Worcester To Settle School Committee Election Discrimination Suit

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester city officials will begin working toward a settlement with groups that filed a federal lawsuit in February over racial discrimination in the School Committee election process.

In an 8-2 vote Tuesday night, the City Council voted to enter into a consent decree with the Worcester Branch NAACP and other groups that filed the suit.

"We are not conceding a violation of the Voting Rights Act, but we believe it's in the interest of all parties that the lawsuit is resolved," Mayor Joseph Petty said Tuesday after the Council emerged from an executive session meeting.

On Feb. 8, the Worcester NAACP, Worcester Interfaith and Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a federal lawsuit charging that the city's at-large School Committee election process discriminates against people of color. The School Committee is all-white, the groups pointed out, which does not represent Worcester's racial makeup.

"Despite this composition and the rapid growth of the Hispanic/Latino and Black communities, Worcester’s six-member School Committee is all-white and with very few exceptions, has been all-white during the course of the city’s history," a Feb. 8 press release said.

In contrast, the City Council consists of five at-large members, who essentially represent everyone in the city, and six district seats representing specific portions of the city.

Petty said the city's law department will work with the attorneys who filed the suit to devise a potential new election process, which will be subject to City Council approval.

The minutes of the executive session will be released in the coming weeks. District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera recused herself from the vote, Petty said.