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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)