Lacey equity commissioners grill North Thurston official about staff diversity

Lacey equity commissioners continue to have questions about North Thurston Public Schools, and the district’s equity and languages director was on the receiving end of several of them during a recent meeting.

Antonio Sandifer, who has previously visited the commission — a commission that acts as an advisory body to Lacey City Council — was back to visit with them June 24 to provide an update on a number of programs taking place at the county’s largest and most diverse district.

White students account for 46.8% of the total student body, according to district data, and the fact that the district is “majority minority” prompted questions about diversity from former longtime school board member and equity commissioner Thelma Jackson and fellow commissioner Cliff Brown.

Brown asked Sandifer to rate the diversity of district staff. Was it poor, fair, good or very good?

Sandifer acknowledged it was “poor.”

Superintendent-to-be Troy Oliver, who officially takes over for the retiring Debra Clemens on July 1, said something similar when he participated in a community forum as a superintendent candidate earlier this year.

“The adults in front of our students need to be more consistent with our student population,” he said that night. “Our staff does not look like our student population. We are whiter than our student population. It’s certainly an area for us to improve, and we have made some strides in this area, but we are nowhere near where we need to be.”

Brown’s question was followed by one from Jackson: What’s being done to address it?

“What are the strategies in the district to go from poor to better to good, you know, because it’s been poor for decades,” she said.

Jackson worked as an educational consultant for 37 years, and she said the area does have a diverse body of paraprofessionals, some of whom are close to securing their teaching credentials.

“And so when people say, we can’t find any (diverse staff) I would say, ‘Boo, they are right here,’” she said. “You don’t have to import them from some other community. They are familiar with the students, the parents, the district, but they just aren’t certificated. They’re over here as classified.”

Jackson continued: “So, what’s the plan? So that five years from now, we still aren’t talking about the poor (diverse) staff-to-student ratio. What are we doing about it?”

Sandifer said the district has received a grant from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to financially help BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) para-educators currently in school.

He also said the district is working with Educational Service District 113, which includes Thurston County, on a regional grant that the district should know more about in July.

In light of two women of color recently being elected to the school board — Michelle Gipson and Esperanza Badillo-Diiorio — Commissioner Brown asked whether Sandifer has had a conversation about improving administrative diversity.

“Is that a movement?” Brown asked.

Sandifer said he has had several personal conversations with board members, and that the board is “definitely on board with that piece.”

After Sandifer explained the dual Spanish/English language program at the district, they asked if it could be expanded to other languages.

“We’re definitely open and willing and want to expand because I really wanted to do Vietnamese, but when we’ve done the research on it, we just didn’t have enough staff to sustain a long-term program,” he said. “We don’t want to start something and then have to stop it.”

He said the district has more than enough students for these programs, but not enough teachers.

Jackson said that’s another barrier that needs to be addressed because the Lacey area is home to multiple language speakers. Equity commissioner Kim Sauer said she speaks and teaches Korean.

“What do we have to change at the state level to remove that barrier so a district such as ours can have access to the community of people who are skilled in these languages and interested in coming into the schools to help?” Jackson asked.

“It’s a barrier that really needs to get some fire under it,” she added.