School Committee OKs Hiring Plan

Minority representatives who filed suit against the Cambridge School Committee last November over affirmative action hiring procedures for school administrators this week criticized the plan approved by the committee as "too weak".

The new written guidelines for the appointment process are the culmination of a six-month dispute over the selection of a new master for the Morse School.

James Coady's appointment to the position in November sparked complaints by minority parents teachers, and students that an agreement reached in September--which required that three out of tour new teachers and administrators be in members of minority groups--had been violated Coady, currently acting master at the Morse School. Is white, while the runner-up for the position is Black.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro ended a hearing on the appointment last month after learning that the process followed was not specified in any written document Lauro ordered the School Committee to draft a detailed plan for appointing administrators by March 2.

Side Effects

The process approved by the School Committee last week attempts to secure "a lot of involvement by parents and the community in the hiring process," said Steven Deutsch, the city's attorney. One of the major complaints generally cited about the procedure followed in the Morse hiring was that minority parents did not serve on the hiring committee, despite a 40-percent minority student population.

Roland La Chance, president of the Cambridge Teachers Association, said yesterday that union leaders generally approve of the School Committee's proposal. "It puts down in writing exactly what the judge wanted the mechanical part of the process," he said. "Of course." La Chance added, "implementation may be another matter entirely."

Dispute

But the minority representatives who first brought the suit yesterday said the committee's plan was too vague. "The document they drafted doesn't give any firm guarantees for minority hiring," said Lesley Kimbrough, one of the plaintiffs.

Kimbrough added that the plan fails to "spell out" the committee's goals for hiring, and "lacks a time line" for reaching its stated aim of 25 percent minority teachers and administrators.

Only 12 percent of current Cambridge teachers and administrators are members of minority groups. Deutsch said Friday.

Although the school committee has said it is committed to increasing the proportion of minority faculty in Cambridge schools. Fran Cooper, another plaintiff, said Sunday that, "their intention has been weakened by the proposal's vague language."

Kimbrough said that their attorneys will probably draft a counter-plan substantially different from the school committee's version, to present to Tauro when the case reconvenes tomorrow. Based on their suggestions, the judge will then make his own changes in the plan.

The Morse position and three other administrative vacancies in the school department, will go unfilled until a hiring procedure is agreed upon.