WORCESTER — While emphasizing that the work isn’t done yet, the Worcester Public Schools reported that the amount of school staff who identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color has increased by 7% since 2019-20.
“The percentage is definitely trending in the direction that we want it to, but it was so low to begin with that we still have a large hill to climb,” Worcester Superintendent Rachel Monárrez told the Telegram & Gazette. “I’m happy to see growth, but there is so much more work to be done.”
The report states that during the 2019-20 school year, 19.41% of school employees identified as BIPOC, a percentage that has risen in each subsequent year, and now stands at 26.58% for the 2024-25 school year.
An emphasis on increasing the diversity of school staff to match the diversity of the Worcester student body has been a consistent goal of Monárrez and the school department, with Monárrez labeling it as one of the key goals for the current academic year.
More:Worcester Superintendent Monárrez outlines her goals for this school year
Approximately 74% of all students in Worcester schools identify as BIPOC, with close to 50% identifying as Hispanic or Latino. Currently, only 15.73% of all school staff are Hispanic or Latino, an increase of 5% from the 2019-20 school year.
While the number of total BIPOC employees working for Worcester Public Schools has increased, a majority of that increase has been in what the school department classifies as “operational” roles — jobs such as custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers. Fifty-nine percent of all operation employees in the district identify as BIPOC, up from 42% in 2019-20.
The percentage of teaching staff that identifies as BIPOC has risen since 2019-20 from 15% to 18%, and the percentage of administrators has risen from 15% to 21% over the same time frame.
“The classroom teacher has such a positive impact on students, and much more time with the student (than any other role), so that is important,” Monárrez said. “What I do like about getting people to work for us that represent our community is that once we get them in the door, we can really nurture and grow them. If they want to become a classroom teacher, or an administrator, we can help them do that, but we can’t do that if we are not even getting them in the door.”
Almost all of the growth in BIPOC staff has come from Hispanic/Latino hires — employees who identify as Black are at 6% for this current school year, having been at 5.45% in 2019-20. Around 17% of students in Worcester schools identify as Black. The share of staff identifying as Asian staff is 1%, the same percentage as in 2019-20. Asian students make up 6% of the Worcester student body.
Monárrez said often students aspire to become teachers because a teacher inspired them as a student. When students don’t have a teacher in the classroom who looks like them, they are unlikely to seek out that position as a career.
Monárrez said the district is working on pipeline development programs, including a internship program for high school students and a partnership with Worcester State University, to show students from all backgrounds that teaching is a viable career path.
“When you are a child and you are going through school, if you don’t see people that look like you, you don’t see this as a profession for you,” Monárrez said.
“We have to change that narrative for the child.”
New hires have interest in returning to Worcester
Last November, the Worcester Public Schools hired Edgar Lopez Pelico to be a wraparound coordinator at the University Park Campus School. Born in Guatemala, Pelico came to Worcester as a student and said he learned to speak English while attending Worcester Public Schools, eventually graduating from University Park in 2017.
In his role as wraparound coordinator, Pelico works with students and parents to help meet the social and emotional needs of students. He said his experience as both a relatively recent graduate of the school as well as being a Hispanic adult in a school that is 61% Hispanic are massive advantages in his ability to relate to students and parents.
“I’ve always wanted to come back to Worcester and contribute to the community in any capacity. I felt like it was going to be an easy transition for me to come in and work at the school,” Pelico said. “I’m familiar with the setting, and I’m young and able to relate to the students. I grew up in Guatemala, I came from a very poor community, and a lot of our students are coming from similar circumstances.”
Pelico said that while being Hispanic and having experience in the community have been assets to him, it didn’t automatically make him a good fit for the job. Having the proper expectations and being willing to work and adjust to the school setting as needed were what have allowed him to have an impact on students.
“Just because you are a person of color doesn’t mean you will fit in any capacity,” Pelico said. “You have to really understand what you are getting into. What happens is you have people who want to give back to the community and they come in, things get tough, and they leave. I would tell anyone that was looking at a job like this to come in without any expectations and be ready to go with the flow and roll with the punches.”
Pelico said the best part of the job is getting to interact with the students that he unknowingly had already met as an adolescent in the city.
“When I was in high school I worked for the recreation department and was involved teaching some little children how to play sports, and I’ve come here and I’ve had students come up to me and tell me they remember how I taught them how to play a sport when they were 6 or 7 years old,” Pelico said. “That is the best thing for me, just being able to have relationships with the same students.”
