Members of a local ministerial association are asking school officials in Columbus to increase minority hires and take a closer look at overall student achievement.
Discussions between the African American Pastors Alliance and Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. began with John Quick, who served as superintendent until his retirement two years ago, and have continued with his replacement, Jim Roberts, said the Rev. Mike Harris, who leads Faith Hope and Love Church of God in Christ in Elizabethtown.
“Our meetings have been meaningful,” said Harris, who also heads the local pastors alliance. “We have tackled some issues, but we haven’t moved the dial on this.”
School officials have been meeting with the alliance three to five times a year, resulting in some good dialogue, he said.
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“But we don’t have a plan,” Harris said.
Topics such as increasing staff diversity, raising the academic achievement of African-American males and reducing disciplinary actions against students have been discussed with Roberts, who leads the 11,500-student school corporation.
Minority staffing
The overall makeup of administrators, certified and support staff at BCSC is predominately white, school corporation statistics show. Ninety-seven percent of administrators and certified staff — primarily teachers — employed by BCSC are white, according to information provided by the district. About 90 percent of support staff are white, BCSC statistics show.
The district’s one black administrator, Charles Edwards, serves as assistant principal at Columbus East High School. Edwards, 45, was hired as a dean at East in 2000 and was promoted to his current position four years later.
Two certified staff members are also black, the school corporation statistics show. Seventeen other staff members identified themselves as being Hispanic, multi-racial, American Indian or Asian/Pacific Islander.
The percentages of minorities on the school district staff are below levels in the general population, which is 9.5 percent Asian, 5.7 percent Hispanic and 2.8 percent black, according to 2016 estimates.
The school corporation enrollment data for the 2017-18 school year indicated that 72 percent of students were white, 15 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian, 4 percent multiracial, 2 percent black and 0.3 percent American Indian.
Hiring challenges
Edwards said BCSC works hard to get the opportunity to increase the diversity of the faculty and staff across the district.
“On the surface, it seems like a diversity issue. But if you dig a little deeper, it’s not,” Edwards said.
He said the real issue is the nationwide shortage of teachers, which has created a job market favorable to educators seeking employment.
“Good candidates, whether they be black, white, Asian or Latino, know they’re good candidates and they know because they receive multiple job offers,” Edwards said.
He added such individuals have the freedom to choose among many locations.
Edwards said the quality of the school corporation and the quality of the leadership team he works with are among key factors that have kept him in Columbus.
The assistant principal said he enjoys being able to help students through their transition in high school, he said.
“It’s rewarding to see their success,” Edwards said.
Roberts said BCSC would like to have a more diverse staff in order to serve the needs of its students.
“We believe minority recruitment is extremely important,” Roberts said.
The district goes to minority recruitment fairs and teacher fairs at Indiana University in their search for educators, but there are not a lot of minority candidates to choose from, said Teresa Heiny, assistant superintendent for human resources.
That remains a struggle not only for BCSC, but other districts elsewhere, Roberts said.
For one thing, many minorities aren’t going into education, he said.
The teacher pool of applicants in general has also become more shallow, which has resulted in fewer minorities to consider for jobs, Roberts said.
The district also works to find students throughout the district who may be interested in pursuing a teaching career and eventually having them come back to Columbus to teach.
Roberts said the district is also exploring the possibility of having a recruitment fair with a goal of attracting minority applicants.
If such an event were held, that would be one way the African-American Pastors Alliance could help the district, Roberts said. Harris said his group is willing to take minority job applicants to dinner and show them around the area.
“We’re trying to do whatever we can to bridge that gap with the school system and the community,” Harris said.
Heiny said the district began the search process for the fall 2018 semester looking to fill about 20 teaching openings at different buildings and grade levels.
Edwards said he believes having diversity in the school corporation’s buildings is important.
“It helps folks learn and appreciate different cultures and backgrounds,” he said. “I think it’s important we try to teach them everything we can, including diversity.”
Other diversity issues
In reviewing diversity statistics, the pastor’s alliance said the percentage of disciplinary actions taken against black students — and particularly males — has been disproportionate to overall enrollment makeup in recent years.
Data from BCSC indicates that the district had 1,270 incidents that led to in-school suspensions during the 2016-17 school year for matters such as fighting, profanity, attendance and theft. Of the total amount, 73 incidents were by black students, with 49 of those specifically by black males, according to the district.
Reducing disciplinary action will involve the work of teachers, parents and other individuals coming together to assist students, Harris said.
“If we can do a better job of trying to help and the school corporation can help, we can turn some of these young people’s lives around,” Harris said.
Harris also noted that the pastors alliance would also like to see some improvements in raising academic achievements of black male students.
Roberts said the district has programs such as iGrad in place to assist students who are struggling. The program, which is offered starting in eighth grade for BCSC students, provides tutors, mentors and other assistance to students to ensure they graduate.
Roberts said the program has been successful in helping students, noting that it has a 95 percent graduation rate. He also pointed to the district’s Counseling Counts program that is meant to assist students with their social, emotional or mental health needs.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to raise the achievement level in a positive direction,” Roberts said.
Harris said the pastors alliance’s efforts to improve matters on the topic of diversity is meant to help students.
“I think it will take broader minds collectively to figure it out,” he said. “We have got to be better stewards of helping young people.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Staff diversity breakdown” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Administrators:
- 43 white
- 1 black
Certified staff (teachers)
- 699 white
- 7 multi-racial
- 3 Hispanic
- 2 black
- 6 Asian/Pacific Islander
- 1 American Indian
Support staff:
- 1,344 white
- 45 multi-racial
- 10 Hispanic
- 24 black
- 58 Asian/Pacific Islander
- 6 American Indian
- 1 identified race as unknown
Source: Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
