THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412020280
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 251 lines
SOME ALREADY ARE calling it window dressing that won't make a difference.
Others say it will develop into an aggressive watchdog.
A third camp says it's too early to tell how effective the School Board's oversight committee will be in making sure no elementary schools are shortchanged when the ``community schools'' plan takes effect next September.
One thing is certain, however. The 13-member panel will play a crucial role: It will either attempt to assure residents that the plan to end elementary school busing for desegregation purposes was worthwhile, or prove right those who warned that the nearly all-black elementary schools would be neglected.
At present, the panel consists of eight blacks and four whites. Sandra A. Boone, a lawyer, recently resigned from the group. The board is expected to pick a substitute later this month.
The committee will ask the School Board to name lawyer Patricia M. Wright as its chairwoman. She has studied school desegregation issues extensively, and she still can recall her experiences as a fourth-grader at Highland-Biltmore Elementary in 1971 - the year a federal court ruled that Portsmouth's integration efforts were satisfactory.
Whites, Wright said, once threw rocks at her and called her ``blackie'' as she walked home from school. At other times, they spat on her, she said. Even so, Wright, 33, went on to become Cradock High's first black valedictorian and student government president. She later graduated from Harvard University.
Like several other committee members, she said she wanted to make sure ``the return to community schools didn't bring with it the return of discrimination'' in school quality.
For now, she said, she has ``no basis for drawing any conclusions'' about the committee. ``All I know is that I'm enthusiastic about doing our job.''
The real work, however, won't begin until next fall. Meanwhile, the committee, appointed by the School Board last month, is now discovering how the school district operates, the various records it keeps and who's in charge of what. Committee members were on hand about two weeks ago when administrators informed parents of the elementary schools their children will attend during the 1995-96 school year - selections based on the desires of parents and students, not school officials.
Seventy-nine percent of elementary students will attend their community school. The remaining students will attend out-of-zone schools listed as their first choice. Altogether, only about 4 percent of next year's elementary students will go to a school other than the zoned community school or the one they now attend.
The oversight committee, which is also responsible for ensuring the fairness of the school-choice assignments, is fashioned after one the Norfolk district created in 1986 with the ending of cross-town elementary school busing.
As in Norfolk, the Portsmouth School Board called for such a group when it approved in March its plan to end elementary school busing done solely for desegregation purposes.
Many viewed the step as the board's way of convincing some black, community-school opponents of its commitment to quality elementary schools despite the socio-economic makeup of any given neighborhood.
Committee members will be the district's private detectives.
They will monitor elementary schools and conduct their own investigations to determine whether any school is being slighted when it comes to maintenance work, equipment and supplies, or a variety of other resources.
The committee will report directly to the board and release at least two reports each year. ``Sometimes,'' Superintendent Richard Trumble said, ``an extra pair of eyes looking at things will catch something that we may miss.''
It's still unclear how long the committee will exist. It doesn't have its own budget and it will rely heavily on data supplied by the school district, although board members said the committee is expected to spot-check information, add personal observations and visit the schools.
Some of those most familiar with Norfolk's experience say such a committee will do little more than tell the board what the administration already knows.
Moreover, critics say, such committees are often powerless to investigate areas that are less tangible but equally important to parents, such as school climate, the quality of instruction or student attitudes.
Attorney Joseph C. Lindsey, former chairman of the Norfolk committee, said the appearance of equity didn't signal that all was well.
``What we found was that although there may not be discrimination in terms of the allocation of resources, that by no means meant students weren't being ill-affected by the perception of inferiority; or things that affected the learning climate,'' he said.
In 1991, the Norfolk group voted to dissolve itself. Lindsey said one of the main reasons the committee disbanded was because of its limited scope.
That group wanted to look beyond financial allocations to schools to better assess their condition. The Norfolk School Board didn't favor the idea. Board members thought such a task was a project for trained school administrators or even another special committee, said Lucy R. Wilson, former board chairwoman.
The Norfolk committee focused most of its efforts on 10 all-black schools created by the elimination of busing. The Portsmouth plan increases the number of nearly all-black elementary schools from one to seven, but the committee will oversee all elementary schools.
For years, Norfolk school officials have stressed that students in the all-black schools benefit from larger per-pupil expenditures, smaller class sizes and more experienced teachers to make up for high concentrations of impoverished and needy students. And the Norfolk committee made note of those trends in its reports.
Still, the majority of students in the all-black schools remain in the academic basement. PTA membership in most of Norfolk's predominantly black elementary schools also dropped between 1986 and 1992.
In the end, an oversight committee ``cannot in any way deal with the consequences of creating re-segregated schools. It's not within its purview to deal with those consequences,'' said Leslie G. Carr, an Old Dominion University sociology professor who has studied white flight and other trends in the Norfolk district.
``Resources,'' he added, ``are only one of the issues. There are a lot of other issues, the most fundamental of which is segregation.''
Not everyone views a community-school oversight committee as doomed from the start.
In fact, Wilson described Norfolk's committee as ``very effective.'' Its value, she said, was its ``power to inform.''
Lucy M. Overton, a Portsmouth committee member and president of the Truxton Community League, agreed.
``We're just on the surface, we're not in the meat of the thing . . . It seems like we should be, but we are not educators,'' Overton said. ``But I think people with a big mouth like mine are going to be in there asking questions and pointing things out. That's our job.''
The Rev. Charles H. Bowens II, a city School Board member, said committee members were independent foot soldiers who would provide the board with ``detailed and focused'' information based on ``hands-on experience.''
``The people we have selected are people we can trust to do the right thing for these children,'' Bowens said.
But, ultimately, it is the School Board that has the power to dig deeper or to act solely on the information it does receive.
``It's up to the board to use that information to its best advantage,'' said Wilson of Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Cover photo by Gary C. Knapp
Lawyer Patricia M. Wright is expected to be named chairwoman of the
oversight committee of the switch to community schools.
File photos
Lucy Wilson, former Norfolk School Board chairman, thought the
oversight committee was very effective in the transition to
community schools.
File photo
Superintendent Richard Trumble expects the panel to root out
problems.
Photo
The Rev. Charles Bowens
School Board member
Photo
Joseph Lindsey
Chaired Norfolk committee
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COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Here's a brief look at the 12 people the School Board recently
appointed to serve on the 13-person oversight committee, which will
monitor ``community'' elementary schools to make to decrease the
likelihood of any school being shortchanged. The committee has eight
black and four white members. The average age is 53.
The 13th member, Sandra A. Boone, a lawyer, recently resigned
from the group. A replacement is being sought, officials said.
Each of the nine School Board members nominated one person; four
were chosen by Superintendent Richard D. Trumble.
The real work won't begin until next fall, when the community
school system will be in place.
Carlton M. Carrington - President of the United Civic League of
Cavalier Manor.
The Rev. Reginald A. Early - Portsmouth native and pastor of
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial United Methodist Church on Elm
Avenue.
Elizabeth D. ``Betti'' Glynn - Glynn, a pastoral minister,
recently returned to Portsmouth to be closer to her family.
Phyllis Horton - Vice president of the Port Norfolk Elementary
PTA. She has one child enrolled in the district.
Craig D. Jones - Principal of Western Branch Middle School in
Chesapeake. He has two children enrolled in the district.
George F. Little - Management analyst for the Navy Public Works
Center in Norfolk.
Brian ``Keith'' Nance - Leader of the Park Manor Civic League and
Portsmouth Citizens for Better Education group.
Ethel M. Old - She is a former chairperson of the district's
special education advisory committee and still serves on the
committee.
Lucy M. Overton - President of the Truxton Community League.
Marlene W. Randall - A retired central office administrator and
former principal. Randall is active in several volunteer groups.
Ethel H. Robinson - President of the local branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a retired
Portsmouth educator.
Patricia M. Wright - Lawyer; graduate of the former Cradock High
School. She recently returned to the area after practicing law in
Northern Virginia. Wright was Cradock High's first black
valedictorian and student government president.
OPEN ENROLLMENT
When the School Board approved in March the creation of community
schools for elementary students beginning in September 1995, the
board also embraced an ``open enrollment'' plan. That plan will
allow elementary students to attend a school other than the assigned
community school if the one desired has space. Here's a brief look
at how things have developed:
All elementary students who opted to attend an out-of-zone school
were accommodated, said Darnell Johnson, director of the Community
Schools Office.
After this year's fifth-graders - who will move to middle school
next fall - were subtracted from current elementary school
enrollment figures, the administration reported that 79 percent of
elementary students will attend their zoned schools during the next
school year. The remaining students will attend the school listed as
their first choice.
Approximately 9,300 elementary students are expected to enroll
next fall. The district will have room for about 2,400 additional
elementary students, however.
Fifty-seven percent of parents returned open enrollment forms to
the district. Students whose parents did not return the forms were
assigned to their community school for the 1995-96 year.
Source: Community Schools Office
THE WATCHDOGS
School officials described the oversight committee's role as that
of a watchdog. These are the general guidelines the School Board set
up:
PURPOSE - The committee will monitor community schools to
``confirm the absence of discrimination in the allocation of
resources in the elementary schools.'' At a recent meeting with the
group, Superintendent Richard Trumble said the board could set up
public hearings if desired.
The committee also will attempt to ensure that the open
enrollment selection process is done fairly. The group reports
directly to the board.
METHODS - The committee can use ``observation tools, checklists,
surveys, interviews or printed documents'' to investigate.
STRUCTURE - The committee is supposed to operate autonomously, or
free of School Board or central office interference. The committee
doesn't have its own budget. If the committee needs any type of
help, members can request it from the board.
The first round of appointments are for one-, two- and three-year
terms. The board later plans to appoint all committee members for
three-year terms. The committee is required to submit to the board
at least two reports each year.
Sources: Public Information and Community Schools offices.
KEYWORDS: COMMUNITY SCHOOLS by CNB