Hamilton County Board of Education Meeting Gets Testy as Possible Educator Diversity Repeal Pushed to Later Meeting

Hamilton County Board of Education meeting on Thursday (Screenshot)

Thursday’s Hamilton County Board of Education meeting turned heated during a brief discussion about repealing the district’s Educator Diversity policy.

The first sentence of the Board’s Educator Diversity policy states, “The Hamilton County Board of Education believes that students deserve access to diverse, effective teachers and high-quality instruction.

Four specific strategies are listed in the policy, including identifying educators from the local pool of prospects and supporting them in seeking educator licensure, working with educator preparation program leadership to identify potential barriers, reviewing the district-level recruitment process and diversity of the teams involved in recruitment, and reviewing recruitment and application materials to eliminate potential barriers to entry.

Disagreement on What Is At Stake

District 10 Board Member Felice Hadden proposed repealing the policy, and the board is set to vote on that recommendation at its March 5 meeting.

Hadden’s recommendation faced pushback from District 5 Board Member Karitsa Jones, who asked whether the intention was to eliminate the policy entirely.

“Diversity is mentioned in quite a few other policies,” said Hadden in response.

Jones followed up by asking whether the issue is with the policy or the word “diversity” itself, to which Hadden replied, “I choose to wait until March 5 to discuss it.”

A Possible Lack of Community Input

Jones went on to express concern about pushing a vote to change the policy to the board’s March meeting, noting that public comments might not be allowed.

Board Chairman Joe Smith of District 3 said it was his understanding that no dialogue would be allowed between community members and the board during the March 5 meeting. Smith also said he believed Hadden’s proposal would remove the policy altogether.

Smith emphasized that she wanted community members to be able to speak to the board about the issue.

“I know where this is going, and the people know where this is going,” Smith said. “People are calling, especially teachers and educators that this applies to… I’m not trying to create a mess, but this is creating a mess.”

Board Attorney D. Scott Bennett said if the board votes to rescind the diversity policy, it will have the option of adding a new policy in its place.