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Progress made but work remains, NAACP forum hears

Key issues facing the black community are the topics of a sparsely attended town hall, the first of four such planned.

By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published September 23, 2006

CLEARWATER - Pinellas Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox spoke of the achievement gains of black students.

Clearwater police Lt. James Steffens talked about public safety in some neighborhoods getting considerably better since his days as a rookie officer in the late 1980s.

But both agreed that much work still needs to be done to address those issues.

Wilcox and Steffens were among the officials on hand Thursday night for a town hall meeting at the North Clearwater Performing Arts Academy hosted by the Clearwater/Upper Pinellas County branch of the NAACP. It was the first of four planned meetings to discuss key issues facing the local black community that were identified in a survey the NAACP conducted between January and December 2005.

Results compiled from 1,564 completed surveys identified education, law enforcement and economic development as the most important issues facing African-Americans in a county area spanning from Largo to Tarpon Springs.

Though the NAACP assembled a group that included Wilcox, school board member Janet Clark and two members of the Clearwater Police Department, only a little more than 20 residents showed up.

"This is pitiful," said Maurice E. Mickens, president of Mt. Carmel CDC of Clearwater Inc., who was in attendance.

The Rev. Nathaniel Ramsey, NAACP branch president, said the meeting was heavily publicized, and he also reached out to local ministers, churches and local officials.

The second of the four town hall forums will be held in January in Largo. The third will be April in Tarpon Springs and the final meeting will be in August in Safety Harbor. The exact dates and locations have yet to be determined, NAACP officials said.

But despite the sparse attendance at Thursday's meeting, Ramsey stressed that solutions must be found to address the black community's concerns.

"We want people to be informed," Ramsey said. "We have the issues, so let's get together with our leaders and find solutions. We have to become more conscious. We've got to take a hands-on approach and we need to get real with the situation."

Wilcox, the schools superintendent, said that while African-American students are showing academic gains, "the problem is the rate of change isn't enough. One or two percent a year is not enough."

Wilcox said only 42 percent of black boys in the county are graduating from high school and about 52 percent of black girls. At the same time, 75 percent of all white students in the county are graduating.

"There's a huge disparity in the graduation rate, and while it's getting better, it's still horrific," Wilcox said.

Clearwater resident Tawanna Larkin addressed Wilcox, saying that everyone has known about the poor statistics for black students for years, and wanted to "know what has been happening along the way to keep it from getting worse."

Wilcox spoke of a number of efforts, including getting more mentors into the system to help black students, programs to get students to read at grade level, and a program to expand cultural awareness in schools.

Wilcox also spoke of efforts to bring in more African-American teachers into the school system, pointing out that while about 18 percent of students in county schools is black, only 8 percent of teachers are.

Two members of the Clearwater Police Department were at the meeting to discuss matters of public safety.

One resident spoke of young men standing near her business selling drugs. She said that even though she's called police multiple times, the young men continue to return.

Police Lt. Steffens encouraged the woman to keep calling police, and assured her the department is monitoring the area.

Steffens told attendees about what things were like when he was a rookie officer.

"There were shootings regularly," he said. "Now, we may have one, though that's still too many. We are working to get things better."

Demorris A. Lee can be reached at 445-4174 or dalee@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 06:45:21]