Antelope Valley High Board Faces Inner-City Issues

The Antelope Valley Union High School District, accustomed to dealing with suburban topics such as the need to build more schools, tonight will also grapple with two intensely urban issues: fighting gang problems and increasing its share of minority faculty members.

A decade ago, the high desert region was mostly immune to such debates. But rapid urbanization has created new challenges for the area’s schools.

The Board of Trustees of the nearly 10,000-student district will grapple with two of those challenges tonight, when it is expected to consider approving an affirmative action plan for faculty hiring, and hear parent and student protests over a recently adopted anti-gang dress code.

Larry Rucker, president of the district’s board of trustees and its only minority member, said school officials in the area have to accept the fact that their community is changing as it becomes more multicultural.

“That’s the big picture. There’s no question about that,” Rucker said.

The point was brought home recently when high school officials unveiled the proposed affirmative action plan. The district’s share of minority students has skyrocketed since last year, but its share of minority faculty members grew only slightly.

Latinos account for 17.8% of the district’s 9,796 students, but only 3.7% of its 427 faculty members. Blacks account for 8.4% of the students but only 4% of the faculty. And Asians account for 2.4% of the students but only 0.7% of the faculty, according to district statistics.

In an attempt to remedy the imbalance, the district’s policy would, for the first time, set specific goals for hiring more minority teachers in coming years. However, the student-teacher ethnic gap now is so wide that the policy would narrow it, but not close it anytime soon.

Minority students combined make up 30.4% of the district’s enrollment, up from 25.7% just a year ago. But the share of minority faculty members grew from only 8.6% to 8.9% this year. The other 91.1% of faculty members are white, compared to only 69.6% of the students, the statistics show.

The affirmative action plan calls for increasing the number of minority faculty members by 19--10 Latinos, 7 blacks and 2 Asians--in each of the coming three years. But even after that, the percentage of minority faculty members would lag behind even the current percentage of minority students.

Rucker said he believes that the disparity is partly to blame for the district’s worsening gang problems because there are not enough minority faculty and staff members at the schools to provide role models and attention to the minority students. “There is a correlation,” he said.

Concern over gang activity prompted the school board last month to approve a new dress code giving school officials the authority to outlaw whatever clothing or apparel they consider gang-related. Last week, students protested and boycotted classes as the new policy took effect. Three Antelope Valley High School students face charges for allegedly stoning a sheriff’s patrol car during a demonstration.

School officials say the policy attempts to make campuses neutral ground and prevent innocent students from being hurt by gang members. But students say the policy infringes on their right to free expression and some parents say they, not the schools, should make those choices.

The school board, which had adopted the policy by a bare 3-2 vote, is not expected to take any action tonight because the issue is not on the agenda. But students say they and their parents will turn out in large numbers to voice their protests during the session’s public comment period.