Superintendent Nancy Gartenberg of Montgomery Township School District described her experiences of racial conversations in NJNS after her second year as a member. As a white woman, she reflects on how the developing relational trust within the group enabled her to engage in conversations about race in ways that supported her work in her district as well as her own learning:

I recall one time when we wound up having a conversation about the white person’s experience with people of color, and the Black perspective on the white person’s perspective. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an honest conversation. I think there is a tendency for my white colleagues to feel badly in general for the treatment of Blacks in this country, and there is a Black perspective that the average white person does not get it.

I felt safe–safer, not completely safe in the beginning, because it really was one the first couple of months since I’d been in the network. But there was a sense that people were able to ask a question without somebody being defensive. I think there’s an implicit trust in that group for me that what we say in that room doesn’t go any further.

–Dr. Nancy Gartenberg, Former superintendent, Montgomery Township School District

“Dismantling Systemic Barriers Across Demographic Difference”