Next challenge: school choice

Pinellas School Board members will work out details of the choice plan in the coming months.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY and KELLY RYAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 11, 2000

Most parents and students in Pinellas County have been able to ignore the decades-long debate over a federal court order that brought busing and prescribed race ratios to the schools.

That's about to change.

Judge ends Pinellas busing Hillsborough still under court's watch Highlights of the order What does judge's ruling mean? Key events

Starting in fall 2003, desegregation is everyone's business in Pinellas. Parents will have to choose the school they want their child to attend. They will be able to investigate specialized programs, miles from home, that might interest their kids. Or they can choose to stick with a neighborhood school.

A court order issued Thursday marked an end to a 36-year-old school desegregation case that affected hundreds of school district policies. It also signaled the start of a crucial series of decisions and a delicate balancing act, as the school district sets out to create a brand new system to replace the controversial old one.

St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer welcomed the court order and promised to keep a close watch on the direction of Pinellas County schools.

"I don't want to use the word "watchdog,' " Fischer said. "I would use the word "partner.' We want to act as a partner. The agreement has a lot of promise, but we've got to stay on top of it."

Thursday's court order formally ends the federal supervision of Pinellas' school desegregation effort, and technically it ends the controversial remedy that affected mostly black students.

But student assignment, for now, will go on just as if the court order were in place. In 2001, the district will choose the last batch of white students who will be ordered to attend schools outside their neighborhoods to meet racial ratios.

Black students, many of whom are required to attend schools far from home, will probably have to ride buses until at least 2007, when race ratios disappear.

But under the agreement approved Thursday, a plan to give school choice to parents of the district's 110,000 students is now taking shape.

Under the choice plan, school district leaders say most parents should get their first or second school choice. That all depends on whether the school is crowded and whether it is desegregated.

It could turn out that more students will ride the bus to school every day. The difference is that parents will choOse their child's school, so it will not be "court-ordered busing." Architects of the plan hope that will make all the difference.

Working out the minute details of the complicated choice plan is among the biggest decisions School Board members will make in coming months. The success of desegregation after the court order is in the balance. As school begins Aug. 23, dozens of meetings will be held around the county to let parents hear, and comment on, the details of the choice plan.

A School Board vote on the final plan is set for Oct. 24. Once that's done, the district will spend three years putting the plan in place, including developing specialty programs at schools to attract students.

As the work gets under way, the federal judge might be off the case, but many others will be watching.

Enrique Escarraz, who since 1973 has been the lawyer for thousands of black children he never met, said he expects to remain involved in monitoring the district's progress. He said that although much has changed since the case was filed in 1964 and since busing began in 1971, some parents still appear hostile to the idea of black and white children learning together.

"People are more willing to discriminate in education because it's for their children," he said.

The settlement agreement also creates a racially diverse committee, of community leaders and school officials, to ensure that the district keeps its promises. That group, the District Monitoring and Advisory Committee, will review student achievement data, school improvement plans and district hiring practices, among other things.

Superintendent Howard Hinesley and other school leaders also have pledged to reduce or eliminate racial disparities in achievement, discipline rates and assignment to special programs.

"The judge reinforced in a public document that it is one of our priorities and always has been and always will be" to improve black student achievement, Hinesley said.

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