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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1978)
Claims whites bear burden Blanchard rejects school pairing PORTLAND OBSERVER Volume 8 No. 80 Thursday. December 14,1978 10c per copy Legal Aid closes . - Albina office , So e * - * Al Goldsby is presenting an "Open Studio" showing of his metal sculpture this Sunday at his North Killingsworth studio. M etal sculptors open show by Kathryn H. Bogle Invitations arc out, but they are not really necessary to drop in at the "Open Studio" being presented by Al Goldsby and Gene Michieli, both metal sculpturists, for this Saturday and Sunday afternoons, December I6th and 17th. The public is invited to the studio at 825 N. K illings worth to view some o f their newest pieaee - imaginative constructions o f bronze, copper, aluminum and steel. Some o f this artistry is meant for in d o o r pleasure, and some was designed for the outdoor garden set ting. A ll o f it is strong and eloquent. Visitors are welcome from 2:00-5:00 p.m. on both days. Goldsby’ s M ountain landscape, done in bronze with its beautiful patina in remarkable variation in shadings, undergoes a myriad o f light changes while you watch. It is probably a favorite o f this viewer. You may go for the breathtaking fluidity expressed in a pair o f bronze dancers, and, most certainly, you will enjoy the funny life-like metal turtles stretching for food in the very real waters o f the fountain-pool near the entrance o f the gallery. Goldsby has some very effective examples o f dry point on display too. “ Gusty,” done by Michieli, is a fascinating and imaginative piece, a handling o f metal leaves that triggers the memory o f Nature’s fall pranks. Michieli has many other delightful pieces for you to see. G oldsby ju s t com pleted, in November, a successful one-man show that ran for two weeks at the Sandpiper Gallery in Cannon Beach. This was all a part o f a busy fall season that took Goldsby also to New York C ity to the Crawshaw Gallery on Madison Avenue so that he could be in on the opening showing o f Tom Hardy’ s sculpture there. Look for this Studio 825. It is a lit tle gem tucked away in old Albina. When you find it, you’ ll be glad you did. kBJUST The Northeast Portland office o f Legal Aid, which first opened in the Albina Neighborhood Service Center in 1968 w ill be closed in February. The program, which was first funded by the War on Poverty (PMSC), has employed such attorneys as Neil Goldschm idt, Phil Low thian and Ron Gevertz. According to J. Richard Forester, director o f the program, the closing is due to spending priorities o f the federal Legal Services Corporation. The corporation funds legal services for the poor and its policies, accord ing to Forester, “ have allowed for the decimation o f the older, exist ing programs while its emphasis is on its expansion policy insured that everyone w ill be provided w ith inadequate legal services.” “ W ith the closure o f the Northeast office we have the end o f an era in Legal Services. The ideal was a full range o f legal services provided to the people in their neighborhoods.” The direction o f the Legal Services Corporation was changed under the Nixon administration. Forester said that over three and one half years under these policies, Legal Aid has become “ p rim a rily a dow ntow n operation providng half the services we used to provide to less than half the clients. During the same period o f time that we were forced to close down four neighborhood operations, LS C ’ s regional bureaucracy has more than quadrupled in size.” The Northeast o ffic e provided legal services for an average o f 1,500 per year for ten years. It specialized in legal problems with government benefits. “ I hope the next Congress w ill earmark 95 percent o f the next LSC a p p ro p ria tio n fo r programs providing direct client services and mandate m aintenance o f q u a lity legal services for all as the most im p ortant objective o f the C o r poration,” Forester said. Legal A id w ill be consolidated into a sinsle downtown office. Contributions to the Al Williams Defense Fund should be sent to the American State Bank. 2737 N.E. Union Avenue. Williams is awaiting trial on a murder charge resulting from his having been the victim of racial in sults and an unprovoked knife assault. Calling the Community Coalition for School Integration’ s proposal for pairing schools to achieve desegre gation " a considerable over-reac tion in view o f the extent o f the problem it is intended to solve,” Superintendent Robert Blanchard minimized the burdern o f desegre gation carried by Black students and families and claimed this burden has been equally born by whites. Attacking the basic premise o f the Coalition — that desegregation in the Portland School District has not been equitable — Blanchard con fused the issues o f desegregation and m iddle school reorganization to enable him to claim that “ when we examine, district-wide, the results of reorganization, we find that the in convenience o f transfer due to reorganization has been almost equally shared by Black and white students.” Stating that 1,326 white students are transferred to primary schools, many because they were displaced from their neighborhood primary grades when middle schools were opened, he concluded that pratically no Black students must leave their immediate neighborhoods to attend grades K-5. Therefore, in his own inexplicable reasoning, “ For the first six years o f school, white children have nearly all o f the burden o f desegregation that resulted from the creation o f middle schools.” Dr. Blanchard neglected to explain that when elementary schools become K-5 schools in white areas, the 6th, 7th and 8th grades were assigned to a nearby middle school. In the Black neighborhoods, the upper grades have been missing for several years with no middle schools developed for them. These children have been assigned to schools — elementary and middle schools — throughout the district. Actually, no white students are transferred to Black schools to effect desegregation. The tw o m iddle schools now operating that are “ clustered” with Albina schools — Femwood and Columbia/Whitaker — although p ro vid in g desegregated 'middle schools, do not desegregate elementary schools. Low er grade students living in the Columbia and W h itaker attendance areas were transferred to Faubian and Rigler. Students living in the Fernwood at tendance area attend Laurelhurst. The creation o f Beaumont Middle School — with the Sabin, Alameda cluster — w ill send its lower grade students to Alam eda. The Ockly Green cluster group w ill not include a predominately Black school. Thus, the m iddle schools have not desegregated the Albina elementary schools. Blanchard, presenting his reac tions and recommendations to the Board o f Education M onday evening, did not make a recommen dation regarding pairing o f schools. He did, however, make clear his op position to the plan by questioning the logistics o f the proposal — i.e. whether the students could fit existing buildings, and by calling up the question o f white flight. Calling the problems o f numbers “ perhaps unsolvable” Blanchard questioned whether a Black school could be paired w ith one or two white schools to achieve a 30/70 balance. Blanchard admitted that “ com promises” were made in Portland solutions to avoid middle class deser tion. “ The prognosis fo r avoiding middle class flight regrettably is not good,” he added. “ There is simply no doubt that compulsory two-way tra n s p o rta tio n accelerates the enrollment decline which city school systems are experiencing by reason o f low birthrates and grow th o f suburban areas.” Thus Blanchard reiterated his often made statement that the D is tric t cannot institute m andatory busing o f whites fo r desegregation purposes. Blanchard offered: 1) That the number o f schools to which the students that are dispersed from each A lbina school be reduced. 2) That Black students be allowed to attend Early Childhood Centers in their attendance area or one im mediately adjacent. 3) That a middle school in the W a s h in g to n /M o n ro e attendance area be developed fo r Boise and Eliot. 4) That greater attention be given to recruiting white students to attend Early Childhood Education Centers, the desegregated middle schools and the Jefferson magnets. Blanchard’ s suggested assignment and optional transfer program is as follows: Woodlawn 6th-8th grades (Area I) to O ckly Green — o p tio n to Roosevelt cluster. Woodlawn 6th-8th grade (Area II) to W h ita k e r/C o lu m b ia (Adam s), Binnsmead (M arshall) or Gregory Heights (Madison) option. Vernon 6th-8th grades (Area I!) to Whitaker/Columbia. Option to Binns mead. King 6th-8th Grades (Area I) to Hayhurst, Gray, Bridlemile (Wilson). Option to Wilson cluster. King 6th-8th grades (Area II) to W h ita k e r/C o lu m b ia . O p tio n to Madison cluster. King 6th-8lh grades (Area III) to Kellogg (F ra n k lin ). O p tio n to Franklin cluster. Sabin 6th-8th grades (Area III) to Beaumont (G ra n t). O p tio n to Cleveland cluster. Irvington 6th-8th grades (Area III) to Fernwood (G rant). O ption to Franklin cluster. Boise — Freshmen (Area I) to Jackson High School. Boise (Area III) to Washington. Hum boldt 3rd-8th grades (Area I) to Lincoln cluster. E liot 6th-8th grades (Area III) to Buckman (Washington). Option to Hosford (Cleveland). An alternative, if Boise becomes a K-5 school, is to send Boise 6th-8th grade students (Area I) to Markham (Jackson), w ith the option to the Jackson cluster. Boise 6th-8th grades (Area III) would go to M t. Tabor or Kellogg w ith an o p tio n to the Cleveland cluster. Blanchard made the fo llo w in g recom m endations regarding the Coalition’s additional proposals: A d m in is tra tio n : Denying the C o a litio n ’ s allegations that the district’ s desegregation efforts are “ unorganized, piece-meal, and fragmented,” Blanchard agreed that there should be more routine monitoring o f desegregation and will adjust s ta ff responsibilitie s. He recommended hiring a desegrega- tion/integration coordinator Curriculum: He agreed with the Coalition’ s recommendation that a survey o f the use o f m ulti-ethnic curriculum be done, but did not ap prove o f an “ outside organization” being involved in the survey. Teacher Training: He agreed that desegregation-related tra in in g fo r teachers should be m andatory. “ Such background should be a minim um competency fo r present service teachers and supervisors in our district.” Discipline: He concurred with the recommended categories o f suspen sions — and recommended that the district allow expulsions o f less than one semester. He agreed to recruit m in o rity counselors and social workers. He agreed with recommen dations that bus rules be the same for the entire district and that children not be removed from buses before reaching their destination. He denied the need for aides on all buses. He agreed that a ’ Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook* could be published at the 5th grade reading level. The Portland School Board will begin consideration of the recommendations of the Com munity Coalition for School Inte gration and w ill hear public comment on Monday, December 18th, at 7:30 p.m. at Benson High School. Minority Hiring: Blanchard accept ed the Coalition’ s logic that priority should be given to increased recruit ment and h irin g o f m in o rity professionals who have contact with students. He would not recommend that m in o rity s ta ff be tied to enrollm ent figures (20 percent m in o rity students — 20 percent minority staff) “ because o f lack o f available Black educators in the job market.” He w ill develop programs to assist employees to q u alify fo r principalships and fo r aides to qualify as teachers. M in o rity Teacher Placem ent: “ The district remains willing to con sider any alternatives to the present approach o f balancing staff assign ments that the C oalition, teacher, administrative and parent organiza tions wish to submit.” H ousing Desegregation: The school district w ill intensify its ac tivities to influence equal housing opportunities. Advisory Boards: The C oalition asked fo r less duplication on ad visory boards and a broader com munity representation. The district w ill explore this possibility. Nurses honor Harriot Tubman The Oregon Nurses Association presented a commemorative Harriet Tubman cancelled stamp and en velope to the Urban League o f Por tland to honor H arriet Tubman, Civil War nurse and abolitionist. The presentation was part o f a nation wide effort o f the American Nurses’ Association. Mrs. Tubman was selected as an example o f the contribution of Black nurses to the profession. It was one- hundred years ago next year that the first Black nurse graduated from a school o f nursing. Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Maryland and at the age o f twen ty-one escaped to Philadelphia. She was aided by free Blacks, Germans and Quakers who operated the “ un derground railroad” , a network of abolitionists who helped fugitive slaves. Mrs. Tubman became the guide to freedom for more than 300 slaves. When approaching slave quarters, she often signaled her presence by singing “ Go Down Moses” , a spiritual forbidden by many slave owners. Timmy Pittman, ale van, (in background) and Todd Irving, thirteen, both students at Binnsmead Elementary School, have been selected to represent Oregon in the Pacific and Western States Dunking Championships, December 26th-January 1st in Hawaii. The Pacific Championships, for boys and girls ages seven to seventeen, will feature dunkers from the U .S ., Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the Philippines. Each participant must provide all travel costs. Rescues became more difficult as a result o f the fugitive slave law of 1850 which ordered the return o f escaped slaves to th e ir masters. Financial penalties were invoked on persons who aided runaway slaves. Since Philadelphia, New York and Boston were no longer safe, fugitives had to go to Canada. In the Spring o f 1852, Harriet Tubman conducted her firs t group o f slaves to St. Catherine’s, Ontario. From then on she spent most o f her time working in Canada and the northern states, but returned to Maryland at least twice a year to free family members and others. As the C iv il W ar began, Mrs. Tubman was able to slip through the C onfederate lines on spying missions, although she was easily identifiable and always in danger. At the beginning o f the Civil War Massachusetts Governor John An drew sent her to Port Royal, o f the coast o f South Carolina, to care for wounded Union soldiers and newly- freed slaves. Dysentary, rather than battle wounds, caused the greatest health problems and led to death in many cases. Seeking a cure fo r the disease, Mrs. Tuban took a boat inland and searched until she found the water lily, a plant common in her native Maryland. From the roots o f the plan she concocted a bitter tasting but effective brew that was suc cessful in treating the disease. A fte r the war, she resided in Auburn, New York, where she spent the test o f her life - impoverished by respected. r XjACKSON ...a reorganization desegregated Black Albina schools. N o w h ite ' s tu d e n te h ave b een a e e ig n e d to B la ck schools. Arrows show assignment of lower grade children moved from middle school attendance areas. Columbia to FAubian, Whitaker to Rigler, Fernwood to Laurelhurst, Beaumont to Alameda. Okley Green to Kenton, Chief Joseph and Beach.
