Board members devise BTW 'Geographic Plan'
ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
12/11/2003
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page A1 of News

Several school board members will recommend next week that all students living near Booker T. Washington High School and Carver Middle Schools who meet magnet school qualifications be admitted to the schools beginning next year.

Board members, including Bobbie Gray and Gary Percefull, have devised a "Geographic Assignment Plan" that would add that preference for nearby residents to a new admissions system being proposed by Superintendent David Saywer.

Sawyer is recommending that 60 percent of Washington and Carver students be admitted from north and northwest Tulsa and the remaining 40 percent be admitted from east and south Tulsa.

The board is set to consider Sawyer's proposal at a Monday school board meeting at 7 p.m. at the Education Service Center.

The current admissions system, which uses racial quotas to admit students to Washington and Carver, has been found to be "clearly an illegal admissions process" by district legal advisors.

Public furor erupted in November when Sawyer announced that the racial quotas, which have been used since Washington and Carver were integrated 30 years ago, would have to be abolished.

A group of community leaders, including a couple of state lawmakers, are demanding the creation of traditional "neighborhood" school programs at the two magnet schools.

They formed a group called Tulsa Education and Community Heritage, or TEACH, and have advocated that all students who live near the schools should have the right to attend them, even if they don't meet magnet school standards.

The new proposal devised by school board members is an attempt to reach a compromise with those community leaders, board member Bobbie Gray said Wednesday.

"Those students living in the historic, pre-1973 Booker T. Washington attendance area will have the first right in admissions to the school, but they will have to qualify," Gray said.

To qualify, students will have to meet academic standards, which include a 2.5 grade point average, as well as standards for attendance and behavior records.

Those academic, attendance and behavior standards are already in place at Washington and Carver -- both highly-regarded magnet schools.

Sawyer on Wednesday said he supports the board members' suggestion for preference for qualified students who live near the schools.

"That is something I'm advocating as well," Sawyer said.

TEACH leaders could not be reached Wednesday, but have scheduled a community meeting for Thursday evening. TEACH leaders have also called for an end to the busing of students who live near Washington to various other Tulsa high schools.

Sawyer has also taken up board members' suggestion to find a solution to the situation.

For Monday's school board meeting agenda, he has added a recommendation to redraw the so-called "noncontiguous zones" in school boundaries around Washington.

Students who live in those "noncontiguous zones" might live across the street from one another but have to take buses to three different high schools -- Hale, East Central or Memorial high schools, all located at significant distances from the six-square mile area around Washington.

"That's something we're going to have to deal with," Sawyer said. "I think the time has come. To tell you the truth, I was rather surprised that there were five noncontiguous zones that have students attending three different schools. I wasn't fully aware of the arrangement. It's kind of a convoluted plan."

Sawyer said many students living in the noncontiguous zones have taken advantage of Tulsa's open-transfer policy and have enrolled at other district schools of their choosing.

"One out of four students in this district attends a school other than their home school," Sawyer said. "Families routinely choose to travel to a school that matches their respective aspirations, including many who live in the noncontiguous zones.

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