By Ketki Chauhan ‘16

As a step to decrease the racial gap between students and teachers, Superintendent Joshua Starr released a four-point plan outlining his approach towards creating a more diverse workforce in the county. The Board of Education accepted his plan and believes that MCPS staff should be reflective of the diverse students in the county.

Board of Education President Patricia O’Neill believes that with the right support and the right attitude the county will make progress. O’Neill adds that diversity of staff is important in all schools because students will be exposed to adults of all races, ethnicities and background in roles of authority and mentoring.

“We will be monitoring the initiative closely to ensure we are cultivating diverse applicant pools for our school system. We will be expanding our dragnet to all colleges and universities and of course targeting HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities]. We would not be doing it in isolation of our traditional outreach, so it would not be based on race,” O’Neill explained.

Michael Durso, Vice President of the Board of Education, agrees that the selection process will not largely be based on race. Instead, he thinks that is a false concern because the county is not just looking for teachers who are of color.

“I don’t speak for the board, but I think [targeting HBCUs] is a reasonable way of attracting black teachers, and if those teachers meet all the qualifications, then I think we ought to go after them. If the purpose is to increase diversity, then I think it makes sense to go where the diversity is,” Durso continued.

Both board members agree that the process to increase diversity in the county will be gradual and that the lack of diversity is a problem nationwide. Durso adds that the school system may not always be seen as welcoming, noting that some people either felt that they couldn’t get into the county or that the county took too long to respond back to applicants on the status of their job.

Principal Bill Gregory believes that location is another reason for the racial gap between teachers and students and sees it as a possible explanation for the gap at Sherwood. He adds that for many people, Sherwood may be far from their home and people try to go to school that is closest to their home.

In the past two years, three black teachers transferred from Sherwood to schools with a larger percentage of black students. Gregory explained that some of those teachers wanted to be closer to home. From what he was told by those teachers, there were no problems about feeling underrepresented.

“A big reason why our teacher population doesn’t mirror our student population is because the county doesn’t have a similar pool,” Gregory said. “We do look to interview a diverse group of candidates that apply for our jobs and if possible, we recruit these people to apply for a position at Sherwood. We can only interview from those that apply to our school.”

Gregory serves on a committee that is addressing diversity in the teaching force and in the county. At Sherwood, 75 percent of teachers are white whereas only 54 percent of students are white. Based on 2013 data, the overall teaching staff for MCPS is 75.7 percent white with only 33 percent of the county’s student population being white.

Other statistics regarding demographics in MCPS may be found online at the MCPS website where the link to Starr’s memorandum was also posted. The memo was the basis of the board’s discussion at their December 9 meeting. A news video regarding the initiative can also be found on the website with staff commenting about it and their hopes to see a more diverse county as a result of it.