Proposed Changes to Wichita Schools’ Busing Plan
By Jillian Cohan, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
Dec. 19–Proposal also calls for end of birthday lottery for white students
The Wichita school system could end its 36-year-old practice of busing for integration starting in the fall, if the school board approves changes suggested by the administration. The proposal includes increased school choices for black students and white students who are “force bused” this year, the end of the birthday lottery for white students, and continued busing for students who choose to stay at their current schools.
“Our community values diversity. They do not want us to do anything that would make our schools more segregated than they are today,” said superintendent Winston Brooks, adding that the plan developed out of conversations with district leaders, residents and a task force assembled to study the issue.
At the same time, he said, parents want more choices.
Wichita’s 1971 busing agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is voluntary; it was not court ordered.
Under the old plan, black students in designated parts of central-northeast Wichita known as the “assigned attendance area” and the “peripheral assigned attendance area” are bused from kindergarten through 12th grade, some based on race and some based on their addresses. White students chosen in a birthday lottery are bused for one year to Adams or Mueller elementaries, after which they may volunteer to remain at those schools.
This year, about 870 black students and 100 white students are “forced bused,” according to the district. Roughly 400 other white students volunteer to attend Adams or Mueller. Hundreds of other black students are bused out of the area because it has no general-enrollment middle and high schools.
Under the proposal:
Starting in the fall, all students would be allowed to attend neighborhood schools, including magnet schools that draw students from surrounding neighborhoods. Those include Buckner Performing Arts Magnet, L’Ouverture Computer Technology Magnet and Spaght Accelerated Magnet Academy. Pure magnet schools, which draw students from across the city, would still require students to be accepted through an application process.
Students who have been subject to the busing agreement this school year and their siblings could continue attending the schools to which they had been bused. They would be allowed to go through that school’s feeder system from elementary to middle and high school. If they were provided transportation this year, they still would be provided a bus to school.
Because there are no general-enrollment middle or high schools in the area, secondary students in the original busing area would continue to be assigned to schools based on their addresses. Those in the peripheral area would be assigned to schools based on geographic boundaries.
In the coming school year, all students bused for integration this year — including white students who are “force bused” but not those who volunteer — would receive priority placement in magnet schools, if vacancies were available. “Every year kids move, so we would reserve those spaces” for children who had been bused, Brooks said.
Priority magnet placement would continue in 2009-10 and beyond for students who live in the original and peripheral areas until enough schools are built to accommodate the population. Brooks said the distinction was made based on the lack of availability of schools in central-northeast Wichita.
The Gordon Parks Academy, a new K-8 school that will open this fall at 25th and Grove, figures into the new plan as well. The 600-student International Baccalaureate magnet will draw half its students from the area that had been subject to the busing agreement and half from the district as a whole. “Gordon Parks is not going to accommodate everybody,” Brooks noted. All students will have to apply through a lottery admission process; the district expects high demand.
After Brooks’ presentation, board vice president Lynn Rogers said some in the community would say the proposal was overdue.
“You’ve shown here how it’s not an easy solution and would not have been an easy solution at any time,” he told Brooks.
Board member Betty Arnold, whose District 1 overlaps with the assigned attendance area, thanked the administration for its work.
“I know there are many African-American parents who want to see busing ended, but on the other hand there are a number who want busing to continue,” she said. “I appreciate that you did not make it so that you have to choose one over the other.
“I’m looking forward to comments to see how parents will perceive this,” she added.
The district will sponsor four community forums on busing, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 8, 10, 15 and 22. The board likely will continue discussions of its busing plan Jan. 14; it expects to vote Jan. 28, in advance of the Choices Fair on Feb. 26.
District officials plan to call every parent whose child is “force bused” to explain the options before the Choices Fair.
In May, the district plans to interview students and parents involved in busing this year to see where students might want to attend school next fall. Those discussions would not be binding, but would help the district plan for enrollment.
Any changes to the busing plan would be filed with the Office for Civil Rights as an amendment to the agreement, Brooks said. The office will conduct a compliance review of the district’s plan in 2008. The review may be a precursor to the end of the agreement.
Reach Jillian Cohan at 316-268-6524 or jcohan@wichitaeagle.com.
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