Inside the Calvert County Public Schools boardroom in Prince Frederick, Jana Smith-Post banged her gavel to interrupt cheers from a packed audience.

One after another, some 20 people had just given emotional testimony condemning Smith-Post and her colleagues’ decision to remove the district’s antiracism policy.

The board president told the noisy crowd to “clear the room” before the meeting was officially over, asking police to assist.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” the audience chanted at board members on their way out last week.

Students of color make up about a third of the Southern Maryland county’s public school student body. The system’s antiracism policy, instituted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, made those students feel safe, people at the meeting said.

The all-white school board’s removal of it — arguing it is redundant of other policies — is the latest in what some see as a drumbeat of right wing actions taken in recent years by conservatives who join Maryland’s nonpartisan school boards. More than 200 people gathered for a rally ahead of the Aug. 7 meeting in Calvert County.

From banning certain books to removing Pride flags and throttling discussions of diversity, equity and inclusion, some Maryland school boards are seen as mimicking actions by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Members of Somerset County’s school board quickly took MAGA-themed actions such as forcing the superintendent to remove guidance on immigration status privacy from the district’s website.

Calvert County, where a majority of residents voted for Trump in November, is also in the throes of a conservative takeover of its schools.

This year, Calvert’s new school board introduced a flag policy that allows only the display of government flags, requested removal of “safe space” stickers, deleted the phrase “inclusive and supportive school community” from the district’s mission statement and stripped antiracism statements from the student handbook, school website and social media platforms.

The school system’s first Black superintendent left this summer, a year before the end of his term. His replacement, another Black leader, has a background in public and Christian schools. Some parents believe the school board’s actions drove out the previous superintendent.

Introducing antiracism

In August 2020, the N-word was spray-painted on Calvert High School’s football field. Four teens later pleaded guilty to a hate crime.

That year, Pamela Cousins, one of three Black school board members at the time, pitched an antiracism policy. The board is made up of five adult members who are elected by the public and serve four-year terms and one student member selected by peers who does not get a vote.

She said families had told stories about racial slurs being thrown around, students of color missing out on academic opportunities and faculty members not believing students who said they were called names.

In her view, an explicit antiracism policy would send a message.

The policy, adopted that December, acknowledged that institutional racism exists in Calvert schools, called for eliminating all forms of systemic racism and disproportional discipline rates among racial groups, and acknowledged the concept of white privilege.

An accompanying resolution added a statement to the student handbook that racism exists but would not be tolerated.

Seven people, including Melissa Goshorn, who would later be elected to the school board, contested the policy in a 2021 lawsuit.

The plaintiffs argued that it had tenets of critical race theory to fulfill a “radicalized political agenda” that includes turning students into social justice advocates.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who recently ordered Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia be returned to the United States from El Salvador, dismissed the lawsuit.

Her 2022 opinion stated that promoting racial equity without resorting to unconstitutional policies is one of the most controversial public school dilemmas today.

“However, the manner in which Plaintiffs have pursued their cause of action is so fundamentally flawed, the case cannot get off the starting blocks,” she wrote.

A new board

Rural Calvert County is about 50 miles from the nation’s capital. Drivers might catch residents riding Jet Skis on the Patuxent River as they cross the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge. The median household income is more than $126,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Although only 14% of the 15,100 Calvert students are Black, they represented 30% of all suspensions and expulsions during the 2023-24 school year, state data shows.

In November, 54% of Calvert County voters picked Trump. Voters also elected an all-white school board.

All five adult members won their seats in 2022 or 2024, including one candidate last year who beat an incumbent. Although the positions are nonpartisan, campaign finance records show new members were financially backed by local Republican groups.

The board got right to work.

In March, it voted to change the mission statement, removing the phrase “inclusive and supportive school community” from the sentence. Board member Lisa Grenis said mission statements should be short and focus on priorities. Fellow member Paul Harrison said the deleted words were “superfluous” and “don’t add any value.”

The next month, Goshorn requested that “safe space” stickers be removed from school buildings, saying they could encourage adults to abuse students. At the following meeting, residents reported the stickers were removed while asking the board to bring them back.

In May, the board introduced its limited flag policy.

In June, the board approved removing the antiracism statement from the student handbook, the school system’s website and its social media platforms. At that meeting, Smith-Post asked that the board review the antiracism policy in August, “outside of its normal review time.”

School board members did not return requests for comment.

A new superintendent

Calvert County’s first Black superintendent, Andraé Townsel, announced in July that he is leaving with one year left on his four-year contract. He took a job as head of the much larger Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut. His departure was not shared with staff before it was announced to the public, according to the board president.

Townsel denied an interview request but said in an email that he “had an amazing time” working in Calvert schools.

Parents are skeptical of whom the board picked to replace him.

At the start of the Aug. 7 meeting — which would end with uproar over the antiracism policy removal — the board announced the district’s new interim superintendent to finish Townsel’s term.

Marcus Newsome has been president of the National Bible College and Seminary in Prince George’s County for about four years. He spent 20 years as a superintendent, largely of public schools. In the last four years, he also mentored and coached school leaders through the Virginia Superintendent’s Leadership Academy, a program he founded.

Mike Shisler, a retired Calvert County educator and member of its NAACP, said he and others wonder whether the board’s pick of Newsome is an attempt to “defuse the race card” following allegations that the board didn’t get along with Townsel because he is Black.

Cousins said there are concerns about Newsome’s commitment to keeping church and state separate.

Newsome said in an interview that he moved to Calvert County to be near his family. His grandchildren are enrolled in the county’s public schools. The school system approached him about the superintendent job, he said. After a couple of meetings with the board, he accepted.

Part of his task is to support the board in the search for a new leader. It’s not his intention to throw his own hat in the ring, he said, but he added, “I never say never.”

Newsome was the first Black superintendent of Virginia’s Newport News Public Schools and the second Black superintendent of Chesterfield County Public Schools in the same state.

“No matter what our race, when people have demonstrated a high degree of competency, that typically rises above the categories that people will put us in,” he said.

He said he was initially reluctant to take the position at Chesterfield but was advised, “We have to prove that men of color can lead large, successful districts, even beyond urban districts, and it will open doors for others.”

When it comes to the antiracism policy and the friction between the board and community, Newsome said his focus is to help any group that feels unsupported.

“My goal is to make every child feel safe in our schools and that they are protected,” he said.

The public’s protest

Charles Bennett of Lusby stood with small American flags at his feet and a sign that read, “No racism in Calvert County Public Schools. We need Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.”

Bennett, part of the 200-person rally ahead of the Aug. 7 school board meeting, said getting rid of the antiracism policy implies that racism is accepted. The same thing, Bennett noted, is happening with the federal government.

“I’m an old white man and, for over 400 years, old white men have caused problems for people of color,” the 73-year-old said. “White people need to stand up for the right thing.”

The overwhelming majority of protesters were white, holding signs saying, “Stop pretending your racism is patriotism,” “Board of Ed, lead with equity and compassion” and “Honk for good trouble.”

Early in the meeting, inside what was once a segregated high school for Black students, the board unanimously agreed to repeal the antiracism policy.

Smith-Post said such a policy “sends the message that we are elevating one form of discrimination over all the other forms of discrimination.”

Grenis, the board’s vice president, said they can all agree that racism in any form is wrong and cannot be tolerated. She noted the state has antidiscrimination and antiracism policies that are strictly enforced across all school systems.

Public comment on the repeal came at the end of the meeting, after the vote had been taken.

One audience member was Inez Capone, who had been on the school board when it passed the policy.

“Your actions tonight are a dangerous regression, a deliberate choice to normalize silence and complicity in the face of racism,” she said. “Are you so naive to think racism ended because it made you uncomfortable? Accounts from students and staff prove otherwise.”

Deborah Harris, president of Calvert County’s NAACP, told the board that the policy had “provided a framework where staff and students can refer to and resolve issues.”

The lone defender of the policy removal was Mariam Canning, one of the plaintiffs in the 2021 lawsuit.

She said one race doesn’t need to be torn down to uplift another. In an interview, she said the antiracism policy was more like a radical equity policy that made everyone upset.

Amanda Racer, a mother of biracial children, told the board that taking away the policy hurts kids like hers.

The board sat mostly silent during the public’s hourlong outpouring.

Board member Harrison, who beat incumbent Antoine White in November, told the crowd that real change comes from voting and campaign donations.

Protesting is great, Harrison said, “but that doesn’t register on the ballot box. Makes you feel better, but you got to get out there and vote.”