ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Roanoke Vice Mayor William White and the Rev. Charles Green, president of the city's NAACP chapter, say segregated neighborhoods are to blame for the racial imbalance in some city schools.
"The only way to integrate schools is to integrate housing," Green said. "As long as white people keep fleeing from black people, you will have imbalance in the schools."
White and Green were interviewed in the wake of a parent's recent complaint to the School Board about the imbalance. Kaye Hale urged the School Board to do more to attract black children to predominantly white schools, including providing free bus transportation. She has proposed that the city establish magnet programs in schools with high white enrollment to help attract black children.
White said Wednesday that Hale had a "legitimate concern," but he added, "It's part of a larger problem of segregation in housing."
"We've got to work on ending segregated neighborhoods - and the economic reasons that prevent some people from living in certain neighborhoods," said White, a former School Board member.
But he said school officials might want to make arrangements on a "case-by-case basis" for children who want to attend another school for racial reasons.
School Board member Melinda Payne said she, too, believes Hale's complaints have some validity, and she wants school officials to see what can be done to improve racial diversity in some schools. The imbalance in some schools is striking, she said.
Ninety-one percent of the children at Raleigh Court Elementary are white, and 89 percent of the pupils at the Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science are black.
The racial mixes at several other schools, however, are relatively close to the percentages in the city's overall elementary enrollment: white, 57.2 percent; black, 40.1 percent; and other, 2.7 percent.
Several School Board members have noted that the city already is busing nearly 500 black children from Northwest Roanoke to predominantly white schools in South Roanoke, Grandin Court, Raleigh Court and other areas to help achieve more racial diversity. They do not advocate a significant increase in busing.
School officials said most elementary schools are operating at near capacity. If more black children were bused to predominantly white schools, they said, some white children would have to be bused outside their home districts.
The city has received nearly $20 million in federal funds to establish magnet programs in predominantly black schools to help attract white students and achieve more racial diversity. But federal money is not available to establish magnet schools in predominantly white schools as a means of attracting black students.
White said he believes the magnet program has been good for the city - and has improved the quality of the school system. He said it has attracted top students and produced more racial diversity.
Some black parents have complained that their children have been denied admission to magnet schools outside their home districts because the city is seeking more white students to achieve racial balance.
Green said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has received calls from parents who are upset because their children can't attend a magnet school, but school officials have no choice.
"I wish it were different, but they are following federal guidelines that require them to get a balance," Green said. "We explain to the people that it is a federally funded program and the city has to comply with the rules."
Hale has asked the board to develop a plan by July for full school integration before she decides whether to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Elementary school percentages by race.by CNB