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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1982)
• Mr» Franco« Séhoen-Üewepaper Room University of Oregon Library eum ene, O reg o n V74V 3 Next week: All About Love PORTLAND OBSERVER -gg Can Prophet do the job? School Board on collision course DR. M A T T H E W PR O PH ET (Photo: R ichard J. B row n) The P o rtla n d School D is tric t faces a problem o f philosophy and policy that will not be easy to solve and could become the issue that makes or breaks the new superinten dent, Matthew Prophet. D u rin g the *30s and ’60s P o rt land’ s Black parents, the N A A C P , the Model Cities education commit tee and other community organiza tions repeatedly asked that the schools be desegregated. The Dis trict’s response was the now infam ous 1964 "Race and Education” or "Schwab” report that recommend ed Model Schools in the community (still segregated) and transportation to other schools o f students who were considered " re a d y ” by their principals or whose parents request ed "Administrative Transfers.” A l though never fully accepted by the community, this process was put in high gear— with some additions— in 1970. New superintendent Robert Blan chard presented his plan “ Portland Schools for the Seventies” in Jan uary o f 1970. Am ong other things this plan, adopted by the School Board on M arch 23, 1970, d eter mined that: " T h e present elemen tary schools in the A lbina area will be converted as soon as facilities perm it to early childhood centers consisting o f preschools, kindergar ten, and grades 1 to 4 . ” C hildren were to be transferred to appropri ate middle schools "w h en the stu dent’s achievement and maturity in the judgment o f parents and school indicate he or she is ready for mid dle school.” Over the next few years the upper grades were removed from the A l bina schools and the students scat tered among the various bools in the D istrict (K in g stude ts were transferred to 43 separate chools). They were replaced w ith fou r and five year old white pre-school stu dents whose numbers were used to demonstrate "desegregation” to the federal governm ent. Such large numbers o f white students were re quired to even approach the desired 50 per cent that many Black neigh borhood children were excluded. It was this situation that the Com munity C oalition for School Inte gration addressed in 1979. The coa lition recommendations included es tablishing one or m ore m iddle schools in the co m m u n ity, and achieving desegregation in the elem entary schools through pairing. The C o alitio n recommendations were s u m m arily dismissed by D r. B lan-. chard and the Board. The Black United Front took up the fight during the summer o f 1979, threatening a boycott i f in equities were not remedied. Prior to the September school opening the School Board adopted short- and long-range goals and promised to write them into a comprehensive de segregation plan. The resulting plan was adopted on April 14, 1980. This plan allows Black children to attend th e ir neighborhood schools, re places grade levels through grade five, and requires establishment o f a middle school in the Eliot building. The areas o f this desegregation plan that now cause concern to some Board members are: A ) " T h e Desegregation Plan seeks to achieve its goals by encour aging Portland families to voluntar ily choose integrated schools, either through their choices o f residential neighborhoods or through attend ance at schools in other neighbor hoods. Its tw in features are (1 ) availability o f quality education in an assigned (neighborhood) school for all children; (2) well developed, attractive special programs in some school»." The hope that Black parents would v o lu n tarily send their ch il dren to schools outside the commu nity for either educational or deseg regation purposes has not been ful filled. Students have flocked back to the neighborhood schools, raising the m in o rity percentages. W h ite children continue to return to their neighborhood schools fo llo w in g completion o f the pre-school years, and in some,cases the first or second grade, tearing the upper grades in the A lb in a schools v irtu a lly a ll Black. B) " A m iddle school w ill be es tablished at the Eliot site which will be renamed for a prominent Black historical figure and open to at least 600 youngsters. The school will have an assigned p o p ulatio n o f m iddle school youngsters from H um boldt, K ing and E lio t. Beyond those as View from the guerrilla camp Rep. Jim Chrest urges lottery vote Representative Jim Chrest (Dem.- 13) is pushing for a state lottery to supplement the state's general fund. W hile the legislature is deadlocked over various possible revenue sources including an income-tax sur charge, cuts in property-tax relief, and various cigarette and liq u o r taxes, the outlook for Chrest’ s idea is "lousy.” Chrest has not been specific in the type o f lottery that should be used, but the bill he introduced during the 1981 session would have allowed the State Revenue Department to set the regulations. There are various types used by other states, including daily or weekly lotteries. One type that has been successful uses social security numbers and re quires no tickets, sales people or outlets, keeping the overhead low. Chrest supports a state lo ttery only, and wants the proceeds ear REP. J IM C H R E ST m arked fo r the general fund. "W hen you try to dedicate it to spe and the false idea that only poor c ific agencies,4hen you run into people buy lo tte ry tickets, using competition between the agencies,” their welfare checks. " T h a t is not he said. " I f it is dedicated to the true. Every study done— and there general fund the major share will go have been com prehensive studies to hum an resources and educa done by the State o f C onnecticut tion.” and by the federal g o v e r n m e n t- Chrest is finding a lot o f interest show that the poor d o n ’ t buy any for his proposal in Salem— but not more than the rich. There also is no much support. Opposition is a com evidence that a lottery causes cor bination o f fear o f organized crime ruption.” I by John Dinges Pacific News Service U S U L U T A N P R O V IN C E . EL SA LVA D O R — In the mountainous group o f foreign journalists to the main camp, which a camp member said held 600 persons, including guerrilla fighters and their families. It is currently the central command headquarters for the strategic south western part o f the country. The commander o f the guerrilla forces in the area is a soft-spoken form er sociology student, Juan Ramon Medrano, known as "C o m - andante Baltasar.” He gave an un hurried hour-long interview during which he sat w ith an Israeli-m ade autom atic rifle , which he said he had captured from a military death- squad member in a recent battle. " O u r struggle is com plex,” he said. " I t is not just a military strug gle. Remember that in 1972 (when the Salvadoran military overturned the election o f a center-leftist gov ernment) we tried to elect a demo cratic government. As a result o f the brutal repression that followed and the denial o f the most fundamental freedom s, today we are trying to oblige the present regime and those with power to seek a (political] solu tion. " M ilit a r ily , we are winning the w a r. . . . The proof is that they have failed each time they have mounted offensives on each o f our fronts, and each attem pt was a bigger de feat for them ." The government forces have staged numerous attacks involving several thousand troops against strongholds o f the Farabundo M arti National Liberation Front (F M L N ) in the northern provinces o f M ora- zan, Cabanas and C halatenango, the sparsely populated m ountain areas along the H onduran border, back country o f this cotton- and coffee-growing province o f south west El Salvador, hundreds o f guer rilla fighters live austere, w e ll-o r ganized lives as they carry out an in creasingly bold war against the country’s U.S.-backed government. A visit to their camp and in ter views with their top leaders provide a drastically different picture o f the year-old war than the view one gets in San S alvador, the cap ital, only 100 miles away. There, government press dispatches portray bedraggled, isolated "te rro ris ts ” suffering de feat a fter defeat before the on slaught o f government offensives. From here, the situation appears to be a s ta n d o ff between two armies, both well-equipped and highly motivated. The strongest indications o f this in the Usulutan area were not the ac counts o f the guerrilla leaders, who naturally predicted ultimate victory for their side. It was rather the camp itself, the marching columns o f well- armed irregular forces and peasant militia seen in the area, and the ap parently undisturbed existence o f such a highly visible guerrilla instal lation a relatively short drive over rocky roads from the government garrison in the city o f Usulutan. A n hour a fte r passing the last arm y outpost, peasants appeared along the road w ith rifles confi- dently draped over their shoulders as they went about their w ork. A young woman with a U.S.-lssue M - 16 autom atic rifle directed a small (Please turn to page 9 col. signed, space w ill be available for transfers." H a rrie t Tubm an was opened in the old M o n ro e H ig h School building in the fa ll o f 1980 with a studenty body that was more than 50 per cent m in o rity , and as the students who are now in the elemen ta ry schools reach m id d le school age, the number o f Black students will increase. The B oard is now in a c o n flic t over whether to place the school at E lio t as prom ised, to m ove it to Boise or A dam s o r to some other school outside the community. C ) Boise Fundam ental School : This program at Boise School should be further strengthened and its exemplary learning environment should be made b etter know n to parents and students elsewhere in the district.” The fundamental magnet at Boise is not drawing white students to any great extent. E a rlie r attem pts to remove the upper grades from Boise have been stopped by strong community oppo sition. Boise, the only remaining K- 8 school, is considered to be the symbol o f resistance. Any effort to convert it to a middle school will be met with organized opposition. In add itio n to concentration o f Black students in th e ir n eighbor hood schools facilitated by the de segregation p la n , the closure o f Adams and W a s h in g to n /M o n ro e High Schools and transfer o f many ! Please turn to page 4 col. 4)
