Orange
leaders botched school-closing plan
Wednesday,
April 8, 2009
Biracial committee did not review proposal, as required
by federal court order
Erika Hobbs | Sentinel Staff Writer April 8, 2009
Orange County school leaders have bungled a key part of their
controversial plan to close six elementary schools by failing
to appoint a 10-member biracial citizens committee to sign off
on the proposal, as required by a federal court order.
School officials told a packed meeting of parents and educators
in late March that the biracial committee had given its stamp
of approval to shut down the six schools and create two new
ones in largely black, low-income areas.
However, the "committee" that gave the go-ahead consisted
of one man -- a white man -- who was the lone member to attend
the specially convened meeting. He gave his OK, and staff plowed
ahead with the complex proposals and public meeting. The oversight,
discovered by the Orlando Sentinel, could have far-reaching
consequences -- from slowing down or halting the school-closure
plan, to throwing a wrench in the district's emergency budget-cutting
process for the next school year.
By closing six elementary schools and creating two new K-to-8
campuses, the proposal creates a domino effect of complex new
zoning maps that moves about 7,000 elementary and middle-school
students to new schools and creates new attendance lines for
14 of the county's middle schools.
Even worse for the district, there aren't enough members on
the committee to hold a legal meeting. The federal courts require
the oversight group to have 10 members -- five black and five
white -- and its decisions require a quorum, at least six people.
However, at the time of the vote, committee membership stood
at five. School Board attorney Frank Kruppenbacher acknowledged
Tuesday that district staff has made mistakes in following procedures.
"Staff are accountable for what amounts to this: a committee
of one," he said. "That is not what is supposed to
happen."
He called the problem a "technical glitch," one he
vowed the district would not repeat. "I think the district
is making every effort to go back and review its policies and
everything is being fixed now," he said.
School Board attorneys began scrambling this week to figure
out their next move after being informed by an Orlando Sentinel
reporter of the lapse. Their options include setting a new meeting
date and recruiting enough members to have the meeting.
Kruppenbacher said the district was not deliberately skirting
federal desegregation orders. He called the committee a "moving
group" and acknowledged the district had trouble recruiting
and retaining members. What ultimately would fix the problem,
he said, would be to raise the membership to 15, which would
require court approval and time the district doesn't have.
The board is scheduled to vote to close schools May 26.
In 1964, the federal courts ordered the district to ensure that
racial balance exists in student assignments, school facilities,
educational programs and other areas. In 2004, at the behest
of its only black School Board member, Kat Gordon, the district
began evaluating its record and aimed to address the deficiencies
and eventually convince the courts it has achieved racial balance.
In May 2007, Kruppenbacher announced the district was likely
six months away from having the mandate lifted. To date, however,
it still hasn't convinced the courts.
Last month, the board began to take steps to close the elementary
schools to save as much as $8 million to make up for expected
budget shortfalls in the next fiscal year, which begins July
1. Racing the clock to balance the budget, officials had fast-tracked
the closure proposal to help them meet deadlines.
But School Board members -- whose votes rely on the committee's
reviews -- were completely surprised at the apparent oversight.
"It's my responsibility to make sure we correct the problem
and to make sure it does not happen again," said School
Board Chairwoman Joie Cadle.
Gordon said she was caught off guard. "I worked extremely
hard on this," she said. "This has been one of my
babies. I am going, 'What the devil'?" "Why would
they pass on information approved by one person? That doesn't
make any sense to me. That is not the way I thought it would
work," she said.
A lot is at stake. The federal court order clearly requires
that this special committee approve any decision that changes
transfer policies, attendance zones or school locations, which
the school-closing plan would definitely do.
The most controversial among them are the drafts for the new
Howard Middle School, which include a scenario that zones out
children in homeless shelters and a nearby public-housing complex
and replaces them with what is expected to be a whiter, richer
student body.
Early plans call for closing Hillcrest Elementary and extending
its foreign-language magnet program to Howard. But only children
in Hillcrest's zone, those on the magnet wait list, and remaining
Howard students can attend the new K-to-8 school.
With the changes, Howard's racial balance in the fall would
be about 41 percent black -- or slightly less than today --
and 34 percent white or slightly more. The percentage of students
in poverty would drop to about 62 percent, from about 71 percent.
However, those figures don't include the 200 or so on the wait
list, most of whom staff expect will be white and from higher-income
backgrounds.
Contrast Howard's plan with the new Carver K-to-8. When it opens
in the fall, the new Howard would be at about half-capacity
with 572 students. When the new Carver opens in 2011, it would
have more than 1,110 children, most of them black and poor.Those
plans, critics and supporters say, need to be carefully vetted.
"I've studied the maps and statistics a bit, and the more
I look at them, the angrier I get," said Hannah Laurenson,
a third-year Howard teacher. "One question I'd love to
get answered is: Why aren't the Glenridge or Blankner districts
changing, when all other districts adjoining [Howard] zone are?
Both of those schools scored A's the last six years. None of
the middle schools that are taking our students have that record."
Gordon said now more than ever was the time to be careful.
"We are now going into a major rezoning -- a major rezoning
-- and we need our people in those seats. So what if we have
to go against the NAACP" and the district is sued over
the plans?
She wondered whether the plans need to be redrawn, forcing the
School Board to start over.
Neither Rev. Randolph Bracy, president of the Orange County
branch of the NAACP, nor representatives from the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund could be reached for comment. Both have been involved
with negotiating the desegregation suit against the school district.
However, Bracy has been publicly questioning whether Orange
was desegregated and has hinted at filing lawsuits over discrepancies
he has found with some policies.
What happens next with school-closure plans is not clear. Kruppenbacher
promised a new biracial-committee meeting would be set at the
end of April. School Board attorney Brian Moes said the group
only has to meet before the board takes a final vote, and even
with that late date, staff would have enough time to bring the
plans back to the drawing board.
"We'll have to roll up our sleeves," Kruppenbacher
said.
Erika Hobbs can be reached at
ehobbs@orlandosentinel.com
Orange school desegregation:
What is biracial committee?
Erika Hobbs | Sentinel Staff Writer April
8, 2009
What is the purpose of Orange County Public Schools' biracial
committee? It is an oversight group that is supposed
to be made up of 10 volunteers who monitor whether the district's
policies for transfers, attendance zones and school locations
comply with federal desegregation orders. Five must be black,
and five must be white.
Why was it created? The committee was formed after
the public school district's 1964 federal court order to desegregate
its system. It has evolved over the years, ranging from about
30 members to 10 today.
What is it required to do? Its bylaws require members
to hold an annual meeting in September and to meet on a regular
basis on a schedule that they set themselves. The members are
also to meet whenever the committee chairman or superintendent
needs them to, such as to review the attendance lines for new
schools that open in the fall.
Why are members required to be only black or white?
When a group of parents filed a suit against the district, Hispanics
were not included in the lawsuit. Blacks were separated from
whites, and several black parents sued for their children's
rights to equal access to public schools.
What are the details of the case? A group of
Orange parents first sued the district in 1962, spurred by its
refusal to let Evelyn R. Ellis attend Boone High. Her father,
John P. Ellis, was president of the Orange County NAACP. The
lawsuit evolved over the years, with different parties, including
the NAACP, signing on. In 1964, a judge declared Orange must
desegregate its schools. During that time, Orange often ignored
the order and at times deliberately flouted it. In 1971, for
example, School Board members voted to go to jail rather than
accept busing for racial balance. Later, members agreed to move
900 students around the county. Orange has largely ended that
practice for all but about six schools.
