DividED: Modesto City Schools

Total paid to consultants for race-based programming: $2,098,000

Total federal funds used: $2,098,000

SUMMARY

Modesto City Schools appears to be currently running race and sex-based programs for students of color. These include a “male students of color” program. The district has paid out $2,098,000 to the consultant to run these programs for the district.

IMPROVE YOUR TOMORROW, INC.

On June 17, 2024, the district school board approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Improve Your Tomorrow, Inc. for program centered on “young men of color.” The agreement, which is in effect from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026, utilizes Title IV funds to pay the consultant $1,348,000 over the two year period.

At the June 7, 2021, board meeting, the district approved a three-year, $750,000 contract with the organization to “provide mentoring and college and career readiness supports for middle/junior high school and high school male students of color.” The district used ESSER III funds to pay for the cost.

This programming is validated in the district’s 2023 revised ESSER III Expenditure Plan.

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In 2023, the school board approved a resolution in “Support of the 1300 Campaign” which was founded by Improve Your Tomorrow, Inc. with the design to “send 1300 more students of color to four-year institutions by 2025.”

The school district supports several of the commitments included in the campaign such as “Incorporate Ethnic Studies as a high school graduation requirement to increase a students’ sense of self,” “Improving the social-emotional and academic conditions of students, particularly young men of color, by establishing relationship-centered mentoring rooted in resistance, agency, identity and culture,” “Hire support staff that represent the diversity of the student population,” and the “Development of an Organizational Racial Equity Assessment Tool.”