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By MARV RALOUSEKParents of white students at two Northwest Side schools have become angered recently because their child ren were rejected for the ChicagoBoard of Education's permissive transfer program.Board officials say the students were rejected because they would not enhance integration at the designated receiving schoolsBut parents of students at Leslie Lewis School. 1431 N. Leamington Ave., and Brian Piccolo School. 1040 N. Keeler Ave., say they deserve the same opportunity as minority students to escape overcrowded conditions at the schools.In a recent letter to the NEWS/JOURNAL. Joan Soldwisch, whose son attends Piccolo Middle School. said that “special, innovative programs were dangled before us like the proverbial carrot in front of the mule” when white and minority stu dents toured Schubert School. 2727 N. Long Ave. Schubert has been desig nated as a receiving school to relieve overcrowding at Piccolo.Mrs. Soldwisch said she even received a letter of acceptance, indicat ing that her son would be a part of the permissive transfer program thisfall.But then Mrs. Soldwisch received another letter, stating that her son would not be eligible for the program because his presence would not “en hance” integration at Schubert.“I cannot change the fact that my son will not ‘enhance’ integration at Schubert,” Mrs. Soldwisch said in her letter. ‘Most of all, I regret that he will not have ‘Access to Excellence' and I certainly don’t see any permissiveness to their enrollment guidelines.At a meeting last week to discuss Access to Excellence programs in District Five, Mrs. Soldwisch and several other Piccolo parents reportedly protested the rejection of their children for the permissive transferprogram.But the parents were told that It was Board of Education policy not to admit students to the program if their participation did not enhance* A#8integration. Furthermore. Mrs. Sold wisch said the decision to reject white students came directly from downtown. Officials told her, she said, that transferring would be an “escape” from an already integrated school at Piccolo.“If it weren’t for the better programs, I wouldn't even try to send my kids in there (to Schubert),” Mrs. Soldwisch said,She also said she was angered because white students were rejected even though quotas for transfer from Piccolo had not been reachedA similar situation has occurred at Leslie Lewis School, where at least six white students have been rejected for permissive transfer to several receiving schools in District One. on the city’s far Northwest Side.Although one parent termed Lewis “a good school, she said several parents of white students had applied for transfer in order to escape overcrowded conditions. Lewis currently has 12 mobile units, she said, with an enrollment of about 1,200 students. Capacity for the school is 600 stu dents, according to the parent, whorequested that her name not be used The parent said she was misled when District One officials were attempting to persuade parents to en roll their children in the permissive transfer program.“Nothing was ever said about race, one way or the other, she said. “Who’s going to have their kid sit in the room with 35 other kids when they can sit in a room with 22 (at a receiving school)?Officials at District Four and at District Five would not reveal how many white students had been reject ed for permissive transfer at Lewis and Piccolo or if other area schools faced similar problems.“I’m not at liberty to release those figures,” said Jayne Swiatek, District Five human relations coordinator. District Four official Barbara Mott said she had no information” about how many white students had been rejected.But Ted Wright, coordinator of the Board of Education’s Human Rela tions Task Force, said white and black students have been rejected “all over the city when their participation in the transfer program does not enhance integration “Black students have been turned down for the same reason, if they are not enhancing integration at the re ceiving school,” he said Wright said he is confident the board will do better than last year in filling quotas .for the permissive transfer program.“We must be doing 1,000 better than last year, Wright said, adding that quotas still have not be filled, however.Enhancing integration is a major purpose of the Access to Excellence plan, according to Wright,Access to Excellence is a plan to desegregate the school system, he said.He singled out three schools where rejection of white students for the transfer plan has been a problem Be sides Lewis and Piccolo, white stu dents also have been rejected at Ste phen Gale School, 1631 W Jonquil Terrace, near the city’s northeastern limits.According to the Access to Excellence plan, a total of 160 studentsfrom Lewis School would be allowed to transfer to six receiving schools in District One, including Dirksen, Ed gebrook. Onahan, Oriole Park. Sauga nash and WildwoodFrom Piccolo, 60 students would be allowed to transfer to Schubert School under the planApparently district programs, which also are part of the Access to Excellence plan, have not faced the same problem of the rejection of white students.Annette Thomas, chairwoman of the District Four North Education Advisory Council, said students selected for a basic skills program at Burbank School to begin this fall were “ones who really needed help the most. She said racial quotas were not a major factor in the selec tions.We went over all the applications We just chose six from each school, she said.District Four, which is subdivided into a north and south council, in eludes a -ubstantial number of both white and black students
Newspaper Details
Chicago News Journal
Chicago, Illinois, US
Thu, Jul 27, 1978
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Kim B.
NY, USA 07 Mar 2021
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