Rating:

0.0 (0 votes)

TUCSON - Tucson's largest school district is moving forward with plans to end a desegregation order.

In conjunction with the federal court, and plaintiffs in the mandate the district will be participating in community forums seeking input on the proposal call the unitary status plan.

The plan is said to be a compromise between all parties involved. Rubin Salter Jr. represented plaintiffs in the case about 38 years ago, "at any desegregation plan, it's like a divorce there's never no winners."

Salter said he is somewhat satisfied with the new plan, "not only will kids of color but Anglo kids as well because this plan is going to bring this school district into a 21 century school district."

Sam Brown is the desegregation director for the district and said he wants forum attendees to be brutally honest, "the perception that for instance we're a 70 percent minority school district could be attributed to something that TUSD did or didn't do to cause this."

A judge said the district never acted in good faith to comply with the mandate so the order continued, "it's not just an issue of busing students. It's also an issue of equal education opportunities. And so again we see that as an opportunity to just build a better school district not really as a burden being placed on us by the courts," Brown explained.

The first meeting was held Monday at Tucson High School, the others are scheduled for Tuesday at El Pueblo Regional Center, 101 W. Irvington Rd., and Wednesday at Palo Verde High School located at 1302 S. Avenida Vega. All meetings are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.