The president of the Williamsburg-area NAACP is calling for a member of the Williamsburg-James City County School Board to resign, claiming that Michael Hosang is minimizing racial inequities in the school system.
Lawrence Gholson II, president of the York-James City-Williamsburg branch of the NAACP, called for the resignation following remarks that Hosang made June 4 in reference to a report put out by The Village Initiative for Equity in Education.
The initiative, which aims to work with the school system to address racial achievement gaps and disproportionate suspensions, reported that students of color in the school system are punished at disproportionate rates and fall behind academically compared to their counterparts at the state level and white students in the district. The initiative has reported similar findings over the past six years.
Hosang said that although The Village Initiative cited quantitative data, “numbers can be deceiving.”
At a board work session on June 4, Hosang said he was going to be the one to stick up for teachers and administrators after he had seen a lack of defense for them. “Our teachers and administrators have indirectly been called racist and discriminators, simply for doing their jobs,” he said.
“They have been attacked for allegedly punishing Black students at a disproportionate rate,” he said. “Now, I’m curious to know why or how this theory is raised. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve seen the numbers, but numbers can be deceiving.”
The report showed students identifying as Black, Hispanic or multiple races made up 43% of the student population in the district but accounted for 66% of short-term suspensions. Specifically, Black students made up 18% of the student population but accounted for 39% of short-term suspensions.
Hosang joined the school board in January. In March, fellow board member Andrea Donnor criticized him after he claimed that teachers are not teaching students because they are focused on new students who don’t speak English. He also questioned whether some students were in the country legally.
Earlier this week, Gholson said Hosang’s most recent comments “are another deflection from the seriousness of these issues in WJCC. To insinuate no one stands up for our educators and administrators is a lie.”
“Identifying weaknesses in our educational system is not an attack but an opportunity to improve,” Gholson added in comments directed at Hosang. “This report highlights areas needing attention, based on data from WJCC Schools. It’s your responsibility to disprove these findings and be accountable.”
Gholson called “on all community members to agree” that Hosang was failing to represent them and needs to resign from the school board.
When reached for comment, Hosang said the Village Initiative’s report didn’t address any factors except raw scores, “which leads to inaccurate and misleading assumptions.”
“Contrary to recent comments based on raw numbers alone, students are not treated differently, and the school system goes to extreme measures to meet everyone’s needs,” he said. “While statistical reports are important, numbers alone should not be interpreted as a strict/simple cause and effect. The success of each student is affected by many factors in and out of the classroom.”
He went on to “welcome the Village Initiative and NAACP to look deeper into the needs of all students, and opposed to stating numbers out of context, identify a solution to the raw numbers cited.”
According to the Village Initiative, the annual equity in education report uses “publicly available data to highlight gaps in student performance and disciplinary action between white and minority students.”
Marco Sardi, president of the Williamsburg-James City Education Association, said he thought Hosang misrepresented the report and said his comments do not reflect how the association “views the important data contained within it.”
“To solve any problem, you must be able to first identify it,” Sardi said. “Just because it may make us uncomfortable to be presented with information showing where we need to improve, doesn’t mean we should dismiss it out of hand as an attack on the hundreds of educators who work incredibly hard to make sure all students can succeed.”
Sardi said it’s frustrating to hear a school representative speak for staff without first asking how the staff feels.
Sam Schaffer, [email protected]
