BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Public Schools may dump a program in which some children are bused out of their neighborhoods to other schools in an effort to achieve racial integration.
Called "pairing," the program links four elementaries -- Oyler in Price Hill with Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine and Washburn in the West End with Whittier in Price Hill.
While the policy has helped racially balance the schools, it has come under scrutiny lately as district leaders prepare to implement recommendations in a $450 million preliminary facilities master plan set for release Oct. 26.
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BLACK ENROLLMENT
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Desegregation has become a more difficult task as more and more African-American students enroll in Cincinnati Public Schools, administrators say. Seventy percent of CPS students are black, compared with 44 percent in 1970. |
"It's quite possible as we do another year of redistricting that there could be some unpairing, if that unpairing is supported by the school communities that are affected," said Harriet Russell, a school board member who is chairwoman of the board's facilities committee.
The affected neighborhoods are more integrated than they were when the pairing program started in 1989, Ms. Russell said. And pairing may prove difficult to maintain if the district implements recommendations from the master plan.
Thursday, Oyler's administrators and parents learned that the plan recommends their school go kindergarten through grade 8, as most elementaries are destined.
The recommendation came to light in a closed community meeting with representatives from Millvale and Roosevelt schools. Roosevelt is recommended for closure, while Millvale's future is uncertain because of size restraints. Nineteen schools are recommended for closure, although 14 would be rebuilt or renovated.
While principals at paired schools admit their schools are more racially balanced, one said the policy has hurt parental involvement.
"Many of my parents say to me they wish they were closer to the school," Whittier Principal Dominick Ciolino said. "We've used Title I funds (federal funds for lower-income students) to purchase bus tokens to bring our parents to school, but it is tough to get them here when they're farther away."
District counsel John Concannon stressed that unpairing the schools wouldn't lessen the district's commitment to ensuring achievement from students of all races. "Quality integrated education is still extremely important to the district," Mr. Concannon said.
The Cincinnati branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is trying to reopen its 24-year-old desegregation lawsuit against CPS, saying that persistently low proficiency test scores and high dropout rates indicate the district's lack of commitment to ensure good-quality education for black students. Officials of the local NAACP said they were unfamiliar with the facilities plan and could not comment on it.
