NAACP official wants minority to monitor Hubbard students attending new schools

Aug. 10—MOULTON — A former guidance counselor at the closed R.A. Hubbard School has been assigned to assist its former students as they begin classes at other Lawrence County schools, but an NAACP official objected to appointing a white educator to to help a predominantly Black constituency.

Judy Phillips was appointed to assist the former Hubbard students by Superintendent Jon Bret Smith after Rosa Allen-Cooper, who is Black and previously was transitional liaison for the students, accepted a job with Decatur City Schools earlier this month.

Lawrence County NAACP Vice President Bobby Diggs, who is a former school board member, said his organization asked that minorities be given prominent roles at the three schools former Hubbard students will attend. A federal judge ruled April 25 that Hubbard, a school in North Courtland, could be closed.

"I have nothing against Ms. Phillips," Diggs said. "I am sure she has a good rapport with the Hubbard students and I'm not saying she can't do the job. I would just like to see a minority from the Hubbard staff in that position."

Diggs said the superintendent ignored pleas of the Black community when he recommended Gaylon Parker to replace Ron Rikard as principal at East Lawrence High School in April.

"We don't have a minority principal at any of the high schools in the county," Diggs said. "He had the opportunity to hire a minority at East Lawrence High School and he did not. We definitely need more minorities in prominent positions throughout the school system. I don't know why they aren't hiring them."

Smith said additional assistant principals have been hired this year at Hatton High and East Lawrence High and both are Black. Former Hubbard students staying in the Lawrence school system will attend Hatton, East Lawrence High and East Lawrence Middle.

District 1 school board member Christine Garner, who represents the R.A. Hubbard area, said she was saddened when Allen-Cooper, former principal at R.A. Hubbard, left the transitional liaison position to become a guidance counselor at Benjamin Davis Elementary in Decatur.

"I hate it for the Hubbard kids," Garner said. "They know Ms. Allen-Cooper. They know somebody like her they trust and somebody who will look out for their best interests. Hopefully, the superintendent just didn't create that (transitional liaison) position for show. ... I want to be assured that none of the Hubbard students will be treated unfair at their new schools."

Smith said Phillips and the assistant principals at Hatton and the East Lawrence campuses "will support the former R.A. Hubbard students by helping address student needs including academic, social-emotional, behavioral and curricular."

He said Phillips will travel between Hatton and East Lawrence to provide the needed support to the students.

"She will work in that capacity to make sure their needs are met academic wise, athletically, whatever they may be," he said. "She was guidance counselor at R.A. Hubbard for many years. They are very familiar with her. We have several staff members from Hubbard at each school. The Hubbard students will see a set of familiar faces when they go to their new schools. (Phillips') job is to monitor the kids who were assigned to R.A. Hubbard. ... There will be no time frame on when those duties will end."

Smith said of the approximately 145 students at R.A. Hubbard, about 80 to 85 have enrolled at Hatton High and about 50 more will be attending one of the two East Lawrence campuses.

"We'll be about 10 short (of the former Hubbard students)," he said. "We're working on identifying where those kids have gone. We expect some of those to enroll on the first day of school. A couple of kids who said they were leaving Lawrence because of the Hubbard closing have already enrolled in our system."

Last year, Hatton High was 1.41% Black. East Lawrence Middle School was 8% and East Lawrence High was 9.82%. A school board attorney said late in 2021 that Hubbard was 70.55% Black and 29.45% non-Black.

Smith said a few of the former Hubbard students may have moved away. "We're living in a transient society," Smith said. "It's commonplace for a few percent at each school to turn over each year. Parents change jobs, move, marry, divorce. That plays a role where kids live."

He said his staff will be monitoring the time of bus routes transporting former Hubbard students. He feels transporting students from the Red Bank area in the northernmost part of the county to East Lawrence or Hatton could be the longest routes and may need adjusting.

"We don't want them to have routes longer than Mount Hope and Speake kids. If we are wrong, we'll add a bus route or two," Smith said.

Lawrence County students report Thursday for the first day of school.

Smith recommended the closure of R.A. Hubbard School, which taught students grade 7-12, because of the high cost of operating the school.

Board actions

At Tuesday morning's school board meeting, the board hired six certified teachers and discussed hiring an educational interpreter/sign language acquisition specialist. Smith said his system will open the school year three certified teachers short.

"Those employees transferred into other positions recently. So, the timeline hasn't passed to fill their positions," he said.

New full-time certified teachers hired are Sylvia McDonald, countywide special education teacher, homebased at Moulton Elementary; Jana Kimball, Hatton Elementary teacher/high dosage tutor; Brian Williams, Lawrence County High JROTC teacher, effective Sept. 19; Chelsea Haggermaker, Hazlewood Elementary physical education teacher; Bart Littrell, countywide special education teacher, homebased at Hatton Elementary/Hazlewood Elementary; and Baylee King, countywide special education teacher, homebased at Moulton Elementary.

In transfers, Jessica Welborn, Lawrence County High, moved from a nine-month counselor/teacher to 10-month counselor; and Michelle Carpenter moved from teacher at Moulton Middle School to English/language arts high dosage tutor at Judy Jester Learning Center.

— mike.wetzel@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.