LTHS Seeks To Hire More Teachers Of Color

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School officials say their goal is to hire more teachers of color to better reflect students' demographics.

"We have a strategic plan goal that explicitly says that we want to increase the number of teachers of color in our district," Superintendent Brian Waterman told the school board this week. "That seems like a small thing. But that's the biggest thing we could do as a district – to be very explicit about this and be proud of that. We've seen the effects on our culture and our community when we do this work."

The student body is about two-thirds white, a quarter Hispanic, 3 percent African American and 2 percent Asian, according to the latest numbers on the Illinois Report Card website.

Meanwhile, about 95 percent of the teaching staff is white, 2.8 percent Hispanic, 1.6 percent black and 0.8 percent Asian, the website said.

In the last couple of years, the percentages of new teachers hired better reflect the student population, officials said.

"If we are continuing to hit those yearly targets, our overall staff percentage of color would continue to grow," the school's human resources director, Ed Piotrowski, said.

For the 2023-24 year, 30 percent of newly hired teachers were people of color, according to school data.