Robbins residents skeptical of District 218 pledge
Say lack of diversity among staff ‘not a new problem’
By Mike Nolan
Some Robbins residents say they’re skeptical of promises made by Community High School District 218 officials intended to undo years of hiring practices that have left the district with a predominantly white staff while Black and Hispanic students compose a majority of the student population.
At a town hall forum Wednesday, District 218 Superintendent Ty Harting said an equity audit completed earlier this year shows students of color graduate from the district’s three schools with fewer opportunities for academic and professional success compared with their white counterparts.
“They need teachers that look like them to have success,” Harting said.
The audit showed that staff members of color in the district, which includes Eisenhower, Shephard and Richards high schools, said they feel as if they’re not a part of the larger school community and that their input is not well received, Harting said.
Some residents said a lack of diversity among staff and racist attitudes toward students of color have existed for decades, and they expressed doubt things would soon improve.
“This is not a new problem,” one woman said. “This existed in the ’70s.”
Harting and Jacqueline Johnson, the district’s director of equity, were among district officials who came to the session discuss efforts to increase diversity among staff.
Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant, elected in April, teaches physical education and health at Eisenhower High School in Blue Island.
While he thanked district officials for coming to the village, he said it was the first time the district’s superintendent had visited Robbins and he had serious doubts about substantive changes being made.
“I don’t have too much faith,” the mayor told the audience, which included about 20 village residents and elected officials.
“We are in a state of emergency, which means we need a state-of-emergency plan,” Bryant said.
Harting said that completing the audit “is just our starting point,” and acknowledged that significant work still needs to be done.
“We want to show you we are trying,” he said.
Vincent Holmes, a Black man who teaches special education students at Eisenhower, described an “extremely difficult work environment.”
Holmes, who also is a football coach at Shepard High School in Palos Heights, said “my Black colleagues are very frustrated, feeling their voices are not being heard.”
Holmes, who has been at Eisenhower since 2009, said that other Black educators and staff don’t have a high degree of confidence in significant advancements being made.
“They feel like this is lip service,” he said.
Illinois School Report Card data from 2020 showed that 39.4% of the district’s 5,341 students are Hispanic, 30.7% are white and 26.2% are Black. However, 90% of the district’s 371 teachers are white, 5.4% are Hispanic and 4% are Black.
Harting said the percentage of Black students in the district has remained fairly constant, although the percentage of Hispanic students has been on the rise.
Johnson said that, this year, half new hires in the district were Black, Latino or Middle Eastern, and 71% of the 35 new staff brought on last year are among those groups.
The district has established an equity advisory council with a goal of modifying curriculum and making hiring more equitable, she said.
The aim, Johnson said, is that “in every hiring cycle we want to make sure hires reflect the student population.”
The district commissioned the equity audit that included gathering thoughts of teachers, administrators, students and community members.
“We heard a lot of stuff that hurt,” Harting told the group. “Cringeworthy stuff.”
Johnson said that in focus groups, the district heard about concerns that there is a lack of trust the district will take any substantive steps to effect changes.
Johnson said that in addition to her role, equity teams at each of the district schools have been established, and that equity instructional coaches in the schools will work with teachers so they are more “culturally responsive” in interacting with students.
Harting noted the board adopted a mission statement with a focus on equity in the ranks of teachers and in the curriculum taught.
“It’s not just a bunch of words,” he said.
Because the community elects board members, “you can use this equity statement to push on us,” Harting said.
In her role as director of equity, Johnson is serving as something of a compliance officer or inspector general when it comes to issues of equity and diversity, Harting said.
“Part of what we’re asking her to do is hold us accountable,” he said.
Johnny Holmes, who served four terms on the District 218 Board, also expressed doubts that district officials will be able to deliver on promises of change.
“If you are part of the problem it’s going to be awfully difficult to be part of the solution,” he said. “Either current administrators need to make drastic changes or we need new faces.”
Holmes, 75, was police chief in Robbins for 20 years and at the same time worked as head of security for the school district, a job he said he held for 30 years.
“Unless we experience those drastic changes this will go right down the tubes,” he said.
The forum came about after Bryant had, some weeks ago, criticized district officials for passing up a Black candidate for the prestigious position of head basketball coach at Richards High School in Oak Lawn.
He said it was a missed opportunity for the district to make advancement in diversifying the makeup of staff. The vacancy was created after special education teacher Chris Passafiume
resigned after coaching boys basketball at Richards since 2016.
Bryant said Corey Wolf, an assistant coach of the varsity team at Richards, was passed over for the job.
Harting said that Wolf “was absolutely considered for the job,” but that the board, at a June 16 meeting, hired Kyle Rathbun, a special-education teacher at Richards.
Bryant said that Harting contacted him about setting up a meeting following a June 3 column in the Daily Southtown in which columnist Ted Slowik outlined Bryant’s concerns about diversity of hiring in the district.
While not defending the practice as acceptable, Harting said that administrators “tend to hire people like us,” and insisted that the pool of prospective hires of color is limited.
“There are less people to choose from,” Harting said.
Fran Bryant, who works at Rich Township High School District 227, said that the composition of staff in her district, with schools in Olympia Fields and Richton Park, better reflects the student population, with Blacks representing a majority of teachers.
“It is what you choose to hire, the pool you pick from,” she told District 218 officials.
Fran Bryant is the mayor’s mother, and also serves as board president in Posen-Robbins Elementary District 143
Johnson said that district officials are not working in a vacuum when it comes to making improvements in hiring and curriculum, and is encouraging regular input from students and community members.
“We want to make sure your voices are heard and that you are part of the decision-making process,” she said.
At the end of the evening, Harting said the challenge is huge for District 218.
“It was not fun for us but it was honest,” he told the audience.