Hiring practice made perfect

It will take bold, political moves to break the glass ceiling that so many of Worcester's minority employees have hit

by Joe O'Brien

Downtown's landscape is being transformed with a wave of new projects led by the new convention center, the Worcester Medical Center, and the resurrection of Union Station. They're bold, undeniable monuments that are sure to bring the city much attention in coming years. Maybe more subtle, but just as important, are the changes in a number of downtown neighborhoods, which were once mostly white communities but are now filled with a mosaic of immigrant groups like Latino and Asian and African-American families. For these events don't occur with ribbon cuttings and front-page photos.

But one group in charge of reflecting the demographic shifts is local government. Stop at City Hall, and you think changing but not all that much. While Worcester has become a more diverse city, local government and public agencies have not reflected its changing contours -- particularly when it comes to hiring representatives of the community which government serves.

To be sure, the city and the school department have made some progress in hiring minorities for entry-level positions. Most notable is the court-ordered mandate to increase the minority police officer ranks. But Worcester's record of filling leadership roles with qualified minorities is abysmal. The recently announced retirement of School Superintendent Jim Garvey and the search for his replacement has brought into the spotlight the city's failure to diversify -- to fulfill the goals set out by affirmative action so many years ago.

Although a handful of community activists hoped that this search would provide an opportunity to hire the first high-profile minority leader, political insiders believe that the job will eventually go to the eminently qualified Assistant School Superintendent Jim Caradonio. In fact, one School Committee member says that before the search even began Caradonio already had the support of a majority of the committee (four out of the seven-member board). If Caradonio is named Worcester's superintendent, we will once again have an all-white leadership team for a system in which almost half the students are minorities.

But the committee has embarked on a national search anyway that is expected to cost the taxpayers an estimated $40,000. And a growing number of school observers suggests that the money would be better spent searching for Caradonio's replacement -- and that replacement should be a minority.

NOWHERE IS THE NEED for affirmative action more pressing than in the Worcester public schools. Over the past 20 years the minority-student population has exploded, today representing 47 percent of the system's 25,412-student population. Along the way, the School Committee and the administration recognized the need for a stronger hiring plan that would make the schools' staff more reflective of the community. And it's been discussed since the early '80s when little could be done about it because of the devastating effects of the Proposition

2 1/2 tax cap, which forced the department to cut, not add, teachers and services. But then came the Education Reform Act of 1993, and the school system was infused with cash that more than doubled the public school's budget from about $70 million in fiscal 1992 to $154 million in fiscal 1999. With this huge addition of state dollars, the school department launched its most aggressive teacher hiring effort in history, hiring 155 new teachers in the past five years.

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Currently, none of the city's 32 departments is headed by a minority. Even worse, none of the eight largest city department (Publics Works and the Parks Department included) has minorities as part of their leadership teams.

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Superintendent Garvey identified the hiring of minority teachers as one of his top priorities and he made it clear to all levels of the school system that diversifying the staff was everyone's responsibility. He also hired a full-time employee to work on minority recruiting, a position that is now filled by Ed Salas, the school's affirmative-action officer. Garvey's efforts have led to an impressive increase in the number of minority teachers. In 1993 the schools only employed 131 minority administrators, teachers, or counselors. Today there are 224, a 70 percent increase.

When you talk with school leaders about affirmative action, it's hard not to get a sense that they're trying to move in the right direction; the affirmative action plan, in fact, is expected to be revised this spring.

Under the current plan, new teaching positions are advertised throughout New England with a special focus on media that have large minority followings. School officials also take their efforts out on the road with Salas and other administrators visiting colleges where minority students are enrolled. School officials and administrators also attend "minority career days" and join in the effort to seek out qualified candidates. Besides visiting New England cities, school personnel have traveled to Puerto Rico and New York to recruit teachers.

The administration, too, has also tried to take steps to increase the number of minorities in the administrative ranks but with less-impressive results. While almost 10 percent of the teachers are minority, only 8 percent of the administrators and principals are. In fact, only five of the city's 48 schools have a minority as principal.

But that's not to say, the department hasn't acknowledged the problem. Administrators have created a mentoring program for all new teachers, intended to help retain them. Salas says it's a critical focus in Worcester, where traditionally school leaders have risen through the ranks, from teacher to principal to administrator.

There is also the Future Teachers Academy Program, which introduces minority youth in grades sixth through eighth to the teaching field, then trains them as tutors in high school; upon graduation they are eligible for a free education at Worcester State College. The hope is that students will then enter the teaching field and come back to work in Worcester.

Perhaps the school's efforts are best summed up by Salas, who explains, "We all know that we need to do better, but we are making a great deal of progress."

HOWEVER, WHEN COMPARED to other cities here in Massachusetts, Worcester's hiring efforts receive only an average grade, comparable to communities like Fitchburg and Leominster. But the city lags behind other urban center like Boston and Cambridge. Despite Worcester's dramatic increase in the number of minority teachers, such teachers still make up only about 10 percent of the faculty. In Cambridge, for example, 19 percent of the teaching staff is minority in a school system with 58 percent minority students. In Boston, where minorities make up more than 40 percent of the teaching staff, 75 percent of the students are minority.

Although some quite properly hail the work of the schools, there are more who believe that Worcester has a long way to go. School Committee member Phil Niddrie agrees that progress has been made, but he points out that "there are many schools in our system that don't have a single minority faculty member." Committee member Ogretta McNeil has been vocal in her criticism of the current recruitment plan. She says that Worcester should not be satisfied with its modest gains and needs to do more.

But McNeil says that the School Committee, not the administration, is to blame for the department's shortcomings on affirmative action. "Jim Garvey is very committed to this issue and he has met the goals set out by the committee," she says, adding that the expectations placed on Garvey are too low.

"You don't need to be an expert to see that this was not a real plan," she says of a recent hiring policy presented to the committee, suggesting that it should be revamped to be more comprehensive, tapping into a "national network so that we can reach out to qualified future teachers."

ALTHOUGH CHOOSING a minority administrator to be the next superintendent would send a potent message that Worcester is committed to diversifying its leadership, political wisdom has Caradonio headed for the top spot. Several members of the board came close to making that public in December, when they argued against a national search, stating that qualified candidates already existed within the system.

So instead of searching far and wide for a superintendent most believe won't be hired, wouldn't it seem logical that the committee should instead be ferreting out a qualified minority to work next to Caradonio.

Sound radical? Actually, it's a lesson already learned. The last time the committee set out to select a superintendent, it conducted a national search that produced several qualified minority candidates. In the end, though, the school board opted to elevate then South High principal Garvey to the top job. Potentially, this sent the message through the national school networks that Worcester is only paying lip service to diversifying its top ranks. And, that's a message that could be sent again.

Instead, several school observers are privately saying that we should use the resources of the national search process to find a qualified minority administrator who could someday rise to the top position.

Worcester's history of community support when it comes to the schools and its strong reputation should provide the board plenty of selling material to attract a strong number-two candidate.

No matter who becomes the next superintendent, he or she will have a great deal of work to do in the school. But the task will look easy compared to challenges currently facing City Hall. While the school department seems at least to be moving in the right direction, the rest of city government is stuck in the Stone Age.

Currently, none of the city's 32 departments is headed by a minority. Even worse, none of the eight largest city department (Publics Works and the Parks Department included) has minorities as part of their leadership teams. While a court order prompted the hiring of minorities at the police and fire departments, both departments have only one minority as a commanding officer.

Unfortunately, efforts on the city side have foundered. City Councilor Stacey Luster, who before her election to the council in 1997 served as the school department's affirmative-action officer, has so far been unable to get the council to address the issue. Last year, she proposed city legislation to fund a more comprehensive effort to hire and promote qualified minorities, but her initiative was allowed to die without any council action. But she says she will to address hiring practices once again when the council launches its budget discussions this spring.

Clearly, the issue of the lack of minorities in leadership positions in city government will continue to be a pressing issue for many years to come.

But perhaps the best course will require bold action by political leaders to show that Worcester is ready to move qualified people of color into its top ranks. The School Committee now has a window of opportunity to take its hiring practices to the next level. If the superintendent search can find a qualified minority to join the school's leadership ranks, the city will break through the proverbial glass ceiling that confronts minority employees. This spring, it will be interesting to see if such political

will exists.