Like the rest of the state, Jefferson City's school district has struggled to recruit minority employees.
Penney Rector, who works as assistant to the superintendent under the district's human resources/district legal council department, told the Board of Education on May 11 that the district will continue efforts to recruit minorities.
"We're right where the state (average) is, as far as percentages," she said. "It's not where we'd like to be. We would like to be more reflective of our community."
The discussion was prompted by new school board member Michael Couty at the board's monthly meeting. Couty asked if the board had a policy of trying to increase the percentage of district employees to be representative of the community it serves.
"Do we have anything in place where we could at least be striving for a goal as a district, and not just hoping we'll get there one day?" he asked.
Rector said Cole County's minority population is about 12.6 percent, while the district's minority population is about 18.6 percent. The district employs about 5 percent minorities, which is a little better than the state average of 4.5 percent.
She said the Springfield school district - the largest accredited district in the state - is dealing with the same issue. They, too, have approximately 5 percent minorities among their employees, and are trying to bolster that number.
Rector said when she started at the district, employees started going to job fairs at Lincoln University, Harris-Stowe State University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff to recruit minorities.
The district, she said, doesn't have a certain percent that it's striving for, but it is open to any suggestions on how to increase the hiring of minorities.
"We've not seen a benefit to those efforts to go out to those schools and recruit, and so that can't be our sole extent of our recruitment efforts," Rector said.
Couty suggested targeting student teachers at colleges.
Rector said the vast majority of our student teachers are white. The district draws them more from area schools, because they can still live at home and complete their student teaching without much cost.
"I think the minority population entering the teaching profession is a relatively small percentage, and we've got to find a way to capture a greater percentage" of the average percent entering the profession, Rector said.
Couty said, "If we have role models within our buildings from elementary to middle school to high school, that may spur other kids wanting to emulate those role models."