Democratic Party of Evanston

On the Issues

5th Ward School

Build an elementary school in the 5th war in Evanston

Note the following information and/or links are not endorsed by the Board of Directors of the Democratic Party of Evanston nor do they necessarily represent the views of the Board or the organization.

THE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OF CHOICE: A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL IN THE 5thWARD - A BRIEF BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUE

Over 30 years ago Foster School, the only school in District 75, was merged with District 65 to implement a self-imposed voluntary Integration program that required the mandatory BUSING of Black children create racial balance. To achieve this goal required the development of school attendance maps, which identified the schools where black children would attend. Shortly after the self-imposed integration was soundly In place, the Poster School name was changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory School, a magnet school to attract white children. The MLK laboratory School was eventually closed and re-located to its present site. Basically, leaving no school in the 5th ward.

The 5th ward of the city is the only ward without a school.

The children are presently bused out of the neighborhood to 7 different schools. It should be noted, that the 5th ward has been without an educational Institution for over 30 years The absence of a school in the community has placed an unfair burden on one population. The community has been denied the equal "OPPORTUNITY OF CHOICE".

In the 1980'S the Board adopted a policy of (no more than 60% of one race and no less 40% of one race at any district school) to maintain racial balance in each school. The Board will evaluate the need to maintain, restructured or eliminate the policy. To better explain the policy, assume that there are 400 children at Orrington School. According to the districts 60-40 policy, the school should not have no more than 240 white students, and no less than 160 minority students to be in compliance or In the re-versus.

The Board has changed the attendance boundaries many times since Implementing the 60-40 policy. Changes are made at-will to meet the districts goal. Each time the black community had to make the accommodations for the major adjustments because there was not a school in the 5th ward for the black children to attend.

In preparation for the forum the Poster Park Neighbors, with the assistance of our assigned community organizer conducted a neighborhood door-to-door survey on 2 Saturdays in November. The survey was made up of 10 questions. At the time of the Educational Forum we had completed 215 surveys.

YOU CAN READ THE QUESTIONS IF YOU WANT TOO.

THE PERCENTAGES OF RESPONSE TO THE QUESTIONS RELATED TO EDUCATION:
Question # 4 would you like to have a neighborhood Public School In our community so that our children do not have to be bused to schools out of our community 77% (166).

# 5 would you like to see a neighborhood based alternative education program I. our community, 93% (199).

# 6 would you be willing to participate in a parent education Program in the community designed to improve your parenting skills, 75 % (161)

Following the Education Forum we went back out door-to-
door and completed additional 81 surveys, bringing our total to 306.
The final analysis was: Q#4: (82% or 252)
Q#5: (90% or 275) and Q#6: (77% or 235)