I’m starting to feel sorry for the next superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools. Because the way the IPS School Board and Interim Superintendent Dr. Peggy Hinckley are behaving, the next leader of Indiana’s second largest school district will be wounded before he or she gets comfortable in the position.
In two weeks, Dr. Hinckley will make her final recommendations for personnel reductions to the IPS Board for approval or rejection. Hinckley’s initial list of personnel changes launched a firestorm as the majority of the cuts eliminated African-American employees.
Hinckley has created an impression among some in our community that African-American IPS employees, especially males, are seemingly targeted for removal.
The impression isn’t helped by the fact that since former Superintendent Eugene White’s departure, veteran Black administrators have been demoted or kicked to the curb. While other veteran whites (or those with less experience) remained.
Dr. Hinckley’s staffing decisions run counter to what school board candidates said during last fall’s elections. Then, board candidates openly talked about cutting administrators and staff in the IPS central administration.
Yet, the personnel reductions, particularly those of African-Americans, seem to have been in school buildings, where African-Americans were already an endangered minority.
Despite the fact that the majority of the overall and student population in IPS are minority, 80.6 percent of teachers in IPS are white.
A failing of Black leadership is that we looked at the color of the IPS superintendent while overlooking the lack of racial diversity in IPS’ classrooms. Black leadership, including this columnist, also ignored the level of racial diversity in all the school districts where Black children are educated in Indianapolis.
So, thanks dysfunctional IPS Board and Dr. Hinckley.
Your inattention to improving racial diversity in IPS’ workforce has caused our community to take a closer look at the diversity among the men and women charged with teaching our kids.
Let’s look at the statistics.
Just 14.8 percent of all teachers in the Indianapolis Public Schools are African-American. In terms of the major school districts in Indiana’s largest city, IPS has the highest percentage of Blacks on their teaching staff, according to data from the 2010-2011 school year provided by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE).
Pike Township Schools have the second highest percentage of Black teachers at 13.8 percent. The city-county’s other major school systems’ teacher diversity percentages are: Washington Township 9.6 percent; Warren Township 9.5 percent; Lawrence Township 8.1 percent; Wayne Township 7.9 percent; Perry Township 2.7 percent; Decatur and Franklin Townships 2.2 percent each; and Speedway 2.0 percent. Beech Grove schools report no Black teachers on staff.
The major suburban school districts, like Brownsburg, Avon, Hamilton Southeastern and Carmel, with significant Black enrollment have just a few Black teachers on staff according to the IDOE data.
Surprisingly, some charter schools with significant Black enrollments, while having smaller teaching staffs, had far higher percentages of Black teachers than Indianapolis’ major school districts.
I’ve asked IDOE for more recent data on the race and gender of teaching staffs at area schools. If we obtain that data, I’ll share it.
The other area where the IPS Board is undercutting the credibility of their next superintendent has to do with the unreasonable insistence, by a cabal of board members, on excessive secrecy in their superintendent search.
A faction of the board are unreasonably determined against letting the community know the finalists for the superintendent job. Their rationale is that some good candidates won’t apply if it’s revealed publicly that they’re finalists for the job.
Board Member Annie Roof is the main instigator of the secrecy cabal on the board. I suspect that Board President Diane Arnold agrees with her as does newcomer Caitlin Hannon.
I suspect Rev. Michael Brown, Gayle Cosby and Samantha Adair-White favor making the board’s two or three finalists’ public knowledge. Including allowing members of the community and media to hear from the potential superintendent finalists.
And I don’t have a clue where new member Sam Odle is on this issue.
Because of the role they play in educating our children and in spending taxpayer dollars, a school superintendent is a public figure presiding over a public institution.
I emphatically believe that the names of the individuals the board chooses as finalists for superintendent must be made public. I also strongly believe that the public has the right to see, meet and hear the finalists’ positions on where, if hired, they would take IPS.
Yes, the School Board has the final say on who’ll run IPS. But the public has the right to know from whom they’re choosing.
Roof, Arnold and Hannon’s continued reluctance to embrace that openness and transparency is disturbing. And if they get their way, the secrecy will debilitate the new superintendent’s credibility with the IPS community.
What I’m hearing
in the streets
A sudden shuffle in Gov. Mike Pence’s administration has moved the governor’s first African-American appointee to a different role. Virgil Madden is moving from heading the state’s Professional Licensing Agency to serving as a member of the Indiana Parole Board. Madden will be the second African-American member of the five-person board.
Madden is being replaced by Nicholas Rhoad, who had been with the Indiana Manufacturers Association.
Back in early December, Madden was the first African-American appointed to serve in Pence’s administration.
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Finally, they came so far but unfortunately missed their first opportunity to reach the pinnacle of their profession.
I’m talking about our Indiana Pacers who impressed the nation with their unselfish, team-oriented play. While they missed the NBA Finals this year, their playoff experience will help prepare them to succeed in the years to come.
Congratulations to our Blue Collar/Gold Swagger Indiana Pacers. And we look forward to them next season “Beating the Heat”!
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
