Officials say busing tales false

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: May 30, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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PUMPKIN CENTER — Tangipahoa Parish school officials attempted Thursday night to address and reject rumors of wholesale busing on the southwest side of the parish by giving some details of a still-developing plan to further desegregate the parish school system.

But school officials were greeted with a larger than anticipated crowd of several hundred concerned, and at times, skeptical parents who jammed a neighborhood precinct house to capacity and beyond.

School officials, who were invited by Parish Councilman Bobby Cortez to what was supposed to be a small gathering, battled heat, noise and a barrage of questions. Officials eventually were given a bullhorn to overcome the hum of the Creek Side Lane precinct building’s air-conditioner unit and reach the overflow crowd.

Superintendent Mark Kolwe and School Board attorney Alton Lewis said school officials are considering a new school in the northwest part of the Ponchatoula-area school district, but said they didn’t yet know about attendance lines or its specific location.

Kolwe said the new school is part of a school desegregation proposal that would employ some of the ideas the Rapides Parish school system used, including themed-magnet schools and Montessori schools, to desegregate but at the same time improve the quality of education.

“What we want to try to do is improve the quality of education in Tangipahoa Parish,” Kolwe said. “That’s one of our goals in this whole thing. We don’t want to just change lines or build schools. We want to offer more things for our students, black and white.”

Lewis said school officials recently visited those schools and found that the magnet and Montessori programs drew white families to poorer, once primarily black schools and at the same time improved academic achievement.

“The smarter plan is to make the schools better so that people will want to go to them,” Lewis said.

Longstanding school desegregation litigation was revived about year ago amid complaints about hiring and the adequacy of school facilities and financing.

School officials have been developing a plan behind closed doors that eventually would be presented to the plaintiffs, the judge overseeing the case and then the public.

The plan could include the new Pumpkin Center school and two others, plus upgrades to existing schools and a possible career and technology center, all of which would be paid for with a proposed parishwide tax.

Kolwe and Lewis noted the public has the final say on the plan with a vote on the tax, but noted  that in rejecting the tax, the school system could actually face some of the busing concerns that brought people out to the meeting.

Members of the all-white crowd pressed for answers about possible changes to school attendance zones and called for creation of a citizens committee to give input in advance of the School Board and court approval and possible public tax vote.