ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Roanoke should offer the same school choices to black and white children to help fully integrate the city's schools, the School Board was told Tuesday night.
The city ought to provide free bus transportation to black students to attend schools in predominantly white neighborhoods if they desire, said Kaye Hale, director of the West End Center.
By refusing to provide bus service for black children to travel outside their neighborhoods, the city is effectively preventing the full integration of its schools, she told the board.
Hale said she is considering filing a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights because the city's policies prevent black students from attending the school of their choice because of transportation, economics and politics.
Hale, who is white, said the city's policies also prevent her child from getting the highest quality of education in a racially diverse school. She said her son's home school district in Raleigh Court has an enrollment that is more than 90 percent white.
"My child will be picked up at the door and be transported to a magnet school if he chooses to integrate into a minority school," she said. "However, if a minority child wants to go across town to a predominantly white school that is not a magnet school, the parent must bear the burden and cost of transportation."
Hale said the city will not transport black children to nonmagnet schools because school officials said they cannot afford it. She said some black children also are being denied admission to magnet schools outside their home districts.
Roanoke has received nearly $21 million in the past decade to establish magnet schools.
The federal money is used to buy the latest in educational technology and develop innovative curricula to attract white students outside the attendance areas of predominately black schools, achieving a better racial balance - hence the name "magnet' schools.
REPEATS: Hale said Roanoke is using the magnet schools to recruit white children to predominantly black schools, but it is not recruiting black students to go to predominantly white schools.
Nine of the 12 nonmagnet elementary schools in the city have a white enrollment that is near 70 percent or higher, Hale said. Forty percent of the city's students are black.
If the city really wants to achieve racial balance in all schools, Hale said, it would establish magnet programs in schools with a high white enrollment, such as Raleigh Court, Crystal Spring, Grandin Court and Virginia Heights.
But Superintendent Wayne Harris said federal funds are not available to establish magnet programs in predominantly white neighborhoods under the federal guidelines. The U.S. Department of Education provides money to do so only for schools in minority areas, Harris said.
The premise underlying the program was that predominantly black schools lacked the facilities and technology that are found in many predominantly white schools, Harris said. Roanoke began its magnet program before Harris became superintendent, but the city agreed to use the money to help achieve better racial balance in predominantly black schools, he said.
Harris said he's not aware that any localities have used magnet schools to try to recruit black students to predominantly white schools.
Hale's request for Roanoke to do "reverse busing" and transport black children to predominantly white schools could be expensive, Harris said.
Hale asked the board to develop a plan and schedule by July for full integration of schools before she decides whether to file a complaint with federal officials. The board took no action on her request.
In other action, the board:
* Awarded a $6 million contract to Martin Brothers Contractors, Roanoke, for the renovation of the Breckinridge Middle School. The project will begin this summer and be finished by August, 1977. The school will be closed during the next school year and the students will attend other middle schools.
* Received a request from a group of students, teachers, parents and members of the Advisory Committee for the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy to reinstate Michael McIntosh as principal of the school. McIntosh was reassigned to other duties after he was recently acquitted of assaulting a student.
* Was urged to upgrade the athletic program at the city's middle schools so students will have more opportunities to participate in sports and compete with schools in other localities. Charles Price, a parent, said middle school athletics are inadequate and do not instill pride, respect and a positive attitude toward sports.
* Was asked by a resident to install a fence or enact parking restrictions to prevent Patrick Henry High School students from creating parking problems and other disruptions on nearby streets.
* Was urged by a parent to give high priority to the construction of a gymnasium at the Fishburn Park Elementary School, a long-standing request by the school.
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