rss
mobile
Feeds
The federal Office for Civil Rights has responded to a plan to ensure Riverview Charter School complies with the Beaufort County School District's 1970 desegregation agreement and meets minority enrollment targets by next fall.
OCR officials said the recruitment plan, developed by representatives from Riverview and the school district, shows the school is taking appropriate steps to attract a diverse student body.
"It clearly reflects a lot of careful thought and hard work," an OCR statement said. "We think the plan will go a long way toward ensuring that Riverview meets the requirements of the amendment to the desegregation plan. Of course, it all comes down to implementation."
The 1970 desegregation agreement requires the percentage of white and black students in each school to approximate the district-wide percentage. In July, an amendment required Riverviewto recruit more black students and faculty or close next year.
By the 2010-11 school year, the charter school's enrollment of white students must not exceed the district's kindergarten through sixth-grade enrollment of white students by more than 20 percentage points, according to OCR. Its black enrollment should not be more than 20 percentage points less than the district average.
About 15 percent of the 248 students now enrolled at Riverview are black. About 71 percent are white.
The district's total enrollment is 44 percent white and 33 percent black.
The recruitment plan was submitted to OCR in October after it was approved by the Beaufort County Board of Education. It outlines dozens of strategies for recruiting black students, including distributing recruitment materials to black churches and employing a person with direct ties to the black community to direct recruitment.
The proposed plan also allows Riverview to give preference in admissions to minority students next year, which conflicts with a state law that says students must be selected for admission to charter schools by lottery.
OCR suggested some improvements to the plan, said Geri Kinton, communications chairwoman for the Riverview board. The office asked for more specific timelines for implementing parts of the plan and asked Riverview to incorporate the growing Hispanic community.
The desegregation agreement explicitly addresses only black and white student populations, but Kinton said OCR suggested Riverview make a conscious effort to recruit other minorities, as well.
"We were going to be doing that, anyway, in our overall recruitment, but now we've added it to the plan," Kinton said.
She said recruitment materials will be distributed at Hispanic churches and recruitment meetings will be held in the Bluffton area, where there is a large Hispanic population.
Minority parents of Riverview students have been nominated for this month's board of directors election and have participated in focus groups to study the effectiveness of recruitment strategies.
"I feel like we're moving in the right direction and we'll get the numbers we need," Kinton said.
