'No': ICCSD Proposed Diversity Policy

                                                                                                     
 

     It shall be the policy of the board to provide equitable learning environments for the students attending ICCSD. It is the board's policy that greater diversity and enhanced learning will be the result of establishing the following goals . . .   

                  

     

The School Board is split 4-3 on the proposed policy.

    

     Putting a whole new meaning on the generally accepted understanding of 'minority' in today's political climate, the draft policy defines "minority students" to “mean those students receiving free or reduced price lunches” and "non-minority students" as “those not receiving free or reduced price lunches”. These definitions cement in writing that the diversity policy addresses low socioeconomic black children attending the ICCSD and further stigmatizes this segment of our school age population.

     

     We hope that those who haven't done so and who are interested in this issue will go to this link http://www.edline.net/pages/ICCSD/and read the policy for themselves. Here is a sample:

     

         “No more than 10 percentage points of difference between the comprehensive high schools (grades 9-12) with the highest and lowest percentages of minority students at such schools in the District;

     

          No more than 15 percentage points of difference between the junior high schools (grades 7-8) with the highest and lowest percentages of minority students at such schools in the District; and

         

          For each elementary school (grades K-6), no more than 15 percentage points above the mean percentage of the district-wide percentage of minority students for all students in grades K-6.”

     

     The rest of the policy is equally obtuse; the four members of the School Board who support this policy need remedial work in how to write a coherent document. If you haven’t read the policy and think you support it, start from ground zero and see if you change your mind.

     

     The Board majority that favors passage of this mind twisting policy must rethink its position. A 4-3 vote is, as Sarah Swisher stated recently, enough to pass the policy, but her belief that after its passage the minority dissenters should get on board and work to implement it is wishful thinking.  The superintendent and school administrators will implement the policy, not the board; and after implementation begins, it may become clear that the majority was wrong to pass it.

      We - and apparently a large number of parents in the district - are not certain exactly how the proposed policy is to be carried out. Until clarification of the practical aspects of implementation is provided, the vote on the policy should be held in abeyance.  For example:

      If it is determined that a given school should have ‘x’ number of students transferred out, but more than ‘x’ students express interest in relocating, how will the decision of which students go and which remain behind be made? Who will be the final authority? What would be the impact on those who want to transfer out, but are not selected to go?

     Similarly, assume it is determined that ‘x’ number of students should be transferred out, but less than ‘x’ students express interest; will students who don’t want to be transferred be forced to do so in order to meet the goals set by the diversity policy?

The policy states that the “Superintendent shall not fail” in the implementation of the Board’s wishes on this matter. It is hard to believe that this policy will achieve the desired numbers without collateral damage, so we must ask ourselves if the policy isn’t also intended as a thinly disguised way to some day achieve what the Board can’t bring itself to do now: dismiss Superintendent Stephen F. Murley.

     Citing  "some" evidence as "seeming" to support the conclusion that students do better in schools where the disparity between free-lunch (minority) and not free-lunch (non-minority) is within "acceptable range" is a shaky basis upon which to decide to transfer out free lunch kids (minority) and transfer in not-free lunch kids (non-minority.) And why would any parent volunteer to transfer a child who is performing satisfactorily in his/her current school into a school where a majority of the students haven't been performing well, possibly have more unmet emotional needs, and still need much remedial work to get to grade level?

      What makes the majority of the School Board believe that free lunch kids (minority) and non-free lunch kids (non-minority) who have been transferred in or out will be accepted and welcomed by their new classmates into their cliques? The transferred children will likely be stigmatized immediately and may be isolated socially in a way that can be extremely painful: around income levels. 

     

     How will children who are transferred in and out get to their new schools? Will transfer buses go around to all the schools picking up the transfers and then dropping them off at the school they are now to attend -  and later picking them up and bringing them back to their home neighborhood at the conclusion of the school day?  What happens to students wanting to stay later for extracurricular activities or get back to their old school in order to participate in after school activities there? This is not a way to achieve healthy neighborhoods or good neighborhood schools.

     

     History has proven busing to be inadequate in addressing socioeconomic integration; and making everyone average is not a good long-term goal. Equality of opportunity is a worthier end for which the ICCSD should strive. 

      

     A more sensible solution for improving schools that are not demonstrating adequate academic performance would be to upgrade their physical structures; equip all classrooms with the latest technology; reward the teachers and administrators in those schools who use innovative and successful measures to improve student achievement; and provide top notch librarians as well as additional teacher aides, counselors and social workers.

          

     --Carol deProsse

     --Caroline Dieterle

Contact the School Board at: board@iccsd.k12.ia.us