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Hazelwoood School District is Handling Supplier Diversity Issues
Differing Opinions on How HSD is Handling Supplier Diversity Issues
By Nichole Richardson
The Hazelwood School District Board of Education held a presentation Jan. 17 on their Supplier and Workforce Diversity Program, receiving comments from both sides of the issue. The district has been defending itself against accusations made by the NAACP regarding their procurement policy for workers.
The policy requires companies bidding on projects to only employ workers who have graduated from an approved union apprenticeship program. NAACP president, Adolphus Pruitt, contends that very few women and minorities complete such a program, thus 90-95% of the jobs are going to white male workers and violating the Title VI Civil Rights Act.
Pruitt also maintains that the policy has been “so effective that non-union construction companies don’t even bid on HSD projects,” and claims that policy decision makers are using this to their advantage to create disparate treatment under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Board member Mark Behlman, disagrees and has been an avid promoter of using union workers because he believes non-union workers never provide what the bid specks out.
Union or not, the Hazelwood School Board denies the accusations and cites previous accomplishments such as the 2007 MOKAN “Institution of the Year Award” and the 2008 St. Louis Minority Supplier Development “Institution of the Year Award”. Also the district has been a finalist for the latter in both 2010 and 2011.
They also claim their program provides opportunities for meaningful participation of Minority Business Entrepreneurs (MBE’s) and Women Business Entrepreneurs (WBE’S) and says the program has displayed significant commitment to the development of MBE’s and WBE’s in the community.
Not everyone is so quick to congratulate the board on their accolades. Tony Weaver spoke up on his disgust over the minority percentages, asking why the board is satisfied with only 25% MBE’s. His disposition is that the board could be doing better with 56-100%.
Supporters of the board such as Councilmen Keith English and Tim Lee and the entire Florissant City Council commended HSD’s actions and mentioned the importance of building quality school facilities.
P. David Stephen of St. Louis Minority Supplier Development Council wholeheartedly agrees that the HSD has drastically helped minority-owned businesses and Ted Fletcher, a MBE owner, has been awarded nine HSD projects totaling more than $6.5 million, thus allowing his company to survive and grow in this difficult job market.
The most recent statistics from last year’s bond issue construction contracts (11/30/11) show that MBE’s surpassed the district’s goals for services and construction, but fell behind for supplies. WBE’s did not meet goals for services and supplies but made huge strides for construction, with 42% participation.
Currently, district goals for 2012 include 25% MBE’s and 5% WBE’s for construction contracts greater than $250,000, and receiving monthly reports from each applicable contractor.
In addition, a new state-of-the-art monitoring program and employee ID system will be set in place to track employee demographics more deeply. The new software costs will fall on the contractors but they will retain ownership rights. HSD believes it will be a small investment to the contractors but will pay off big in terms of monitoring workforce diversity.
Hazelwood School District Board of Education president, Cheryl Latham, referred to this system as tracking actual “boots on the ground.” HSD will periodically visit the work sites to ensure compliance with the monitoring program and will evaluate contractors on future jobs based on compliance and meeting goals on past projects.
Kevin Cross, director of Purchasing and Supplier Diversity, and Tom Mangonia, construction project manager of Proposition H, agreed that both Phase I and Phase II have either met or exceeded the district’s goals of 25% MBE’s and 5% WBE’s. They also informed the public that they conducted focus groups and modeled the program to be consistent with the rest of St. Louis.
District resident Dominic Koetting takes a totally different perspective on the Supplier Diversity Program. Koetting asks why the board and contractors are so concerned about race and percentages and not more concerned with worker productivity and safety.
District Supt. Steve Price, stands by the choices the board has made saying, “I am proud that Hazelwood is doing the right thing by helping such an important part of the fabric of our community.” With it being School Board Recognition Week Jan. 22-28, he also praised the board with certificates for dedicated service as they “strive to improve public schools through quality leadership.”
