An Exchange with Juan Lopez on Minority Hiring

Isthmus featured a story on the concerns of Juan Lopez about MMSD hiring of people of color.

I sent Juan the following e-mail telling him that I shared his concern:

Juan,
I agree completely with your concerns about minority hiring in the district, as reported in Isthmus. When I attended committee and board meetings in the past, Valencia Douglas was the only district staff of color (unless Clarence attended). Now that she's gone, we'll only have a sea of white faces! So sad.
Ed Blume

As an afterthought in a second e-mail, I said:

Juan,
As chair of the Committee on Human Resources, you're in a great spot to look at district hiring. When you do, I hope that you can make some changes.
Ed

He responded in the following e-mail:

Mr. Blume,
Apparently you have not been closely following the BOE because I have been involved directly and indirectly in the district hiring especially as it relates to hiring people of color. I was also involved prior to being elected to the BOE as a member of the District's Affirmative Action and the Superintendent's Human Relations Advisory Committee. The only other people I know who have been as involved and outspoken were Jerry Smith, Jr. and Ray Allen. Johnny Winston and Shwaw Vang have also begun to make a difference. Not only have we been critics, we have actually done something about it. Thank you and have a great weekend.
Juan Jose Lopez

And I responded:

Juan,
I meant my comments as a compliment and support. You seemed to take them as a criticism.

I sincerely wish you luck in getting more people of color into the top administrative positions in the district.

It's been a concern of mine for years. I did a lot of analysis on the issue and tried to get the Cap Times, State Journal, and Isthmus to write stories, but they never did. If I'd had the blog at those times, I would have had a place to post my analysis. Now it's out of date, and the data is harder to find to redo the analysis because the district no longer posts reports on minority hiring on the Web site. The last useful information was posted in a press release in 1995. I'd love to see the district prepare a similar analysis comparing the 1995 figures on minority employees to today's figures.

Again, I wish you well in your efforts.
Ed

Posted by Ed Blume at August 29, 2005 7:56 PM
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