The Portland School Board voted Tuesday night to hire an outside firm to investigate the district's equity policies.
The vote comes a few weeks after a meeting where staff and parents said the district was undermining equity policies, mistreating educators of color, and failing to adequately protect immigrant students.
Board member Ali Ali said it's an important first step.
"This just reassures everybody that this is the beginning of a resolution," he said, adding that it was "nowhere close to the solution."
Board chair Sarah Lentz said she'll begin the process of forming a committee to select an outside firm this week.
The board also directed the superintendent to take a number of other steps to support equity, including strengthening instruction for multilingual learners and offering staff training to recognize bias and discrimination.
