Schools

State to Groton: There's No Racial Imbalance Waiver

An attorney for state board of education said if Groton refuses to comply, they'll wind up in court.

A lawyer for the state department of education said today Groton would not get a waiver from the state’s racial balance law and would be taken to court if it refused to comply.

Laura Anastasio, the lawyer who handles racial imbalance cases for the state department of education, said there’s no provision in the law for a waiver, and she doesn’t know why the district would think it could get one.

“It’s just like if someone said, ‘We really don’t want to teach math in our schools anymore.’ Can we have a waiver?” she said.

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State would file complaint

The Groton Board of Education said Monday it would seek a waiver of the state’s racial balance rules to avoid a redistricting plan that would shuffle students away from their neighborhood schools.

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The board gave Superintendent Paul Kadri the directive The plans are aimed at consolidating middle schools and correcting a racial imbalance at Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School.

Anastasio said if Groton refused to comply with the racial balance law, the state would first file a complaint with its board of education citing the district for failing to follow statutory mandates, and ordering it to come up with a plan.

“If they refuse to do that, we would take them to court,” she said. The case would go to the Superior Court, she said. The attorney general would represent the state department of education at that point.

Funding would remain

Anastasio said she does not foresee the state taking away Groton’s education funding, however.

“We are not in the business of trying to harm schools,” she said. “We are in the business of trying to help them.”

Groton receives $25 million in education funding from the state.

District fought it and lost

The state’s racial balance law has been in place since the late 1960s and Anastasio said she knows of only one instance where a district refused to follow the rule.

She said Waterbury was cited in the 1970s or early 1980s, failed to produce a plan and was taken to court. The court ordered the district to create a magnet school.

In Manchester last year, the state board of education initiated a complaint against that district because of its failure to file an acceptable racial balance plan in a timely manner. The district then came up with a plan that satisfied the state, she said.

Anastasio said Kadri was in the process of putting together a plan for Groton to present to the state board.

Groton imbalance worsening

Catherine Kolnaski was cited for racial imbalance in 2003, and its numbers have bounced up and down since, but have been worse in recent years. In 2009, the school's minority population exceeded the district average by 25.7 percent. That figured then increased to 27.4 percent, Anastasio said.

A school is considered racially imbalanced if the minority population is greater than 25 percentage points above the district average.

Five to seven school districts a year struggle with racial balance in Connecticut, and typically include Groton, West Harford, Greenwich and Fairfield. More recently, schools in Enfield, Manchester and Bristol have also had problems.

Redistricting elsewhere

Districts are not locked into redistricting as the solution, but as a practical matter, districts that succeed in resolving the issue typically do this.

In Enfield, the school district closed the school that was deemed racially unbalanced, redistributed students and realigned its schools.  In Bristol, the district also closed the school cited for racial imbalance, redistributed students and is in the process of rebuilding schools.


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