GOOD COMPROMISE ON SCHOOL BOUNDARIES

Compromise. It is both an art and a necessity for people in positions of leadership. Compromise means that both sides are working toward settling differences. It is a foundation of democracy and key to keeping voters and taxpayers involved and supportive.

The Cape Girardeau School District has been embroiled in a heated controversy the past few months. It involved changes to elementary-school boundaries that would have uprooted some 350 students in the fall. These students would be in addition to those moving because of the closing of Washington and May Greene elementary schools and the opening of the new Blanchard Elementary School.

Hard feelings festered on both sides of the table. Parents were upset their children would be moved to a different school. Other taxpayers felt their trust had been shaken, because an earlier boundary proposal was approved just prior to the school district's successful bond issue campaign in 1977. School officials were caught off guard by the depth of outrage in the community when a revised boundary plan was suggested this year by a committee. Parents and school administrators serving on boundary committee were caught in the middle, charged with an unpopular mission.

But an alternative plan submitted by the administration this past week abruptly shifted the community mood for the better.

The proposal returns the lines back to the 1997 boundary plan accepted by the board, with minor changes between Franklin and Blanchard schools.

This proposal meets district guidelines for building utilization and minority enrollment but has an impact on a considerably smaller number of students. As a compromise, it is very appealing. The Board of Education will consider the plan at its April 19 meeting.

Building utilization and equalizing minority enrollments spurred the rather drastic boundary changes this year from the earlier proposal. Granted, the new plan doesn't quite meet minority goals, but the district is still well within federal guidelines.

These guidelines require any efforts to improve racial diversity be within 20 percent of the district's minority enrollment -- which is 27 percent. The proposal achieves that. The district can still work toward improving Alma Schrader's minority mix, which would be 12 percent under the plan, and lowering Jefferson's, which would be 43 percent. Consider this: Alma Schrader's minority enrollment is twice what it was just two years ago through natural growth. These goals don't have to be accomplished overnight.

The Cape Girardeau School District also might want to consider a look at Topeka, Kan., where the desegregation movement began with the historic Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Topeka, the school district offers minority students a choice of high schools, but pupils have to provide their own transportation.

Cape Girardeau schools could offer minority students in Jefferson a similar deal: enrollment in any of the other four elementary schools as long as the family agreed to provide the transportation.

Even this boundary compromise won't make everyone happy. But it goes a long way to achieving district goals with the fewest amount of children uprooted.

If new boundaries must be decided right away for building and staff reasons, then it is best to go with less, not more. There's nothing to say the district can't take a long-term look at boundaries over the coming year, with ample involvement from parents and staff from the start.

This compromise plan will help rebuild public trust in both the administration and the Cape Girardeau Board of Education. Trust is a tough task master. It's hard to achieve, easily broken. But with another taxpayer vote pending in the near future to build a new high school, public confidence and trust are imperative.