I want these people to come out with EXACTLY why there is a need for "Latino" (whatever that is) leadership? Is there something in their culture that prevents mainstreaming with the rest of us? Maybe there are legit reasons for a "paucity" of Latino admins in the system? Like a 50% drop-out rate? I guess that's our fault too for being too white to run a school properly.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_7319327

Group says Mount Pleasant School District needs more diversity among principals
KIDS: 70 PERCENT LATINO; PRINCIPALS: ALL WHITE
By Jessie Mangaliman
Mercury News
Article Launched: 10/30/2007 01:37:16 AM PDT

East San Jose's Mount Pleasant School District, already under attack from parents and teachers for failing to deliver textbooks to one elementary school, has now come under fire from Latino community leaders for a lack of diversity among administrators.
More than 70 percent of the 3,000 students in the district are Latino. Mount Pleasant is led by a Latino superintendent, but all of the principals in the five elementary and middle schools are white.
The Latino Leadership Alliance, a group of Latino business, education and government leaders, said in a letter sent last week to Superintendent George Perez that "the district's failure to assemble a diverse pool of school principals is unacceptable and irresponsible in a valley that is renowned for diversity."
The group did not do a similar statistical analysis for other school districts in Silicon Valley. But statewide statistics show a paucity of Latino administrators in a state where Latino children will soon make up the majority of students.
Fred M. Tovar, the alliance's secretary and director of student affairs, said he's hoping to meet with Perez.
"I'm not out to chop his head off, and I'm not saying bad things about the principals at Mount Pleasant schools," said Tovar, who is assistant director of admissions at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "I want to have a discussion to point out that the community is concerned."
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and social support for students are critical elements needed to solve the lagging achievement of Latinos in schools, the alliance wrote, citing research on the "achievement gap" - the academic disparity between whites and Asians vs. Latinos and blacks.
Perez, a former high school principal, said he is preparing a written response to the group. But he scoffed at the letter.
"I find it amusing and ironic that they're writing to a Latino superintendent to point this out," he said in an interview. "Do they not know who they're writing to?"
Perez said the lack of Latino principals in California public schools is an issue he's tried to address in his 36 years in education.
Nearly half of the state's 6.2 million public school students are Latino. According to recent demographic projections, Latino schoolchildren are expected to become the majority in three years. Yet, Perez said, 71 percent of teachers - the potential pool of future principals - are white.
At Mount Pleasant, about 14 percent of the teachers are Latino, and 68 percent are white, according to statewide data.
In Santa Clara County's largest school district, San Jose Unified, more than half of the 30,000 students are Latino. Two-thirds of the 1,600 teachers are white; 18 percent are Latino.
No statistics were available on the ethnicity of district administrators.
I think they're raising legitimate issues," said Bernie Kotlier, vice president of Proyecto Alegria, the parent group for an English/Spanish language immersion program housed at the district's Ida Jew Elementary School.
"My feeling is any entity should try to reflect the ethnic composition of its community," said Kotlier, who is not Latino, and has two children in Alegria.
The criticism regarding the lack of administrators' diversity in Mount Pleasant is the latest to be lobbed at the administration by parents - Proyecto Alegria parents included - unhappy about missing textbooks at Ida Jew Elementary. Last month, a parent group, on behalf of all students at the school, filed a legal complaint contending that the district failed for two months to provide sufficient textbooks and materials, in violation of state law.
The school board concluded recently that some of the missing textbooks resulted from the confusion from a major district restructuring last year. Although Perez and the board said all the students now have their required textbooks and materials, many parents said they're unconvinced.
At a tense board meeting last week, parents questioned Perez's leadership and recounted instances in which they said administrators at Ida Jew Elementary were less than welcoming to Latino parent volunteers.
Parents complained that Perez was "dismissive" of their complaints about the missing books and that their e-mail queries were ignored until they filed a legal complaint.
Proyecto Alegria parents, including Kotlier, said Perez tried to "quash communication" between teachers who raised the issue of the missing textbooks.
Perez declined to respond to the criticism.
Sarah N. Torres, a physician who has a child in Proyecto Alegria, said: "To me, we need leaders who can be creative. It would be nice for the children to see role models. But in the end, what's important is if they can do their jobs."
The relationship between Perez and the mostly Latino parents in the district appears to be growing testier by the day.
Late last week, Kotlier delivered another critique from parents, asking Perez to clarify a suggestion he made earlier this month to dissolve Proyecto Alegria and merge with the PTA.
Perez said the idea he suggested was for the two groups that serve a largely Latino student body to work together so that they would not, for example, compete in fundraising.
"We do more than just raise money," Kotlier said. "We have cultural events that are important. We need to keep this organization intact."
Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@mercurynews.com or (40 920-5794.