The FCPS Human Relations Advisory Committee received the following charge for the year 2004/2005: 

In order to best serve the Board and the community, we believe the HRAC must examine the role of local school human relations committees in facilitating the practice of good human relations and maintaining a nondiscriminatory environment.  The School Board asks the HRAC to gather information and respond to the following questions:

1.      How are local school human relations committees faring?

2.      How useful are human relations committees to principals?

3.      What kinds of issues or concerns come to the attention of these committees?

4.      Are there other school systems that have similar committees and, if so, are there “best practices” that FCPS can learn from?

5.      What can the School Board do to ensure that human relations committees remain viable and valuable?                                                              

 Introduction – what did we do to fulfill the charge?

 The Human Relations Advisory Committee (HRAC) discussed several methods of collecting information in order to respond to the charge from the School Board.  It was decided that a survey of school principals would be extremely useful in understanding exactly how human relations committees were functioning across the county.  The HRAC analyzed the type of questions to be asked, using the charge and Regulation 4910 (setting up human relations committees) as our guide. With the help of staff, a 19 question survey was sent out to principals with a reminder sent a couple of weeks later. Principals serving on the HRAC were very helpful to the process by calling attention to the survey during meetings with colleagues from around the county.  By the response deadline, we had received 154 responses out of a possible 235 with many hundreds of additional comments by principals.

HRAC divided into subcommittees to review this large volume of information and to draw sufficient conclusions to answer the questions in the charge.      

1.  How are the local school human relations committees faring?

The data show that there are “human relations committees” at many schools with 83.6% having an active human relations committee last year and 64% having an active committee during the last five years although it was also found that the name of the committee may vary from school to school.  In the school year 2003-2004, generally speaking, human relations committees were more active in the lower grades than in the high schools.  

A number of questions in the survey dealt with the nuts and bolts of what the committees do, when they meet and how much they conform to the regulation establishing them.  From this information, we found out that most human relations committees do not issue annual reports as required. (73.4% of principals did not receive an annual report.) Additionally, 78.9% of principals had not received any recommendations from their human relations committee.  Of the committees that do produce minutes of their meetings, the school faculty/staff generally receive those minutes of the meetings.  Only 26% of the schools make the minutes available to the parents.  

Regulation 4910 requires broad representation on the human relations committee.  At many schools, however, students are not included on these committees.  Approximately half of the committees have parental involvement. Some principals attend human relations committee meeting and others do not. It was noted that when a parent or an active faculty member chaired the committee, the human relations committee tended to be active.

 The majority of the schools reported that human relations committees supported diversity and that they satisfied the requirement to provide programming by arranging heritage celebrations, such as International Night, Global Village, Multicultural Fairs and so on.

 2.  How useful are human relations committees to principals?

 Principals perceived that the human relations committee overlapped with other school committees.  This sentiment was shared by 68.4% of principals at the high school level, by 63.6% at the middle school level and by 80.6% at the elementary school level.  There were many mentions of other committees which are perceived to overlap with human relations such as Faculty Advisory Committee, PTA, Character Education, Community of Caring, Hospitality Committee, School Climate Committee, Minority Achievement, or Social Committees.  Principals voiced a concern that they have other forums that may address the purposes of the human relations committee and some principals want to consolidate these committees. On the hand, some principals value the human relations committee because they deal with specific issues that are of concern in the school. A number of principals requested more direction as to the goals, expectations and membership of the human relations committee.

3.  What kinds of issues or concerns come to the attention of these committees?

 The two most consistent issues that were reported across the board from elementary through high School are cultural sensitivity (61.4%) and communication (56.7%).  These percentages became even higher as we looked at responses from middle and high school.  Other issues that came before the human relations committee were gangs (16.5%), harassment (13.4%), and discrimination (11%).  Respondents mentioned other issues (34.6%) which included bullying and teasing, the need to be sensitive to children with severe disabilities, cheating, stress and a number of other concerns. 

 4.  Are there other school systems that have similar committees and, if so, are there “best practices” that FCPS can learn from?

 Staff researched some of our neighboring counties to try to determine if human relations committees existed elsewhere and in what form.  It appeared from a preliminary look that human relations committees as such are not mandated in those jurisdictions.  However, Arlington County Public Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools do have specific policies and guidelines with the objective of “promoting an atmosphere of respect and nondiscrimination” (MCPS ). 

 Montgomery County specifies “desired outcomes” such as requiring that “every school and unit will demonstrate an atmosphere that promotes understanding, respect, and positive interaction among all individuals and groups.”  A number of “implementation strategies” are required such as “All administrators and supervisors will implement, coordinate and assess human relations activities and programs for students, staff, and parents”.  Arlington County  has a policy “to foster an educational environment designed to accord respect to all individuals regardless of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, economic status, and/or physical or mental handicap”  Objectives are established to guide the school community in working toward “an effective, comprehensive, continuing and affirmative program of human relations”.  It appears that the requirements do not relate so much to the establishment and membership of a human relations committee (as in FCPS Regulation 4910) but are intended to provide administrators with a broad outline of objectives and guidelines aimed as raising awareness human relations issues and fostering the resolution of those concerns. 

 5.  What can the School Board do to ensure that human relations committees remain viable and valuable?

 We believe the role of the school based human relations committee should be to advise the principal on ways to foster an educational environment designed to accord respect to all individuals within the school community and to promote an atmosphere of understanding and non-discrimination.  We further believe that an effective human relations policy within a school will create the kind of learning environment that leads to success for all groups within the school community and, particularly, those subgroups identified in the NCLB legislation that might be at risk academically.

We would ask the School Board – what do you want to see a human relations committee deal with in our schools?  The HRAC has taken a broad approach to the definition of human relations and we understand it to encompass taking care of anything in the school environment that “gets in the way” of learning for the students. We envision a proactive committee made up of representatives of the entire school community that would discuss and brainstorm issues or challenges faced by the individual school before they become “problems”

Currently, the School Board requires only two committees that must be formed by the Principal: the Faculty Advisory Committee and the Human Relations Committee. Although the survey revealed that the majority of principals perceived some overlap between the HR committee and other committees in their schools, the HRAC does not agree that this means HR committees in schools should be eliminated.  Indeed, with the increasing diversity of our school population, there is an even greater need for an active, well functioning human relations committee in each school.

 With this in mind, the HRAC would like to make the following recommendations to enhance the value and viability of HR committees:

Recommendation #1.             Modify Regulation 4910.1 “Human Resources Equity and Compliance” by writing up the requirement to have a school based human relations committee in a separate regulation or policy statement.

 Rationale:  At present, this requirement is embedded in a school regulation that appears to deal predominantly with personnel issues, equal employment opportunity and ensuring compliance with various employment legislation and policies.  HRAC envisages a much wider role for the HR committee in the sense of advising the principal on the educational environment within the school, its unique challenges as defined by each individual school and what can be done to actively promote a better school climate.

  

Recommendation #2.    Formulate a clear statement of the goals, participants and expectations of a human relations committee within the school so that the principal has the necessary guidance as to why an actively functioning HR committee benefits the school community.  The HRAC embraces the idea of a HR committee with the full range of participants from the school community including parents, teachers, students, administrators and other staff.

Since every school in our county is unique in some way, it is important to allow individual principals flexibility in carrying out these expectations.

 Rationale:  Principals in the survey mentioned numerous times the need for more guidance or a vision of what was intended by the human relations committee.  Many principals talked about a wide array of other committees that they said overlapped with the purpose of an HR committee.  The HRAC does not agree that the proliferation of committees that we heard about does in fact fulfill the function of the HR committee as we envisage it.  In many cases, these were ad hoc committees to produce a particular event, such as an international night or other heritage celebration, or consisted of only the principal and staff such as the Faculty Advisory Committee.

 

Recommendation #3.             Incorporate an enforcement mechanism, for example, by including this in the performance evaluation negotiated between the principal and the cluster assistant superintendent or asking principals to report on HR committee activities at cluster meetings now and then.

 Rationale:  It was obvious from the survey that a significant number of schools have no HR committee or one that functions only minimally.  There appears to be no positive obligation on cluster directors to ensure that HR committees are functioning or to see reports that they may have produced. 

 

 Recommendation #4.             Address staff training issues as it relates to human relations and the school climate. 

 Rationale:  When asked what issues arise most often, the majority of principals mentioned cultural sensitivities and communication as the top concerns that were addressed by human relations committees.  A number of principals mentioned the lack of HR training for staff and the need for them to be educated about the increasing diversity in our county with regard to race, religion, economic status etc.

 

 Recommendation # 5:  Improve communication between the school and the cluster/area office on human relations issues in the schools and provide the means to share information among principals about HR committees in other schools and their activities. Ensure continuing support for translators and parent liaisons.

 Rationale:  Not only was “communication” one of the top issues that was brought to the attention of human relations committees in the schools but it was obvious from the comments by principals that many would welcome ideas and information about what other schools were doing to implement the human relations policy.  A number of principals mentioned parent liaisons as essential tools in the effort to reach all members of the school community and strengthening the link between home and school.