LA GRANGE, IL – Over the last three years, the percentage of nonwhite staff at Lyons Township High School has risen slightly, according to the school’s data.
In the 2023-24 school year, the rate of nonwhite teachers was 9.2 percent, up from 6.6 percent in 2021-22.
For noncertified staff, nonwhites made up 23.2 percent last school year, compared with 22.4 percent a couple of years earlier.
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Those numbers are quite different from the student body – about two-thirds white, more than a quarter Hispanic and 3 percent each for African American and Asian, according to the Illinois Report Card.
The school’s “life of plan target” is to have nonwhites consist of 15 percent of teachers and 25 percent of noncertified staff.
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At this week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Brian Waterman said he saw the plan as lasting five years. Two years remain.
“We have an explicit goal, and we name it,” Waterman said. “We’re proud that we have a board that supports that at the highest level, that we want our teaching staff to represent our school community.”
He said he notes the goal when he speaks to outside groups.
“In other districts, if they don’t have that (goal), it’s not happening,” he said.
Officials said administrators are trained on how to support staff members of color.
Also at the meeting, board members were told about percentages of surveyed staff who feel a “sense of belonging.”
Among teachers last year, 57 percent said they felt like they belonged, up from 54 percent two years earlier.
Meanwhile, among noncertified staff, 51 percent reported a sense of belonging, down from 54 percent a couple of years earlier.
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