Lima City School Superintendent Jill Ackerman has used inexcusable and stereotypical remarks to mislead the public about the system’s pursuit of black applicants.
To fit budget constraints, school districts usually hire the least expensive teachers based on the least number of years of experience who have passed the National Teacher’s Examination. The conversation of the most qualified is not usually applicable in hiring teachers. The term merit usually applies to an evaluative process after employment.
About 60 percent of the students in Lima Schools are black. It has less than 10 certified black educators. Apparently, the hiring practices are not based on the culture of the school. The culture today at Lima schools is to hire predominantly white certified staff from surrounding areas where the residents are prdcominantly white and have limited experience dealing with blacks on any level.
Ackerman remarked that bringing black teachers is difficult because of cold weather and lack of nightlife which doesn’t compare to Toledo or Dayton. Those cities are in Ohio so the weather is the same. Ackerman commented that black teachers seek nightlife perpetuates stereotypes. Professionals regardless their discipline who are unemployed will go where necessary to obtain employment and not nightlife.
Black educators from Lima have worked as substitute teachers and applied for positions but never are granted an interview and have no choice but to obtain teaching positions in other cities. Lima’s recruitment of black educators should include seeking educators from black colleges instead of a focus in the local area.
— Dr. Carol A. Fails, NAACP Education Chair
