Superintendent of Schools Dr. Almi Abeyta and the district administration have emphasized hiring a diverse workforce for the schools over the past half-dozen years.
At last week’s school committee meeting, human resources Director Christine Lee highlighted the school department’s diversity hiring efforts.
“Our HR recruitment and retention work is grounded in our strategic priority number three – recruit, support, and retain diverse and high quality teachers and leaders,” said Lee. “This is a priority that we have been working on for many years, and so we are excited to see the results. As we all know, it is important to have a diverse workforce; that’s why there is a lot of financial investment from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as well as other venues.
“But ultimately, the research consistently shows that greater diversity in the educator workforce leads to better outcomes for all students of all backgrounds.”
Lee thanked the school committee for creating policies that support recruitment for retaining diverse educators. Six years ago, the committee passed a policy stating that every school has to have a panel to ensure that there is a process that helps highlight a diverse staff.
“Ultimately, the vision is that there will be a diverse workforce and that our students will have access to various educators in front of them,” said Lee. “We developed the teacher pathway program back in 2019 with the support of DESE initiatives to help us launch this.”
The program has helped the district train and develop a number of teachers with many participants in college programs. The district also provides courses to help with licensure as well as mentoring for new paraprofessionals, educators.
“A lot of the support around our diversification work is woven into these initiatives, and thus far, DESE has supported us in obtaining almost $1 million at this point for scholarships to help support our educators to get their certifications so that they can be in the classrooms with their students,” said Lee.
The teacher diversity hires, which the district started tracking in 2023, shows that Chelsea has been approaching the 50 percent mark for diverse hires over the past several years, Lee said.
“We are very proud of all the work the administrators have been doing at the schools,” said Lee. “The principals have really taken ownership of diversifying the workforce, encouraging the paraprofessionals, and trying to recruit a diverse staff.”
The district is almost at 30 percent for a diverse teaching staff, with the DESE average for districts across the state around 10 percent, Lee said.
“We are doing great things and we are well above the average,” said Lee. “There is obviously room to improve, but we are really proud of the work that we have all done.”
Several school committee members praised the administration for the efforts it has taken in creating a more diverse workforce.
“I’m reflecting on my experience as a Chelsea Public Schools graduate and noting that there were very few BIPOC teachers that they had during my time, and I graduated in 2016,” said committee member Jonathan Gomez-Pereira. “I did not have a black educator until I was in college, which is a long time to wait because they bring their own experience and knowledge and different approaches to their subjects.”