ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Although the Roanoke School Board chairman agrees with a parent that there is racial imbalance in some schools, he said the board is trying to even the scales.
Roanoke already buses hundreds of black children to elementary schools in predominantly white neighborhoods to improve racial balance - a holdover from court-mandated desegregation of the city's schools more than two decades ago, Chairman Nelson Harris said.
Schools have retained a busing plan and attendance zones that require about 470 children from the predominantly black Northwest community to attend schools in South Roanoke, Grandin Court, Raleigh Court and other areas to help achieve more racial diversity.
But parent Kaye Hale said Wednesday the busing arrangement doesn't go far enough to achieve racial balance in schools. She also said the city is not offering black and white children the same school choices.
The imbalance in Raleigh Court Elementary - 91 percent of its students are white - and some other elementary schools shows that the city should do more to attract black students to schools in predominantly white neighborhoods,Hale told the School Board Tuesday night.
"Some strides have been made, but we've got to provide more options, more choices for minority students," said Hale, who is director of the West End Center for Youth.
Forty percent of the city's students are black, but the percentage of black students is much smaller at some elementary schools in predominantly white neighborhoods. Conversely, the enrollment is more than 60 percent black at several elementary schools in predominantly black neighborhoods.
School Board Chairman Nelson Harris agrees there is a lack of racial balance in some schools, but he said Hale is the first person who has raised questions about it since he was appointed.
Harris said school administrators will review Hale's complaints, but he doesn't expect the board to make drastic or immediate changes solely because of her concerns.
"There is a lot of sentiment by both black and white parents for neighborhood schools," Harris said.
School officials said Roanoke continues to bus some children - even though federal courts have relaxed busing requirements in recent years - to help maintain racial diversity in schools.
Hale wants the city to provide free bus transportation to black students who want to attend schools in predominantly white neighborhoods. School officials said some black students are given free transportation, but others cannot attend predominantly white schools because there is no space available.
Hale also urged the board to establish magnet programs in schools with a high white enrollment, such as Raleigh Court, Crystal Spring, Grandin Court and Virginia Heights, to help attract more black children.
But Harris said federal funds are available only to establish magnet programs in predominantly black neighborhoods. Any suggestion that the board deliberately chose not to put magnet programs in predominantly white neighborhoods is incorrect, he said.
"We have to abide by the federal guidelines on where we can use the money," Harris said. "The federal funds are provided for programs to help recruit white students to predominantly black schools," and not the other way around.
The federal grants buy educational technology and develop innovative curricula to attract white students outside the attendance areas of black schools - achieving a better racial balance.
Harris said another obstacle to such changes is "there is a lot of sentiment by both black and white parents for neighborhood schools."
If more black children are brought to elementary schools in predominantly white neighborhoods, more white children would have to be bused to other schools because most elementary schools are operating at or close to capacity, school officials said.
Some officials fear that if such busing occurred, it could lead to further segregation because some parents might move out of the city or send their children to private schools.
When the School Board and City Council decided to renovate the city's older elementary schools several years ago, many residents said they preferred to keep small neighborhood schools rather than large consolidated schools.- Metro editor?
Board Vice Chairwoman Marilyn Curtis said she is satisfied with the magnet program and she hasn't "given any thought" to trying to attract black students to predominantly white schools. Because of the magnet programs, Curtis said, some of the best schools in Roanoke are now in predominantly black neighborhoods.
"I have not heard that a lot of [black students] are itching to go over to the other side of the city to go to school," said Curtis, who is black.
Hale, who is white, said the city's policies prevent her children from getting the highest quality of education in a racially diverse school. She suggested that the quality of schools is higher in some predominantly white neighborhoods.
School Board member Charles Day said the city should concentrate on trying to raise the standardized test scores of all students and improving the quality of all schools instead of focusing on the racial issue.
"I think higher test scores would do more to help solve the problem rather than opening a new frontier right now," said Day, who is black.
Day said he has received calls from the parents of black students who are upset that their children have been denied admission to magnet schools outside their home school districts. To help achieve a better racial balance in magnet schools, the city rejects some black applicants while accepting more whites, including some white students from nearby localities.
"Maybe that is something that we need to take a look at," Day said. "You have children wanting to go to a magnet school for performing arts, for instance, but they can't get in because of race."
Roanoke has used the federal magnet money to buy educational technology and develop innovative curricula to attract white students outside the attendance areas of predominantly black schools - achieving a better racial balance. The magnet concept is designed to promote voluntary desegregation.
Hale said the city is violating the law by failing to fully integrate all schools, but school officials deny it. She said school officials have an obligation to provide school choice for both black and white children, poor and rich.
She has asked the board to develop a plan and schedule for full integration by July before she decides whether to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights.
"Failure to integrate all schools will continue to deprive all races the benefit of each other's experience and wisdom," Hale said. "Many of our students are not exposed to children of other races until middle or high school. This makes them less accepting of each other and less able to work together as adults."
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