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Nearly 100 apply to be ‘equity director’ for Decatur Schools

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Nearly 100 apply to be ‘equity director’ for Decatur Schools

Decatur's Beacon Hill Black Alliance held a forum at City Schools of Decatur's Central Office on Feb. 8., 2017. Photo by Dan Whisenhunt
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Decatur’s Beacon Hill Branch of the NAACP held a forum at City Schools of Decatur’s Central Office on Feb. 8. File photo by Dan Whisenhunt

Superintendent David Dude said there have been 93 applications for a newly created “equity director” position in City Schools of Decatur.

The equity director’s job would be to address racial differences in academic achievement and student discipline in the school system.

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A recent report produced by the school system identified gaps between the academic performance of black and white students. “In 2015-16, a Black student in CSD was eight times more likely than a White student to be cited for rude/disorderly conduct,” the report says.

During the School Board’s April 11 meeting, Dude said the applications are being reviewed to weed out applicants who don’t meet the minimum requirements.

“I’ve looked through the 93 applicants and there are some really amazing people in there. Fifty percent of applicants met the minimum requirements,” Dude said.

Dude said he hopes to have a finalist for the job by the May School Board meeting. Decatur’s Beacon Hill Branch of the NAACP has been pushing to keep the disparity issue on the minds of School Board members and representatives have regularly attended board meetings. A Feb. 8 panel discussion on the topic drew a standing-room only crowd.

The new position is part of a larger “strategic reorganization” of City Schools of Decatur’s Central Office. After first proposing the creation of an “associate superintendent” position, Dude decided instead to make some changes to the existing central office staff.

Human resources will now be called Staff Support, the Information Services Department is moving out of the Operations Division, and there will be several newly created positions: Staff Evaluation and Professional Learning Director, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Executive Director of Student Support and a Research and Analytics Director. These jobs will be given to existing CSD office staff. The only full time staff person being added to central office is the Equity Director. To see the full presentation on the proposed Central Office overhaul, click here.


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