Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Minorities left out of contracts
Roanoke School Board member Courtney Penn said he wants Roanoke to do better with minority-owned and women-owned businesses.
JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times
A group looks through William Fleming High School's new building this month. Roanoke School Board member Courtney Penn boycotted the opening ceremony.
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Roanoke School Board member Courtney Penn was a no-show at the ribbon cutting ceremony this month for the new $57 million William Fleming High School.
If you don't know Penn, you may not have noticed. But if you do know the Roanoke native and what he stands for, you probably know there was a deeper reason for his absence.
Penn quietly boycotted the ceremony because of his disappointment and frustration with the lack of diversity in the school system's construction contracts, especially the multimillion dollar renovations of the city's two high schools. Last fiscal year, less than 1 percent of the jobs were awarded to state-verified businesses owned by women and minorities, according to a semiannual report issued by school officials.
"When I try to push something like this and it is unsuccessful, then I don't want to stand there and smile for the camera. That's not me," Penn said.
The school system paid about $320,000 to three minority-owned and 13 women-owned companies in the fiscal year that ended June 30. That is just a drop in the bucket compared with the $47.6 million spent.
Penn's initiative to encourage diversity predates his school board tenure and goes back two superintendents. When he served on the city's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, he met regularly with former superintendent Wayne Harris to discuss ways to include minority- and women-owned businesses in major construction projects that at the time had not even been approved.
The school board in November 2007 adopted a policy to encourage participation of locally owned, minority-owned and women-owned businesses.
Penn said other localities, such as Richmond, have fared better at diversifying contracts, and he wants Roanoke to follow their lead. When a provision was included in the high school construction contracts to maximize the use of minorities and female subcontractors, Penn said he felt it was a step in the right direction. But the guideline was not followed and there were no penalties or repercussions for the contractor, he said.
"When you have a community like Roanoke with a majority minority population, and these young people don't see anyone vested in building this community that looks like them, it reinforces the idea that education and something positive is meant for someone else, not them." Minorities make up less than a third of Roanoke's population, according to the Census Bureau. But in Roanoke City Public Schools, minorities are the majority, with blacks making up 48 percent of the student population last year, according to the Virginia Department of Education.
Until the school board sets stiffer requirements for contractors or demands change, the problems will continue, Penn said.
To help interested businesses better understand the procurement process, school board attorney Tim Spencer is offering a workshop at 9 a.m. Oct. 8 at the school central administration building, 40 Douglass Ave. N.W.
"In essence we are trying to make it not as intimidating a process as some small businesses perceive it to be," he said.
