Magnet school program promoted
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HAMMOND — A Tangipahoa Parish School Board attorney told NAACP officials Friday that a greatly expanded magnet school program would be the most effective way to finally integrate the school system.
Charles Patin, retained by the board to write a desegregation plan, explained to the Tangipahoa NAACP chapter’s executive committee that under the School Board’s proposal, magnet schools spread from Hammond to Roseland offer the best chance of achieving racial balance throughout the system.
Patin emphasized that the plan being advanced by the School Board seeks to achieve racial balance without busing students across traditional school zones.
The proposed plan, which will be submitted to U.S. District Court in New Orleans in April, envisions the establishment of magnet schools that would offer students a variety of educational models such as college preparatory, Montessori, communications and fine and performing arts.
The plan calls for the construction of two new elementary schools and a new high-tech career education center.
The entire plan hinges on voter approval of sales and ad valorem taxes in elections scheduled for October.
Tangipahoa Parish residents would be asked to approve a 1-cent sales tax and additional property taxes to pay for physical improvements to existing schools, construction of the three new schools and extensive training for all teachers, especially those involved in the new magnet programs.
Throughout Friday’s meeting, Patin fielded questions about alleged financial, political and other abuses within the school system in past years.
He repeatedly told the audience that whatever problems existed in the past had little or no bearing on the immediate issue of settling a desegregation lawsuit that has been in the courts off and on for more than 40 years.
Patricia Morris, a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter member who served as chairwoman of the meeting, said the plan advanced by the School Board is “only one plan, but it is not necessarily the final plan that the courts will rule on in ending desegregation and giving all our children the right to the best education they can get.”
Morris said the NAACP would continue to study desegregation proposals and to monitor School Board activities.
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