THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407180063
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: VIRGINIA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
A citizen task force will recommend to the Newport News School Board this week a ``schools of choice'' program that emphasizes magnet schools to foster racial integration and reduce forced busing.
If the school board adopts the program, the recommendations could lead to the most dramatic changes in student assignments since Newport News desegregated its schools in 1971 under pressure from the federal government.
The task force will make the following recommendations Wednesday to the school board:
Assign students to the schools closest to their homes where possible. Since the federal government approved the busing plan in 1971, the city's school-age population has shifted. The task force said that in many sections of the city, the current system of school zoning by pairing black and white neighborhoods is now unnecessary.
Use magnet programs to help integrate schools that would be racially unbalanced if students were drawn only from the nearby neighborhood. Parents would, in effect, volunteer to have their child bused farther in exchange for a special program, such as one that emphasizes computers or the performing arts.
Set up kindergarten-through-fifth-grade elementary schools throughout the city. This would mean changing four K-2 and K-3 schools in the city's East End. East End residents have long complained that their children, unlike those in other parts of the city, are bused out of their neighborhood by the third or fourth grade. This busing system stems from the 1971 desegregation plan. by CNB