DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709260314

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letters 

                                            LENGTH:   90 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - PORTSMOUTH

After reading Ida Kay Jordan's column of Sept. 19, ``New high school doesn't necessarily mean rezoning,'' I was, to put it mildly, amazed and amused.

Many folks in Portsmouth must be unaware of how our three remaining high schools are zoned. I say this because of the statement: ``That means that students who live within spitting distance of the elaborate new high-tech school still will be bused to other high schools miles away from their homes.''

Also, Martha Ann Creecy's statement: ... it is ``ludicrous to think of busing students past the new school.''

Students who now live across the street from the present I.C. Norcom attend Churchland High School as their zoned school. The present I.C. Norcom is already located closer to Olde Towne and Parkview, but Wilson is their zoned school. The children who live in Park Manor and Simonsdale can walk to Wilson, but are zoned to Norcom. Cavalier Manor is zoned for Norcom and Mount Hermon is zoned for Churchland. It all boggles the mind.

The article also quotes Richard Trumble, school superintendent, as saying he had ``... no drift of any groundswell support wanting rezoning.'' During the 1992-93 school year there was a huge groundswell of support for not rezoning due to the absurd way it was done. That did not stop our appointed school board from going ahead with it anyway. The effect was a loss of many secondary students from our school system.

With the return of community based schools at the elementary school level, along with its success in bringing children back to the public school system, we should take heed. Parents will be more active and children more involved in schools that are closer to their communities. I attended a sports banquet at Wilson a year ago for my son. The majority of the parents and students present were there because of zone waivers. They lived close enough to the school to attend in the evening.

The majority of the athletes and their parents were not there because of transportation problems due to living so far away from the school. This in itself should make it obvious that something about our zoning is wrong.

Portsmouth does not have enough money to be wasting it on a partially filled high tech school, when we have far too many schools in disrepair. We will never get all the students back that we have lost. Chesapeake and Suffolk have claimed these families, along with home school and private schools. Maybe, with elected school board officials, we can stop the exodus and begin to make our secondary schools more attractive and accessible to our parents. I believe there is more support for this matter than there was for the 1992-93 rezoning efforts.

Jacqueline D. Johnson

Thelmar Lane

Sept. 22, 1997 Importance of Norcom

Ida Kay Jordan's column in the Sept. 19 Currents: ``New high school doesn't necessarily mean rezoning,'' speaks to an issue on the minds of many in this city - the zoning of the new I.C. Norcom High School. I was particularly struck by the statement made by school Superintendent Richard Trumble, ``... Obviously, this is not something I anticipated ... but we want to talk with citizens if they want us to rezone. ...'' Right. And for a limited time only, we have a tunnel you can purchase, cheap!

Anyone in this city who has taken even a casual glance at the Vision 2005 plans (with Norcom as a pinnacle spot in those plans) knows that rezoning is going to happen for that school. Give me a break! Portsmouth knows how sensitive an area this is for the black community.

However, I believe the greater issue for the black community will be the outcome of the plans for Ida Barbour. If the city keeps its word on serving members of the Ida Barbour community first in terms of the new housing (the Hope Project), then we know that there will be an African-American presence within that school. We must also demand quality instruction as well as quality output of effort by our children so that they might benefit from all of the resources that this state-of-the-art school will hold.

Why is that so important to us? Because black folks have a history of ``diminishing returns'' when it comes to this city. For some reason, those landmarks of ours that have meant so much to us in terms of where we have come as a people have been renamed and/or erased. Recent letters to The Currents suggest that this trend might possibly continue with Norcom.

Black people love this city. It is our home. We helped in building it and maintaining it. We fight about it, complain about it and staunchly defend it. Many of us choose not to live anywhere else in Hampton Roads. But we will not sit idly by and watch our history erased, diminished, devalued any longer.

Dr. Trumble can rezone those school lines to Mars and back if he wishes. It does not matter because we will be there. We will be watching not only the lines for rezoning Norcom but the progress of the Ida Barbour redevelopment as well. For once, for our sakes and the futures of all of our children let us do this right.

Billie M. Cook

Hobson Street

Sept. 19, 1997

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