Concerned about institutionalized discrimination in the
district, Latino parents and their supporters have unified to send
the school board a message: They want a Latino to fill the
district’s top spot in the fall.
Morgan Hill
Concerned about institutionalized discrimination in the district, Latino parents and their supporters have unified to send the school board a message: They want a Latino to fill the district’s top spot in the fall.
“Why not?” attorney Armando Benavidos asked during a coalition meeting of the Padres Unidos and other, loosely organized Latino community leaders Wednesday night. About 10 people met to discuss how they would further be involved in the Morgan Hill Unified School District superintendent search. About six Latinos attended the last board meeting to implore the board to keep an eye on diversity during the search.
The group stressed that they wanted someone well qualified, too, “not just any Latino.” If there’s not a Latino who fits the bill, they want someone who is inclusive and receptive to their group, and has experience dealing with a diverse community such as Morgan Hill’s.
About 200 strong, the Padres Unidos is the central group of Latinos concerned about minority students in the district. In addition to flexing their muscle with the superintendent search, they’re keeping an eye out for potential Latino school board candidates. Four trustee seats will be on the November 2010 ballot.
“(The board) doesn’t feel like it’s that receptive,” Padres Unidos President Teresa Murillo said. “We need a board that is sensitive to the Hispanic community and the community overall, to be able to support everybody.”
The parents say an undercurrent of discrimination runs through the district, from the lack of bilingual receptionists in school offices to teachers who decide a student with an accent belongs in a lower-level group in their class rather than being challenged.
Murillo tearfully talked about her concern that unchallenged or unsupported Hispanic students drop out and get a low-paying job or, worse, join a gang.
Originally, the Latino parent group stemmed from San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School. They came up with the idea of an ongoing stream of Latino professionals talking to classes.
“We want to inspire these children, so they can see a reflection of themselves. The way we feel is that the Hispanic kids don’t get exposed to people with careers in their lives, where they can see themselves as, ‘I have to work really hard in school so I can do that too.'”
A leader well-versed in diversity would be especially receptive to ideas like these, Murillo said.
“If we have a superintendent who has experience with diversity, he can bring a lot of knowledge to the table,” she said.
They say outgoing Superintendent Alan Nishino was dismissive of the group at first, and, once the group was larger and more insistent, defensive.
“It is our hope that our new superintendent is aware and will be sensitive to (these issues),” Julian Mancias told the board last Thursday. Mancias, a member of the Times editorial board, is a former Gilroy math teacher and was a member of the St. Catherine’s Dayworkers Committee.
The group’s leaders spoke out for openness in the search, helping the unions gain a committee to conduct candidate interviews. They say they’re not sure if they can trust the all-white school board in choosing a Latino-friendly superintendent.
Latino students consistently perform more poorly than their peers. There may be some progress, the parents say, but the district has a long way to go.
Keeping in line with troublesome county and state trends, Morgan Hill’s Hispanic students scored lower than the average, sometimes by less than half, on the 2008 STAR test. The latest STAR results will come out later this month.
For English, Hispanic students scored 31 percent proficient or advanced. Overall, 51 percent of district students scored proficient or advanced. In math, 18 percent of Hispanic students scored proficient or better. One Hispanic tenth grader out of 120 scored proficiently on the Algebra I STAR test. One Hispanic tenth grader and one Hispanic eleventh grader, out of 95 and 83, respectively, scored proficient in geometry.
It’s numbers like these that give parents like Murillo pause. Her two children, who attend San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School, don’t happen to have these problems. Murillo said she had to lobby a teacher to put her son into a higher-level group in his class. Since the boy is shy and timid, the teacher thought he belonged in the middle group doing standard grade-level work, nothing more, Murillo said. But Murillo also wondered if the decision had something to do with his being Hispanic. He excelled in the higher group, Murillo said.
Trustees generally welcomed the input of Hispanic parents.
“I thought it was valuable,” Trustee Bart Fisher said. “I’ll be keeping that in mind. (One of the things) fairly high on the list of priorities is the diversity of the district, and having somebody who has some experience with and background with the Latino community. That’s a large part of who we are. I want someone who can continue to build bridges.”
“Their hearts are in the right place,” Board President Don Moody said. “They want what’s best for their children, and that’s what we all want. I respect their opinions and I welcome their opinions.”
Still, Moody said when he makes a decision, he thinks of the needs of all children.
“I like to think that I’m servicing these students already, but it doesn’t hurt for them to remind me that they’re a big part of our population,” Moody said.
In fact, there are more Hispanic than white students in Morgan Hill, according to state enrollment data. Hispanic or Latino students number 3,841 in the district, or 39.6 percent of the student body. The number of white students total 3,710, or 38.2 percent.
Trustee Mike Hickey was also appreciative for the involvement of the Hispanic community, but was quick to note that the district has made strides under Nishino’s leadership.
“I can appreciate their coming in, stepping up to the plate and getting involved in the school district … I would hope, or would have thought, they would have seen all of the things that have been done for the Hispanic community.”
Nishino hired Ricardo Amador to lead the migrant program. His position has since been eliminated during the budget cuts. Most of the time, when the district hosts a forum, they host a second one in Spanish, Hickey said.
“Dr. Nishino has reached out more than any superintendent in Morgan Hill in the past,” Hickey said. “I was a little perplexed by some of the comments, that we needed to have a more diverse group of people in our upper management. We have a Japanese superintendent, a woman deputy superintendent, an African-American assistant superintendent. I’m not sure how you can get more diverse than that.”
Hickey said he was going to look for the best person for the job, and he didn’t care what nationality they were.
