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Minority recruiting lacking in schools

July 06, 2012

I agree with the NAACP’s disappointment regarding the recent principal selection process and lack of minority educators in Danville schools.

As a parent representative on the Danville High School SBDM council, I participated in the hiring process, and I asked Superintendent Coleman repeatedly if we were adhering to KRS 160.380(2)(d) as it relates to recruiting minorities. The superintendent must report annually the district’s recruitment process and the activities used to increase the percentage of minority teachers. She said she had done so but offered no evidence to that end.

The district’s recruiting efforts, or lack thereof, are further evident in its Minority Educator Recruitment and Retention Plan, which outlines goals for hiring minorities and a plan for recruiting. Each job posting must reflect the number of minorities interviewed and hired. Those goals were not met for the last two years, and the plan for 2011-2012 has not been submitted.

Danville employs no minority administrators and only 1 percent of its teachers are minorities. Are there are no qualified minority applicants, or are our schools not enticing enough? Perhaps recruiting efforts are simply not aggressive enough. The newly vacant assistant principal position at DHS presents the perfect opportunity to demonstrate whether the recruiting mandate is taken seriously.

A recent newspaper article boasting Dr. Coleman’s “high marks” left me somewhat perplexed. How was the Board of Education able to give outstanding reviews in every area of her evaluation when the issue of minority educators and the law is clearly not being addressed.

I am left to wonder whether the board has taken notice or is even concerned about this, or whether this is an area on which the superintendent is evaluated. If not, it should be.

Danville is a diverse community, and the student body reflects this. Diversity is more than a word conveniently tossed around; it is a movement and should be reflected across all levels of our school system. We must not allow our school district’s reputation to be tarnished by a lack of due diligence from central office.

LaKeysha Singleton

Danville

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