'Chance of a lifetime': West End residents urged to go to JCPS student assignment forum
West End residents are being urged by community leaders to attend a forum next Tuesday outlining changes to Jefferson County Public Schools’ student assignment plan, which will largely impact students from their neighborhoods.
“We have to ensure that the next thing JCPS does is in the interest of all of our children,” Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, said during a Wednesday press conference.
Student assignment plans have been in effect since 1975 when the city and county school districts merged as a means of desegregating schools. The plan currently in effect hasn't been modified since 2014.
While the district has been hailed nationally for its efforts to maintain integration, a Courier Journal investigation found the burden of integration has been placed on Black students as opposed to wealthier white students.
A district committee began reviewing the assignment plan four years ago, and potential changes have been on the table for two years – but were put on the back burner due to the pandemic.
Superintendent Marty Pollio will provide the community with the first glimpse of the proposed plan during the Tuesday forum, set for 6:15 p.m. at the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Campus, 3029 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.
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Pollio will be available for questions and will be part of a panel that includes Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville Branch NAACP; Kish Cumi Price, commissioner of workforce investment with the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet; and Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
Courier Journal investigative reporter Mandy McLaren will moderate the discussion.
The Courier Journal and the Urban League are co-sponsoring the event as well as the Louisville Branch NAACP and the Coalition of Black Retired Principals and Administrators of JCPS, which recently formed a new group calling for transparency and public input in the proposed plan.
Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. Child care will be provided, and there will be refreshments. The forum will also be streamed live at courierjournal.com.
“This is a chance of a lifetime. … This is history in the making and you can decide to not know and not participate, or you can show up and listen and offer your input,” Reynolds said.
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Cunningham said "all parents, all relatives and all interested parties" were being urged to give their input before the changes are presented to the board of education.
One of the largest potential changes, called the dual-resides proposal, would allow students in Louisville's West End to choose between a school close to home and one elsewhere in the county.
West End families could still have their kids bused to a far-away suburban school, but they would also be able to send their kids to a middle or high school in their own neighborhood — something many haven't been able to do for decades.
Pollio has said the change is necessary to end the unfair practice of putting the burden of diversifying schools on Black children.
"I think there is widespread agreement: What we're doing now is not working,” Pollio said in a November interview with The Courier Journal.
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Magnet schools could see a handful of changes, too:
Magnet lotteries would be centralized, with waiting lists maintained by the central office rather than individual schools.
Schools would be held accountable for meeting diversity targets.
Magnets would no longer be able to kick kids out, or "exit" them, for bad grades or behavior.
Popular programs would be replicated, creating more space for interested kids.
Among the biggest concerns, Reynolds said, is that if West End students choose to go to nearby schools, will those schools receive equitable resources and investment? Additionally, she questioned where magnet schools will be located and who will have access to them.
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Looking at the West End, she said, the area has “in every measurable way, been under invested or not invested at all and our children have felt that.”
Reynolds ended the press conference by acknowledging the strain of attending an evening event given all that families are enduring between the pandemic and racial unrest.
“We know you are tired and you are stretched thin. … We are all feeling the pain of that. It is easy to feel like checking out, but I’m asking the community to prioritize paying attention to the student assignment plan.”
Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: JCPS student assignment: West End parents urged to attend forum
