AUBURN - Achievement, equity and perception.

These were the three concepts Eloise Benjamin ultimately heard Wednesday evening in the Booker T. Washington Community Center gymnasium. It was there that she and roughly 100 people - representing Auburn schools, parents, students and stakeholders in the African-American community - gathered to discuss the racism a growing number of blacks have collectively identified and say they can no longer tolerate in the Auburn Enlarged City School District.

Benjamin, a youth pastor, is the mother of a 14-year-old boy who was suspended following a confrontation with another student at Auburn High School last week. Benjamin believed her son was singled out by administrators and ultimately suspended from school because of his Puerto Rican and black heritage. She believed this because the other student involved, who is white, was allowed to return to school.

“He's going to miss his classes,” Benjamin said of her son. “This is the time he needs to be in school.”

She wondered how many black and Puerto Rican students were graduating, “because if my kid is starting this way now, is he going to make it?”

Her question was central to the forum, part of a continued push in the partnership between school officials and concerned members of the black community to address the needs of troubled black students. Benjamin was not the only person there who perceived black students are unfairly treated, particularly at the high school and with disciplinary actions. Other parents, some Auburn High School graduates, stood up to discuss their own difficulties as students, or those of their siblings.

The forum had dual intents: to open more dialogue between community members and officials, and identify tangible priorities for officials, students, parents and other stakeholders to address.

Schools superintendent John Plume discussed an overview of the district's efforts over the last two years to address academic performance gaps between the general student population and black and African-American students.

Those gaps came out in comparison reports that showed fewer black students passed English language arts and math exams between grades three and eight than white students. Subsequent reports also showed the district progressed with certain student groups, including blacks, between 2004 and 2006.

During those years, more students met the graduation requirements for English and math. Still, Plume acknowledged the district has to do “a better job” of giving all students the opportunities they need to achieve academic success. He said he hoped the evening would offer the district assistance in reaching that goal.

“This is not like a flu shot. One night won't do it,” Plume said.

Dancer/choreographer Sean McLeod, of the New York Institute of Dance, attended. McLeod is a member of the district's diversity task force.

“We're going to come up with tangible things to walk away with, so teachers, parents, administrators and kids feel like they're being listened to,” he said.

To that end, all present were asked to look at 12 proposed suggestions for creating a more culturally receptive school environment and identify them in order of personal priority.

Among some of the most highly-ranked suggestions: hiring more African-American teachers; adding African-American counselors and advocates to meet mental health needs; mandating diversity training for all district employees and bringing more African-American role models into the schools.

BTW leaders will tally the proposals in order of importance and submit a report to the district.

Plume related the some of the difficulties Auburn schools face in hiring more black teachers, a concerted effort it has made over the last three years. Among the greatest challenges, he said, was locating minority candidates, then retaining them. He said two of the three black school teachers recently hired opted to move to larger urban areas.

“We've been largely unsuccessful being able to hire (black) classroom instructors,” Plume said.

Monique Wright-Williams, who heads BTW, was unfazed, and characterized the situation in the district as dire enough to merit immediate action.

“When you're telling a hungry person you're trying to get food, it's like, I don't care. Feed me or shut up.”

Meanwhile, it was all Eloise Benjamin could do to look at the imprint of Harriet Tubman on the district's letterhead - the paper notifying her of her son's disciplinary hearing - and not cry. Tubman is one of the historical figures most immediately associated with Auburn, and Benjamin wondered what the woman who embodies the spirit of the Underground Railroad would think of the obstacles that persist for black students today.

She asked, “Why are we still having all these problems?”

Staff writer Olivia Goldberg can be reached at 253-5311, ext. 235, or at olivia.goldberg@lee.net