SCHOOL REDISTRICTING NEEDS OPEN AIRING

Recommendations to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education on boundaries of attendance areas for the five elementary schools that will be open in the district this fall have raised a lot of questions and generated considerable concern among parents.

Let's look back to 1997 when the school district was trying to pass a much-needed bond issue. Everyone knew that merging six elementary schools into five would require redistricting. The boundaries were redrawn then with relatively minor changes to the other attendance areas. At the time that tentative plan was unveiled, there was relatively little public comment. The bond issue won approval, based in large part on those attendance-area boundary lines that the district was so open about.

The school board should not underestimate what this current boundary dispute could do to taxpayer trust. The district will be asking voters to approve another bond issue for a new high school and vocational school. It may not matter that this second bond issue requires no tax increase. Even parents not directly affected are questioning this newest redistricting process.

Yes, the school board has said all along it would need to re-examine the boundaries just before the new elementary school opened. But no one expected dramatic changes. The big concern in 1997 was that the Holigan Homes development across the street from the new school might overcrowd the new school. But that development hasn't moved as quickly as expected.

So if the numbers affecting redistricting have changed significantly since 1997, the obvious questions are why and how. The community hasn't changed that much in just over a year.

Also of concern is the fact that the current redistricting committee was convened behind closed doors. Parents and taxpayers weren't prepared for a second redistricting, much less one that relocates dozens upon dozens of families all across the district. In at least two cases, the lines are drawn down the middle of subdivision: Northfield and Woodland Hills.

The contention that the committee isn't bound by Missouri's Open Meeting Law is splitting hairs with public trust. An attorney for the Missouri Press Association feels these meetings should have been open.

Neighborhood schools have worked -- and worked well -- in Cape Girardeau. Regardless of where parents live, they are adamant supporters of their neighborhood school. So what is driving this redistricting process? Apparently racial diversity is at the top of the list.

Some officials say they want to avoid court-ordered busing. But the plan drawn up in 1997 smoothed out racial inequities to make sure no one school was racially identifiable with more than a 50 percent minority enrollment. At least that's what district patrons were told. Under the 1997 plan, all five schools had a minority enrollment of 30 percent or less. Unless the district numbers were flat wrong then, there is no way dramatic changes would have occurred in just over a year.

School board members say they welcome public input on the proposal. It's about time to move this process to the public arena where it should have been all along. Board members say a decision could be made in April. Is that before or after half the board positions come up for election?

Everything that was right about the process in 1997, which earned both voter approval and kind words on this Opinion page, is wrong today. Secret meetings, unexplained dramatic changes and questionable numbers all add up to questions of trust. Without it, the chances for passing another bond issue would seem dim.