Billjames.Org: Charlotte Mecklenburg Neighborhood Schools debate with CMS

August 24, 1999
Section: MAIN NEWS
Edition: ONE - THREE
Page: 1A

BUSING AS WE KNOW IT TODAY WILL END'
JENNIFER WING ROTHACKER and CELESTE SMITH, Staff Writers

With a court ruling expected any day in the desegregation lawsuit, school board Chairperson Arthur Griffin made his strongest statement yet on the future of busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, saying Monday that ``busing as we know it today will end.''

With the end of busing, Griffin also pledged that all schools will have adequate facilities and resources.

``Those of us responsible for public education must never perpetuate a school to which we would not send our own children,'' Griffin said at a rally of community leaders.

Many people are worried that the court decision could divide the community. The rally was designed to show broad support for the public schools, whatever the judge decides. In that way, it was reminiscent of the way community leaders pulled together in the early 1970s when the system was grappling with a federal order to desegregate.

Griffin's declarations were backed by a coalition of politically diverse leaders, including Mayor Pat McCrory, county commissioners' Chairman Parks Helms and Chamber of Commerce Chairman Allen Tate.

The rally was the result of two months of meetings among the city's most influential leaders, who were concerned that the trial was damaging Charlotte and its image, Helms and Tate said.

``The business community is anxious to get on with this business of education,'' Tate said. ``We know we've got to move on.''

About 100 people attended, including Jim Woodward, chancellor of UNC Charlotte; Howard Haworth, chairman emeritus of the state Board of Education; Blanche Penn, chair of the County Council of PTAs; and Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson.

Griffin has made similar comments before, so the rally might have been more notable for who attended than for what was said.

Helms added financial punch to Griffin's words, saying commissioners are committed to funding the renovation and rebuilding of the district's most beleaguered schools, most of which are in the inner city.

Earlier this year, commissioners refused to put a $355 million school bond issue on the November ballot to address those concerns, saying the time wasn't right.

``The Board of Commissioners stands ready to address these issues of inadequate resources,'' Helms said. ``You will see an increased sense of urgency to create and find new ways to address (these) issues.''

The first product of this promised help may come in construction of a school in Greenville Park, near the Double Oaks community north of uptown Charlotte.

Tonight the school board is scheduled to consider a partnership with the county's Park and Recreation Department to build an elementary or middle school on the park's grounds, said Superintendent Eric Smith.

``It will be a real example of what we talked about (Monday),'' Smith said.

Griffin reiterated the school board's intention to stop most busing for racial balance by moving to a school-choice plan the board approved in the spring.

That plan would carve the district into racially diverse zones in which parents could select their child's school. Families are not guaranteed their first choice, though, and that uncertainty drew parents' criticism when the board approved it.

For now, that plan is on hold until U.S. District Judge Robert Potter rules in the desegregation lawsuit, filed by seven white parents to contest such racial-balancing practices as busing and magnet schools. Several of those parents attended the rally Monday.

Griffin did not offer other details, including when busing would end.

``I'm not sure what it all means,'' said Paul Haisley, a neighborhood schools advocate running for a seat on the school board in November. ``Does that mean we go to neighborhood schools? Does that mean we go to a choice plan?''

Another school board candidate, Larry Gauvreau, was also at the rally. Gauvreau, one of the parents suing the school system, called the news conference ``politics.''

``All of the words that the parents brought forth in litigation (are) now coming out of the mouths of politicians, and I find that ironic,'' he said. ``It's now becoming apparent to people (that) you don't have to send (children) on long bus rides to schools that are not very special. That's what we've been saying for years.''

Regardless of how busing ends in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Griffin said the community in the meantime must make all schools equal.

``We also recognize that some schools may become predominantly African American and that the black community is justifiably concerned about the quality of schools and resources for their children,'' Griffin said. ``We stand before you today to say that the existence of inadequate facilities and resources for any of our students is unacceptable.''

Griffin refused to speculate on Potter's pending ruling. But county commissioner Bill James said the rally's underlying message was that the school board likely will not appeal the decision.

``You can't have unity if they're appealing (the case),'' James said. ``Even though it was unstated, clearly I think the intent of all this unity talk is that there will not be any appeal, and we will return to allowing people to return to schools closer to home.''

Jennifer Wing Rothacker can be reached at (704) 358-5071 or jrothacker at charlotte.com .

November 22, 1998
Section: MAIN NEWS
Edition: ONE - THREE
Page: 16A

BOARD LEADER ACKNOWLEDGES THE PRESSURE
DEBBIE CENZIPER, Staff Writer * Contributor(s): Staff
writer CELESTE SMITH contributed to this article.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members are standing by their offer to resolve a desegregation case outside the courtroom - even though critics say they're saving face, and some supporters worry they're surrendering prematurely.

Advocates for ending race-based student assignment policies say board members know they have little chance of winning the case. They say that's why the board offered last week to try mediation - to save money on legal fees and embarrassment in the courtroom.

Some parents and politicians who support desegregation practices, such as busing and magnet schools, are questioning the school board, too. They fear the mediation offer is a sign that the board could be willing to end a long-standing commitment to integrating schools.

Board Chairperson Arthur Griffin says the board hasn't backed down.

``People called wanting to know, is the school board giving up? And what does this mean?'' Griffin said. ``It's not like all the evidence is in, all the depositions are taken, we've looked at everything and now we've decided we're in a weak posture, or a strong posture, or have this liability.

`` . . . There's been conversations back and forth that would indicate that we need to see if there's room for settlement, and then that's what we're trying to do.''

Griffin said he and other board members realize what's at stake in potential mediation.

``I'm as nervous as an expectant father,'' he said. ``And I will be nervous until the baby's born.''

Faced with federal lawsuits challenging race-influenced student assignment policies, board leaders said last week they hope to resolve the dispute through mediation. The goal is to build agreement through a neutral person before the case heads to trial.

Republican County commissioner Bill James sees the board's overture as recognition that it would lose the case in court.

He and others cite a string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in recent years has limited the responsibilities of schools to promote desegregation.

And U.S. District Judge Robert Potter - appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan and considered a conservative judge - is handling the desegregation case. James and others say they believe Potter will follow the precedents set elsewhere in ending the court's role in integrating Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

``(Board members) are just absolutely all over themselves with fear about what Judge Potter is going to do,'' James said. ``They know that they're in deep trouble. This isn't 1971 and . . . there are Supreme Court cases and appellate court cases that support neighborhood schools.

``The pressure is on the school board and they're looking for a way out.''

Those who support integration practices, meanwhile, say they wish the school board would take its chances in court, rather than give ground now.

Much of what board leaders say they would stress during talks focuses on providing equal resources: competent teachers and modern buildings and equipment for all children. Board members won't give specifics on what desegregation techniques they would insist on keeping - or be willing to end.

``I'm very suspicious of a compromise. Is this compromising what we've worked for for the past 25 years?'' said Norman Mitchell, a parent leader and newly elected county commissioner. ``Let the judge do what he wants to do, but don't give in to him. In other words, don't give (desegregation) to him. Let him take it from us. I'm willing to let the process take its course.''

The desegregation debate is especially charged in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

Backed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Charlotte in the early 1970s became the first city in the country to desegregate schools through crosstown busing in a landmark case called Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. While violence over busing erupted in the North, opposition waned in Charlotte and the community became known as the ``city that made desegregation work.''

Though a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court has made it easier over the years to end desegregation plans, Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members unanimously voted to continue their support of desegregation in 1992. They moved away from crosstown busing in favor of, among other things, a magnet school plan that would attract students to schools outside their neighborhoods.

Shortly after parent Bill Capacchione filed his federal lawsuit against the school system, a majority of board members voted to defend the system's desegregation strategies in court and contend the schools still have not removed all traces of intentional segregation from schools.

But after a closed-door meeting with their attorneys last week, Griffin announced the board would extend an invitation to resolve the case in mediation. Through mediation, a neutral person tries to find common ground among all sides.

If that doesn't work, the case is scheduled to head to trial in April.

Board Vice Chairperson John Lassiter described the school board's strategy shift this way:

``I think reason and pragmatism are qualities that you look for in community leaders, and seeking conflict . . . oftentimes can result in nobody benefiting. Trying to resolve our issues among ourselves as opposed to laying them at the foot of the courthouse is a much more pragmatic and reasoned method for arriving at a community solution.''

Some community leaders support the school board's push to talk out the debate.

Parks Helms, expected to become county commissioners chairman, said he wants to maintain a desegregated school system. But the community has changed, he said, and settling the case makes sense.

``I think that the fundamental changes that have taken place in our community, the dramatic growth, the increasing diversity - and bear in mind that it's not just black and white, we've got more than 30,000 Hispanics in Mecklenburg County now - all of those changes, I think, are reasons for examining a better way to educate all of our children in an equitable and professional manner,'' he said.

``I think we sometimes create an adversarial tone when it's not needed.''*

Reach reporter Debbie Cenziper at (704) 358-5102 or dcenziper at charlotte.com

October 19, 1996
Section: MAIN NEWS
Edition: ONE-3
Page: 1A

NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS VS. INTEGRATION
TAYLOR BATTEN and DEBBIE CENZIPER, Staff Writers

In a community long admired as a national leader in school desegregation, parents and politicians across Mecklenburg County are rallying once again for neighborhood schools.

Several hundred parents turned out at three student-assignment hearings last month to urge the school board to let their children attend schools nearby, with neighborhood friends.

And at least four county commissioner candidates have vowed to push for neighborhood schools systemwide - even though N.C. law gives student-assignment control to the school board, and Superintendent Eric Smith says he's ``strongly committed'' to integration.

Values are colliding. How should Charlotte-Mecklenburg's schools balance diversity and integration with the community and parental involvement fostered by neighborhood schools?

``It's kind of a double-edged sword. You can't really have both,'' said Jeanette Whitlow, a mother of two who lives in northern Mecklenburg County.

That ambivalence was revealed in a recent poll of 1,205 adults taken for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Education Foundation. About 74 percent strongly supported assigning children to neighborhood schools. Almost as many, 69 percent, also strongly supported providing a diverse environment.

The difficulty, both sides agree, is that a return to neighborhood schools would by and large mean a return to segregated schools, because most of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's neighborhoods are segregated. But neighborhood-school advocates say segregation is an acceptable trade-off to restore a sense of community and let children attend schools close to home.

Ellen Martin is a self-proclaimed ``die-hard liberal'' who thinks the desegregation policies of the 1970s are outdated. Martin, a mother of three from southeast Charlotte, said the effort spent on integration should be funneled instead into inner-city schools.

``I am really tired of this school system playing the numbers game,'' she said. ``We have children who can't read in the 12th grade. We need to educate children.''

Patrick Mizzell thinks differently.

The East Mecklenburg High student body president can see his school's baseball field from his back yard. He understands the need for neighborhood schools, but he said he wouldn't want to attend a school without a diverse student body. At East Mecklenburg, one in three students is black.

``If you go to a school and all you see is a certain type of people . . . you'll step out into the real world and realize the real world is not like your school,'' Mizzell said. ``I love the idea of neighborhood schools. But we can't have neighborhood schools without integration.''

After more than 20 years of crosstown busing, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in 1991 crafted a new, three-pronged approach to integration:

Creating magnet schools that entice white students into inner-city schools through unique or accelerated-learning programs.

Building ``midpoint'' schools in areas that can draw students from both black and white neighborhoods.

Allowing schools in naturally integrated neighborhoods to serve those communities. Now, about 23 nonmidpoint schools are naturally integrated.

Of the 93,000 students in the system, about 22,000 students are bused specifically to desegregate schools. Of those, about 10,000, mostly white, are bused voluntarily to magnet schools. The other 12,000 are mandatorily bused to assigned schools to desegregate. Of those, about 9,000 are black and 3,000 are white.

Thousands of other children are assigned to schools that are not closest to their homes for reasons other than racial balance, such as smoothing out enrollment.

The move away from mandatory busing is not enough, say several candidates for the board of county commissioners. They say they will push for systemwide neighborhood schools, without busing for integration.

As evidence of support, they point to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Education Foundation poll that showed only 30 percent of respondents strongly supported busing to achieve racial balance.

Led by District 6 candidate Bill James, who faces no opposition, the candidates say they would first determine how many schools have to be built and where, what upgrades are needed for inner-city schools, and how much it all would cost.

James, a Republican, emphasizes that his plan would require equivalent funding for the inner-city, mostly black schools.

They would then push the state legislature for permission to put a neighborhood-schools referendum on the November 1997 ballot for Mecklenburg County.

That could be a long shot, though. Mecklenburg County Elections Director Bill Culp rates the chances this way: