Gateway to hire equity director
After a couple of months of discussion on how to close the achievement gap between black and white students in Gateway schools, the school board Tuesday voted to hire a full-time equity director at a salary between $95,000 and $125,000 based on experience and certifications.
The equity director was recommended by Gateway’s achievement gap committee, which started meeting over a year ago.
The committee recommended that Evergreen and Cleveland Steward elementary schools serve as pilot schools for the program for 2017-18. However, the equity director position will encompass the entire school district, not just those two schools.
The committee also recommended diversity training, culturally responsive teaching, equity goals and policy, and a program to reach out to the homes of underperforming students.
The board voted 7-2 to begin the search for an equity director, with Stephanie Byrne, George Lapcevich, Neal Nola, John Ritter, Chad Stubenbort, Valerie Warning and Scott Williams in favor. Mary Beth Cirucci and Steve O’Donnell dissented.
Before the vote, several residents spoke in favor of the committee’s recommendations.
“Tonight you folks have a chance to make a full commitment to really addressing the achievement gap,” resident Rick McIntyre said.
Epryl King, a member of the achievement gap committee and a second-grade teacher at Gateway, said that culturally responsive teaching is “the researchbased” way of closing the achievement gap. She talked about how she used culturally responsive teaching in her classroom by taking a lesson from a textbook and turning it into something the kids in her classroom would better understand.
Resident Buena Smith Dudley said, “In 1972 and in 1973, we had a petition at the high school and the petition simply asked that we all be represented,” such as playing diverse music at school dances.
“Why would we sit here in 2017 and debate the issue? Why would we hesitate to do the best that we can?” she asked, adding that “it takes someone that is trained, that is educated, that has walked through it, to be able to address it.”
Before voting to hire an equity director, the board rejected hiring an equity director plus a diversity consultant and a culturally responsive pedagogy consultant at a total cost of about $195,000.
It also rejected the administration’s recommendation to hire an equity coordinator at $30,000 per year, a diversity consultant at $15,000 per year, a culturally responsive pedagogy consultant at $15,000 per year, and $75,000 for instructional coaching and tutoring.
The board unanimously approved a proposed final budget of $75.96 million that does not increase taxes for 2017-18. The board is set to vote on a final budget June 20.