ACTIVISM: Complaint Letter; Department of Education Office o...

ACTIVISM: Complaint Letter; Department of Education Office o...: U.S. Department Of Education Office for Civil Rights, New York Office 32 Old Slip, 26 th Floor New York, New York 10005 Phone: 646-428-3843...

Complaint Letter; Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (PG-CP School District)

U.S. Department Of Education

Office for Civil Rights, New York Office

32 Old Slip, 26^th Floor

New York, New York 10005

Phone: 646-428-3843

This letter serves as a complaint against the Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District in terms of inconsistent recruitment, interviewing, and hiring practices that has created unbalanced hiring and promoting of minority staff in the District. This body of information is organized into the following sections: Purpose, Student Populations, Total Staff, Elementary Teachers, Secondary Teachers, Teachers’ Aides, 2011-2012 New Hires, Policies and Procedures, and Recommendations. Collectively, this information and the corresponding charts will clearly depict the inconsistencies that verify the need for this complaint.

In the end it is the students who suffer from the inconsistencies that remain prevalent and unaddressed by the leaders of this district. I hope after reviewing this letter and report, you see the need to investigation and correct the Penns Grove –Carneys Point School District’s hiring practices, policies and procedures.  

Respectfully,

Walter L. Hudson Sr.

Chairman of Community Awareness Alliance

Penns Grove, NJ, 08069

(609) 381-8509

I. Purpose: I am a concerned parent and resident of the Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District. I’m interested in my children as well as all children receiving the best education that is available to them. I have two children who attend the PG-CP schools and I’m concerned about the quality of their education. When it comes to the educational system, I believe in fairness and equality or a balance school system in all aspects.

PG-CP schools serve a cultural and ethnic diverse student population. Race and ethnicity are vital elements of a teaching and learning environment. When I look around and observe the faculty and staff I see a disproportionate number of minority workers, teachers, and leaders. In a fair and balanced teaching and learning environment the race and ethnicity of the staff and faculty would reflect (equal) or at least be on par with the race and ethnicity of the district’s student body.   

I am not saying that an incompetent minority teacher should get hired over a white highly qualified teacher. What I am suggesting is that the Board of Education and Superintendent, Dr. Joseph A. Massare, develop a comprehensive plan to balance the minority staff and faculty in the district while hiring the very best diverse teaching team given the circumstance. Unless extreme steps are taken the district will continue to ignore the need to recruit and hire  more minority administrators, teachers, and staff to correct a longstanding problem in the PG-CP school district.

In recent weeks, I have learned at the Lafayette Pershing School (Preschool thru Kindergarten grades) there are only two certified minority teachers. One is an African American teacher, and the other is a Hispanic American teacher.  Surprisingly, both have been at Lafayette Pershing School for about 30 years. Unfortunately, they are the last certified minority teachers to be hired at the school.

Furthermore, the Field Street School provides a vivid model of the type of inconsistencies that exist throughout the district. A gender breakdown of the Field Street School student body shows 92 males (54%) and 79 females (46%) or 171 students. The racial breakdown of the 3^rd grade student body is 61 Caucasians (35%), 62 African-Americans (35%), 45 Hispanics (25%), and 9 others (5%). 

The fifty-three certified Field Street School staff includes an administrator, nurse, guidance counselor, art

teacher, music teacher, physical education teacher, librarian, and three ELL Bilingual teachers. If the Field Street School staff or faculty was a reflection  of the student body or on par with the student body than the cultural or ethnic breakdown of the faculty would be approximately 19 Caucasians (35%), 19 African-Americans (35%), 13 Hispanics (25%), and 2 others (5%).

To address these types of hiring inconsistencies, I have asked Dr. Joseph A. Massare, the Superintendent, to share several types of cultural and ethnic data and information with the public. He has provided me with some information but they failed to share the same information with the public. In my opinion, Dr. Joseph A. Massare has been reluctant, insensitive and apathetic to their obligation to ensure fairness and equity in the PG-CP hiring process. I believe that district’s leadership must safeguard the integrity of making sure that the school district provides all students with a teaching staff, which the students can relate to, in order to cultivate the minds and lives of each and every student. I believe the quality of education for the PG-CP students has been greatly compromised because of the current hiring inconsistencies in terms of the racial and ethnicity of the certified teaching staff and non-certified staff.

I believe there is a need to deeply investigate and correct these inconsistencies. If these issues are closely examined, then at a minimum the investigation should answer the following questions; what is the cultural and ethnic breakdown of the district’s faculty and staff by school? How does that cultural and ethnic breakdown of the district’s faculty and staff compare with the district’s student body? What are the inconsistencies between the cultural and ethnic breakdowns of the district’s faculty and student body? How have the current hiring patterns, policies, and practices contributed to the inconsistencies?

What is the district’s Affirmative Action Plan? What steps are being taken to address (eliminate or correct) these hiring inconsistencies?

  II.  Student Populations - There are approximately 2,500 students enrolled in the PG-CP school district. The racial and ethnic breakdown of the current student population show 500 Caucasians (20%), 1,375 African-Americans (55%), and 625 Hispanics (25%) students are enrolled in the district. 

III.     Total Staff- Currently, there are 385 administrators, teachers, and staff employed by the PG-CP school district. The racial and ethnic breakdown of the current total staff population show 51 African-Americans (13%), 310 Caucasians (81%), 20 Hispanics (5%), and 4 Asian or Pacific Islander (1%).    

III.  Central Office Administrators and Principals- PC-CP school district retains 13 Administrators and Principals comprising 1 African-American (8%), 2 Hispanics (15%), and 10 Caucasians (77%).    

IV.    Elementary Teachers- There are a total of 150 elementary teachers. The racial and ethnic breakdown of the current elementary staff show 13 African-Americans (9%), 5 Hispanics (3%), 2 Asian and Pacific Islander (1%), and 130 Caucasians (87%).

V.      Secondary Teachers - There are 60 secondary teachers in the PG-CP school district covering 7 African-Americans (12%), 3 Hispanics (5%), and 50 Caucasians (83%).

VI.    Teachers ‘Aides- 61 teachers’ aides including 12 African-Americans (20%), 7 Hispanics (11%), 1 Asian and Pacific Islander (2%), and 41 Caucasians (67%)are employed by the PG-CP school district.

VII.  2011-2012 New Hires – There is a total of 27 new hires for 2012. 8 African-Americans (30%) and 19 Caucasians (70%)

VIII.          Policies and Procedure

After reviewing the data taking from the Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District’s 2010-2011 Equal Employment Opportunity Report (EEOR), I believe in order to rectify all of the disparities among the staff, the hiring process and procedures within the school district must be completely reformed.

Early in December, the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder and United States Educational Secretary, Arne Duncan mandated that race could be considered in education. Also, mandated, you cannot have diversity without dealing with the factor of race. Penns Grove Carneys Point School District is one of the 200 underperforming school districts in the State of New Jersey. I believe that the direct correlation to that issue is because of again, the inconsistences that remain dormant in the hiring process. In my opinion, until the scales are balanced within the hiring process, then the end result of that matter, PG-CP students will continue to underperform.

After carefully reviewing the Penns Grove-Carneys Point School District Superintendent’s Guidelines for Interviewing and Recommending Staff, I have put together several concerns and recommendations to counter the process of the Initial Screening of Applicants.

IX.    Concerns – Most of the concerns focus on the overall adverting, recruitment, screening, and interviewing processes of potential qualified minority candidates.  

·         Currently, Dr. Massare, the Superintendent, screens all applicants in fact, Dr. Massare proclaimed in an open meeting that “It’s me, you are looking at him”, when asked, “Who is the Human Resource Director?” This suggests that he alone is responsible.

·         Currently new positions and replacement of active positions with current job descriptions are posted throughout the district, and only posted in the local media and njhire.com. when necessary.

·         Currently, all applicants and resumes are reviewed by the Dr. Joseph Massare, the Superintendent, as to the minimal requirements of the posting and sent to the appropriate administrator for further review and preparing the interview process and committee.

·         All in-house applicants receive a courtesy interview, as long as a current resume and new application is completed at the time the position posting and interview.

·         For Teaching Staff, the administrator forms a committee of at least three members, which includes the administrator to conduct the interviews. This committee ideally should be the building administrator, teacher and staff member.

·         For Staff Members (custodial, aides, cafeteria, secretarial), the administrator forms a committee of at least two members within the building to conduct the interviews.

·         For Administrative Positions, the administrator forms a committee of at least five members within the building or District Office, as appropriate.

A. Recommendations

a. Hire a Human Resource Director.

b. Create a Diverse Hiring Committee under HR Director that will be responsible for all hiring of personnel within the school district.

c. Convene the  Diverse Hiring Committee  representing the racial percentage of the student body. For example 2 whites, 2 African-American, 1 Hispanic American, 1 Board Member and Principal of the representing school where positions becomes available. Each Hiring Committee Member may vote on best applicant for each position.

d. Post all new positions and replacements of active positions with current job descriptions throughout all districts, churches, sorority and fraternity organizations, various minority groups or establishments, and all local media outlets and njhire.com.

e. Establish a practice to ensure that all applicants go through the same initial process when applying for an open position in the school district. End the practice of granting courtesy interviews to in-house applicant.

f. Charge the Superintendent, Board President, the Affirmative Action Officer and the Diverse Hiring Committee with the responsibility of devising a three to five year hiring plan, to increase minority staff and or certified teaching personnel by 30 percent at the end of the third, 40 percent at the end the fourth year, and 50 percent at the end of the fifth year.

X.      Closing

In my opinion, the Dr. Joseph A. Massare, District Superintendent, must work in collaboration with other school officials and school stakeholders, to improve the hiring process. It is very difficult for one person to be objective in the decision of all hiring personnel. I believe the Director of Curriculum & Instruction, who is a double minority, should also become involved with the hiring process and or committee to ensure all policy and procedure are being properly.

In order to bridge all gaps in the educational system of Penns Grove-Carneys Point School system, a true reform is needed. The superintendent, Dr. Joseph A. Massare, cannot keep exemplifying the same destructive attitude in policy and procedure of the hiring process and expect a different result in the hiring process but more importantly, student performance.

Children or students depend on parents like me, to provide them with protections and safeguards in all aspects of a child life including education. In turn when parents send the students to school, parents expect for leadership to provide the child or student with the first class education. The way to make sure of that is for leadership to ensure the best teachers are in front of the class. A poet and author, Nikki Giovanni said, “It is not who you attend school with but who controls the school you attend.”

In the end it is the students who suffer from the current hiring practices of policy and procedures that remain prevalent and unaddressed by the leaders of the district. I hope after reviewing this complaint, you see the need to investigate the PG-CP hiring practices, policies and procedures.  

JUDGE AND BITTERMAN: BROWNNOSERS?

As we reflect on the tragic event that happened to Mr. Barry Deloatch, September 22, 2011, we can infer that the leadership in New Brunswick is very much flawed. The so-called leadership has given the community of New Brunswick a slew of empty promises. When you have flawed leadership when it pertains to "police brutality", you have a serious issues that remain dormant and still menacing in the community. Now New Brunswick Police have another victim (Victor Rodriguez) of "police brutality", that they can add on in their statistics of "Gestapo" like brutality.

All the while that police misconduct is happening; nobody in leadership has introduced an action plan to hold their police accountable in New Brunswick. What you have is law enforcement officials and politicians "scratching one another backs", even when their backs are not itching. It seems Mayor Cahill created a mirage of bridging the gap with his police and community. From my recollection, Mayor Cahill was to inform the community as to when his hearings on community policing were to take place. He released a statement to this affect and then abandoned the community forums after the first attempt. It appears that members of the community are frustrated and attend city council meetings to air their grievances, which they have a right to do.

Then you have alot of "conflict of interest" in the Barry Deloatch case. Attorney Lawrence Bitterman's daughter working as a Detective in the homicide unit with the prosecutor’s office, which is the same unit investigating the case. Another conflict of interest, are the top cops (Prosecutors Office) working in the same building as of the New Brunswick Police. So how can the people of New Brunswick community rest assure that there will be no potential "cover-ups", when police have to investigate their own? Another conflict of interest: in the wake of the Judge Travis Francis ruling in denying the Prosecutor’s Office request for “special grand jury”, which the main reason in calling for a special grand jury, is to minimize as much bias opinion in the case as possible, you have Bitterman boasting abot the endurance of their 30 year relationship.

For Judge Francis to deny the request raises eyebrows for the community. Lawrence Bitterman said, “I have known Judge Francis Both as a lawyer and judge for 30 years.”The questions that personally rise within me are, why Bitterman so blissful in Judge Francis ruling, denying the prosecutor’s request? Could it be the fact that Judge Francis and Bitterman, have had a working and personal relationship for 30 years? So is that the reason Judge Francis ruled against the Prosecutor’s Office? Judge Francis chose to not compromise his 30 year friendship with Bitterman. They say justice is blind. It is not so blind when the community and I can see that Judge Francis chose his friendship over ensuring that the Deloatch case receives fair treatment so justice can be served.

I thought Judge Francis took an oath; I, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God. There is no real definitive reasoning on why Judge Francis denied the request. Judge Francis mentioned that he did not see any difference in this case than any other case.

There is a difference; the difference is that Judge Francis buddy, Lawrence Bitterman is defending Berdel and Mazan in this case which is clearly a conflict of interest. Bitterman is doing too much “brownnosing”, that is an injustice to not only sway the judge but also the potential grand jurors in this case. The community must step up their efforts, by way of creative protest to send a message to the justice system in New Brunswick, since they have already sent theirs!

Assistant City Attorney Charly Gayden, mention in an article, that people should come to the "table of reasoning" with solutions, instead of finger pointing. Well, I have solution. If Charly Hayden have been hired to "bridge the gaps" in the community, then she should encourage the prosecutor to present a strong enough case to indict Berdel and Mazan. That is one solution Mrs. Hayden can implement. Another solution, influence the people who works for the people of New Brunswick Community (City Council)., to endorse the letter requesting the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Divison to come in and investigate the Deloatch case, Rodriguez case as well as the New Brunswick Police Department.

Until that happens, like Fredrick Douglass said, "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

Walter L. Hudson Sr.

Civil Rights Activist

Chairman/Founder

Community Awareness Alliance

Penns Grove, New Jersey

Black History Month: Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

I am an avid reader of various reading materials. On February 5, 2012, I came across the Sunday's paper in "Today's Sunbeam." In the Editorial section in the paper, I became aware of a letter written by Senator Stephen Sweeney. In the letter, Senator Sweeney wrote about African-American History due to the fact of February is Black History Month. Senator Sweeney paid homage to the likes of Dr. Carter G. Woodson who is the founder father of Black History Month. He also made reference Harriet Tubman as being a champion of human rights. It was when Sweeney went on to mention Rosa Parks, who was considered "first lady of civil rights,” and how Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat on a public bus to a white passenger in 1955. That is when I felt compelled to write a letter to the editor, about knowledge I have come across studying and reading "African-American History" along with the "History of Slavery."

I hope that Senator Sweeney would come across my letter as I came across his letter. I want to enlighten and educate Senator Sweeney and others on black history facts that they may not know about. Recognizing the dearth of information on the accomplishments of blacks in 1915, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). Through this association Dr. Carter G. Woodson wanted to give recognition to all African-Americans who have contributed and initiated movements that created revolutions for freedom, justice and equality in America.

When we talk about a person like Rosa Parks whom in fact was a true" pioneer" and "mother of the civil rights movement," we cannot forget to also pay homage and recognize a woman by the name of Claudette Colvin. Nine months before Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat in Alabama, Claudette Colvin stood up segregation by refusing to give up her seat to a white woman. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws, but they decided against it because of her age. She also became pregnant around the time of her arrest, and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. She was only 15 years old at the time.

When asked why she is little known and why everyone thinks only of Rosa Parks, Colvin says the NAACP and all the other black organizations felt Parks would be a good icon because "she was an adult. They didn't think teenagers would be reliable." She also says "Parks had the right hair and the right look."
"Her skin texture was the kind that people associate with the middle class," says Colvin. "She fit that profile."

Although Rosa Parks receives the credit and recognition, we cannot forget about Claudette Colvin, without those two women where would we be as a people today living in the United States of America?
 “I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, This is not right."

—Claudette Colvin