Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School Superintendent Scott Wakeley addressed goals in District 307 to hire more teachers and staff of color and promote racial literacy and awareness during Monday’s school board meeting.

About 30 percent of BBCHS students are people of color, but the makeup of the staff does not reflect that percentage. Ideally, at least 30 percent of staff should also be people of color, Wakeley said.

Recruiting diverse candidates to BBCHS, particularly black candidates, has been a challenge, but it is a continued goal for the district to seek them out, he said.

Black hires this school year have included five school monitors and two teachers.

Wakeley said it is important for students to be able to make connections with teachers and staff who look like them.

He also talked about the importance of recognizing the unique perspectives and struggles of black students — being colorblind isn’t the answer.

“We don’t have all the answers, but I think [the district] having a strong stance of Black Lives Matter is important,” he said. “It’s not ‘all lives matter.’ It’s Black Lives Matter.”

Wakeley referenced a letter he wrote to the community regarding civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

In the letter, Wakeley said he was “overwhelmed with a sense of pride” when he saw community members including BBCHS students march in peaceful protests.

The letter goes on to say that the school district includes racial literacy as part of its professional development, and effort will be made to continue conversations about white privilege and racism.

Wakeley said racial literacy training for all district staff began last school year and will expand into the future. He said that before he participated in some of the group exercises and discussions about race, he had been fairly oblivious to his own white privilege.

“I’m a kid from Momence,” he said. “I just didn’t think about being a white kid because you didn’t have to.”

Black people, on the other hand, have to think about being black because it affects the way people treat them, he explained.

“I am at the very beginning of this journey of understanding,” Wakeley said. “I would look at everything that’s going on right now very differently a year ago than I do right now because of the racial literacy work that has been done in this district.”

Staff have also met in book study groups to discuss books such as What It Means to be White and White Fragility. Wakeley said it is critical for school districts to have difficult conversations about these topics.

“‘White fragility’ is kind of the defense mechanism that white people have when confronted with very difficult racial issues,” he said. “I think the district is just scratching the surface. I know the team is working; that’s one of our strategic goals, and that’s why I’m really proud of that goal and the work that’s been done.”