Copyright 2007 The Wichita Eagle

All Rights Reserved

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)

October 28, 2007 Sunday

SECTION: A; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1232 words

HEADLINE: District sees 4 no-busing scenarios

BYLINE: JILLIAN COHAN, The Wichita Eagle

BODY:

Imagine if, after more than three decades of busing black and white
children across town for school integration, Wichita ended mandated
busing. What would happen?

The Wichita school board last week saw four hypothetical ways that
might play out. Under one example, secondary schools in the northeast
part of the district could see population surges of 300 to 500
students.

Under another example, some elementary schools could become more than
80 percent black.

"These are extreme cases. The reality is, it's going to fall somewhere
in the middle," said Fabian Armendariz, the district's supervisor of
pupil accounting.

The board has asked district administrators to present a plan in

December for the end of busing for integration.

According to the district, nearly 1,600 black students and about 450
white students are bused for integration under a 36-year-old plan.

A 1971 agreement involving the U.S. Department of Education's Office of

Civil Rights and the NAACP specifies that students living in
predominantly black areas of northeast Wichita -- the "assigned
attendance area" -- be transported to schools across the city for their
entire school careers.

White children are chosen by lottery based on their birthdates to

attend either Mueller or Adams elementary schools for one year. The
plan does not apply to students of other races or ethnic groups.

District officials thought the agreement had been called into question
by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found plans in Louisville,
Ky., and Seattle unconstitutional. Those plans shared some similarities
with Wichita's agreement.
The Wichita district recently learned that the civil-rights office most
likely won't let it out of its agreement based on the ruling,
superintendent Winston Brooks said Friday. It could allow the district
to modify the existing plan.

"I would like to end it as we now know it and expand the options for
everyone," Brooks said.

The hypotheticals

The scenarios are merely a starting point, to give the district a sense
of demographic changes if busing were to end. None are likely to come
to pass as they appear on paper, and school officials say they're
committed to giving families options on where to send their children.

The pupil-accounting office presented one scenario for middle and high
schools and three for elementary schools.

The secondary-level scenario explored what would happen if students who

live in the assigned attendance area were mainly assigned to Stucky
Middle School and Heights High School.

The first elementary scenario looked at possible outcomes if all

formerly bused students were assigned to their neighborhood schools.

Example two looked at what would happen if black students returned to

neighborhood schools and white students stayed at Adams or Mueller.

Example three considered what would happen if white students returned

to neighborhood schools and black students continued to be bused.

None of the scenarios included students who attend prekindergarten,

magnet or special programs.

Impact on some districts

School board member Betty Arnold, whose District 1 overlaps with the
assigned attendance area, said she loves the idea of neighborhood
schools. "I would like to take the burden off African-American
students. They're bused all 12 years, as opposed to Caucasian students
who are in the lottery."

But Arnold said some residents have told her they want schools to
remain diverse, whether through busing or other means.

"Someone suggested making every school a magnet school," she said. "It
would be dependent on the students' interests so the commonality would
be there, but so would the diversity."

Board vice president Lynn Rogers, whose District 6 is home to Heights

and Stucky, said in his worst-case scenario, the district would have to
bring back portable classrooms, most of which were removed as part of a
2000 bond issue.

In Rogers' best-case scenario, the district would build a new high

school in the northeast quadrant.

"I requested that we talk about a short-term phase-in and a long-term

phase-in," he said of stopping busing for integration. "All kinds of
things could happen."

One member of the task force charged with working on the busing issue
wants more specifics before moving forward.

DaNita Batiste, a member of the African-American Parents Support Group,

said she left a task-force meeting Tuesday with unanswered questions.

"A lot of the information given at the meeting was vague. It was more
'We can get back to you on that' than it was concrete."

Where to put them all?

The hypothetical post-busing scenarios have principals wondering how to

prepare for possible population changes.

"Where are we going to put all those kids?" said Stucky's Terrell
Davis. "And with all those kids coming back over time, can we continue
our program of excellence?"

Stucky already is at capacity. If the school were to gain 320 students,

it would need to add classrooms, hire teachers and plan for a third
lunch period just to get students through the cafeteria line, Davis
said. The scenario also would change the school's demographics, raising
the African-American student population from about 40 percent to more
than 50 percent.

"If it were to bump up, it would give our African-American students a

false sense of what the world is like," Davis said.

Mueller principal Anne Clemens echoed Davis' concerns about classroom

space and diversity. Under one scenario, her school could lose nearly
300 students. Under another, it could gain more than 250. Like Davis,
she said that regardless of the demographics at her school, "we're
going to continue to have high expectations for any students that come
through our doors."

Bottom line: Education

With so many unknown factors, some parents wondered how the district
would ensure diversity and meet its facilities needs if busing were to
end.

Bill Carroll's two sons have been bused to Mueller instead of attending
Gammon Elementary School.

"Originally the busing thing upset me, but it really comes down to
where you're going and whether the teachers are doing what they need to
to take care of the kids," he said. "If we had the decision to go back
to Gammon, we would probably ask for a transfer (to Mueller)."

But if Mueller were to grow by more than 250 students, Carroll would
have second thoughts.

"I wouldn't want the class sizes to get much bigger than they are now,"
he said.
Derilyn Johnson, a father who lives in the assigned attendance area,
enrolled his son at nearby Isley Traditional Magnet Elementary School
to avoid being bused to OK Elementary School, on the west side.

"It's a better school, so let me keep him there," he said of Isley. "I
don't want him sent across town for the integration purpose. I care
about the education purpose."

Magnet programs were excluded from the scenarios, so Johnson's

situation might not change if busing were to end. But he said most of
his neighbors' children are bused.

It's not a "cut and dried" issue, said Misty Colbert, a member of the
African-American Parent Support Group whose children have attended
Mueller, Brooks Technology and Arts Magnet Middle School and Northeast
Magnet High School.

"If the district looks at everything right and includes the people to
where whites aren't losing ground or blacks aren't staying behind,
that's people's biggest concern," she said. "They want their children
to get a good education."

Reach Jillian Cohan at 316-268-6524 or jcohan@wichitaeagle.com.

LOAD-DATE: October 28, 2007