By Arianna Williams, Belmont Voice correspondent
School leaders and local advocates say minority students continue to feel they don’t belong in Belmont Public Schools, despite the district ranking No. 6 in Massachusetts in the 2026 Niche Report, a nationally recognized public school and college assessment organization.
Educators of color keep leaving, and students of color continue to report experiencing microaggressions, school leaders and community advocates say. In response, the district has rolled out new hiring strategies and school climate surveys to address ongoing concerns about connection and support.
“The pattern looks the same, doesn’t matter if you’re in a high-achieving district or a low-achieving district,” said Darnell Thigpen Williams, the district’s director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Well-being. “That pattern is that Black and brown kids are always underperforming.”
In the Belmont school district, 86.6% of educators are white, 4.7% Asian, 3.1% Black, and 2.8% Hispanic, according to a 2025 report by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The student body has diversified more quickly, with about 44% minority and 56% white students. Williams said students of color perform better when they are listened to and when they see themselves in the curriculum and among their teachers. One of his primary initiatives is to retain educators of color, who he said frequently leave the district, citing feelings of being undervalued and underpaid.
“Research tells us that when there are more Black teachers in a district, all students succeed. All students do well,” Williams said.
The 2022 Belmont School District Equity Audit found that Black and LGBTQ+ students reported feeling a lower sense of belonging across the schools. During audit group interviews with Black and Hispanic students, one student said, “A lot of the white kids here have said the N-word. And like we all know who they are. And nothing happens to them. Like they get sent out one day and then they come back.”
Black and Hispanic students perceived teachers and school leaders as avoidant toward hateful incidents, according to the report. The district has since partnered with Belmont Against Racism, a local nonprofit, to promote an inclusive environment in the schools.
“There are so many things, even as a math teacher, you could do to alleviate that,” said Didier Moïse, president of Belmont Against Racism and parent of children in the district. “Once a week, you can talk about the brilliant mathematician who isn’t all white.”
As a parent of children of color, Moïse wants them to feel respected and to see diversity efforts as central to a well-rounded education for all students.
“The world that they inherit is not gonna be just white folks. So you want them … when they go outside of Belmont, to be able to relate to the rest of the world,” Moïse said.
Concerns remain, particularly at the high school, where some students use racial slurs, Moïse said.
“It hasn’t really been easy,” he said. “There are some principals that are more open than others.”
In a statement, Belmont High School Principal Isaac Taylor said, “We regularly hear from students and faculty of color who share that they have felt marginalized or unsupported in our district. We take that feedback seriously. While many in our community experience a strong sense of belonging, we recognize that this is not universal, and we are committed to continued growth.”
Williams said students in the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program often struggle to feel included.
Another trend is rising anxiety among Belmont students. Williams said most of this can be attributed to community and family pressure, as well as the increased workload of Advanced Placement classes. He said students of color seem to face higher levels of anxiety.
“I think that when people don’t really feel a sense of belonging, the anxiety comes out, the well-being issues come out,” he said.
The district is conducting additional surveys and exit interviews to gather feedback on the workplace climate. School officials have formed a task force to strengthen equity-focused hiring and root out bias in recruiting and hiring.
Additional surveys will assess how students feel about school, and educators will receive ongoing training on bias and intolerant language. Williams said the data should reveal the district’s most pressing problems.
“Every child within the Belmont school system should feel like they matter, should feel like their culture is represented, should feel like they belong,” Moïse said.
This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Belmont Voice and other news organizations in the Boston area.
Belmont High School (Photo Credit: Arianna Williams)
Students walking into Belmont High School (Photo Credit: Arianna Williams)
