Opponents of Metro Schools rezoning plan ‘have not given up’

The administration of Metro Nashville Public Schools appears to be focused primarily on implementation of the district’s rezoning plan. But for plan opponents, it isn’t over.

“They just hope the community will remain silent and just go away,” said Marilyn Robinson, president of the local chapter of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “We have not given up. The community has not given up.”

NAACP members continue to meet regularly to discuss the plan. At one such meeting, member Keith Caldwell learned that civil rights-related complaints can be filed with the U.S. Department of Education, and Caldwell has done so with NAACP support. NAACP leaders say they also attempted to engage MNPS administrators in mediation facilitated by the U.S. Department of Justice, though that apparently hit a dead end in recent weeks.

The NAACP plans to continue conducting rezoning-related town hall meetings throughout Nashville, though only one has been held to date, in a North Nashville church.

While Robinson does not rule out the possibility of a lawsuit against the district, she said it is still possible. A suit would hinge on implementation of the plan, which is currently unfolding.

“We’re going to try everything we can before we actually go to court, because we know that’s going to take a long time. But we will do it. Hopefully the steps we take will push them back and make them reconsider,” Robinson said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll let the courts decide.”

The arrival of new Director of Schools Jesse Register, who began work locally in mid-January, could have an impact on the plan.

Robinson said NAACP leaders plan to meet with Register in the coming weeks. She said she considers it “too soon” to know where Register will stand on the plan.

The rezoning plan, passed this summer in a divided board vote that continues to provoke local controversy, won’t take effect until the 2009-2010 school year. The most contested portion of the plan recommends that students no longer be bused from low-income MetroCenter neighborhoods to Bellevue’s more affluent Hillwood cluster. Students in those neighborhoods are considered residents of “choice zones,” and can choose whether to attend school close to home or at Hillwood schools.

Supporters say the change brings Nashville closer to neighborhood schools, and improves opportunities for parent and community engagement. Opponents call the plan re-segregation, noting the decrease in percentages of African-American and economically disadvantaged students at Hillwood schools, as well as the slight increases in these populations at some Pearl-Cohn cluster schools.

Rezoning task force to reconvene soon

As it was passed, the plan stipulates that the task force will be reconvened. Officials expect that task force members will be asked to return for a meeting sometime this month.

Meanwhile, Nashville’s school board is charged with monitoring implementation of the plan. An update from the district on plan implementation is expected to take place at a board meeting in the next few weeks. While new school board chair David Fox has stated publicly that he believes the board should leave matters of district operation up to the administration, the board is still responsible for remaining “vigilant” about implementation, Fox said Friday.

“Since it was very much a board matter to come up with the plan, it’s very reasonable for the board to ensure its effective implementation,” Fox said.

While the issue of busing students to noncontiguous zones has attracted the most attention, those working on the most recent edition of Nashville’s student assignment plan tackled far more than that.

Assignment of fifth-grade students to some district middle, rather than elementary, schools is a matter of concern to many parents and teachers. In many cases, these decisions come down to building capacity, according to school board member and rezoning task force Chair Mark North. One recommendation the task force made was for fifth-graders in North Nashville’s Pearl-Cohn cluster to attend elementary schools.

“The task force liked the idea of fifth grade in elementary schools,” North said last week. “We’ll watch closely how it works in the Pearl-Cohn cluster.”

Another responsibility charged to the task force was to improve building efficiency. One recommendation made to the district was that a short- and long-range plan for vacant buildings be prepared. A report on facility use is currently being prepared by MNPS administrators, Register said Thursday.

With MNPS’s budget stretched tight, building efficiency — and the task force’s role in making related decisions — will likely be a more closely watched part of the task force’s work this school year.