Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409070102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As a kindergartner last year, Brittany attended Westside Elementary School, a magnet school close to her Northwest Roanoke home.
She got interested in dance and music at the school, which has a performing arts curriculum. She looked forward to returning to Westside.
But Brittany won't be at Westside when school opens today.
Instead, she will be in first grade at the Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science, a magnet school several miles away.
Brittany's mother believes her daughter was prevented from returning to Westside because she is black and lives outside the school's attendance zone.
"My daughter is being denied the chance to stay at Westside because of racial quotas," her mother said. "It's wrong to say no to black children so more white children can go there."
But Ann Harman, executive for student services and alternative programs for Roanoke schools, said the decision was based solely on space, not race.
"If she had been white, the decision would have been the same," Harman said. "Race was not involved."
It's true, however, that Roanoke school administrators sometimes do take race into account when considering applications for magnet schools.
The city's 10 magnet schools, some of which were financed in part with federal funds, are designed to help eliminate racial isolation.
The idea is to establish innovative and challenging educational programs at predominantly black schools and then invite applicants from throughout the Roanoke Valley, especially white students.
Federal guidelines require the city to try to achieve a 50-50 racial balance in the magnet schools to help desegregate the school system, which is 39 percent black
Westside Elementary, where Brittany wants to stay, failed to achieve racial balance last year. The student enrollment was 66 percent black and 34 percent white.
While not referring specifically to Brittany's situation, Sandra Burks, a magnet school specialist, said: "It is a matter of guidelines. We can't keep admitting students that increase the imbalance."
Burks said there have been cases in which black students have been denied admission to magnet schools in an effort to achieve racial balance, but she did not have an estimate of the number.
Students who live in a school's attendance zone have first priority, she said, while those who live outside the attendance zone have lower priority.
Burks said the city has achieved racial balance at some schools, but she would not release the racial breakdown for other schools, saying not all the figures are current. They will be available in about a month.
Brittany wanted to remain at Westside Elementary because it has classes in dance, drama and instrumental music. The Roanoke Academy magnet school features a hands-on approach to science and mathematics, but it does not offer performing arts courses.
Brittany was allowed to attend Westside last year by special permission, even though she lives in Roanoke Academy's attendance zone. Her sister also attended Westside for three years before she moved on to Ruffner Middle School.
"When they accepted [Brittany] last year, I thought that she could go back this year. I didn't realize it was for just one year," her mother said.
But Harman said special transfers are effective for only one year, and the student has to apply each year.
Although Brittany won't return to Westside, a nearby friend, Rhapsody Bentley, will attend Westside this year because her mother pressed school officials to admit her.
Rhapsody was denied admission initially because she is biracial, with a black father and white mother.
Like Brittany, Rhapsody lives on Viewmont Avenue in the Roanoke Academy attendance zone. She has been attending Roanoke Academy for two years, but her mother, June, had become increasingly dissatisfied with conditions there.
Bentley said the furnishings at Roanoke Academy are old and in need of repair. The school is not well maintained, she said.
Rhapsody, who will be in the third grade this year, wanted to move to Westside because of the music and dance courses in its magnet school curriculum.
The application form has a space to indicate whether a child is black, white or biracial. Her mother checked the biracial space.
Bentley received a letter saying that her daughter had been denied admission because of federal guidelines for racial balance.
It upset Bentley. If she had checked the white space, she said, Rhapsody probably would have been admitted without question. She said she had just as much right to classify Rhapsody as white as school administrators did to classify her as black.
Bentley got on the phone and called almost everyone she could think of to reverse the school system's decision to deny Rhapsody admission to Westside.
Late last week, Bentley got a call from school officials that her daughter could enroll at Westside.
She was happy for Rhapsody but still unhappy that Brittany won't be at Westside. "I'm not going to abandon the effort to make sure that children in this area can go to Westside if they want to," she said.
by CNB