1970s
1/10/75: Schools to Integrate - For 1 Day a Week (Phila. Daily News)
"School District planners have been ordered to move full-speed ahead with a new desegregation plan that officials hope can be start, at least on a pilot basis, this September. The plan... calls for the establishment of specialized 'academies' in each of the city's eight school districts. As envisioned, pupils in each of the city's schools would spend one day a week in the 'academy' of their choice, taking courses in art, science, music, language and math. The effect... will be to cause 'meaningful integration' for each of the city's 270,000 pupils at least one day each week while pressuring the neighborhood school' concept on other school days. This plan will not affect a full desegregation plan that includes mass busing of pupils that is currently being prepared by the School District for submission to Commonwealth Court Judge Roy Wilkinson Jr. Judge Wilkinson has given the School District and the State Human Relations Commission until the end of this month to submit plans for the full desegregation of the city's public schools. He then will decide which plan or which parts of both should be implemented. ....The School District planners will have to explore busing schedules, available facilities and faculty needs before the plan can become a reality. On any school day, as many as 55,000 pupils will have to be bused to and from their home school to an academy. Each neighborhood school would be over-enrolled by 20 percent to compensate."
4/19/77: Percentage of black is up in schools (Phila. Inquirer)
"After remaining unchanged for two years, the percentage of black students in the city's public schools increased slightly last year, according to statistics released by the school district. The school district is now 62.2% black, up from 61.7% during the 1974 - 1975 and 1975 - 1976 school years. The percentage of Hispanic students climbed from 5.2 to 5.5. The increased percentages resulted from a drop of nearly 4,000 pupils in white enrollment.... Five more schools qualified as segregated last year under guidelines established by the State Human Relations Commission. That means 235 of the city's 280 schools are considered racially imbalance."
1/8/79: Bias Charges are Disputed by Marcase (Phila. Bulletin)
"Philadelphia School Superintendent Marcase last night defended School District policies in the face of a federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) report that said the district had violated civil rights laws....It accused the district of fostering racial segregation and violation of civil rights laws between 1975 - 1978 by allowing white students to transfer out of predominantly black schools in their neighborhoods. The OCR report said 54 white students in the Logan, Oak Lane and Olney
y sections of the city were allowed to attend predominantly white schools, out of their neighborhoods....Marcase said the school district didn't adopt OCR guidelines until Sept. 1978 and they didn't go into effect until 1979...He said the report shouldn't have any effect on federal funds, since it involved only about '30 students out of 240,000' in the school district... In other action, the board renewed a 6 year old pledge to replace the deteriorating Edison High School... With Frank L. Rizzo no longer mayor, school officials are hoping the reception at City Hall will be warmer ... partly because its location would foster integration.... however, Councilman Harry P. Jannotti said he strongly opposed the proposal to build both a new high school and vocational skills center on the site.... The location of the new building to replace the dilapidated 77 year old Edison High... has been the focus of dispute for more than 2 decades. The 1,800 students at Edison are almost all Black and Hispanic, while the population near the proposed relocation site is mostly white."
2/11/79: Magnet schools plan drawing inner-city kids (Phila. Bulletin)
"Carl Adams sacrifices extra sleep and endures more than 10 hours of travel every week in an effort to obtain a better education. Adams, 12, ...(takes) classes at Wilson Junior High School in Northeast Philadelphia.... Mrs. Slaffy (mother), a Postal Service window clerk at the Roxborough post office, said she heard from other parents that standards had dropped at the predominantly black junior high school in West Philadelphia that Carol normally would have attended. She said she would have preferred to send her son to a neighborhood school, and didn't like the idea of two hours of bus travel each day. But the promise of direct travel by school bus convinced her that Wilson was the preferable schools. Young Adams is one of an estimated 3,000 Philadelphia public school children who are participation gin the Board of Education's voluntary desegregation plan. Most are black (like Adams) or Hispanic and they are attending predominantly white schools. They are lured by the reputations these schools have for superior programs and performance or by such "magnet" concepts as improved teaching techniques. About 1,500 of the minority pupils are being bused to schools in district 8 in the Far Northeast. District 8, with an enrollment of 33,150 pupils, is one of the only 2 city school districts with more white pupils than minority ones. Prior to the influx of black and Hispanic pupils last September under desegregation efforts, 94% of the district 8's pupils were white. So far, the program appears to be going smoothly. ... 'We're not getting inner city kids here,' reported Harriet Gelbert, a counselor at Wilson, when asked if the minority pupils had any effect on achievement levels at the school. 'Some of them are higher academically than our other kids,' said Mrs. Gelbart. .... Most of the minority pupils in district 8 are in the schools in the district's lower tier. As a result, the enrollments at four schools - Solis-Cohen, Lawndale and Moore elementary schools and Fels junior high - are 25% minority thus meeting the guidelines for desegregated schools... Provided there are enough applicants, said Benjamin J. Kaplan, district 8 superintendent, declining enrollments will permit Baldi and Rush Middle Schools and Holme, Pollock, Allen, Greenberg and Comly elementary schools to accept minority pupils next year. Kaplan said the district's goal is to have all schools desegregated by 1981 - 82...."
7/3/79: High Court upholds busing rule, deals anti-integrationists a blow
"The battle against public school desegregation in Philadelphia and other northern cities has been dealt a severe setback by the U.S. Supreme Court. In upholding districted busing orders in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, yesterday, the high court also brought bad news to anit-integration activists in Delaware. In fact, the rulings spell a virtual end to efforts to overturn the year old court ordered school desegregation plan in New Castle County, Del., which itself took nearly 25 years to achieve. The decisions are potentially as important to northern school districts as the high court's 1954 opinion banning separate segregated school systems was to southern districts. Civil rights groups hailed the rulings as a signal that federal courts could be counted on to fulfill their commitment to end racial isolation in the north's school districts, even if it involves massive and unpopular busing. The high court ruled 5 - 4 in the Dayton case that when school officials are found to have adopted policies that have encouraged racial segregation in the large part of a school district, the remedy for such violations must involve system wide desegregation, even if those policies are no longer in force. But if district officials can prove their actions did not cause racial isolation in their schools as much as did housing patterns or other factors other which they had no control, the court ruled, they need not be forced to desegregated. ... In Philadelphia, the Board of Education last year, abolished so-called 'optional areas' under which white pupils were allowed to attend predominantly white schools, even thought they may have lived closer to a school where most pupils were Black or Hispanic. The repeal of an attendance area plan which encouraged white pupils in the near Northeast to enroll at Frankford High School rather than Edison High in North Philadelphia has created controversy in the neighborhoods affected, and brought demands that the Board restore the opinion. But Assoc. Superintendent of Schools Richard D. Hanusey, who coordinates voluntary desegregation in Philadelphia, said yesterday that the high court's ruling made clear the courts would not tolerate any retreat from the district's move toward integration. '... if we are not successful with our voluntary desegregation, there is no question in my mind there will be an extensive busing pattern,' Hanusey said. The district's voluntary desegregation plan, which took effect in February, has been a success in moving black students into white schools but a failure in achieving the reverse. School officials concede pockets of segregation will remain in the district even if the voluntary plan works.
8/21/79: Board Waivers on High School Desegregation (Phila. Bulletin)
"The Phila. Board of Education is thinking of amending its voluntary desegregation plan to accommodate white pupils who say they will not attend two high schools with predominantly black and Hispanic enrollments. But school officials warned that such an action - the result of intensive lobbying by white parents, politicians and community leaders in the near Northeast - would undermine the district's already lagging integration effort. Board Pres. Thomas said yesterday that members will meet next week to consider restoring an 'optional' attendance area that now permits white pupils from parts of Kensington, Richmond and Bridesburg to enroll at Frankford High School rather than Edison or Kensington High School. Historically, almost all of the pupils have chosen to attend Frankford in District 7, where the pupil enrollment is 85% white, rather than either of the District 5 high schools, where whites make up less than 15% of the student body. The board voted 4 - 3 in April to eliminate the optional area and assign its pupils to Edison and Kensington to foster integration. Both schools have dropped their single sex designations and will become co-educational when classes begin Sept. 6. About 80 10th graders were scheduled for reassignment from Frankford next month in the first year of a 3 year plan. Eventually, more than 200 pupils would be transferred to Edison or Kensington under the new attendance boundaries. But parents of pupils involved said they would not allow their children, to attend Edison or Kensington, citing fears of violence, the schools' high dropout and absentee rates, low scores and the aged and crumbling buildings. About 25 parents, led by State Rep. Robert a. Borski, who represents the area, pressed the concerns yesterday during a special meeting with the board..."
8/31/79: Local TV balks at school desegregation ads (Phila. Inquirer)
"The Phila. School District is having trouble buying time on local television stations to advertise its voluntary desegregation plans. An ad reviewer for WCAU, Channel 10, told producers of the 30 second spots last month that two of the school ads were unacceptable because they were 'controversial.' KYW, Channel 3, has offered to broadcast the ads for free as public service announcements but will not guarantee when they would run... WPVI, Channel 6, has sold time for some of the ads but not all. The most difficult ad to place... is one in which school board member Augustus Baxter says: 'Philadelphia is a fine city of neighborhoods. Today we have a chance to desegregate our schools without federal intervention. As people of good will, and at the eleventh hour before court mandate, parents and children might examine new quality educational programs. Make choices wherever these programs are. Visit your schools. Give our plan a chance. We do not need to be a Boston or a Louisville. We are Philadelphia's.' ...Another ad deemed 'controversial' features an interracial group of students at the High School for Creative and Performing ARts discussing their decision to move from their neighborhood schools, ' It think it's great,' one says, 'There are kids from so many different racial and ethnic backgrounds here and we are communicating and working together.' (The controversy was the 'euphemistic comment' on desegregation - different ethnic and racial backgrounds working together.') ... It also bothered her (Florence Satinsky, WCAU manager for continuity acceptance) that in another ad Phillies short stop Larry Bowa urges parents and children to 'check out' new school programs designed to entice children to change schools and enhance racial balance....'this is exhortative and it urges youngsters to pressure their parents to act on a concept - which, while thoroughly admirablee, unfortunately becomes judgmental... Charles Bradley, WPVI program director, said yesterday that the Baxter ad violates the federal Communications Commission's Fairness Doctrine, 'Because of the doctrine, WPVI does not sell time to controversial issues. Desegregation is a very controversial issue in Philadelphia..."
9/11/79: Pupil shifting studied again (3rd time in 4 months) (Phila. Bulletin)
"For the 3rd time in 4 months, the Philadelphia Board of Education will reconsider its assignment of 80 white pupils from the near Northeast to predominantly minority Edison and Kensington high schools to foster racial integration. After nearly 100 pupils, parents, and community leaders affected by the shifts demonstrated yesterday at the School Administration Building and outside Frankford High School, Board president Arthur W. Thomas said the board would meet this week to "review" its policy. ... Pupils living in the area affected by the reassignments, which includes parts of Kensington, Richmond, Bridesburg, and Harrowgate, ordinarily would have attended Frankford High... the Board voted in April to make Edison and Kensington co-educational this year and assignment graduating junior high school pupils from the optional area to those schools, rather than allowing them to enroll as 10th graders at Frankford. ... Parents said they would not allow their pupils to attend the district 5 (Edison and Kensington) High School, citing their high dropout and absentee rates, decrepit facilities, and low scores on standardized tests of basic skills.... State Rep. Robert. Borski, Jr. who led yesterday's demonstrations, argued that the attendance area was neither optional nor a special privilege, since he said pupils had been assigned automatically to Frankford without filing transfer requests for at leas the past 30 years.... Commonwealth Court is scheduled to review the district's desegregation plan next February, and could order mandatory busing if it determines the district has not met its integration goals. ...'This issue could have the impact of maintaining segregation,' Marcase (School Superintendent) said.... Enrollment at Frankford High School last year was 85% white. Black and Hispanic pupils made up more than 85% of the students bodies at Edison and Kensington."
9/18/79: Pupils insist on admission to Frankford (Phila. Bulletin)
"Many Philadelphia public high schools are plagued by high dropout rates, but at Frankford High School, it's a different story. About 10 parents and pupils met there today with principal James Peters to demand admission to the school. And last night, parents in the city's lower Northeast section had threatened to slip their children inside Frankford beginning today to subvert the assignments to Edison and Kensington high schools. ... At a meeting at Kensington Ave. and Tiogra St. in the Harrowgate section, parents from parts of Kensington, Richmond, Harrowgate and Bridesburg said they would step up their demands that the Board of Education permit their children to attend Frankford... The school board voted yesterday not to reverse its resolution of last April in which attendance boundaries for Edison and Kensington were redrawn. The plan assigned about 80 10th grade pupils from the option area to the District 5 (Edison and Kensington) schools in September in a move aimed at improving racial balance....'Are we just going to stand by and do whatever (board members) tell us to do?' Rep. Borski shouted through a bullhorn, 'Or are we going to fight this giant swindle with everything we've got?' ... Borski also called for picketing by parents during school hours at Frankford's campus at Oxford Ave. and Wakeling Sts. He said he would seek apprenticeships with local unions for pupils interested in vocational programs. The voluntary racial desegregation plan the board approved in February 1978 called for the elimination of all 'optional' attendance areas, parts of the city where pupils were given a choice of several neighborhood high schools. In effect, the policy often allowed white pupils to choose between schools where enrollments were predominately white - such as Frankford - or predominately Black or Hispanic - such as Edison and Kensington. ...(Parents) said their opposition to the assignments is not racial, but based upon the aging facilities, high absentee and dropout rates and low standardized test scores ... The Citizens Committee on Public Education in Philadelphia also argued against restoring the Frankford option, calling it a 'disgraceful escape hatch that (separates) white children from nonwhite children.' ... Borski said he probably will introduce a bill in the Legislature to prevent the school district from collecting subsidy payments for students who do not attend the schools to which they are assigned. Borski also said he was challenging the pupil assignments in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court."
9/21/79: Politicians join Frankford High Rally (Phila. Bulletin)
"The teen-age girl waved last night from the grill covered, second floor window at Frankford High School. 'Hi Daddy', she squealed, ' I love you.' She was among a handful of pupils who joined 23 parents in occupying the high school at Oxford Ave. and Wakeling St. for the second night. The protest entered its third day today. The parents vowed to continue their sit-in outside the school's main office until the Board of Education meets Monday morning. The protesters are demanding that the school board reverse its assignment of about 80 white 10th grade pupils from the city's lower Northeast to predominantly minority Edison and Kensington high school to improve racial balance at the schools... State Rep. Robert A. Borski, leader of the protest, staged two rallies last night in support of the Frankford occupation, at the school and in Harrowgate Park ...Each attracted more than 100 person, including some of the city's most prominent politicians.... City Councilman Francis Rafferty, an at-large Democrat from Grays Ferry, called the pupil assignments 'a disgrace' at the Frankford rally. 'This is like Russia, like Communist Poland,' Rafferty told the cheering crowd, 'Fight together and don't let them force this on you. This is only the beginning. You are setting a precedent for the whole city.' ... City Commission Chairman Margaret M. Tartaglione, another Democrat, also endorsed the parents' fight to keep their children in Frankford where the pupil enrollment is 85% white. 'They say I got a big mouth, well it keeps me from getting pushed around. So let's show them what we women can do.' ...Two reading teachers at Kensington High School, Carol Adams and Jennifer Beyer, appeared at the Frankford rally to defend the quality of education at their school. They were quickly surrounded by angry parents who shouted them down. ' We understand their concern,' Ms. Beyer said later, visibly shaken. ' We just wanted to tell them to come into the school and watch what's going on before they make up their minds. We care, too - the school's not as bad as it appears to be.'"
10/12/79: School Receive reduced grant for integration (Phila. Inquirer)
"After troublesome negotiations with the U.S. Office of Education, the Philadelphia School District has been awarded only $1.4 million of the $3.9 million it had requested for 'special projects' to encourage desegregation.... The funded projects will begin between now and Feb. 1, 1980 at 12 racially segregated schools ... The Emergency School Aid Act gave the school district almost $5 million for its voluntary desegregation plan earlier this year, and the Board of Education allotted another $4 million for the effort. ... The school system is acting under a 1968 order from the Pennsylvania Commission on Human Relations to desegregated its schools, more than a third of white are at least 90% black. ... Special projects to be funded by the Office of Education include an 'academy for academic excellence' for advanced students at Jenks Elementary in Chestnut Hill and an 'instructional enrichment center' at Girard Elementary, a predominantly white South Philadelphia school that merged last month with the mostly black Poe Elementary... Allay kindergarten programs will be added to Bache, Wayne and G. Washington elementary schools, a bilingual program for Hispanic children will start at John Moffet elementary and a new music program will begin at Shawmont Elementary ..."
(no date): Few parents travel to see Philadelphia schools (Phila. Bulletin)
"In the name of racial integration, the yellow buses shook, rattled and rolled yesterday between Northeast Philadelphia and several of the city's black schools. The busing lasted less than 5 hours. It attracted fewer than 20 participants. And they were parents, no pupils. This is open house week in the Philadelphia School District, as school officials are encouraging parents to examine the special academic centers and alternative courses of study offered under the district's voluntary desegregation plan. Like the integration effort itself, the house parties have enjoyed only one-way success. More than 260 parents signed up for 16 bus tours to visit schools involved in the voluntary program, according tot he district figures. Barely one tenth were white.... Yesterday's trip from the Far Northeast to the district's showpiece 'magnet' high school for science and engineering on the Temple University campus in North Philadelphia attracted only a dozen parents. And it was the most successful of two tours.... parents expressed admiration for the special programs at the schools they had visited but said they weren't ready to send their children to them... the concerns expressed in the questions they asked the school principals were hardly academic: How long a bus ride is it? Is there a cafeteria? Will young children have to ride public transportation? What if they get sick during the day? How can they take part in after school activities? How involved are the parents? As they rode back to the Northeast along Roosevelt Blvd., the parents described their reluctance to commit their children to schools on the other end of the city...'I love other programs ...but that 95% black majority (enrollment) bothers me. My daughter's only in 3rd grade and I don't think she's cut out to be a pioneer...but it's really frustrating. You want to see your kid get the best education available - why can't they have quality programs in all the schools?"
"School District planners have been ordered to move full-speed ahead with a new desegregation plan that officials hope can be start, at least on a pilot basis, this September. The plan... calls for the establishment of specialized 'academies' in each of the city's eight school districts. As envisioned, pupils in each of the city's schools would spend one day a week in the 'academy' of their choice, taking courses in art, science, music, language and math. The effect... will be to cause 'meaningful integration' for each of the city's 270,000 pupils at least one day each week while pressuring the neighborhood school' concept on other school days. This plan will not affect a full desegregation plan that includes mass busing of pupils that is currently being prepared by the School District for submission to Commonwealth Court Judge Roy Wilkinson Jr. Judge Wilkinson has given the School District and the State Human Relations Commission until the end of this month to submit plans for the full desegregation of the city's public schools. He then will decide which plan or which parts of both should be implemented. ....The School District planners will have to explore busing schedules, available facilities and faculty needs before the plan can become a reality. On any school day, as many as 55,000 pupils will have to be bused to and from their home school to an academy. Each neighborhood school would be over-enrolled by 20 percent to compensate."
4/19/77: Percentage of black is up in schools (Phila. Inquirer)
"After remaining unchanged for two years, the percentage of black students in the city's public schools increased slightly last year, according to statistics released by the school district. The school district is now 62.2% black, up from 61.7% during the 1974 - 1975 and 1975 - 1976 school years. The percentage of Hispanic students climbed from 5.2 to 5.5. The increased percentages resulted from a drop of nearly 4,000 pupils in white enrollment.... Five more schools qualified as segregated last year under guidelines established by the State Human Relations Commission. That means 235 of the city's 280 schools are considered racially imbalance."
1/8/79: Bias Charges are Disputed by Marcase (Phila. Bulletin)
"Philadelphia School Superintendent Marcase last night defended School District policies in the face of a federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) report that said the district had violated civil rights laws....It accused the district of fostering racial segregation and violation of civil rights laws between 1975 - 1978 by allowing white students to transfer out of predominantly black schools in their neighborhoods. The OCR report said 54 white students in the Logan, Oak Lane and Olney
y sections of the city were allowed to attend predominantly white schools, out of their neighborhoods....Marcase said the school district didn't adopt OCR guidelines until Sept. 1978 and they didn't go into effect until 1979...He said the report shouldn't have any effect on federal funds, since it involved only about '30 students out of 240,000' in the school district... In other action, the board renewed a 6 year old pledge to replace the deteriorating Edison High School... With Frank L. Rizzo no longer mayor, school officials are hoping the reception at City Hall will be warmer ... partly because its location would foster integration.... however, Councilman Harry P. Jannotti said he strongly opposed the proposal to build both a new high school and vocational skills center on the site.... The location of the new building to replace the dilapidated 77 year old Edison High... has been the focus of dispute for more than 2 decades. The 1,800 students at Edison are almost all Black and Hispanic, while the population near the proposed relocation site is mostly white."
2/11/79: Magnet schools plan drawing inner-city kids (Phila. Bulletin)
"Carl Adams sacrifices extra sleep and endures more than 10 hours of travel every week in an effort to obtain a better education. Adams, 12, ...(takes) classes at Wilson Junior High School in Northeast Philadelphia.... Mrs. Slaffy (mother), a Postal Service window clerk at the Roxborough post office, said she heard from other parents that standards had dropped at the predominantly black junior high school in West Philadelphia that Carol normally would have attended. She said she would have preferred to send her son to a neighborhood school, and didn't like the idea of two hours of bus travel each day. But the promise of direct travel by school bus convinced her that Wilson was the preferable schools. Young Adams is one of an estimated 3,000 Philadelphia public school children who are participation gin the Board of Education's voluntary desegregation plan. Most are black (like Adams) or Hispanic and they are attending predominantly white schools. They are lured by the reputations these schools have for superior programs and performance or by such "magnet" concepts as improved teaching techniques. About 1,500 of the minority pupils are being bused to schools in district 8 in the Far Northeast. District 8, with an enrollment of 33,150 pupils, is one of the only 2 city school districts with more white pupils than minority ones. Prior to the influx of black and Hispanic pupils last September under desegregation efforts, 94% of the district 8's pupils were white. So far, the program appears to be going smoothly. ... 'We're not getting inner city kids here,' reported Harriet Gelbert, a counselor at Wilson, when asked if the minority pupils had any effect on achievement levels at the school. 'Some of them are higher academically than our other kids,' said Mrs. Gelbart. .... Most of the minority pupils in district 8 are in the schools in the district's lower tier. As a result, the enrollments at four schools - Solis-Cohen, Lawndale and Moore elementary schools and Fels junior high - are 25% minority thus meeting the guidelines for desegregated schools... Provided there are enough applicants, said Benjamin J. Kaplan, district 8 superintendent, declining enrollments will permit Baldi and Rush Middle Schools and Holme, Pollock, Allen, Greenberg and Comly elementary schools to accept minority pupils next year. Kaplan said the district's goal is to have all schools desegregated by 1981 - 82...."
7/3/79: High Court upholds busing rule, deals anti-integrationists a blow
"The battle against public school desegregation in Philadelphia and other northern cities has been dealt a severe setback by the U.S. Supreme Court. In upholding districted busing orders in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, yesterday, the high court also brought bad news to anit-integration activists in Delaware. In fact, the rulings spell a virtual end to efforts to overturn the year old court ordered school desegregation plan in New Castle County, Del., which itself took nearly 25 years to achieve. The decisions are potentially as important to northern school districts as the high court's 1954 opinion banning separate segregated school systems was to southern districts. Civil rights groups hailed the rulings as a signal that federal courts could be counted on to fulfill their commitment to end racial isolation in the north's school districts, even if it involves massive and unpopular busing. The high court ruled 5 - 4 in the Dayton case that when school officials are found to have adopted policies that have encouraged racial segregation in the large part of a school district, the remedy for such violations must involve system wide desegregation, even if those policies are no longer in force. But if district officials can prove their actions did not cause racial isolation in their schools as much as did housing patterns or other factors other which they had no control, the court ruled, they need not be forced to desegregated. ... In Philadelphia, the Board of Education last year, abolished so-called 'optional areas' under which white pupils were allowed to attend predominantly white schools, even thought they may have lived closer to a school where most pupils were Black or Hispanic. The repeal of an attendance area plan which encouraged white pupils in the near Northeast to enroll at Frankford High School rather than Edison High in North Philadelphia has created controversy in the neighborhoods affected, and brought demands that the Board restore the opinion. But Assoc. Superintendent of Schools Richard D. Hanusey, who coordinates voluntary desegregation in Philadelphia, said yesterday that the high court's ruling made clear the courts would not tolerate any retreat from the district's move toward integration. '... if we are not successful with our voluntary desegregation, there is no question in my mind there will be an extensive busing pattern,' Hanusey said. The district's voluntary desegregation plan, which took effect in February, has been a success in moving black students into white schools but a failure in achieving the reverse. School officials concede pockets of segregation will remain in the district even if the voluntary plan works.
8/21/79: Board Waivers on High School Desegregation (Phila. Bulletin)
"The Phila. Board of Education is thinking of amending its voluntary desegregation plan to accommodate white pupils who say they will not attend two high schools with predominantly black and Hispanic enrollments. But school officials warned that such an action - the result of intensive lobbying by white parents, politicians and community leaders in the near Northeast - would undermine the district's already lagging integration effort. Board Pres. Thomas said yesterday that members will meet next week to consider restoring an 'optional' attendance area that now permits white pupils from parts of Kensington, Richmond and Bridesburg to enroll at Frankford High School rather than Edison or Kensington High School. Historically, almost all of the pupils have chosen to attend Frankford in District 7, where the pupil enrollment is 85% white, rather than either of the District 5 high schools, where whites make up less than 15% of the student body. The board voted 4 - 3 in April to eliminate the optional area and assign its pupils to Edison and Kensington to foster integration. Both schools have dropped their single sex designations and will become co-educational when classes begin Sept. 6. About 80 10th graders were scheduled for reassignment from Frankford next month in the first year of a 3 year plan. Eventually, more than 200 pupils would be transferred to Edison or Kensington under the new attendance boundaries. But parents of pupils involved said they would not allow their children, to attend Edison or Kensington, citing fears of violence, the schools' high dropout and absentee rates, low scores and the aged and crumbling buildings. About 25 parents, led by State Rep. Robert a. Borski, who represents the area, pressed the concerns yesterday during a special meeting with the board..."
8/31/79: Local TV balks at school desegregation ads (Phila. Inquirer)
"The Phila. School District is having trouble buying time on local television stations to advertise its voluntary desegregation plans. An ad reviewer for WCAU, Channel 10, told producers of the 30 second spots last month that two of the school ads were unacceptable because they were 'controversial.' KYW, Channel 3, has offered to broadcast the ads for free as public service announcements but will not guarantee when they would run... WPVI, Channel 6, has sold time for some of the ads but not all. The most difficult ad to place... is one in which school board member Augustus Baxter says: 'Philadelphia is a fine city of neighborhoods. Today we have a chance to desegregate our schools without federal intervention. As people of good will, and at the eleventh hour before court mandate, parents and children might examine new quality educational programs. Make choices wherever these programs are. Visit your schools. Give our plan a chance. We do not need to be a Boston or a Louisville. We are Philadelphia's.' ...Another ad deemed 'controversial' features an interracial group of students at the High School for Creative and Performing ARts discussing their decision to move from their neighborhood schools, ' It think it's great,' one says, 'There are kids from so many different racial and ethnic backgrounds here and we are communicating and working together.' (The controversy was the 'euphemistic comment' on desegregation - different ethnic and racial backgrounds working together.') ... It also bothered her (Florence Satinsky, WCAU manager for continuity acceptance) that in another ad Phillies short stop Larry Bowa urges parents and children to 'check out' new school programs designed to entice children to change schools and enhance racial balance....'this is exhortative and it urges youngsters to pressure their parents to act on a concept - which, while thoroughly admirablee, unfortunately becomes judgmental... Charles Bradley, WPVI program director, said yesterday that the Baxter ad violates the federal Communications Commission's Fairness Doctrine, 'Because of the doctrine, WPVI does not sell time to controversial issues. Desegregation is a very controversial issue in Philadelphia..."
9/11/79: Pupil shifting studied again (3rd time in 4 months) (Phila. Bulletin)
"For the 3rd time in 4 months, the Philadelphia Board of Education will reconsider its assignment of 80 white pupils from the near Northeast to predominantly minority Edison and Kensington high schools to foster racial integration. After nearly 100 pupils, parents, and community leaders affected by the shifts demonstrated yesterday at the School Administration Building and outside Frankford High School, Board president Arthur W. Thomas said the board would meet this week to "review" its policy. ... Pupils living in the area affected by the reassignments, which includes parts of Kensington, Richmond, Bridesburg, and Harrowgate, ordinarily would have attended Frankford High... the Board voted in April to make Edison and Kensington co-educational this year and assignment graduating junior high school pupils from the optional area to those schools, rather than allowing them to enroll as 10th graders at Frankford. ... Parents said they would not allow their pupils to attend the district 5 (Edison and Kensington) High School, citing their high dropout and absentee rates, decrepit facilities, and low scores on standardized tests of basic skills.... State Rep. Robert. Borski, Jr. who led yesterday's demonstrations, argued that the attendance area was neither optional nor a special privilege, since he said pupils had been assigned automatically to Frankford without filing transfer requests for at leas the past 30 years.... Commonwealth Court is scheduled to review the district's desegregation plan next February, and could order mandatory busing if it determines the district has not met its integration goals. ...'This issue could have the impact of maintaining segregation,' Marcase (School Superintendent) said.... Enrollment at Frankford High School last year was 85% white. Black and Hispanic pupils made up more than 85% of the students bodies at Edison and Kensington."
9/18/79: Pupils insist on admission to Frankford (Phila. Bulletin)
"Many Philadelphia public high schools are plagued by high dropout rates, but at Frankford High School, it's a different story. About 10 parents and pupils met there today with principal James Peters to demand admission to the school. And last night, parents in the city's lower Northeast section had threatened to slip their children inside Frankford beginning today to subvert the assignments to Edison and Kensington high schools. ... At a meeting at Kensington Ave. and Tiogra St. in the Harrowgate section, parents from parts of Kensington, Richmond, Harrowgate and Bridesburg said they would step up their demands that the Board of Education permit their children to attend Frankford... The school board voted yesterday not to reverse its resolution of last April in which attendance boundaries for Edison and Kensington were redrawn. The plan assigned about 80 10th grade pupils from the option area to the District 5 (Edison and Kensington) schools in September in a move aimed at improving racial balance....'Are we just going to stand by and do whatever (board members) tell us to do?' Rep. Borski shouted through a bullhorn, 'Or are we going to fight this giant swindle with everything we've got?' ... Borski also called for picketing by parents during school hours at Frankford's campus at Oxford Ave. and Wakeling Sts. He said he would seek apprenticeships with local unions for pupils interested in vocational programs. The voluntary racial desegregation plan the board approved in February 1978 called for the elimination of all 'optional' attendance areas, parts of the city where pupils were given a choice of several neighborhood high schools. In effect, the policy often allowed white pupils to choose between schools where enrollments were predominately white - such as Frankford - or predominately Black or Hispanic - such as Edison and Kensington. ...(Parents) said their opposition to the assignments is not racial, but based upon the aging facilities, high absentee and dropout rates and low standardized test scores ... The Citizens Committee on Public Education in Philadelphia also argued against restoring the Frankford option, calling it a 'disgraceful escape hatch that (separates) white children from nonwhite children.' ... Borski said he probably will introduce a bill in the Legislature to prevent the school district from collecting subsidy payments for students who do not attend the schools to which they are assigned. Borski also said he was challenging the pupil assignments in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court."
9/21/79: Politicians join Frankford High Rally (Phila. Bulletin)
"The teen-age girl waved last night from the grill covered, second floor window at Frankford High School. 'Hi Daddy', she squealed, ' I love you.' She was among a handful of pupils who joined 23 parents in occupying the high school at Oxford Ave. and Wakeling St. for the second night. The protest entered its third day today. The parents vowed to continue their sit-in outside the school's main office until the Board of Education meets Monday morning. The protesters are demanding that the school board reverse its assignment of about 80 white 10th grade pupils from the city's lower Northeast to predominantly minority Edison and Kensington high school to improve racial balance at the schools... State Rep. Robert A. Borski, leader of the protest, staged two rallies last night in support of the Frankford occupation, at the school and in Harrowgate Park ...Each attracted more than 100 person, including some of the city's most prominent politicians.... City Councilman Francis Rafferty, an at-large Democrat from Grays Ferry, called the pupil assignments 'a disgrace' at the Frankford rally. 'This is like Russia, like Communist Poland,' Rafferty told the cheering crowd, 'Fight together and don't let them force this on you. This is only the beginning. You are setting a precedent for the whole city.' ... City Commission Chairman Margaret M. Tartaglione, another Democrat, also endorsed the parents' fight to keep their children in Frankford where the pupil enrollment is 85% white. 'They say I got a big mouth, well it keeps me from getting pushed around. So let's show them what we women can do.' ...Two reading teachers at Kensington High School, Carol Adams and Jennifer Beyer, appeared at the Frankford rally to defend the quality of education at their school. They were quickly surrounded by angry parents who shouted them down. ' We understand their concern,' Ms. Beyer said later, visibly shaken. ' We just wanted to tell them to come into the school and watch what's going on before they make up their minds. We care, too - the school's not as bad as it appears to be.'"
10/12/79: School Receive reduced grant for integration (Phila. Inquirer)
"After troublesome negotiations with the U.S. Office of Education, the Philadelphia School District has been awarded only $1.4 million of the $3.9 million it had requested for 'special projects' to encourage desegregation.... The funded projects will begin between now and Feb. 1, 1980 at 12 racially segregated schools ... The Emergency School Aid Act gave the school district almost $5 million for its voluntary desegregation plan earlier this year, and the Board of Education allotted another $4 million for the effort. ... The school system is acting under a 1968 order from the Pennsylvania Commission on Human Relations to desegregated its schools, more than a third of white are at least 90% black. ... Special projects to be funded by the Office of Education include an 'academy for academic excellence' for advanced students at Jenks Elementary in Chestnut Hill and an 'instructional enrichment center' at Girard Elementary, a predominantly white South Philadelphia school that merged last month with the mostly black Poe Elementary... Allay kindergarten programs will be added to Bache, Wayne and G. Washington elementary schools, a bilingual program for Hispanic children will start at John Moffet elementary and a new music program will begin at Shawmont Elementary ..."
(no date): Few parents travel to see Philadelphia schools (Phila. Bulletin)
"In the name of racial integration, the yellow buses shook, rattled and rolled yesterday between Northeast Philadelphia and several of the city's black schools. The busing lasted less than 5 hours. It attracted fewer than 20 participants. And they were parents, no pupils. This is open house week in the Philadelphia School District, as school officials are encouraging parents to examine the special academic centers and alternative courses of study offered under the district's voluntary desegregation plan. Like the integration effort itself, the house parties have enjoyed only one-way success. More than 260 parents signed up for 16 bus tours to visit schools involved in the voluntary program, according tot he district figures. Barely one tenth were white.... Yesterday's trip from the Far Northeast to the district's showpiece 'magnet' high school for science and engineering on the Temple University campus in North Philadelphia attracted only a dozen parents. And it was the most successful of two tours.... parents expressed admiration for the special programs at the schools they had visited but said they weren't ready to send their children to them... the concerns expressed in the questions they asked the school principals were hardly academic: How long a bus ride is it? Is there a cafeteria? Will young children have to ride public transportation? What if they get sick during the day? How can they take part in after school activities? How involved are the parents? As they rode back to the Northeast along Roosevelt Blvd., the parents described their reluctance to commit their children to schools on the other end of the city...'I love other programs ...but that 95% black majority (enrollment) bothers me. My daughter's only in 3rd grade and I don't think she's cut out to be a pioneer...but it's really frustrating. You want to see your kid get the best education available - why can't they have quality programs in all the schools?"