Hispanics demand stronger voice in Palm Beach County's school district - Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:42 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011
Members of a new group representing Hispanic students and teachers told the Palm Beach County School Board tonight that the school district does not have enough Hispanics in positions of power.
"I believe this was not accidental," said Joaquin Garcia, a member of the newly-formed Hispanic Education Council of Palm Beach County. "The only conclusion is that you are not committed to giving our students the leaders that understand them, relate to them and inspire them."
More than a dozen members of the group spoke at tonight's board meeting, complaining that the district has not done enough to educate Hispanic children and there were not enough Hispanic administrators and teachers.
Group member Peter Camacho said 29 percent of the student body is Hispanic yet no Hispanics occupy the top leadership positions in the district.
"We can occupy positions just like you are right now," Camacho said.
According to county district reports last year, thirty-one percent of elementary students were Hispanic, 28 percent of middle school students and 25 percent of high school students. Lake Worth Middle School had one of the highest percentages of Hispanic students at 47 percent.
Garcia pointed out that none of the 40 new principals appointed positions at schools over the summer was Hispanic and none of the top positions that report to Superintendent Bill Malone is Hispanic.
The Hispanic community, he said, does not trust the district administration and wanted to be heard and give input in the selection of the next superintendent and other top positions.
Carlos Diaz, a former Palm Beach County school teacher and current professor at Florida Atlantic University, said Hispanics are dropping out at higher rates than white students in county schools and have lower standardized test scores than whites. Group members said poor Hispanic student performance might be caused in part by a lack of curriculum about Hispanic history and culture.
School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri said he met with Hispanic community advocates and had brought their concerns to Superintendent Bill Malone. School Board Member Marcia Andrews suggested a disparity study by an outside consultant regarding the lack of Hispanics in top leadership.
Malone promise the crowd he would do as much as he could to address the concerns of the Hispanic community before the next permanent superintendent takes over next summer, which prompted a round of applause from the Hispanic council members.
In other business, the school board:
- Voted 4-1 to transfer Exceptional Student Education Director Laura Pincus to a new position as the deputy general counsel to the school board. School Board Member Marcia Andrews voted against the change.
- Approved criteria that will be used to redraw the voting districts used to elect school board members. This is in response to growth in western parts of the county that now has more than 235,000 residents living in Karen Brill's District 3 in unincorporated western Boynton Beach which is far more than any other district. The criteria will seek to try to balance the population between all seven districts while following municipal boundaries.
School Board Member Jenny Prior Brown, who represents 13 different municipalities in her district, said she wanted to make sure the new districts put entire municipalities in one district instead of splitting a city between districts whenever possible. Brill suggested using U.S. 441 as the district boundary in her district in western Boynton Beach, which is mostly unincorporated.
- Listened to District Auditor Lung Chiu give a report about a surprise audit the district did at 26 schools after the start of classes. Auditors went to these schools because they had previous problems with bookkeeping or missing money. Chiu said the audits did not find any money missing from records at any of the 26 schools and 15 of the schools had their drop safe logs, which are used to record cash transactions, in total compliance.
--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHwsGYU6OnldYAmxgZ74jfcTjk_eg&url=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/hispanics-demand-stronger-voice-in-palm-beach-countys-1871901.html
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
