Equal Opportunity in the Fort Wayne Community Schools: A ...

tion for the Peabody evaluation (see note 2) andstated, "Several major components of this plan relateto the Peabody Study."The plan calls for grade reorganization, the closingof some schools and the construction of newfacilities, pupil reassignments, and other actions tomeet the objectives. Specifically, the plan calls forclosing six elementary schools, five of which are inthe central city and four of which have minorityenrollments of 75 percent or more. Thus 4 of the10 elementary schools with predominantly minorityenrollments would be closed. Two of the elementaryschools to be closed under this proposalwould be turned into enrichment centers wherefourth- and fifth-grade students would spend 1week each semester for human relations trainingand preparation for later school years. Elementaryschools would contain grades K-5, junior highschools would house grades 6-8, and senior highschools would serve grades 9-12. Students currentlyattending schools that would be eliminatedin the plan would be transferred to schools immediatelybordering the central city. Finally, a newhigh school would be built in the predominantlywhite, northeastern portion of the school district.Grile's proposals have not met with unanimousapproval among board members, and muchsharper criticism has been directed against theplan by other members of the community. Boardmember Lorraine Davis stated, "I want toemphasize this is a proposed plan. As far as theadministration is concerned this may be a singleunit plan, but as far as the community is concerned,and perhaps as far as the board is concernedit's not necessarily a unit plan." 18 FredMeriwether, one of two black board members said,"I'm not pleased with the plan as it presently exists.The comment I hear over and over again isthat it seems as if the onus is being put on theminority community again." 19 Board memberLeonard Goldstein claimed the commitment madeby the board on July 8, 1974, "to eliminate racialsegregation in the entire school system," is dilutedin the plan. However, Goldstein said he found theplan "acceptable, but falling far short of what Ithink is even a beginning of what we want." 20The major criticism of the plan from other communitymembers revolves around the desegregationissue. It is reportedly argued, first, that theplan does not go far enough towards desegregatingthe schools and, secondly, that the burden isplaced entirely on the black community. Somecritics maintain that the extent of desegregationpredicted in the plan is less than that in any of thefive plans recommended in the Peabody report. 21Former Mayor Ivan Lebamoff charged the planwas designed to barely meet legal pressures fordesegregation. 22 Grile's response to this line of argumentwas that the Peabody plans would notcompletely desegregate all the schools and that hisplan would result in 66 percent of all black studentsattending schools with a white majority andjust 33 percent attending majority black schools by1980. In addition, only 6 of the 38 elementaryschools would be predominantly black by thattime. 23Nowhere in the plan or in the newspaper articlesobtained by the Midwest Regional Office of theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights, however, doesGrile make any reference to the 10 percent to 30percent band cited in the Peabody report asproviding "optimum potential for meaningfulminority-majority interaction." One question thatremains unanswered is what percentage of theschools will be brought within this band. Grilestated his plan would reduce the percentage ofblack students attending majority black schools to33 percent. This would represent a reduction ofapproximately 10 percent, since 43 percent ofminority students were enrolled in predominantlyminority schools in 1975 (see table 1). As indicatedabove, this is not considered enough bysome board members and others in the communi-ty-Harsher comments were directed at the planbecause it places the burden of desegregation onthe black community. The fact that all busingwould be one way, involving busing of black studentsout of the central city, and that a new highschool would be built in a predominantly whitearea while several schools in the central city wouldbe closed were particularly sore points. One blackmother said, "We have been going to the whiteschools for a long time. It's time for you to cometo some of our schools." She went on to arguethat it would be just as easy to remodel the olderschools as to tear them down. 24 Concerns werealso expressed about declining property values inthe central city once the schools were gone andthe difficulty parents would have in getting to PTA6