by Guest columnist Calvin Lee
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an opinion article. The articles expressed throughout this newspaper are the sole opinions of the individual author or groups that express them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Speakin’ Out News.
Dear Lawrence County Board of Education members,
The problem with this administration is that there is a court order for hiring minorities, but hardly any are hired. We all know there is a need for change in the Lawrence County School system. Our system is still under a court order for hiring minorities, but the board and Superintendent are not following this order. The plan for recruiting and hiring African Americans needs to be improved before Lawrence County is removed from this order. Simply put, the current recruiting plan needs to be revised!
Currently, the system sends a recruiter from Lawrence County to Alabama A&M and Alabama State University to recruit students. The students complete a survey during the visit. I would like to know what is the purpose of the study. What questions are being asked about it? Is the survey the first step in trying to recruit recent graduates? Is any advertisement being done in newspapers beforehand? These are questions that I have in addition to how many graduates are actually hired after these recruiting events. If the number is low, the recruiting process must be restructured, and other ways to recruit recent graduates must be looked into.
There has never been a follow-up with either university about students who may have been interested in employment with the Lawrence County School system. I would like to know the percentage of students that they interview who are actually hired. This is the only plan for recruiting African-American students, and it needs to be fixed. I have asked the Superintendent numerous times to develop a better strategy to recruit African-American students, but my request fell on deaf ears. Why has never been an African American hired in a supervisory position in the Lawrence County School system? Our children should see more individuals who look like them working in our schools. Two African-American males were recently hired, and one African-American female was rehired. The low numbers being hired concern me and should be to all the citizens in Lawrence County. We, the citizens, need to work on a plan to increase the number of African Americans being hired as teachers in this county. If changes in the hiring process are made right now, the Superintendent will retain sight of the African-American community. And we will go from two or three African-Americans working in the school system to none.