Gateway hires part-time equity director, but many wanted full-time
Gateway school board members hired a full-time West Mifflin Area school administrator as its part-time equity director during an emotional board session last week.
Phillip Woods received a two-year contract for a $30,000 yearly salary. Woods' job, the district said, is “to sustain the district's efforts to create a culture of support and improvement,” meaning his goal will be to find ways to shrink the achievement gap between white and black students
He was hired three weeks after the board approved a $135,000 program to bridge the achievement gap, with the aim to bring black students' test scores to levels achieved by their white peers.
The program will involve Evergreen and Cleveland Steward elementary schools and include consultants, instructional coaching and tutoring.
Several parents voiced their opposition to Woods' hiring, saying the district needs to hire a full-time director.
“This is a full-time problem,” Epryl King told the board prior to the vote. “I'm also hoping that full-time person would also come with the idea that this is not simply something that you'll do in just two buildings. It is a full-time problem in our entire district. Please reconsider.”
King, a Gateway teacher, is a member of the Gateway Achievement Gap Committee.
The board voted 7-2 in May to start interviewing candidates for a full-time equity director. Board members Mary Beth Cirucci and Steve O'Donnell dissented saying they favored hiring a part-time position.
In August , the board voted 7-2 to hire the equity director as a part-time position. Board members Chad Stubenbort and Neal Nola opposed, favoring a full-time director.
Stubenbort unsuccessfully proposed Tuesday to hire a full-time equity director and expand the program to all district schools.
Many residents, seeking a full-time director, stormed from the room after Woods' hiring.
“You don't hear us — you don't hear us. You don't hear the taxpayers. You don't care about the children,” Purdis Lorraine Lewis-Burke, a parent, shouted as she left the room. “And I can say one thing — you're liars.”
Woods' position became effective immediately.
He also serves as West Mifflin Area High School's principal. Cirucci said the specifics of Woods' work schedule had not been determined and district administrators will discuss in coming weeks what days he will spend at Gateway.
“I do understand this is a very sensitive area … I'm 100 percent committed to the lives of young adults,” Woods said during the meeting, urging parents to give him a chance. “Just give me a chance. Let's work it, let's build it, let's together earn the full-time position that you want.”
Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer.
