SCHOOL BOARD TOLD MAY GREENE ENROLLMENT VIOLATES CONSTITUTION

School is how you break the cycle of poverty, Charles I. Rankin, director of the Midwest Desegregation Assistance Center in Manhattan, Kan., told a Cape Girardeau Board of Education meeting Monday.

Also at the meeting, the board accepted the retirement of Central High School Principal Dan Milligan. Milligan, who has led the high school for six years, will leave his post at the end of the school year.

He has worked in education for a total of 25 years, having served as assistant principal at Central Junior High School, principal at Scott City High school, and basketball coach at Central High.

At the meeting, Rankin told the board that May Greene is not in compliance with the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. "Basically, you have taken a group of citizens and gerrymandered them into a situation that makes them racially identifiable," he said.

Rankin told the board that any parent or guardian with a child attending May Greene could contact the federal Office of Civil Rights, the ACLU, the Justice Department, the NAACP and file a complaint.

"They could say that children of color are not being treated fair," Rankin said.

"It starts a process you do not want to start," he said. "You do not want to lose control of your schools.

"If you were found guilty -- and, in my opinion, you probably would be -- you would lose control."

He said that to his knowledge no such complaint has been filed.

Cape Girardeau's Board of Education has called for public input on a variety of plans that could move the district toward a middle school. In discussions about plans, school district administrators have pointed out that May Greene Elementary School, with a minority enrollment of about 64 percent, is in violation of federal Office of Civil Rights requirements.

One of the proposed changes would change May Greene from an elementary school to a sixth-grade center. Students in grades kindergarten through five from the May Greene district would have a choice of which of the other public elementary schools to attend.

Tonight, the second of three meetings to solicit comments is planned at Alma Schrader Elementary School. The third meeting is Monday at Central Junior High School. Both meetings begin at 7 p.m.

Rankin said many parents and citizens mistakenly believe they determine where their children attend school by purchasing a home in a particular elementary school district. "They have the concept that I can pick and choose where my child goes to school," he said. It's not always true: A handicapped student, for example, would be educated at an accessible location, he said.

More importantly, he said, is that by locking a child into a particular school "they can be locking children into abject poverty.

"What some parents don't understand is that contacts made in school are lifelong experiences.

"School breaks the cycle of poverty," Rankin said. "It allows children to see the other side of the fence."

One way to achieve racial balance would be to take 40 kids out of May Greene, he said. "That satisfies the feds."

"You want to be out front," Rankin said. "And, if you really want to do it right, make the feds pay." He said federal money is available to help in development of magnet schools.

Board member Lyle Davis suggested to Rankin that no matter what solution the district chooses some children will have to be moved. Rankin said that is the case.

Board President John Campbell said, "Instead of moving minority students out, we could move white kids in."

If challenged, Cape Girardeau schools could lose federal funding, which makes up about 10 percent of its annual budget, or about $2 million.

"The other price could be punitive damages from a civil suit," Rankin said. "You are still violating a citizen's rights."

"It is the law of the land," Rankin said. "Unfortunately in 1993 we are still trying to eradicate the vestiges of a dual school system."

Cape Girardeau Superintendent Neyland Clark contacted Rankin and asked for assistance with the May Greene situation.

The Midwest Desegregation Assistance Center is one of 10 regional centers in the country. Each is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The center on the Kansas State University campus serves a four-state region -- Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Public school districts are eligible to become client districts.

In addition to being director of the center, Rankin is a professor at Kansas State University.