May 20, 2013
Local representatives with the NAACP says the Dothan School Board must hire more minority teachers or else.
The school system is currently operating under a consent decree with the NAACP after coming out from under a federal court order to end racial discrimination.
Recent test scores show Dothan students at or near state and national averages in all areas.
But African-American students still lag behind in the classroom.
Ira Martin of the NAACP says the school system needs to hire minority teachers that can identify with minority students.
Martin says unless more minority instructors are hired, the NAACP will have no choice but to take the school system back to court for violating the consent decree.
Superintendent Dr. Leon Hobbs says he hired 19 minority teachers this year, about twice the average of his previous six years in Dothan.
