BRIDGEPORT

“We love teachers of all races, colors and creeds, but we need to do better at recruiting. I’d like to find ways to improve on our numbers.”

Joseph Sokolovic, Bridgeport Board of Education educational diversity, equity and inclusion committee chair

“We love teachers of all races, colors and creeds, but we need to do better at recruiting,” said Joseph Sokolovic, the committee chair. “I’d like to find ways to improve on our numbers.”

Denise Altro-Dixon, the district’s human resources director, said her office is exploring a variety of ways to hire more educators of color, including holding additional job fairs and increasing advertisements for open positions.

Altro-Dixon said school officials are also working with local colleges and universities to identify diverse groups of student teachers who may eventually transition into fulltime teaching roles after graduating.

“It’s nice to have partnerships with every school, but we want to make sure we’re having partnerships with the right schools,” she said. “We want to make sure that we’re focusing our time and energy on the schools that can give us what we need.”

Board Chair Bobbi Brown suggested the district consider reaching out to historically Black colleges and universities, which are largely located in the South. She noted that students from Connecticut who attended the intuitions may be eager to return home once they are awarded their degrees.

“I truly believe in the idea that those who are teaching (should) reflect our students,” she said.

The district’s demographic figures show there are currently 439 teachers of color, down from 441 a year earlier, but up from 403 two years ago. Of those teachers, 177 are Hispanic or Latino, 188 are Black and 47 are Asian.

The data also reveals a diversity gap among the school system’s 97 supervisors. A total of 56 are white, 28 are Black, 10 are Hispanic or Latino, two are Asian and one is American Indian or Alaskan Native.

The discussion comes as the district continues to wrestle with a teacher shortage that has forced officials to combine classes and hire multiple longterm substitutes. As of this month, about 60 state-certified positions remain unfilled.

In addition to increasing hiring, school officials also want to reduce the amount of turnover among newly hired teachers, which has helped prevent the district from closing the diversity gap.

For example, the slight decline in teachers of color between 2021 and 2022 was largely driven by the departure of about 18 Hispanic or Latino staff members, according to the district data.

“We’re focusing on exit interviews and getting information as to why people are leaving our district,” Altro-Dixon said. “We want to focus on why people are not remaining and why teachers of color are not remaining.”

Altro-Dixon said the biggest hurdle to hiring — and retaining — teachers are the starting salaries offered by the district, which she said are significantly below salaries offered by neighboring localities such as Fairfield and Norwalk.

According to the Bridgeport teachers union contract, new educators with no previous experience make about $45,000 a year. Altro-Dixon indicated the district would need more city or state funding to raise salaries to a competitive level, as well as to cover a staff member’s living costs.

“It’s expensive to live in this area,” she said.