Hoover City Schools decides they no longer want to be among the best in Alabama

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The action plan discussed Thursday night dealt with the hiring and assignment of minority teachers and ensuring equity in student discipline, gifted programs, course offerings, extracurricular activities, facilities and transportation.

Whit Colvin, an attorney for the Hoover school board, said data shows that Hoover schools are lagging in terms of minority representation among faculty.

While more than 24 percent of students are black, only 9.6 of the teaching staff are black, Colvin said. But that is up from about 7.5 percent in November 2017, said Natane Singleton, an attorney for the civil rights division of the Justice Department.

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The Hoover school district also has identified racial disparities in its gifted programs and the number of black students in honors and Advanced Placement courses, Colvin said.

The district will revamp its gifted program to better identify kids who are eligible to participate, he said. That includes starting a talent development program for students in kindergarten and first grade and expanding the amount of testing to determine which students can enter the gifted program, he said.

Hoover schools also will do targeted outreach to minority students and parents to make sure they are aware the gifted program is an option to consider, Colvin said. “It’s not really recruitment, but it kind of is,” he said.

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School officials also will be re-evaluating the criteria for higher-level courses to make sure they are being applied in an equitable way and are less reliant on teacher recommendations for more rigorous courses, Colvin said.

Hoover schools also have racial disparities in student discipline and will be looking for ways to reduce exclusionary discipline practices, said Peter Beauchamp, another attorney with the civil rights division of the Justice Department. They also will continue to implement more positive behavior intervention and support practices, he said.

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Autumm Jeter, Hoover’s director of curriculum and instruction, already is having conversations about diversifying the curriculum, and training is planned for principals and certain departments about how to discuss racism with students. Some of that is taking place in April, Lamar said.

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