Davenport School Board: Diversity plan OK'd by single vote
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By Sheena Dooley | Tuesday, February 12, 2008 |
A torn school board narrowly approved a new diversity plan that will allow Davenport children to open enroll based on how much money their family earns and their academic performance, instead of race.
The board voted 4-3 Monday night to replace its 33-year-old desegregation plan with a diversity plan that changes the district’s focus of establishing racial diversity among schools to creating schools with students from diverse economic and academic backgrounds.
To do that, the district will use students’ free and reduced-price lunch status and performance on state reading and math tests when granting open enrollment requests.
Board members Ralph Johanson, Richard Clewell and Ken Krumwiede voted against the measure, saying they wanted more time to discuss what Clewell called a “historic decision.” A major concern they voiced was completely excluding race from the plan.
“What concerns me is for
33 years this district had a racial desegregation plan that said racial diversity was very important,” Clewell said. “How disingenuous is it of us for 33 years to say race is important and then all of a sudden say it isn’t? If this board can find a way to include racial diversity in this plan, it should.”
Leaders first discussed the proposal with the board last week and pushed for a vote Monday because of time constraints. The district must submit its plan to the Iowa Department of Education for approval by March 1.
In light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the state is requiring Davenport and four other Iowa districts to evaluate open enrollment requests based on one or multiple factors, including students’ socioeconomic status, native language, race and ethnicity or national origin. Race cannot be the sole factor.
For years, Davenport has been allowed to reject some students’ transfer requests if their departure would negatively affect the district’s racial diversity. In practice, the district’s rules limited “white flight,” by preventing large numbers of white students from leaving for other districts. The Supreme Court, however, ruled the practice illegal last year.
“I understand (board members’) frustrations very well,” Superintendent Julio Almanza said. “My biggest frustration is the responsibility is falling on the district. My issue is what is the role of the state?”
Despite the state’s go-ahead to include race as one factor, Almanza said the district’s attorneys have advised it not to include race in its definition of diversity.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said districts could not use race as a determining factor when deciding where students attend school. Almanza said it still would be a deciding factor even if others were included.
“No matter how many factors you have, if race is one of them, then it will always come down to that,” he said.
Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.
Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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