School Board's Default Left Public Leaderless (The Charlotte Observer)

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School Boar 

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JAMES 1, KNrent, Publisher 
‘BRODIE S, GRIFFITH, Associate Publisher 

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C. A. McK vicar, Editor 
BEVERLY R. CARTER, General Manages 

  
  

  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1970 

  
  

EDITORIALS 
  

    

Left P 
A majority of the members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Educa. tion have defaulted on their obligation to the children, parents and teachers in the local school system. 
The majority rejected the District Court's offer of alternatives ang allowed the so-called Finger Plan to take effect by default, They passed over choices that could have been less painful for students and parents, and therefore more apt to be carried out successfully. 
This has cast greater uncertainty over the opening of schools on Aug. 31. It has left our school administrators short on board support and community resources, It has left students, parents and teachers confused about what is going to happen. 

Public Left Oug 
To make the problem worse, other leaders in the community have been left in poor position to place their influence behind an orderly carrying-out of the District Court’s order. 
The vacuum has been filled by oppon- - ents of the court orders, as the disruptive nature of Thursday night's: school board meeting showed so well. 
No outsider knows everything that board members discussed in connection with Federa] Judge James McMillan’s most recent order. As has been the custom under Chairman William E. Poe in 

has been shut 

these desegregation matters, the public 
out of the really important discussions. 

met at least as long 

There was a closed session of the board last Monday morning. Then its members 
behind closed doors Wednesday night as they met in public ‘on Thursday night. Interpretations of the judge’s decision by the board’s attorneys 

that a majority of 

and the board's discussion of the alterna- tives were shut off from the people these things affect most directly, 
It finally became clear Thursday night 

board members had decided to stick with the posture they have held from the beginning — that simple redistricting would bring the school system into desegregation compli- ance. 
But even the action that left the schools with the unpopular Finger Plan was taken with the fear that, should the 

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d’s Default 
ublic Leaderless 

Plan work too wel] when school opened, the board’s appeal to the Supreme Court would be on shaky ground. In effect, then, most of the school board has. a strategic interest in community rejection OF unsuccessful operation of the Finger Plan. 

Ho peful Sign 
It was somewhat * encouraging when Chairman Poe ‘stated that the board would do all it was able te do to implement the plan should a stay of Judge McMillan’s order not be granteq by a higher court. Fut the prospect now js that junior ang senior high schools may: be opened August 31 while al} elementary schools remain ciosed — for how long, nobody knows. 

the private sessions that the ruling majority would 
(Watkins) plan to the one they have allowed to take effect. 

against the board. 
Such a course could 

changes in one term for many, if not most, of the system’s elementary sty- dents. This would likely incur the dis- 
as well as the community, Considering the fact that school could begin with an alternative to the Finger Plan, this “strategy” would be a serious misuse of the students ang Parents, even if the courts permitted it. 

cause two school 

Delay Periloys 
In this setting, either a stay or an early Supreme Court decision would be a godsend for the community, Long delay of the opening of the schools could, for example, caused a serious loss of teachers and other schog] personnel. The longer the desegregation problem festers, or is made worse by awkward implementation, the less able we will be to resolve factional differences. 

Charlotte-Mecklenhyrg is going to have to make its Peace with the problem one’ day Soon, or its children will be neither SUccesstully desegresated nor educated. 

A YL. 1. fe A Whole {11v : TERRIA xy 

  

FIERY RUN, Va. — | 
. lovely corner of Virginia 

are changing their ideas 
the land — not much but 

A generation ag : 
plowed the foothills of the 
Ridge to plant corn ap 
gully-washing rains carr: « red earth down the Ra 
nock to the sea. 

Fiery Run, which is p 
the headwaters of the Rap 
nock, is much clearer 
because while corn Ig 
planted on these hil 
much land has been put 
grass for cattle, 

The land is being conse 
not because conservatio 
ethically right, but becay 
paid more money to 
cattle than to raise corn, 

NEVERTHELESS, it 
necessary to raise hell 
while the government 
helped conserv: tha na 
resources of tie nating 
giving tax havens to 
heeled gentlemen farmers 
shelling out billicns for pla [||41003f9d-c63c-4753-95e7-0b36325783c7||]