but he has heard there are at least 150 people across Vermont who are dealing with this now. Some of them sold the homes they left behind because they thought they would have time to get legal immigration status and permanent homes here.

However, it’s hard to know for sure how many people may be affected by this ruling by the Trump administration. People are afraid to come forward because they’re fearing retribution or deportation, he said.

He described the two as very focused students.

“I sat down with them and was just really inspired by their sense of purpose. They’re doing high-level work,” Bunting said. “I think about all of our seniors and how devastating it would be for them to hear, ‘Actually, we’re not going to have you graduate in June. You’re not going to have these celebrations that you normally have. You can’t participate in the clubs and activities that you so enjoy. You need to leave right now.’”

After meeting with these students, Bunting said he realized: “These students are a part of our community. They are our kids, and we need to take responsibility for them, as we would any student, and what they’re experiencing is wrong.”

But then, another twist in this tangled situation: According to national media, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said last week that she intends to issue a stay on Trump’s order requiring more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to leave the United States.