THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 23, 1996 TAG: 9609230027
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 147 lines
When the School Board formed an ``oversight committee'' to help monitor elementary schools once elementary busing for desegregation ended, many city residents figured the committee would play a key role:
Either it would offer evidence showing that the move away from desegregation so far had not been detrimental; or it would prove right those who said nearly all-black elementary schools would be shortchanged.
But by late last school year, about two years after its creation, the committee had done neither.
Now, with the board's appointment last week of five new committee members and its re-appointment of seven previous members, school officials hope the committee will begin to fulfill its primary mission this school year.
That mission is to confirm the absence of racial discrimination - or report any to the board - when it comes to the distribution of resources to the city's 19 ``community'' elementary schools.
``We just want to make sure the community schools are working the way they're supposed to: equitably,'' said the board's vice chairman, Ray A. Smith Sr.
``I think there were just some internal leadership issues within the committee that affected things.''
The School Board will pick the committee's chairperson and also appoint one more member at a later date. Committee members' terms are for four years.
The committee's obstacles last year ran the gamut.
Among them:
Several committee members attended committee meetings infrequently.
The School Board appointed the original 13 members in late 1994, but it didn't further clarify the committee's charge until months later.
At the board's winter retreat earlier this year, several board members and even Superintendent Richard Trumble complained about what they described as former committee Chairwoman Patricia M. Wright's hostility toward the idea of ending elementary busing for desegregation.
Privately, some board members speculated that Wright simply didn't want things to go smoothly.
Wright - a lawyer, Harvard graduate and the first black valedictorian of the former Cradock High School - points out that she never said she didn't favor community schools.
She also wonders why board members didn't contact her if they had problems with her leadership.
Her only goal, she said, was to get to the facts - and getting information quickly from the central office sometimes proved difficult, she said.
She was not re-appointed.
``If you look at everything that happened, I believe there are things that went wrong on both sides,'' she said.
The committee routinely visited schools. It also collected district information on issues ranging from computers to textbooks.
But it didn't submit any final reports to the board, as the board had requested when it created the group.
Moreover, the committee had yet to form any conclusions about the way resources were being distributed.
Several re-appointed committee members said it took them more time than anticipated to figure out what data they needed, how to interpret it and how to pull everything together.
Others said the group often got bogged down in minutiae.
Nonetheless, committee members contacted last week said they believed the group would make more progress this year and that reports would be forthcoming because they had experience to draw from.
``With the new members coming on, I'm very much looking forward to working with them, to developing organizational objectives and seeking ways to achieve equity whenever necessary,'' said re-appointed committee member George F. Little, a management analyst for the Navy. ``I believe things will get better.''
Marlene Randall, another re-appointed member and a retired district administrator, agreed.
``We were very successful at gathering data and looking at schools,'' she said. ``We just needed more time to review what we had, to come up with recommendations.
``There's really a lot to it, especially when everyone in the group isn't starting from the same level'' of knowledge about city schools, she said.
The board called for the committee's creation in March 1994, when it approved a ``community schools'' plan to end decades of elementary school busing for desegregation purposes.
Norfolk's School Board also created an oversight committee when that district ended elementary busing for desegregation in 1986; its committee disbanded in 1991.
During Portsmouth's 1993-94 discussions about the community schools plan, many black residents opposed it because they feared predominantly black elementary schools would be shortchanged when it came to everything from highly qualified teachers to classroom equipment.
Jim Crow was their frame of reference.
The School Board made its oversight committee appointments in late 1994, a year before the plan fully took effect. The committee's real work began last year. In many cases, though, few parents were aware of the group.
And those who knew about it often wondered whether it was doing anything.
In an interview last school year, PTA Council leader Lucy Thompson questioned whether the committee was still active because she hadn't heard much talk about it around town.
In other instances, some black senior citizens bashed the committee when the topic came up in everyday conversation. They often characterized the committee as powerless, a bone tossed to black residents who had opposed the community schools plan.
That attitude still disturbs re-appointed committee member Carlton M. Carrington, who is black.
``I didn't see the committee's role as anything other than surfacing problems, if we found them,'' said Carrington, 64.
``The power is with the people; our power was related to surfacing things and reporting things. We still need to get to a lot of that, but we're not supposed to replace the School Board or anything.
``Some people,'' he added, ``just want to throw bricks at the committee and say it's not doing this or doing that. And half of them don't even visit the schools in their own neighborhood.
But ``it's not just about the committee,'' he said. In the end, he said, ``it's up to the citizens at-large to make sure things are right. And then to go to City Council, the School Board to get something done about it.'' MEMO: WHO'S ON THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE?
Here is a brief look at 12 Portsmouth residents whom the School Board
appointed last week to its ``oversight committee.''
A final member will be appointed at a later date.
The committee's main purpose is to confirm the absence of racial
discrimination - or report any to the School Board - when it comes to
the distribution of resources to the district's 19 elementary schools.
The committee now has eight black and four white members. Their terms
are for four years.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Sue H. Butler, a volunteer with a background in early childhood
education.
Carlton M. Carrington, a Cavalier Manor neighborhood leader.
Catherine P. Dixon, a Mount Hermon resident who's active in several
civic groups across the city.*
Phyllis Horton, a PTA activist.
George F. Little, a management analyst for the Navy.
Jane Ollice, a field representative for the Virginia Department of
Taxation. She has been active in local political campaigns.*
Lucy M. Overton, a Truxtun neighborhood leader.
Marlene W. Randall, a retired central office administrator.
Ethel H. Robinson, a former president of the local branch of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; retired
educator.
Leah Stith, a former School Board member.*
Randi Strutton, a former teacher; an unsuccessful candidate for a
School Board seat this spring.*
The Rev. Leo Whitaker, a youth minister at Third Baptist Church on
Godwin Street.*
* NOTE: New members. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The committee's first chairwoman, Patricia M. Wright, was not
reappointed to the revamped committee.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD PORTSMOUTH SCHOOLS by CNB