Springfield Public School District 186

The provision of the Desegregation Order provided for the appointment of a District-wide Affirmative Action Committee as representative of the community as possible, and appointed by the Superintendent of Schools.

The committee’s charge would be to gather research materials and receive input from various community groups and present to the Board of Education for final adoption.

The committee’s goal was to present a plan to the Board of Education to recruit and employ African-American certificated staff at a ratio to what African-Americans represent in the Springfield community

The Board of Education commissioned a committee of board members, District administrators, teachers, and citizens to study the number of minority employees in the District and to develop a plan to improve upon the ratio of minority employees to those non-minority.

The committee was chaired by Robert Davis and began meeting in October 2001.

The committee met bi-monthly throughout the year and concluded its discussions on Monday, May 1, 2002 for future presentation to the board.

The committee conducted an employee race survey of all the schools and facilities in the District.

Major points of concern were gathered from the survey based on data from the 2001-02 school year)

Only 7% staff were African-American teachers.

21% staff are African-American building level administrators.

21% staff are African-American teacher assistants.

12% staff are African-American employees.

There were no African-American middle school principals or assistant principals.

There were no African-American guidance deans at Springfield or Southeast.

There were no African-American teachers at Enos, Fairview, Laketown, Lindsay, Southern View, McClernand, or Pleasant Hill.

MRAC developed recommendations/strategies to Meet the Goals

Implement a “Grow Your Own” Teacher Program.

Revise the current District 186 video for the purpose of recruitment and distribution to potential African-American teachers.

Continue to recruit potential African-American teachers at colleges and university job fairs.

Improve late hiring practices in the District.

Evaluate placement on the salary schedule of newly hired teachers with previous teaching experience in other school districts.

Develop and implement a mentoring program for new teachers.

Employ African-American male teacher assistants.

Develop an on-line electronic application for employment on the District’s web-site.

Develop financial incentives.

Connect with other civic and community groups to build support for the mission to recruit and retain African-American teachers for the District.

The committee also recommended goals for the District to achieve in the hiring of African-Americans.

Each elementary school will have at least two or more African-American teachers on the staff.

All middle schools and high schools will have two or more African-American teachers in the academic core subjects.

There will be one or more African-American administrators on the central office/cabinet level staff.

There will be one or more African-American guidance deans in each middle school and high school.

At least 25% of the elementary school principals will be African-American.

Encourage and appoint African-American teachers in administrative training programs and positions. At least 25% of the principal’s assistants shall be African-American.

Appoint an oversight committee to monitor and evaluate the progress of the implementation of the approved minority recruitment plan.

MRAC evolved to the current council with the leadership established in 2005 of co-chairs Mr. Robert Blackwell and Ms. Gail Simpson.

The District’s Coordinator of Recruitment provides staff services to MRAC relevant to recruitment, retention and employment information.

The local branch of the NAACP operates as the regulatory, compliance, and consultant in supporting the district to incorporate the goals of the Consent Decree

In December of 2006 the Board of Education approved the “Finishers” document titled District 186 Rules and Regulations-Professional Personnel – Minority recruitment and hiring. This document codified the district plan for recruiting African American certified staff to the district.

In 2006, Implemented a “Grow Your Own” program now in partnership with IBHE. We have graduated 5 teachers and employed 4 thus far.

Ongoing partnership with UIS Mid-State Student Support for Teaching (MSS) program. Have employed all Springfield graduates of the program.

Implemented Service Learning Teacher academy established at LHS to.

Continue to recruit African American teachers at colleges and university job fairs . . .

. . . through Historically Black Colleges job fairs, . . . By developing partnerships with Historically

Black Colleges Schools of Education, . . . through IASA job bank, . . . through social networking,

. . . through National and State Education Conventions,

. . . as a presenter for Career Services at BU, ISU, UIS, UICC,

. . . by recruiting students through the Professional Development School Showcase of ISU,

. . . by networking with Greek Organizations,

. . . by networking with Minority Educator organizations

. . . developed strategies and a team of mentors to improve teacher retention,

. . . connect with civic, fraternal, religious, business, and community groups to build support and the connections to the overall community.

. . . and most significant, hosting potential candidates minority and non-minority in the district and scheduling interviews with Principals with potential vacancies.

Reports to the MRAC, HR department, school board of relevant recruiting outcomes.

Professional Development to Administrators and Hiring managers.

Completion of Minority Reports to the Court. Creation of and enforcement of policy related

to minority recruitment and employment.

Enforcement of SEA contractual agreements related to minority hiring, employment, and retention.

Enforcement of SEA contract as it relates to staffing buildings.

Identification of minorities who apply for positions in the District.

Implementation of Singleton Rule

Implemented Board Policy that, The District in compliance with applicable law will actively recruit and hire qualified minority personnel, both certified and non-certificated, in all areas of employment.

# OF CERTIFIED TEACHERS

# OF MIN TEACHERS

# SEPARATIN

G FROM DISTRICT

# OF NEW MIN STAFF

% OF INCREASE

% OF M DISTRICT

STAFF# OF ADMIN

# OF MIN ADMIN

% OF MIN

ADMIN

# OF CENTRAL

OFFICE

# OF MIN CENTRAL

OFFICE

% OF MIN CENTRAL

OFFICE

FY04 1065 71 8 7 9.90% 6.60% 69 16 23% 26 5 19%

FY05 1080 78 11 9 11.50% 7.20% 71 17 24% 17 3 18%

FY06 1058 85 3 20 23.52% 8.00% 68 14 21% 21 4 19%

FY07 1111 103 5 21 20% 9.27% 68 14 21% 21 4 19%

FY08 1152 112 6 22 20% 9.70% 68 16 24% 25 7 28%

FY09 1202 120 10 25 21% 10.00% 77 20 26% 27 7 26%

FY10 1262 122 ? 18 15.00% 9.70% 69 19 28% 25 7 28%

FY11 1282 128 7 15 12.00% 10.00% 69 19 28% 24 7 29%

FY12 1262 131 5 20 15.00% 10.38% 84 26 31% 21 7 33%

FY 13 1324 130 *9 14 10.80% 9.80% 82 27 33% 19 5 26%

Goal: 18.4%

* Pending Data Information taken from the reports to the Court. Minority staff numbers include Hispanic, American or India, and Asian/Pacific Islanders. Note: The Coordinator of Recruitment position started in October 5, 2005. The first year the position is

responsible for recruitment data is 2006. Since 2005 the percentage increase of minority staff is in the double digits. The district has implemented RIF the last three years. The data is reported as of March of each year.

Lack of enforcement of Consent Decree The cancelation of scheduled job fairs,

potential candidates visiting the district and interviews due to the “potential for criticism”.

Decentralized hiring

Not holding administrators accountable for violating tenants of the Consent Decree

Lack of budgetary priority Placement of the recruiting budget and

oversight in the appropriate department Restrictions on offering “Letter of Intent”

to qualified candidates

Late hiring practices

SEA contractual language which gives recall rights to teachers who have fulfilled their contracts.

SEA contractual language that places minority hiring at the same level of those teachers who have fulfilled their contracts.

While continuous progress has been made, Springfield Public School District 186 has not yet reached the goal of the 1976 Consent Decree, that the recruiting and hiring of African-Americans maintain a minimum requirement of staffing at the percentage African-Americans represent in the Springfield community, that of 18.4%.

Reaching and maintaining the goal by recruiting and retaining minority certificated and non-certificated staff depends on embracing this philosophically as a priority at all levels of the organizational structure and a sincere commitment by the school board, administrators, faculty, community and all stakeholders.