Connecticut school board divided over district’s plan on racial imbalance
The Hartford Courant reports that the only two minority members of the Manchester, Connecticut school board are opposing the district’s plan to address “racial imbalance” in its schools, attributing their opposition to years of inaction by the board and the superintendent to address the test score gap between white and minority students—a gap that could be partially attributed to the district's racially imbalanced elementary schools. Board members Linette Small-Miller and Enrique Marcano united to oppose what they call a hasty plan to address the imbalance through programs rather than redistricting. The district had been under pressure from the state to lay out a plan because seven of its 10 elementary schools are facing “impending racial imbalance,” since their minority enrollment is between 15 and 25 percentage points above or below the district norm of 48%. School officials aired plans to redistrict or create a “sister school system,” in which students from paired schools attend half their years in one building and the other half in the other building. But residents who attended the hearing largely rejected both plans. In May, a consultant informed the board it would no longer be required by the state to level out the demographics because its minority enrollment would reach 50% or higher, In such a district, a school with a minority enrollment of at least 25% is considered by the state a "diverse school" that doesn't need to be corrected for racial imbalance. No longer under state orders, the school board, with the exception of Ms. Small-Miller and Mr. Marcano, supported a motion last month to scrap all the proposed plans and to support a less invasive plan that would address racial imbalance by encouraging diversity and cultural sensitivity. “They contracted a statistician to, in my words, finagle the numbers and, all of a sudden, we're going to be a diverse school district” Ms. Small-Miller said. Mr. Marcano contends that if the board decides to tell the state it's no longer required to correct the problem with drastic measures, it is in essence telling the community that there is no problem to correct.
Superintendent of Schools Kathleen Ouellette said she was disappointed in Small-Miller's and Marcano's remarks. The board and district officials have spent dozens of meetings discussing the racial imbalance plan and addressing the racial achievement gap, she said, and the only thing holding her back from seeking out an alternative plan is the lack of direction from the board. School board Chairwoman Margaret Hackett noted she has asked Ms. Small-Miller and Mr. Marcano to come up with their own proposals. But to the chagrin of other board members, both have said it is up to the superintendent, and the board as a whole, to draft a new plan. "Respectfully, I don't know what they want,” board member Carl Stafford said. “They're not offering anything. If their goal is to just move around children, the board of education can most certainly do that. But I want to address the racial achievement gap, and the only way I think we can do that is to expand programming." As for the board supporting Ms. Small-Miller's and Mr. Marcano's efforts to diversify the district's workforce, Ms. Hackett said, “I'm as frustrated as they are. But we have received reports from the HR office about how challenging it is to recruit minorities. We're competing with corporate America, who is paying qualified minority teachers signing bonuses to come on.” She said a new plan would certainly include measures to recruit more minority teachers.
Source: Hartford Courant, 6/22/08, By Lynn Doan