Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
16
Choice may allow a racial backslide
Pinellas County's school choice plan appears likely to fall short of its most important goal: preventing a return to racially segregated schools.
Though the plan is successfully integrating some schools, it has failed to work in many others, a Times analysis shows. Nearly three years into choice, large numbers of Pinellas families - white and black - have ignored the district's call to integrate voluntarily.
"Could we not have predicted this when they came up with the choice plan?" chided School Board member Mary Brown, a critic of choice who was elected after the plan took effect.
The situatio
n is prompting district officials to look for fixes.
"I think we need to start planning, based on these
numbers, if we want an integrated school system," said School Board member Jane Gallucci.
If application trends hold true:
Several elementary schools in St. Petersburg would become predominantly black for the first time in more than 30 years.
More black students would attend Gibbs and Lakewood high schools, threatening to disrupt racial balances that have taken years to cultivate.
Two middle schools - Bay Point and John Hopkins - would face a similar challenge.
A number of elementary schools in south and mid Pinellas would become far less diverse. Some enrollments would go from majority white to almost exclusively white as black students continue to opt for schools closer to home. More than a dozen mid-county schools already have gone in that direction.
The choice plan pr
events those changes from occuring now. A system of race ratios known as "controlled choice" keeps many schools artificially integrated. But those
controls expire at the end of the 2006-07 school year.
After that, a powerful social dynamic will continue to work against diversity: Schools that get anywhere close to 50 percent black often become predominantly black because many white parents avoid schools where their children could be in the minority.
* * *
The prospect of declining diversity emerges in a Times analysis of choice applications submitted by parents over the past three years. Applications are a gauge of a school's popularity, providing a glimpse of how schools will look when race ratios no longer determine enrollment.
The analysis measured a school's popularity by the number of incoming students who listed it as their first choice.
Under choice, schools t
ry to entice families with "attractors," which are themes that run through the curriculum. Some attractors are proving far more marketable than others.
District officials acknowledge it is probably too late to prevent at least a temporary re
turn to a school system with significant pockets of segregation.
The public's impulse to select schools close to home is simply too ingrained. And the district is approaching the end of a four-year phase-in period that was supposed to condition Pinellas families to look outside their neighborhoods for schools, thereby promoting integration.
The final application cycle under "controlled choice" is this fall.
The School Board plans to explore changes to the choice plan that could bring about a recovery. The board also plans to ask the public for direction.
Choice can work, "but we've got to change
what we're doing," said Brown, the School Board member.
"To say we've come up short is true," said board chairwoman Nancy Bostock, "but we have made so much progress and we'll continue to do so."
Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said his staff will begin working on the problem soon in preparation for a School Board summit on choice this year.
nHe said it is time for Pinellas to ask fundamental questions about what is best for its schools.
Is it so bad for some schools to be nearly all-black if they get the same resources as predominantly white schools? Or is that heresy in a district that has worked for decades to stay racially integrated? What is Pinellas' definition of success when it comes to the racial makeup of schools?
Wilcox, who recently moved to Pinellas from a largely black district in Louisiana, wants to know.
He said he has talked to black people in Pinellas who say they wouldn't be bothered by segregated school
s as long as they are equal in quality. He also has talked to people who insist that separate schools could never be equal.
Others argue that, in a diverse society, integrated schools have a value that goes far beyond ensuring equality.
"What do families want?" Wilcox asked.
Bostock said that will be "the big question" as the board struggles in the coming months to map a fut
ure for choice.
* * *
Among the focal points will be elementary schools south of Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, home to most of the county's black community.
At three schools - James B. Sanderlin, Maximo and Lakewood elementaries - white students make up only 25 percent of the applications for next school year. At Fairmount Park Elementary, the figure is a scant 18 percent.
Of those four schools, only Sanderlin has garnered strong interest from white parents over the past three years, but that appears to have
weakened.
None of those numbers bodes well for integration.
On the plus side for choice, three other schools south of Central are drawing substantial numbers of white families.
At Gulfport Elementary, which offers a Montessori program, whites make up nearly 80 percent of the kindergarten applicants who listed the school as their first choice. The school is in a census tract that is 76 percent black.
Campbell Park Elementary, which has a marine science theme,
drew a kindergarten applicant pool that is 42 percent white - not a majority but gaining strength. The school, near Tropicana Field, is in a neighborhood that is 93 percent black.
At Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary, the theme is math and engineering, the teachers are highly qualified and the corporate partners include IBM. The school is just off 34th Street S, in a census tract that is nearly 90 percent black. But a positive buzz is spreading among white families who live mil
es away.
For next year, the pool of kindergarten applicants who listed Jamerson as their first choice was 62 percent - up from 34 percent in the first year of choice.
One prospective Jamerson parent is St. Petersburg lawyer Dana Douglas, whose son David will enter kindergarten in the fall. Douglas, who is white and lives in St. Pete Beach, said she was considering private school or one of the district's fundamental schools.
Then a friend told her about Jamerson, which is about 20 minutes from he
r home.
Douglas said she was impressed with the school's principal and the federal grant the school has received to supplement its programs. She also liked the fact that more than half of the teachers have master's degrees and all are committed to becoming National Board Certified.
"I don't know of a single parent who looked at Jamerson," she said. "I think a lot of people had concerns about the neighborhood. I have conce
rns, but they're outweighed at this point."
* * *
The recipe for a good "attractor" can be elusive.
Both Jamerson and Sanderlin elementaries are new schools in predominantly black neighborhoods. They have seasoned principals, new computers and hand-picked staffs. Yet white parents seem more drawn to Jamerson.
Grasping for reasons, Jamerson principal Bob Poth spoke of the vibrant word-of-mouth from parents like Douglas. He also spoke of intangibles.
"When parents come and tour, it's very evident the kids have fun, that we value all subject areas," h
e said. "If you look at our Web site, we have a virtual museum of our kids' art work. We have a band that our music teacher works with free of charge after school. . . . It may sound like a math and engineering school, but the children get to do a lot of things."
Sanderlin principal Denise Miller acknowledged that her school's International Baccalaurea
te Primary Years Programme may be harder to sell. There are few succinct ways to explain what the school is all about.
One of many descriptions from the school's Web site: "Every child will be a motivated learner at Sanderlin, and show responsible citizenship and pride."
Other attractors are so compelling they overcome even the worst publicity. In 2002, Gulfport Elementary became the only Pinellas school ever to get an F from the state. In 2003, it was the first Pinellas school to fail the federal government's standards.
Today, it has a new principal, a B grade and strong interest from white parents. Principal Lisa Grant noted that Gulfp
ort has the only public Montessori program in the county and that Montessori schools tend to attract white, middle-class families.
Montessori classes put the students in charge of their work and pace. Tuition for private Montessoris in Pinellas runs from $5,000 to $9,300 a year.
While much of the choice p
lan's emphasis is on attracting white families to black neighborhoods, the other half of the equation is getting more black families to try schools outside their neighborhoods.
That has proved difficult.
After 30 years of being bused to other locales under the old desegregation plan, black families are relishing the idea of schools close to home. Under choice, black enrollment has plummeted at 14 mid-county schools where black students were bused in years past.
The same scenario appears likely at several St. Petersburg schools.
Race ratios keep black enrollment at 34 percent at Gulf Beaches Elementary. But without the ratios, black enrollment would drop to 3 per
cent, if application trends continue. A similar fate awaits schools like Shore Acres, Azalea and 74th Street elementaries.
Angel Wade, a black St. Petersburg parent, said she would have considered sending her daughter Ashley to high school in Clearwater if there had been a program that interested
the 14-year-old. But she was happy with her options within a 10-mile radius of home.
Ashley had a seat at Boca Ciega High, thanks to choice's "grandfathering" provisions. But Wade gave up a sure thing and opted to enter the choice lottery last fall because she wanted Ashley to attend either Gibbs or St. Petersburg High.
"I'd like her to be closer to home (at Boca Ciega) because it's better for me," Wade said. "But the most important thing is the programs the school offers."
High schools will be a focus when the School Board tackles choice this year.
Board members Brown and Gallucci already have some ideas. One is to get middle school students thinking about their future before they leave for h
igh school. That might open their eyes to high school career programs in other areas of the county, the board members said.
The other idea is to beef up vocational programs for Pinellas students who don't plan to go to college but need to c
ompete for jobs in local trades. The board members suggest a career high school in an area of the county that would draw black students out of their neighborhoods.
Said Gallucci: "I really think we need to start thinking very creatively."
**************
School board to American Citizen Parents: Choice is BAD, niggers are GOOD!
Wake up America and smell the nigger and the nigger loving skewl boards!
T.N.B.
Choice may allow a racial backslide
Pinellas County's school choice plan appears likely to fall short of its most important goal: preventing a return to racially segregated schools.
Though the plan is successfully integrating some schools, it has failed to work in many others, a Times analysis shows. Nearly three years into choice, large numbers of Pinellas families - white and black - have ignored the district's call to integrate voluntarily.
"Could we not have predicted this when they came up with the choice plan?" chided School Board member Mary Brown, a critic of choice who was elected after the plan took effect.
The situatio
n is prompting district officials to look for fixes.
"I think we need to start planning, based on these
numbers, if we want an integrated school system," said School Board member Jane Gallucci.
If application trends hold true:
Several elementary schools in St. Petersburg would become predominantly black for the first time in more than 30 years.
More black students would attend Gibbs and Lakewood high schools, threatening to disrupt racial balances that have taken years to cultivate.
Two middle schools - Bay Point and John Hopkins - would face a similar challenge.
A number of elementary schools in south and mid Pinellas would become far less diverse. Some enrollments would go from majority white to almost exclusively white as black students continue to opt for schools closer to home. More than a dozen mid-county schools already have gone in that direction.
The choice plan pr
events those changes from occuring now. A system of race ratios known as "controlled choice" keeps many schools artificially integrated. But those
controls expire at the end of the 2006-07 school year.
After that, a powerful social dynamic will continue to work against diversity: Schools that get anywhere close to 50 percent black often become predominantly black because many white parents avoid schools where their children could be in the minority.
* * *
The prospect of declining diversity emerges in a Times analysis of choice applications submitted by parents over the past three years. Applications are a gauge of a school's popularity, providing a glimpse of how schools will look when race ratios no longer determine enrollment.
The analysis measured a school's popularity by the number of incoming students who listed it as their first choice.
Under choice, schools t
ry to entice families with "attractors," which are themes that run through the curriculum. Some attractors are proving far more marketable than others.
District officials acknowledge it is probably too late to prevent at least a temporary re
turn to a school system with significant pockets of segregation.
The public's impulse to select schools close to home is simply too ingrained. And the district is approaching the end of a four-year phase-in period that was supposed to condition Pinellas families to look outside their neighborhoods for schools, thereby promoting integration.
The final application cycle under "controlled choice" is this fall.
The School Board plans to explore changes to the choice plan that could bring about a recovery. The board also plans to ask the public for direction.
Choice can work, "but we've got to change
what we're doing," said Brown, the School Board member.
"To say we've come up short is true," said board chairwoman Nancy Bostock, "but we have made so much progress and we'll continue to do so."
Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said his staff will begin working on the problem soon in preparation for a School Board summit on choice this year.
nHe said it is time for Pinellas to ask fundamental questions about what is best for its schools.
Is it so bad for some schools to be nearly all-black if they get the same resources as predominantly white schools? Or is that heresy in a district that has worked for decades to stay racially integrated? What is Pinellas' definition of success when it comes to the racial makeup of schools?
Wilcox, who recently moved to Pinellas from a largely black district in Louisiana, wants to know.
He said he has talked to black people in Pinellas who say they wouldn't be bothered by segregated school
s as long as they are equal in quality. He also has talked to people who insist that separate schools could never be equal.
Others argue that, in a diverse society, integrated schools have a value that goes far beyond ensuring equality.
"What do families want?" Wilcox asked.
Bostock said that will be "the big question" as the board struggles in the coming months to map a fut
ure for choice.
* * *
Among the focal points will be elementary schools south of Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, home to most of the county's black community.
At three schools - James B. Sanderlin, Maximo and Lakewood elementaries - white students make up only 25 percent of the applications for next school year. At Fairmount Park Elementary, the figure is a scant 18 percent.
Of those four schools, only Sanderlin has garnered strong interest from white parents over the past three years, but that appears to have
weakened.
None of those numbers bodes well for integration.
On the plus side for choice, three other schools south of Central are drawing substantial numbers of white families.
At Gulfport Elementary, which offers a Montessori program, whites make up nearly 80 percent of the kindergarten applicants who listed the school as their first choice. The school is in a census tract that is 76 percent black.
Campbell Park Elementary, which has a marine science theme,
drew a kindergarten applicant pool that is 42 percent white - not a majority but gaining strength. The school, near Tropicana Field, is in a neighborhood that is 93 percent black.
At Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary, the theme is math and engineering, the teachers are highly qualified and the corporate partners include IBM. The school is just off 34th Street S, in a census tract that is nearly 90 percent black. But a positive buzz is spreading among white families who live mil
es away.
For next year, the pool of kindergarten applicants who listed Jamerson as their first choice was 62 percent - up from 34 percent in the first year of choice.
One prospective Jamerson parent is St. Petersburg lawyer Dana Douglas, whose son David will enter kindergarten in the fall. Douglas, who is white and lives in St. Pete Beach, said she was considering private school or one of the district's fundamental schools.
Then a friend told her about Jamerson, which is about 20 minutes from he
r home.
Douglas said she was impressed with the school's principal and the federal grant the school has received to supplement its programs. She also liked the fact that more than half of the teachers have master's degrees and all are committed to becoming National Board Certified.
"I don't know of a single parent who looked at Jamerson," she said. "I think a lot of people had concerns about the neighborhood. I have conce
rns, but they're outweighed at this point."
* * *
The recipe for a good "attractor" can be elusive.
Both Jamerson and Sanderlin elementaries are new schools in predominantly black neighborhoods. They have seasoned principals, new computers and hand-picked staffs. Yet white parents seem more drawn to Jamerson.
Grasping for reasons, Jamerson principal Bob Poth spoke of the vibrant word-of-mouth from parents like Douglas. He also spoke of intangibles.
"When parents come and tour, it's very evident the kids have fun, that we value all subject areas," h
e said. "If you look at our Web site, we have a virtual museum of our kids' art work. We have a band that our music teacher works with free of charge after school. . . . It may sound like a math and engineering school, but the children get to do a lot of things."
Sanderlin principal Denise Miller acknowledged that her school's International Baccalaurea
te Primary Years Programme may be harder to sell. There are few succinct ways to explain what the school is all about.
One of many descriptions from the school's Web site: "Every child will be a motivated learner at Sanderlin, and show responsible citizenship and pride."
Other attractors are so compelling they overcome even the worst publicity. In 2002, Gulfport Elementary became the only Pinellas school ever to get an F from the state. In 2003, it was the first Pinellas school to fail the federal government's standards.
Today, it has a new principal, a B grade and strong interest from white parents. Principal Lisa Grant noted that Gulfp
ort has the only public Montessori program in the county and that Montessori schools tend to attract white, middle-class families.
Montessori classes put the students in charge of their work and pace. Tuition for private Montessoris in Pinellas runs from $5,000 to $9,300 a year.
While much of the choice p
lan's emphasis is on attracting white families to black neighborhoods, the other half of the equation is getting more black families to try schools outside their neighborhoods.
That has proved difficult.
After 30 years of being bused to other locales under the old desegregation plan, black families are relishing the idea of schools close to home. Under choice, black enrollment has plummeted at 14 mid-county schools where black students were bused in years past.
The same scenario appears likely at several St. Petersburg schools.
Race ratios keep black enrollment at 34 percent at Gulf Beaches Elementary. But without the ratios, black enrollment would drop to 3 per
cent, if application trends continue. A similar fate awaits schools like Shore Acres, Azalea and 74th Street elementaries.
Angel Wade, a black St. Petersburg parent, said she would have considered sending her daughter Ashley to high school in Clearwater if there had been a program that interested
the 14-year-old. But she was happy with her options within a 10-mile radius of home.
Ashley had a seat at Boca Ciega High, thanks to choice's "grandfathering" provisions. But Wade gave up a sure thing and opted to enter the choice lottery last fall because she wanted Ashley to attend either Gibbs or St. Petersburg High.
"I'd like her to be closer to home (at Boca Ciega) because it's better for me," Wade said. "But the most important thing is the programs the school offers."
High schools will be a focus when the School Board tackles choice this year.
Board members Brown and Gallucci already have some ideas. One is to get middle school students thinking about their future before they leave for h
igh school. That might open their eyes to high school career programs in other areas of the county, the board members said.
The other idea is to beef up vocational programs for Pinellas students who don't plan to go to college but need to c
ompete for jobs in local trades. The board members suggest a career high school in an area of the county that would draw black students out of their neighborhoods.
Said Gallucci: "I really think we need to start thinking very creatively."
**************
School board to American Citizen Parents: Choice is BAD, niggers are GOOD!
Wake up America and smell the nigger and the nigger loving skewl boards!
T.N.B.