Providence targets teacher seniority in bid for more diversity Union leadership is accusing Superintendent Harrison Peters of trying to circumvent collective bargaining By Dan McGowan Globe Staff,Updated March 8, 2021, 7:07 p.m. Email to a Friend Providence, RI - 04/25/19 - The Providence School Department headquarters in Providence, RI. (Lane Turner/Globe Staff) Reporter: (for files) Topic: ()Lane Turner/Globe Staff PROVIDENCE â With Providence preparing to begin the teacher hiring process for the 2021-â22 school year, Superintendent Harrison Peters is taking at aim the union contract for the districtâs inability to hire and retain educators of color. In an e-mail to all staff, Peters wrote that that 79.5 percent of teachers are white in a district where fewer than 9 percent of students are white. He suggested that using seniority as the only determinant for job placement âmeans that the newly hired educators of color we have worked so hard to recruit are the most likely to lose their positions or become reassigned, despite their talents and skills.â