Lowell School Board hears calls for hiring diversity

By Rick Sobey | Lowell Sun

…

“Let’s be brave, let’s be bold, and show Massachusetts that Lowell can be a leader,” Lowell parent Bobby Tugbiyele told the committee at the meeting.

Lowell has one of the largest student-teacher diversity gaps across the state.

The student body of the Lowell Public Schools is racially and ethnically diverse — around 70 percent non-white students — but the wide majority of teachers and paraprofessionals in Lowell are white.

“We have one of the most diverse populations in the state, and our student body is being told what to do by white people,” said Sophia Marsden, the Lowell High School student representative on the School Committee.

“So many students don’t feel represented,” she added.

In 2017, the School Committee received a report on the diversity of the district’s hires over the past several years. Over the past two school years, the district had hired 186 white and 27 nonwhite teachers and paraprofessionals.

That was an improvement over the prior two years, when the district hired 225 white and seven non-white teachers and paraprofessionals.

“Nothing has changed,” said Laura Ortiz, who attended UMass Lowell in the late 1980s. “It astounds me.

“It’s important for children to see a world that’s diverse,” she added. “We can do a lot better.”

She pointed to adding a policy in which the district would be required to hire a certain percentage of minority teachers and paraprofessionals.

Lowell School Committee member Robert Hoey said the student-teacher diversity gap is the most significant issue the Lowell School Department is facing.

“I believe in diversity,” he said.

A minute later, he said, “Affirmative action has affected a lot of people who should have been hired,” adding that many white people have not been hired over the years due to affirmative action policies.

The audience did not approve of his comment, with groans from the chamber.

Lowell’s interim Human Resources Director Susan Mulligan has committed to stay until the next one is hired later this year.

Superintendent of Schools Salah Khelfaoui said the administration is considering a search firm to assist in the recruitment of an experienced candidate.

“I’m really hoping we can use this opportunity to get a real creative thinker, and someone who has a real legitimate background in being successful in these diversity hiring efforts,” said School Committee member Connie Martin.