HART TAKES BIG STEPS TOWARD DIVERSITY MINORITY TEACHERS TO BE HIRED; STUDENTS' CULTURES TO BE EXPLORED.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Encouraging students to relate to peers who look different is nothing new at the Hart School District -- it's been going on for years.

But earlier teaching programs happened in an era when the William S. Hart Union High School District's student population was overwhelmingly white. The need for tolerance has become less of a hypothetical as the district's student population has become more diverse.

``The valley has changed in demographics, and there are some campuses where there are anywhere from 15 to 50 languages spoken,'' said school board member Steven Sturgeon. ``So it is our job to ensure a healthy and safe environment for our students.''

In April, four teens were arrested at Hart High in a melee involving more than 50 students. Sheriff's deputies said the fight appeared racial, with African-Americans and Latinos on one side and whites on the other.

When classes start in a month, the school district will start its first full school year since adopting a diversity action plan that calls for, among other things, hiring more teachers from minority groups and educating students about other cultures.

Work on the plan began after African-American parents complained of discrimination at the schools. Several of the parents filed a lawsuit, which the district settled earlier this year with a $300,000 payment to the five student plaintiffs.

Working with a $75,000 budget, Greg Lee is starting his second year as a diversity coordinator, a newly created job at the district. The biggest chunk of his budget will go to a program that uses students as ``safe school ambassadors'' to quell conflicts on campuses.

Golden Valley High started using the program when it opened in 2004. It has since spread to eight other schools in the district.

It's part of a pattern for the district as it works to eliminate conflicts over race, religion, sexual orientation or other differences -- use what works.

``There are teachers on every campus that have been doing this work diligently for many, many years,'' Lee said. ``The great thing now is they have an opportunity to share some of those ideas, that they've only been practicing in their classroom, on a campus-wide level.''

By descent, 25 percent of students in the district are Latino, about 9 percent are Asian and more than 4 percent are African-American, according to figures for the 2004-05 school year. Ten years earlier, 17 percent of students were Latino and the district had about half as many African-American and Asian students.

Despite changes in its student population, nearly 87 percent of the district's teachers were white in the 2004-05 school year.

Starting in the fall of 2005, the district began training teachers in understanding different cultures. But the district is also training nonteaching employees, everyone from campus supervisors to secretaries.

Students will also learn about different cultures. Classroom lesson plans could involve anything from teaching about the Afro-Caribbean workers who built the Panama Canal to making ``The Diary of Ann Frank'' relevant to Latino students, Lee said.

``I personally ... believe that a lot of the racial biases that kids have, a lot of them don't come from parents,'' Lee said. ``That's kind of putting a bad rap on the parents. A lot of it is coming from peers.''

To combat that, the district has its ``safe school ambassadors'' program, with hundreds of students participating. Students whom peers seem to look up to are nominated by teachers, and they meet secretly to preserve their anonymity -- then go out into the school and speak up when they see students being bullied.

On the flip side, district officials said they know there are some skinheads -- who espouse white supremacist beliefs -- on campuses. When racist students lash out, the district needs to take disciplinary action, said school board member Dennis King.

``All of the preaching that we can do about diversity is not going to get 100 percent of the people,'' King said. ``There are going to be some people who, if you will, love to hate. And we cannot tolerate that.''

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

[phone]