HARRISONBURG, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) – Harrisonburg City officials and school officials held a Liaison Committee hearing this afternoon and heard from the superintendent’s Task Force for Support of African-American students.

Members of the task force told the committee that the concerns they have heard are gaps among African-American students involving behavior, academics as well as social and emotional learning and how are those gaps going to be closed.

After hearing from the task force, Councilman Chris Jones exclaimed that it is difficult to close those gaps when there are not enough of people of color in administrative positions.

“It’s hard for me to believe that talent can’t be, that positions can’t be left open until we know that we have exhausted all possibilities to make sure that women can be paid equal salaries and that black and brown folks have had just as much of a shot as white folks at upper level positions,” Jones said. “Because at the end of the day, our school system reflects that people like me will never be in charge of it.”

Council member Monica Robinson echoed the sentiment, as she experienced a similar lack of representation while teaching in Rockingham County Public Schools.

“African-American teachers are there, and it feels like we check a box,” Robinson said. “We’re there, but that’s where we stay. We very seldom see it moving this way. And so until we reach that in HCPS where there’s more color from the top down, that when I go to central office, I can see somebody that looks like me and not somebody who looks like me that’s out in the district working somewhere, then I will be more satisfied that we’ve done whatever we need to do in order to make that happen.”

The task force is scheduled to meet again on Nov. 19 to continue to tackle those issues. School safety measures were also discussed during the meeting, as well as possibly including school supplies in the City’s education budget to ease the financial burden on parents.