A job description at St. Louis Park Public Schools says the school district is seeking an assistant superintendent who can “examine the presence and role of ‘Whiteness’ in systems and structures.”
Posted last week on the school’s job board, the position of assistant superintendent will receive an annual salary between $134,141 and $201,212. The position will be a part of the superintendent’s leadership team and will have significant influence in how the school district operates.
However, the job description indicates that the role will have a very particular focus. The first sentence of the position’s summary says, “the Assistant Superintendent proactively supports the Superintendent to create and communicate anti-racist structures and systems, works to interrupt systems of oppression, and serves as a role model for culturally relevant pedagogy.”
The school district continues its summary of the position by saying the assistant superintendent must be “unwaveringly committed to anti-racist actions and use data to adapt and sustain their efforts towards racial equity to plan, direct, and coordinate action to achieve the mission and strategic objectives.”
As a matter of fact, words such as “anti-racist,” “racial equity,” and other related phrases appear in the job description over a dozen times.
The job description continues by saying the school district is seeking an assistant superintendent who can “examine the presence and role of ‘Whiteness’ in systems and structures,” and is “open to feedback regarding their own racial blind spots.”
Earlier this month, St. Louis Park Public Schools hired a new superintendent, Dr. Carla Hines, who has spent many years in the public school system.
In a statement announcing Dr. Hines’ hiring, the chair of the St. Louis Park school board said Hines’ “educational leadership, dedication to student academic success, and vision for racial equity transformation is impressive and I’m confident she’ll lead our district with integrity and passion, advancing our strategic plan.”
As the aforementioned job description states, the eventual assistant superintendent will be tasked with proactively supporting Dr. Hines in creating “anti-racist structures and systems.”
St. Louis Park has just over 4,500 students enrolled across its nine schools. Roughly 53% of the students in the district are white, just over 20% of students are black, 12.5% are Latino, and the remaining students are a mix of different ethnic minorities.
According to U.S. News and World Report, only 34% of high school students in St. Louis Park public schools are proficient in math. About 58% of high school students are proficient in reading. Despite this, the school district graduates over 85% of its students.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
