Is Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District Really an Equal Opportuniy Employer?

As we look at all the current events around the nation, you can infer that there are still complex challenges of inequalities that continue to haunt the urban communities throughout America. Even in the Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District, the challenges of illiteracy and equal opportunity employment for educators still remain relevant and a problem, that Dr. Joseph Massare, Superintendent of Schools and Greg Wright, the President of the Board of Education, has been reluctant to address. On December 5, 2011, I had the pleasure of attending the school board meeting, as I always do. My intention is to listen to the BOE of issues that they are not addressing, as well as to raise issues on what the BOE should address. In July, I raised an issue of the fact that there is an illiteracy problem among the school district; the fact that 2009-2010 NJASK results show that 72% of the district's third graders and 70% of the district's fourth graders failed to reach key reading benchmarks on the language arts portion of the NJASK. In addition; the fact that many of the district's third and fourth graders Sub-Groups including Male (75%/77%), African-American (79%-82%), Hispanic (80%/78%), & Economically Disadvantage (77%-81%) performed even lower in language arts.

On December 5, 2011, as a parent and Civil Rights Activist, I raised another issue of equal opportunity employment, due to the lack of minority teachers in the school district. This particular issue that was raised stems from a dialogue that Rev. Al Sharpton and I had discussed on that previous Saturday that prompt me to do some research. The information that I uncovered, is not limited to me but it is public information. The Penns Grove-Carneys Point Regional School District is comprised of five schools; Lafayette-Pershing (Half day Preschool and Kindergarten), Field Street School (1st, 2nd, & 3rd grades), Paul W. Carleton School (4th & 5th grades), Penns Grove Middle School (6th, 7th, & 8th grades), and Penns Grove High School (9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th grades).  There are over 2400 students within the district, 65% are African Americans, 25% Latino, and 10% White.

There is 261 Certified Teaching staff, with 20 of the total Certified Teaching staff is African American; that equal to .07% of the total teaching staff as being African American.  That also equals .008% teacher to student ratio. Dr. Joseph Massare, Superintendent of Schools was employed in 2003.  Since he has been the Superintendent, he has hired 151 Certified Teaching staff; only 8 of that total were African Americans.  When asked about the hiring process and the human resources department, his reply (on record at the 12/5/11 BOE meeting), "It's me".  Within the Report Card issued by the State of New Jersey, the Report Card Narratives for each school is described as “students from the culturally-diverse communities of Penns Grove and Carneys Point", however the population of the teaching staff does not reflect that statement.  The link to the 2010 Report Card is http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc10/menu/33-4070.html. 

The hiring process of staff is inconstant throughout the district, except people considered for any position has an interview with Dr. Massare, which in turn he recommends who he wants to the Board of Education.  The Board of Education consists of 9 members; 2 which are African Americans.  He allows each administrator to dictate what happens at each school.  He will only intervene when a person that he has recommended to be hired is not selected. Just recently, a Special Education teacher position at the High School was needed.  The team interviewed and submitted the names of the two candidates.  Since a person he wanted to hire was not one of them, the team had to interview again.  Again, the person he wanted was not selected, but pressure from the BOE made him make a decision of a white male.  This process took over a month to complete, and during that time our students were given different substitutes, not getting the proper, stable education. Our students suffered in the end.

The team of people for each school that interview, discusses, and recommends is different for each school.  With the recent Kindergarten position, the applicants went through 3 interviews; due to the second interview with other teachers was not assisted by an administrator.  Again, two applicants were selected by the team.  One was just hired as an instructional aide; in whom that person does not live in the community, and was a bank teller and casino worker before getting her degree.  The other applicant was also an instructional aide with little substitute experience.  Both applicants were white females.  During the interview process there were only white females that made the final decision. Therefore, it proves that the interviewer(s) will only consider what looks and acts like them.

For the Kindergarten position, there were three African Americans that applied and were interviewed. Three of the African-Americans interviewed; one have a Certificate of Eligibility (CE) to teach grades K thru 5, with 21 Master level credits in Special Education, the other two have CEs (Certificate of Eligibility).  Each of them that were interviewed, lives in the community, has experience, and went through Penns Grove school system.  At the Lafayette Pershing School (Preschool thru Kindergarten grades) there is only 1 African American teacher and she has been there for about 20 years and she is the last African American hired at that school.  None of the three African-Americans interviewed, were even considered for the Kindergarten position and that a veteran teacher was not even asked to be on the team.

Currently there is a law suit filed against the district by the NAACP, due to not hiring an African American female at the High School in April 2010.  Again, she had the experience, lives in the community, and went through Penns Grove school system. In turn, a white woman who was a former college student of Dr. Massare and lives in Logan Township was hired.  Once in the position for only 8 months, went out on maternity leave, however still advanced to the next step in the pay scale.  Again, in the end our students are the ones who are suffering.

We are long from Brown vs. Board of Education. In Brown vs. Board of Education, Thurgood Marshall raised a theory. Thurgood's theory was, if the school officials or courts did not want the integration of blacks in white schools, that was fine, but Thurgood lobbied for equal resources for the black children. In 2011 it is worse now than it was in 1954. Equal resources consist of; the same text books, same structured class room, the same teachers, in which represent the total student population. In Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District, there is a lack thereof resources, for the majority of the student population are African-Americans. Education is a Civil Right! As a parent and Civil Rights Activist, I have to speak on and bring these issues to the forefront and create a climate for change.


Dr. Massare mentioned that not many minorities have applied for the teaching position. I can counter that statement, by saying that many minorities may have not applied because they are discourage. Minorities apply and get interviewed, yet a white female or white male get the job. How can Dr. Massare say that the Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District is an equal opportunity employer when you have 261 teachers, only 20 are African-Americans, less than 10 Latino-Americans and the rest are white? There are only 4 African-American males in the entire school district. I guess there is only equal opportunity when applying for the position of teacher but no equal opportunity in the actual hiring.