Susan Hoch weighed in on her thoughts about diversity in Haddonfield.
I was delighted to see the letter by Rebecca Bryan, Laura Colee, Sarah Lawlor and Nadia Vanderkuip in the June 6–12 issue of the Haddonfield Sun addressing the need for diversity in educational hiring.
I brought up this issue at the May 24 Board of Education meeting. Having grown up in segregated Baltimore County where restricted covenants prevented African Americans and other minorities from renting or buying houses in the late 50’s until the Passage of Federal Fair Housing legislation in 1968, I grew up in a county that was 97 percent white. Nonetheless, I had three excellent teachers who were persons of color. They could not live in the county where they taught but they could teach. In contrast, my son growing up in Haddonfield never had a teacher who was not white.
I asked the Board several questions at the meeting and received no answers. Here they are:
1. Does Haddonfield have a written or published policy on hiring diversity? No answer
2. Does the Department of Education of the State of New Jersey have a policy about hiring diversity. I inquired specifically of Susan Kuttner, Vice President of the Board of Education, who works for the NJ Department of Education. Her answer was that she was in Facilities and hence knew nothing about diversity hiring.
3. I asked if the Board was allowed to write their own policy regarding hiring diversity. There was no answer.
4. I asked how many nonwhite teachers were currently working in Haddonfield. Again no answer. I guessed 3, 4, or 5 but there was no response.
I then suggested that the way to begin to deal with Haddonfield’s #MeToo moment of racism and to increase diversity was to develop incentives and outreach to encourage hiring of excellent teachers who were persons of color.
I pointed out that this diversity is not meant for the very few students of color but as role models for the vast white majority who do not encounter nonwhite individuals in their lives and rarely as bosses or superiors but will graduate into a world that is not 91 percent white. I finished my speech with a comment that if segregated Baltimore County could do this in 1960, Haddonfield can surely hire a more diverse teaching and nonteaching staff in 2018.
I intend to follow this up at the next Board of Education meeting and I invite all to attend. It is listed as being on June 28, likely at 7 p.m. Perhaps the Board will have some answers this time.
