Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 16, 1995 TAG: 9506160040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER AND SHEBA WHEELER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Roanoke School Superintendent Wayne Harris fears that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Kansas City case this week ultimately might lead to reduced federal funding for magnet schools.
If that happens, it could have an impact in Roanoke, where the school system has received $10 million in federal funds in the past eight years to establish magnet schools.
The city has an application pending for an additional $3.1 million to convert two more elementary schools - Lincoln Terrace and Huff Lane - into magnet schools. The school system hopes to get the money before any changes are made in federal policy.
While the Supreme Court ruling will have no direct impact in Roanoke - where the magnet program is different from Kansas City's - it might have a long-range effect, Harris said.
"I shudder to think where we would be without the magnet money we have gotten," Harris said. "It has helped us prepare our students to do quality work."
And Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations, said the program has promoted desegregation by attracting white students to predominantly black schools with high-tech equipment and programs.
A U.S. Department of Education spokesman said Thursday that it's too early to speculate on whether the court ruling would have any impact on the federal magnet school program or funds for cities such as Roanoke.
"I think there is a wait-and-see attitude. I don't see anyone chomping at the bit to make changes," said David Thomas, an official in the agency's public affairs office.
In the Kansas City case, the Supreme Court ruled that there are limits to the time and money that can be spent on desegregation programs.
Among other things, the programs cannot seek to lure white students from blameless suburban districts, the court declared.
A key goal of the Kansas City program is to lure white students from the suburbs to top-quality magnet schools in the city.
By contrast, Roanoke's magnet program does not target the suburbs. The school system tries to attract white students from other schools in the city, as well as surrounding counties.
More than 350 students from surrounding localities participate, tuition-free, in the city's magnet programs. In addition, 1,000 students who live in Roanoke, but outside the magnet schools' attendance zones, choose to attend the magnet schools.
Though Harris believes the high court ruling may have negative long-term effects on the federal magnet school program, at least one school administrator disagrees.
Unlike the schools in the Kansas City area, magnet schools in Roanoke are not required by the government to implement desegregation programs, said Sandy Burks, interim director of the magnet schools.
"We practice voluntary desegregation," Burks said. "The essence is to balance our schools to reflect the district average population of 60 percent [white] and 40 percent [minorities]. Politically, there is a trend in which affirmative-action programs and desegregation legislation are coming back into the light, but what's happening in Missouri does not parallel what's happening here."
Burks said students willingly choose magnet schools because they offer "things that you can't do anywhere else" - and several magnet students interviewed Thursday agreed. They also said they benefited from the racial diversity in the magnet schools.
"I was one of the only white kids in my class" at William Fleming High School, said Randy Oostdyk, 16, a rising senior from Bedford County. "It was kinda weird to have the roles reversed, because in Bedford County, the classes were mostly white and you might have had only a few blacks."
Quentina Enoch, 15, a rising junior at Fleming, said she enjoys her school's magnet programs because they offer the diversity and educational training she believes will prepare her for college.
"They give us an opportunity to study aspects of the career you want when you get out of school," Enoch said. "It's agreeable to me [that the system recruits white students], because where I live there aren't many whites around me. But at school, I get to come in contact with more white people. In life, you're not going to be around just blacks."
During his years as Roanoke's superintendent, Frank Tota said the city's magnet program had a dual role: It offered top-quality academic and high-tech courses, and served as a voluntary desegregation plan to help end racial isolation in schools. Tota helped obtain the initial federal funds.
Harris has embraced the concept and got a $3.5 million grant last year for the magnet center at Fleming and William Ruffner Middle School.
The federal funds have been spent mostly on instructional equipment and educational technology: computers, software, science laboratories, a television and video studio, an aerospace laboratory, airplanes and other facilities.
The funds also have been used for art, dance and music studios and materials for advanced science courses, including biotechnology, environmental chemistry and marine biology.
One initial element in the magnet program - pilot training - caused controversy when the school system bought two airplanes to train the students. The pilot training has continued despite the early disagreement. The other magnet programs have won broad support.
Of the 29 schools in the district, 10 are magnets. But the magnet programs in a few, including Fishburn Park Elementary and James Madison Middle schools, have been financed with local funds.
Those funded with federal money are Fleming, Ruffner, Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School, Westside School of Performing and Visual Arts, Forest Park New American School, Highland Park Learning Center, Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science, and Fairview World of Plants and Animals.
by CNB