As the student population in the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, many district and school hiring personnel – especially those in districts with large numbers of students of color – have taken proactive approaches to hiring teachers of color (TOC). The drive to diversify the teaching force is supported by a broad range of promising academic and non-academic outcomes for students of color. And yet, many districts face struggle with the recruitment and retention of TOCs. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 65 participants in a small urban district and applying the analytic lens of bonding social capital (Putnam, 2000), we examine entrenched patterns of parochialism to better understand one potential explanation for the incremental pace of change.