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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1978)
Portland Observer Thursday, August 31,1978 Pag» 7 ' Bussing isolates Black children Distribution of A.T. students from sending school in 1977-78 (CCSI maps based on dsts provided by PPS Student Transportation November, 1977) (Continued from Page 1 Column 3) Compare that with the experience of the white students who go to their neighborhood schools with their friends and neighbors. This isolation of Black children in white schools has been carried out in spite o f the research which shows conclusively that Black children achieve academically and socially in a setting where they make up be tween 20 and 23 percent o f the population. In that situation they can have the security and support o f * their peers that enables them to achieve. The transfer situation is much the same in all o f the Albina schools. Eliot, with only 44 transfer students, sends students to twenty different schools in all three administrative districts. W oodlawn transferred out 233 students; o f these 133 are sixth through eighth graders. Woodlawn students went to 22 schools, in the three areas. Sabin transferred 179 children, 134 in the upper three grades. Those students attended seventeen schools. H um boldt transferred 286 stu dents. A ll but 27 students were for- ced to transfer because the school only goes through the third grade. The older students have no “ neigh borhood school” but go to 25 dif- ferent schools in the three ad ministrative areas. Vernon transferred 279 students, o f which 190 were in grades six through eight. Vernon students at- tended 24 schools. Irvington School, which is part of a cluster with Fernwood as its middle school, still transferred 186 students to fifteen schools in the three areas. Boise, which is the only kindergar ten through eighth grade school in . ' * * Distance traveled: between 2.1 (, 10.7 miles . C ity EEO fo u n d d e fic ie n t (Continued from Page 1 Column 6) C O N TR A C T C O M P L IA N C E — 1) The City should establish a cen tralized Contract Compliance O f fice. 2) The present contract compliance program should be redesigned to be more effective. 3) The office should conduct an impact analysis of its efforts. 4) The office should establish clearly defined goals and objectives and be staffed properly to handle its functions. 5) The Contract Compliance Ad visory Com m ittee should be re act! vitod. Since the M H R C evaluation start ed, Pat Ban was hired as the City’s Contract Compliance Officer. Ac cording to Ban, her office is looking into its responsibilities under Executive Order 11246. Ban said she is currently concentrating on ex plaining parity to City contractors and encouraging them to reach parity, wherein a company’s work force reflects the percentage of minorities available in the area. YOU LOVE FOOD. WHY WALK OUT OMIT? On the Weight Watchers* Food Plan, losing weight never tasted so good. So join a meeting today The Authority. / i s YOU'RE THIS CLOSE W TO LOSING WEIGHT J O IN A N Y C LA S S A N Y T IM E I Carpenter« Hall 2225 N Lombard St. Mon 7:00p.m . Thur«. 9:30 a.m. Emanual Hospital 2801 N Gantenbam Emanual Eaat, Room B-1 Thur». 7:00 p.m. Maranatha Church 1222 N.E. Skidmor? Sat 9:30a.m . For further information call Collect Portland <5031297 1021. Weekday« 8:30-6:30 M ayor Goldschmidt indicated during the informal session that the City should “ set up some kind of random audit’’ to see if contractors had equal employment opportunity programs which are required by law if those contractors are to bid for federally funded projects. Up to this point, the Mayor said, “ We blanket through people with federal certific- tion.” A F F IR M A T IV E A C T IO N — 1) The office should identify the causative factors for the high turn over in minority and female em ployment. Affirmative action officer Alyce Marcus indicated that although for mal exit interviews were not em ployed, her office has been tracking the movement o f minorities and women in and out o f the C ity ’s work force and will submit a report to the Council on that movement at the end of the 1978-1979 fiscal year. 2) More minorities should sit on Civil Service interview panels. According to Ms. Maracus and the M ayor, more qualified minorities have been sought to sit on these panels. 3) The A .A . Regulatory Commit tee, composed of representatives of the M ayor and each C ity C om missioner, should meet during the first quarter of the 1978-1979 fiscal year. 4) The A ffirm ative Action O f fice’s new EEO reporting system be adopted and completed by bureau and office managers. G RANTS E Q U A L O PPO R TU N IT Y PROG RAM — 1) The Grants Equal Opportunity Program, mandated by City Ordi nance 144724, be designed and im plemented. M H R C spokesperson Hazel G. Hayes offered the Commission’s support in developing viable m inority purchasing and grants programs. The report was well received at the informal session. Jordan called the City’s Equal Opportunity Program status “ encouraging,” yet a cause for concern. “ The implementation or Ordinance 144724 was en couraging,*’ he said, because it pulled all of the City’s effort under one statute. However, the programs were, “ not functioning at the level where we hoped it would be at this point.” M ore consideration at the program level is essential, he said. M ayor Goldschmidt concurred, noting that some consolidation had already taken place when C E T A ’s Affirmative Action function was in corporated in Alyce Marcus’ office. “ We still have a hell of a long way to go,” said Jordan after M H R C Co-Chairperson and Spokesperson Hazel G. Hayes noted that Port land’s Equal Opportunity efforts fall behind those in Seattle and several cities in California. Albina, transferred 154 students to 22 schools in the three administrative areas. O f special significance is the fact that students are transferred from each school to all three ad ministrative districts. The stated policy of the district has been to keep children within their own area. Each area has its own adm inistration, develops its own teaching methods, selects its own textbooks and curricula, and has used its own testing methods. Children who cross area lines have the added handicap of going to schools where the other students have had a d iffe re n t teaching in prior years. SUSPENSIONS The School District claims not to have info rm atio n to adequately determine the effect o f this program or academic achievement. What are the effects socially? According to a C o alitio n survey, approxim ately thirty percent of the transfer students have been suspended or expelled during their career as administrative transfer students. The School District’s own report o f suspensions during the six months, September 1977 through January 1978, show a great imbalance in suspensions. Fifty-eight percent of the suspensions at Jackson High School were minorities, in a school with an enrollment of only 14.8 per cent minorities. Madison’s suspen sions were 52 percent minority, with a minority enrollment of 18.4 per cent. Forty-three percent of Wilson’s suspensions were minorities with a minority enrollment of 8.1 percent. Lincoln’s enrollment is 14.5 percent m inority, yet 37 percent o f the suspensions are minorities, etc. On the middle school level, Binns- mead, with a 17.6 percent minority enrollment had 29 percent of its 41 suspensions against m inorities. Seventy percent o f M a rk h a m ’ s suspensions were minorities although M arkham is only 12.7 percent minority. Kellogg, with a minority enrollment of 16.1, had 25 percent of its suspensions involve minorities. These are the conditions that wait for many of the students who will take part in administrative transfer program which, according to the news release, “ Under the program there is a concerted and continuous inservice training program for ad ministrators, teachers, students and parents in both receiving and sending schools. A major aim o f this training is to enable staff to work more effec tively across racial, ethnic and cultural lines in the school setting.” K IN D E R G A R T E N The District brings white children into the Early Childhood Education Centers in the Albina area to impact the Black/white ratio. Although the District claims that no neighborhood children are forced out o f their schools because o f this program, half of the principals told Coalition staff that they have turned away neigh borhood children. Kindergarten children do turn up in School D istrict transportation statistics. One group o f twelve kin dergarten children is transported to Jim Bridger School in Southeast Port land, where they made up a class of eighteen with six Bridger students. Mark McClanahan also opposes the plan, but for different reasons. McClanahan, who has opposed previous proposals on the grounds that minority preferences are illegal and unconstitutional, advised in an August 24th response to Ms. McCoy gnd Dr. Kleiner that the proposal might be acceptable. “ The key to the provision is the d efin itio n o f ‘minority business enterprise,’ which is described as a ". . . business entity 50 percent or more o f whose executive or management employees are minority individuals OP whose employment o f minority individuals as craftsper- sons is at the time o f bid filing and remains in reasonable balance. “ ^ ,Rcas°nable means that . . . the percentage o f minority individuals (including women) em B O A R D QUESTIONS P L A N In the Monday Board meeting, McClanahan stated that he has not offered an opinion on the validity o f the plan, that he was unable to do so, and therefore has not said it is legal. In response to questions by Board members Beverly York and Forrest Rieke, he was unable to insure that if someone brought suit under the plan School Board members would not be individually liable. Thomas Kennedy, a member o f the public, questioned the definition of “ minority business enterprise.” “ This reminds me o f slavery. A Caucasion owned the plantation and minorities were 95 percent o f the workers. Who owns the plantation? W ho does the work? Ownership means taking the profits home. Em ployees don’ t take the profits home.” He accused the Board o f playing games with the m inority population. McClanahan said the plan was drafted for the purpose of promoting employment and that it ignores ownership. Greg Batiste, form erly o f the State’s Minority Business Enterprise program , d iffe r with M cC lana han’s view that state law prevents a real M in o rity Business En terprise program. “ The objectives of an MBE plan is to increase the par ticipation of minority business. I am at a quandry as to why this inter pretation of ownership comes about and why the School Board has had so many problems” in passing an M in o rity Business Enterprise program. Batiste promised to provide the A ttorney G eneral’ s opinion that the State minority set- aside program is constitutional. Finding so many discrepancies in the program, Board member Wally Priestley moved that the proposal be postponed until the next Fberd meet ing. The proposal w ill again be discussed at a special Board meeting on September 7th at 6:30 p.m. Ms. M cCoy asked that the proposal not be postponed, saying it was important to her to be able to vote on it before resigning from the Board September 11th. I Consum er Info rm ation Center, D epartm ent C, Pueblo, Colorado 810 09. General Services Administration Consumer Information Center Y O U C A N BE PROUD OF by DAK ployed on both contracts and sub contracts fo r the District is not less than the percentage o f such minority individuals in the total labor force (employed or seeking employment) fo r that category o f employment. . . in this area,” he writes. This, then, addresses employment and not ownership. McClanahan does caution that, “ Whether the set-aside and man datory utilization provisions for minority business enterprises violates the Equal Protection Clause remains unclear.” No matter what kinds of questions you have, there’s a good chance the Consumer Infer mation Catalog can help you find ____ _____1 the answers. | Inside, it lists more than two hundred federal publications you ’ ■■> can send for on all kinds of *cSSÎ0G.'' subjects. All of which Free. contain a wealth of information. Really helpful information. The catalog was put together for you by the Consumer Infer mation Center of the U.S. Govern ment. It’s free. And so are more than half the publications in it. Now the only question left is how to get a copy. Simple. Just write to: b i R EM O D ELIN G PPS board postpones MBE plan (Continued from Page 1 Column 6) “ That is all wrong,” Jackson said. “ The accepted procedure, by the U.S. Bureau o f Labor and others, is to require the same percentage in all crafts and trades — and that is the percentage of minorities in the labor market, in the Portland metropolitan area about six percent. That means there are to be six percent minorities in every trade.” Jackson also explained that all construction jobs in the Portland area come under the ‘Home Town Plan,* which contains the above requirements and its approved by the U.S. Department o f Labor. “ There is no reason to try to change a ratio that has been sanctioned by the government merely to lessen the positive effect on minorities. One ef fect o f the D O L requirement, if carried out, is to increase the number of minority trainees, apprentices and journeymen in the trades in which minorities are under represented. “ A ll the School D istrict plan would do is reward white contractors who are merely meeting their federal requirements by giving them an ad d itio n al slice o f the pie, while refusing to deal withthe real issue of the absence o f contracts going to minority business.” Tom Boothe, director of Contract Management Association, also favors the Multnomah County plan. “ Actually, I suggested using any of the plans now in effect,” he said. “ This plan does not deal with minority ownership and will have lit tle impact on minority contractors. We don’t have any members who will be affected by it at all.” Boothe favored passing the plan and attempt ing to amend it later. “ It offers nothing for minority enterprise but it could help some minority craftsmen. O f course it will do nothing if it is just put on the books and forgot ten.” P U B L IC FO R U M S The C om m unity C o alitio n for School Integration is nearing the end o f its research and will soon be presenting information and recom mendations to the public. Watch the Observer for the dates o f public forums to be held throughout the District. Helping to improve our com m unity's hom es and b u sin esses through quality residential and com mercial remodeling. Specialists in d e signing kitchens and baths to brighten your hom e. Distinctive new building/ o ffic e /s to re e x te rio rs and interiors to im p ro v e your business. v W hatever you need, call us for an appointm ent to visit you and discuss your remodeling project, altera tions or additions. F re e e s tim a te s . P r o f e s s io n a l a d v ic e and a ssista n c e with fi nancing. References glad- r» a p * ly furnished. 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