Cape district doubles new minority hires

The Cape Henlopen School District has hired twice as many new minority teachers as last year, school officials said.

Cape supervisor of human resources Ed Waples said this year, the district hired 26 new teachers, including five Hispanic and five African-American teachers.

Last year, he said, fewer than five new teachers were minorities.

Waples, Cape Superintendent Bob Fulton and Assistant Superintendent Jenny Nauman have worked with members of the Community Minority Liaison Committee for nearly a year to focus on minority recruitment, hiring and student discipline, with the goal of diversifying staff and better representing the student population.

In the 2017-18 school year, 6 percent of Cape’s teachers were minorities, while 34 percent of students were minorities, Delaware Department of Education statistics show.

Fulton said one tactic to draw more applicants was to change the requirements for elementary teachers. In the past dual certification was required, now it is preferred.

“Many universities don’t require students to be dually qualified, and we didn’t want to exclude any students who are not,” Fulton said. “They can be employed and pursue additional certifications later.”

Fulton said the district also contacted more historically black colleges and universities to recruit new hires.

“It’s something we had been doing already, but we added a few more to gauge the success of applicants we bring here and hire,” Fulton said.

Waples said the district identified and is working with 10 minority paraeducators to help them fulfill requirements on the state’s alternative routes to certification program.

“Several are eligible already, and one is ready to teach now,” Waples said. “It feels great when we can help do that.”

Minority Community Liaison Committee member Cliffvon Howell said the committee met with Fulton, Nauman and other district officials Aug. 22 to review the district’s plan to address teacher diversity and minority discipline.

“We were excited they did a lot of things we suggested,” Howell said. “It shows they’re listening.”

Also a juvenile justice specialist, Howell said the committee had requested a five-year discipline data study, but with the passage of Senate Bill 85, Delaware’s school districts are mandated to submit a three-year discipline data study to the Department of Education.

“They will be fulfilling SB 85 and will be turning over the data publicly,” Howell said. “This was acceptable by the committee.”

Nauman said the district adopted a trauma-informed care model so that educators work with suspended students to determine if they have experienced trauma that may lead to disruptive behavior.

“It helps us understand where the student is coming from, find the root of the behavior and better support the student,” she said.

Nauman said district schools continue to use restorative practices, a conflict resolution method that brings students together to address wrongdoing and learn to correct wrong behavior.

“The goal is to keep students in school,” she said.

Fulton referred to Department of Education data that showed Cape suspends students two to four times less often than many school districts in Delaware.

“We believe we’re on the right track and want to continue our work with additional support from the community,” he said. “We have to do the best for our students every day to make Cape the best educational opportunity in the state.”

Howell went a few steps further.

“Our aim is to help make Cape Henlopen School District not just a beacon in the county or state, but a model for schools across the country because this is a national issue,” he said.