Lowell schools get an ‘F’ in staff diversity

By Kori Tutt | Lowell Sun

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Bobby Tugbiyele is a Lowell resident and founder of The Leap Network, LLC, a recruiting firm for diverse and underrepresented health care providers. Tugbiyele attended a recent School Committee meeting with many others, urging the board to hire a firm to bring on a new human relations director who is knowledgeable and focused on recruiting practices that ensure diversity. He said the practices and processes outlined in Callery’s memo were outdated.

“I think there should be an aggressive push to attract a wider net of talent and reaching out to more diverse pools of talent that might not be their usual go to,” he said. “I would like to see some additional partnering with local and external organizations to find talent.”

Improved transparency and communication surrounding openings in the city, not just postings on the city website, is also something Tugbiyele wants to see.

Nuon said the approach should be different when it comes to diversifying school staff compared to police and fire employees. For the latter jobs, which require a Civil Service examination, he said the city should go out into the community to let people know when the exams are scheduled. In addition, he said there should be opportunities through the career center to help prepare people for the exams.

Tugbiyele said up until Nuon took office in January, the city was not delving into discussion of its hiring practices.

“I think the value of him is he is sensitive to those topics and those issues and he’s not bringing it to the forefront as an influencer, but as a person who’s involved in politics,” Tugbiyele said. “It’s one thing to have these conversations on a grassroots level — it’s another thing for a city councilor to say, ‘This is a problem. We’ve got to do something about it.”