FCPS school board encourages teacher diversity

In light of an increasingly diverse student population, county leaders are now focusing on seeking a likewise diverse faculty and staff.
For the last two years, FCPS administrators have discussed ways to diversify the county’s workforce, following a 2017 study released by George Mason University that found the racial composition of the teaching staff in FCPS exhibits a lack of diversity.
While racial minorities make up 49 percent of Marshall’s student body, the imbalance of diversity in the teacher-student ratio is distinct.
“Here at Marshall, you have students coming in from all over the world, but that’s not really translated in the staff yet,” French teacher Jacques Nong Bateki said.
The study published by GMU researchers in the spring 2017 issue of the Harvard Educational Review identified racial discrimination as the root cause of the lack of teacher diversity in FCPS. However, Nong Bateki said he has not perceived any racial bias in the hiring process or among staff members.
“Obviously, as a black teacher, my first thought when I came for the job interview here was ‘I probably won’t be hired,’ but I was wrong in the end,” Nong Bateki said. “I think it all depends on the leadership a school has and the leadership here is great. I have never faced any racial discrimination from the principal, nor from my colleagues.”
Principal Jeff Litz said while faculty diversity is in the back of his mind when hiring, he said he always chooses the best candidate for a position.
“I am looking for the most qualified person that I feel fits the culture of our school and can be the most effective standing in the front of a classroom full of students,” Litz said.
The county reacted to the study in an email to FCPS employees, announcing administrators county-wide will make an effort to bring more diversity to their teaching staff.
“They were clear to say that they’d be hiring the best candidate no matter what, but they were going to do some outreach to encourage diverse teachers to apply and want to work here,” English teacher Chynna Wendell said.
Litz said faculty diversity was a goal even before the GMU study was released, but is limited by the number of minority applicants that come across his desk.
“I would love to hire more Hispanic teachers to match the 17 or 18 percent of the school’s population that is Hispanic, but I don’t get a lot of resumes,” Litz said. “We are striving to do everything we can to make the staff more diverse.”
Wendell said another contributing factor to the makeup of the county’s faculty is the high cost of living.
“No matter what ethnicity, race or religion one is, we can’t afford to live where we work,” Wendell said. “So obviously the more attractive it is to work here, the more diverse applicants we’re going to get. This is the first thing that our Superintendent is trying to take care of.”