Schools To Recruit Blacks

A vigorous program to recruit more black teachers, counselors and administrators by September to the Ann Arbor Public Schools was outlined last night by School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. Westerman said no quota of additional black staff has been set, but he said he would be "greatly disappointed" if the major departments of the senior high schools do not have at least two black staff members when school opens next fall. The superintendent said additional black staff is an "absolute necessity" if the schools are to "keep faitli" with past promises to black students, and he promised to be as "innovative and aggressive as possible" to swell the numbers of black professionals in the schools. Trustee Paul H. Johnson declared the Ann Arbor Schools "don't have to make an apology" for the way additional black staff has been recruited in the past five years. He said the increase in black staff has been 240 per cent in the past five years, from 2.8 per cent in 1965-66 to 6.6 per cent in 1969-70. "I think we have done a tremendous job," he said. Westerman agreed that gains had been made, but not enough. The demands of black students at Pioneer and Huron High Schools for the past two yeárs have included demands for more black staff. Presently, neither high school has a fulltime black counselor, and there are only six black teachers at Huron out of some 120. Westerman said the schools' recruitment program would have f ive parts : - Visiting and recruitment at a large number of Michigan universities and colleges, at black colleges in the Söuth and elsewhere by Personnel Director Stanley Zubel; - Sending a new recruitment brochure to. a large number of universities and colleges; - Asking present black staff to help "raid" schools they previously attended or taught for some of their black staff members; - Soliciting the help of Ann Arbor black youth in getting more black applicants, including the local black students having lunch with the prospective employés and taking them on tours of the schools and community; - Placing advertisements in black newspapers and magazines in March, April and May. Westerman cautioned that there is "intense competition" today for professional blacks, and said Ann Arbor would need more competitive salaries to attract teachers, both black and white. Westerman admitted that the 1969-70 contract put Ann Arbor teachers 20th or below out of 24 Michigan districts in salaries and other benefits, and said this would have to be remedied next year if they hoped to attract teachers. Trustee Henry Johnson, who is black, said he was "very pleased" with the administrative plans to recruit more blacks. Contact with black professionals is terribly important for black students, he said.