Wednesday, November 26, 2014

NAACP calls for change in Fayette superintendent selection committee

This from WKYT:
A civil rights organization is calling for change in how the Fayette County Board of Education picks its next superintendent. The Fayette County chapter of the NAACP wants Roy Woods, the chairman of the Equity Council, added to the committee.

The group had a news conference Monday at William Wells Brown Elementary School. The school ranked last of all Fayette County elementary schools in the latest state tests.

Rev. Jim Thurman, President of the NAACP Fayette County chapter says the superintendent selection committee needs to reflect the entire committee and adding Roy Woods would meet that goal.

"Not only do we have a vested interest in it, we want to make sure that we have adequate representation. So we're suggesting that a seventh person, Roy Woods, be added to that search committee," said Rev. Thurman.

The school district has to follow Kentucky law which says if the six-person selection committee does not include a minority member, then a minority parent will be added and elected by other parents. Under the law, only parents decide the seventh member, not community leaders.

The NAACP points to several factors as reasons for needing an expert in equity issues on the selection committee: poor test scores at schools with a high number of minority students, a lack of minority teachers and a high suspension rate of minority students.

Rev. Thurman says Fayette County's next superintendent needs to know how to address those issues, saying "someone that has looked, has long-term vision, has a proven track record of turning these kinds of things around. Not someone that comes in and sits and maintains the status quo. We want someone more proactive rather than reactive."

Nominations for the superintendent selection committee were due Monday at 5 p.m.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, this will solve all of the problems.

Anonymous said...

23 percent of the student population in FCPS are African American. I'm curious as to how many African American teachers are certified to work in Kentucky.

My point is that the NAACP really shouldn't be making demands. Where is the Hispanic representation? They make up 14 percent of the student population....shouldn't they get a committee member? What about brown-eyed, red heads? They probably want to be represented too.

Make the madness stop. No one is out to get anyone or leave anyone intentionally out of the loop.

Anonymous said...

As a gay teacher and taxpayer in our district, I love the way the NAACP issues its demands. What about equity for gay, lesbian, and transgendered students, employees, and faculty. Diversity is erroneously perceived to be black and white in FCPS.

Anonymous said...

Regarding one of the comments to this blog post by Richard:

Yes...yes

They are intentionally leaving out the minority and special needs children. FCPS has a history of using federal money earmarked to vulnerable students to pay regularly scheduled salaries. They then use the general fund money that is freed up anyway they want. There needs to be a closer audit.

As for Hispanic and GLTG groups, they need to step up and join the NAACP. It is laudable that the NAACP is lobbying and for all of our children I might add. The equity gap I opine is a direct result of very questionable accounting and spending. This sort of "mismanagement" affects the caucasian kids too. I would encourage everyone to get involved.

You can contact the NAACP at 859 252 7336. They represent all minorities.

Mike Winkler

Anonymous said...

So minority board candidates don't win at the ballot box this month, we are to assume NAACP now has some self prescribed authority to make demands about representation. Not sure how one can argue to be championing "all children" but using minority education as your issues of concern.

With all do respect to Mr. Winkler, I don't think many folks see the NAACP as working to "represent all minorities", nor does its own membership or leadership represent that claimed diversity. Not discounting their credability or goals, just don't see Hispanics, Asians or Native Americans as perceiving NAACP as their representative.