COLUMBIA, 3/19/11 (Beat Byte) -- Minority participation is seriously lagging in public forums designed to redraw high school boundaries after Battle High School opens for business, claims a former Columbia School Board vice president.With shades of segregation still hovering -- primarily as economic isolation -- minority involvement is critical to assure equitable distribution of financial and educational resources."I have received feedback that the forums held so far have been poorly attended by people of color in our community," Steve Calloway, president of the Minority Men's Network and Educational Foundation, wrote in an email call to action. "This is a very important decision for our community; please, please try to attend one of the forums so your voice is heard."The CPS secondary enrollment planning committee began holding public forums on Tuesday, March 1, to gather community and parent feedback on the boundary and enrollment planning process, Calloway noted.The committee will recommend boundary changes to the Board of Education in order to (1) incorporate a third comprehensive high school into the Columbia Public School District, and (2) reconfigure Columbia's secondary school boundaries to include intermediate schools serving grades 6 through 8, and high schools serving students in grades 9 through 12.One important goal: "to recommend boundary changes that reflect the composition of the Columbia community," a policy handout reads. Calloway worries that without minority voices, Columbia's multi-ethnic composition won't be adequately recognized in committee or Board boundary decisions."Robert Ross is a member of the committee, and if you know anything about Robert, you know that he is a consistent voice for making sure the people who will be affected by any action or decision are heard from," Calloway noted, providing the following links, forum schedules, and contact information:Planning committeeDon Ludwig, committee contact:(H) 573-442-2801(C) 573-819-3318Remaining forum dates and times
Lange Middle
March 22
7:00pm to 9:00pm
Gentry Middle
March 24
7:00pm to 9:00pm2 comments:
URGENT: Former school board VP urges minority redistricting involvement
Calloway
It's unfortunate that the Lange Middle School forum conflicts with the NAACP candidate forum the same night, but that's how the world goes. For those of you who have to choose and cannot attend the NAACP forum, please know that what I think about and read about can be found at:
Replyhttp://daveraithelforschoolboardblog.blogspot.com/
I may be a stranger to most of you, but I am not hard to find - email me, call me, snag me on the street. I am weary of kids falling out of the schools, red, yellow, black or white. Tell me what YOU think needs be done.
Of course CPS has many issues. The first being they have never included African-Americans as part of the main stream fabric of decision makers, movers and shakers.
The lack of programs for African-American speaks volumes to the truth about how the district regards African-Americans since 1964 and before then.
There have been a number of St. Louis refugees like Mr. Calloway who can never allow their Afro-Centricity to surpass their Caucasian-Assimilation while they pretend there is no race problem in CPS, CoMo or Boone County.
These stuffed suits cannot address the root of the problems of CoMo African-Americans any more than their white counterparts that are well educated, affluent and have an alphabet soup behind their name.
There have been multitudes of these educated house Negroes supplied by the University of Missouri and inflicted upon our community. Mr. Calloway is far from being the first ineffective, black, educated fool to serve on the CPS Board.
With his Catholic up bringing what can he possibly know about issues that affect African-Americans living in central Missouri? Not much! The charade continues. I await the next educated fool the University will send to the CPS School Board.