Is D218 missing chance to boost its diversity?
Robbins mayor critical of Richards basketball coach hiring decision
Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant is criticizing hiring practices in one of the town’s high school districts, saying school officials should do more to recruit and promote candidates who reflect the diversity of the student body.
The potential hiring of a new head coach for the boys basketball team at Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Lawn is the latest example of a missed opportunity to address racism in High School District 218, Bryant said.
“Ninety percent of staffing at all the locations in the district is white,” Bryant said. “The community is tired. They’re fed up. They’re frustrated that once again we had a candidate who was qualified but was overlooked.”
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.
District 218 Superintendent Ty Harting said Wednesday the district is doing all it can to aggressively recruit minority candidates for teaching and coaching positions.
“It’s been a goal of ours,” Harting told me. “It’s something we’ve been working on for quite some time. We’ve not been tremendously successful over the years. But we’re in the midst of a major equity push within the district.”
The district hired Bryant, 29, who said he is the youngest Black person ever elected mayor in Illinois. Bryant teaches physical education and health at Blue Island’s Eisenhower High School, his alma mater.
Richards is the high school alma mater of NBA superstar Dwyane Wade, who grew up in Robbins. Wade retired from pro ball in 2019 after three championships and 13 All-Star appearances.
The Richards basketball court is named in honor of the famously generous 2001 alumnus, who provided $150,000 to renovate the gymnasium with a new scoreboard, projection screen, sound system, renovated bleachers and refinished hardwood floor.
The head basketball coaching job at Richards is a marquee position, a high-profile gig that has significant symbolism and meaning for many in the community.
Bryant said he is publicly airing his criticism in order to raise
awareness about racial issues in District 218.
“It’s bad,” he said. “We’ve been having this ongoing problem but the public has been blind to it.”
Black and Hispanic teachers and coaches can inspire students of color and improve their academic performance, according to research. There are too few teachers of color, however, to be role models.
The state needs 14,000 more Black educators and 28,000 more Hispanic teachers to accurately reflect diversity of student populations, the Illinois Schools Board Journal reported in 2018.
Harting said District 218 recently hired a consultant to conduct an equity audit. Interviewers gathered students, employees, community members and others in focus groups, he said.
“We wanted to get their feedback on their perception of the district, in particular in issues of race, equity and social justice,” Harting said.
The district adopted the consultant’s recommendation to form a committee to examine hiring practices, he said.
“We looked at who goes into the room to do the interviews, the types of questions candidates are asked, how we recruit and find these candidates and bring them into the district,” Harting said. “That’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to attack this head on.”
The district is making progress, he said.
“We’ve had some recent success,” Harting said. “Last year, 10 of our 14 hires were persons of color. It looks like we’ve got a really diverse group this year as well. We feel pretty good about that.”
A hiring committee of diverse members recently assessed candidates for a coaching job at Richards. Special education teacher Chris Passafiume resigned after coaching boys basketball at Richards since 2016.
“I know there are some people upset about a potential basketball hire, but even in that situation, our hiring committee had two of our administrators, one African American and one white,” Harting said.
The school board is expected to act on a recommendation to fill the position when it meets June 17.
Bryant said Corey Wolf, an assistant coach of the varsity team at Richards, was passed over for the job. Wolf ’s teams won conference championships when he coached freshman and sophomore squads, Bryant said.
“He played at Richards and was on the only state championship team Richards
had, in 2008,” Bryant said. “And he’s a certified teacher. He works outside the district.”
Wolf teaches at Johnnie Coleman School in the Chicago Public Schools system, according to the school’s website. Efforts to reach Wolf Wednesday were unsuccessful.
In addition to teaching at Eisenhower, Bryant helped coach the football team for the past four years, he said in a video message recorded in September and posted on the school’s website.
“I’m living the dream,” he said of working at his high school alma mater. “I don’t take this job lightly.”
The basketball coaching opportunity at Richards is the latest sign of how District 218 needs to do more to confront racism, Bryant said.
In August, at the beginning of the pandemic affected academic year, Harting wrote an open letter to community members in response to criticism over a teacher being told to remove a Black Lives Matter banner that she used as a background while teaching remotely.
The district required students and teachers to have either a neutral blank background or a school logo background when classes began, Harting wrote. Reaction to the teacher’s BLM banner was mixed, he wrote. Some expressed support for the teacher.
“We also received other emails in opposition, including some extreme ones that were racist in nature,” Harting wrote. “This is the world we live in — a world in which there is angry opposition to almost any opinion. We seem to be losing the ability to have meaningful dialogue about sensitive issues.”
I think Bryant is passionate about equality and I commend him for wanting to hasten efforts to increase the numbers of Black and Hispanic teachers and coaches in District 218.
At the same time, I commend the district for recognizing its shortfalls, confronting the problem head on and implementing a plan to hire more teachers of color amid a statewide shortage of candidates.
There are often nuances to hiring decisions. Privacy considerations sometimes affect how much information an employer is able to publicly release about personnel.
Data are solid evidence, however, and demographics for students and teachers show that District 218 should continue its efforts to hire more Black and Hispanic teachers and coaches.