Harris wants more minorities hired by local schools

Superintendent Lee M. Bailey received unanimous support from the Grady County Board of Education on his recommendation to approve the administrative and certified staff for the 2014-2015 school year.
However, at least one board member is unhappy with the system’s record of hiring minority candidates for school jobs other than paraprofessionals.
“I just want to remind our superintendent and all of our administrators to be mindful of hiring minorities. Since July 2013 there have been less than 10 minorities hired in the Grady County School System for teaching or administrative positions,” board member Teresa Gee Harris said.
“I’m all for hiring the most qualified candidates for jobs, but if you’re not receiving applications from qualified minority candidates I ask you to go out and recruit,” the veteran school board member said.
Ms. Harris said she was not certain if a change in superintendents had caused the drop off in minority hiring, but she requested that from the superintendent down that emphasis be placed on recruiting qualified minority candidates.
“I’m quite sure we have qualified candidates currently in our system or in neighboring systems. No one else will lobby for them so I’m lobbying for them. We need to step up on minority hiring. You do real good at hiring parapros, but we can do better than that,” Ms. Harris said.