Race discrimination investigation launched into New Hanover schools. Now what?

The recent revelation that the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation into New Hanover County Schools has triggered a series of events, most notably the need for the district to collect data to comply with the inquiry.

The OCR's probe comes after a parent filed a complaint alleging the school district provided insufficient facilities to New Hanover High School, where the majority of students are Black and Hispanic, while the white-majority high schools throughout the county have state-of-the-art buildings.

A year after receiving the complaint, the OCR officially opened an investigation into whether the district is providing inferior facilities to New Hanover High School than it is to Hoggard, Laney and Ashley High Schools.

New Hanover High School’s student body is 44% white and 31% Black, according to the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics data from the 2020-21 school year. Comparatively, Laney High School's student body is 60% white and 18.5% Black, Hoggard High School's is 70% white and 13% Black, and Ashley High School's is 74% white and 6% Black.

Now, the district has less than a month to gather information for the OCR, at which point the office will continue its investigation and decide if there were any violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects students from racial discrimination.

The StarNews contacted school district officials regarding the investigation on Sept. 6 and again on Sept. 14, but they declined to comment.

Here’s what's to come in the next several months as the OCR continues looking into Wilmington-area schools.

Opening an investigation

The Office for Civil Rights is responsible for investigating discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability and age, as outlined in federal law.  It is considered a “neutral fact-finder" throughout the investigation process, according to the Department of Education website. That means the OCR has not made a determination on the complaint, and all the issues within the complaint remain allegations while the investigation occurs.

To open an investigation, a complainant must file the complaint in a timely manner, typically within 180 days of the alleged discrimination occurring, and it must be within the OCR’s jurisdiction to investigate. The complainant also must present in the complaint that at least one law was allegedly broken.

In New Hanover County, complainant Katrina Aldrich shared multiple allegations that the district is discriminating against students based on race by providing unequal facilities for the majority Black and Hispanic high school. She also furnished the OCR with her own research into renovations conducted in the last several years on each high school, in addition to personal anecdotes witnessing disrepair and lack of facility space at New Hanover High School.

Because of these actions, the OCR opened its investigation into the district, according to a letter from the OCR sent to Aldrich.

“Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to the merits of the complaint,” the Department of Education website says. “OCR will collect and analyze relevant evidence from the complainant, the recipient, and other sources, as appropriate. OCR will ensure that the actions it takes in investigations are legally sufficient, and that its determinations are support by the evidence.”

Data from the district

With an investigation now open, the OCR will use a variety of “fact-finding techniques” to evaluate the merit of the complaint, which can include documented evidence submitted by Aldrich and the district and also interviews with parents, teachers and students.

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The office requested 22 different pieces of data from the district, according to correspondence sent to Superintendent Charles Foust by the OCR. The district now has until Sept. 26 to fill the request. Those points include the following information from New Hanover, Hoggard, Laney and Ashley High Schools:

• Race demographics of each school over the last three years

• Dates of construction of each building and subsequent renovations and additions

• Dates of most recent renovations to facilities including locker rooms, cafeterias, restrooms, gyms and concession facilities

• Percentage of each school’s capacity utilization last year

• Portable classrooms/trailers used as classrooms over the last year and courses taught in those classrooms

• Square footage per student during the last school year, excluding portable classrooms

• Square footage of cafeteria space and student restrooms

• Athletic facilities open and available for student use in the last three school years, including gyms, courts, fields, locker rooms, training rooms, weight rooms, concession stands and other relevant spaces

• Athletic facilities projected to be available for practices and home games in the current school year and which teams will have access to those facilities

• Spectator seating capacity in each athletic facility

• A list of specialized classrooms at each school such as labs, art rooms, music rooms, photography darkrooms, career and technical education classrooms, auditoriums and theatres, libraries, etc.

• Types of air conditioning used in facilities, as well as a list of facilities without air conditioning

• Internal and external facility assessments from the last decade

• Most recent health inspections of facilities

• Records of pest control and inspections over the last three years

• The number of days that any portion of the school (for example, a gymnasium) was closed because of facility issues over the last three years

• List of additions, renovations, remodeling or major (non-routine) maintenance on school buildings and expenditures for those projects

• Routine maintenance budget, logs of maintenance requests, and average time spent on maintenance to each school over the last three school years

• All deferred maintenance items

• A map of each school

The OCR also requested minutes from public hearings and school board meetings about allocating funds for high school facilities over the last five years, data submitted to the state for the statewide facility needs survey, and the district’s long-range plan to address facility needs.

Next steps

Once the Office for Civil Rights has access to those data points, investigators will determine if there is substantial evidence that the district has violated students’ civil rights by providing New Hanover High School with insufficient facilities.

If the district is found to be noncompliant, the OCR will work with district officials to negotiate a voluntary resolutions agreement, which would outline specific remedial actions to address the issues found by the OCR.

The OCR will monitor implementation of the resolutions in the agreement. If the district does not comply to those resolutions, according to the Department of Education’s website, the office can "initiate administrative enforcement proceedings” or refer the case to the Department of Justice.

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If following the investigation it is determined there were no violations of Title VI, the complainant – Aldrich – will have a chance to appeal that decision within 60 days to explain why she believes the findings were inaccurate or incomplete and how correction of those errors can change the outcome of the case.

Throughout the investigation process, the OCR will protect those involved in the complaint from retaliation, threats, intimidation or coercion. A second complaint can be filed with the OCR if the complainant believes they were retaliated against.

Contact reporter Sydney Hoover at shoover@gannett.com or on Twitter @sydneymhoover. Join the Education Issues in Southeastern North Carolina Facebook group to stay up-to-date on education news.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: What's to come in New Hanover race discrimination investigation