EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITIES:
TOPEKA'S MAGNET SCHOOLS
Betty Horton (Director, Topeka Magnet Schools): In 1954, a landmark case
issued from Topeka, Kansas, that resonated throughout the nation. And
that was Brown v Topeka Board of Education -- 1954. That landmark case
swirled around the country and helped establish in other districts in
other states schools that were racially balanced.
And that racial balance happened in one of two ways -- either that racial
balance was brought about by court ordered busing ... people did not have
a choice about where their children were going to go to school; they were
just bused. Then there's another choice ... there's another choice that
came into being in about 1964, and that was a voluntary choice that
involved magnet schools.
Narrator: In September of 1996, two new magnet schools opened in Topeka
as part of a plan to address an imbalance in the racial composition of
Topeka's Schools. This plan came about in response to a lawsuit
maintaining that the district failed to compl y with federal mandates
regarding the desegregation of public schools. The director of magnet
schools for Topeka, Betty Horton confirms that this lawsuit recalled the
original case of Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education.
Horton: It was called Brown II. So 40 years after the original Brown,
Brown II came back to Topeka. And this time Brown II resulted in a
decision by the federal court -- Judge Rogers -- to implement a plan
designed by the district, sanctioned by the ci tizens, that would result
in voluntary school choice and the building of magnet schools.
Narrator: Magnet schools are typically organized around a particular
theme. Of the two new magnet schools in Topeka, Scott Elementary was
designed to concentrate on computer techology, while Williams involves a
unique blend of science and fine arts. The principal at Williams, Bob
Cronkhite reports that the new magnet schools had no problem attracting
students.
Bob Cronkhite (Principal, Williams Elementary): Didn't have any problem.
We have a little over 600 students here. And during the process of
application, there were around 1900 students that wanted to attend the
magnet schools. And between the two magn et schools, there's 1200 seats.
So we didn't have a hard time bringing students here. I think we have
some programs here and some opportunities here that are pretty unique to
kids.
We have a number of things in our fine arts component. First off, we have
a fine arts coordinator, Susan Liotta, who's just a tremendous
personality, has the ability to seek out assistance in the public. We're
trying to get some connections made with the fine arts community, with the
Topeka Performing Arts Center, with Washburn's children's theatre. We
have a performance group. All of our students every day are involved in
vocal music; some have chosen to be involved in instrumental music. Every
week the students get a chance to go to the visuals arts lab to work on
projects there. Classroom teachers still work on art within their
classrooms, much like any other elementary teacher would. The rest of
that is beyond and above the call.
We also have four unique settings in our building, one of which we're
sitting in now, which is a rain forest. And students have helped with the
development and growth of this rain forest and really with the vision
about how it's come to pass. We also ha ve a desert that was developed
much the same way, a greenhouse and a space lab that are part of our
science theme. Every student is in each one of these labs every week.
They go to a different lab each day.
The facility here's fantastic. And we've had a chance to take a little
look around it. You've got some sense of how it's different in its view
from other schools. The classrooms don't appear traditional. You don't
see student desks. You see computer tables. You see students working in
a variety of settings. You see some students working individually on
computers; you see some students in a small-group teacher-director
activity; some students sitting at desks working on individual or group
work; som e kids will be on chairs; some will be on the floor. You just
don't come in and expect to see a traditional classroom in our buildings.
That's not the way that we function.
Horton: We're not surprised ... in fact, we're very pleased and elated
that these schools are being thought of as innovation centers. Some of
the things we're doing in these schools we want to have translated and
implemented in other schools around the district. That's going to happen.
Narrator: Although the new schools have generated enthusiasm and support
within the school district, some people were not pleased that they
displaced smaller neighborhood schools, several of which were closed.
Cronkhite: Well, one of the concerns.... I've been principal at Belvoir.
Belvoir was a significantly smaller school ... an enrollment of about 150
students. We have a little over 600 here. And the concern came about --
what are you gonna do to make s ure my children don't get lost in this
school of 600? We're used to a school of 150, where every teacher knows
my child. So one of the things we tried to do in working with the
architects was to design the building around a pod concept.
So we have four instructional pods. Each of them holds about 150
students. And we've tried to develop that sense of community ... that
sense of family. That's going to be on-going. You just can't do that in
two or three months once the building's open. That's going to be a
project that's going to extend into the opening years of the school. We
really want to get that sense that the teachers here know and work with
all 150 students within that pod.
We try to include families and keep them within the pods. If we have a
pod that's third, fourth and fifth graders, and we've got siblings that
are third and fifth grade, we try to have them in the same pod so that
they can see one another periodically du ring the day. The parents get to
know -- "I go to this part of the building because that's where my child's
fifth grade teacher is and my other child's third grade teacher." So they
start building that sense of common ground and that sense of family and
community.
Horton: I think the magnet schools have been able to incorporate the
neighborhood concepts and also incorporate kind of a systemwide, citywide
neighborhood for each school. The neighborhood concept is upheld because
around each school there's an attendance area. And in that attendance
area, students who apply to the magnet schools have the first seats in
those magnet schools.
And so we've reserved a certain number of seats for neighborhood students.
And then for students who are further away, we have an advantage of having
parents from all sectors of the community become involved in that school.
As a result, those schools are becoming citywide kind of communities ...
and not just neighborhood communities.
Narrator: As with most schools, the new magnet schools also recognize the
importance of involving parents in their children's education.
Cronkhite: And yes, we have a parent team in place that has an executive
board that meets monthly, and then also they're establishing monthly
parent team meetings for all parents that would like to come up and be
involved. And they're looking at planning some chili supper kind of
events -- try to get people in for social events and then we'll try to
draw them more and more into the academic events that take place in our
school as well.
You can have all the computers, and you can have all the labs, you can
have all of that, and if you don't have a good relationship -- a caring
teacher and a child and a parent that encourages -- the education becomes
much more difficult. I think we have the three components in place.
We've got kids that are eager to learn; parents that are there to support
their kids; and teachers that want to be here. All the teachers that are
here applied to be here. No one was placed here against their will, so
people are where they want to be.
Horton: I think this model works ... and it has worked across the country
in hundreds of districts because of the voluntary nature of choice. The
community is involved about what the choices are; parents are invited to
learn more about choices; children are invited to learn more. And when
they make a choice, that choice is because they want something offered by
that school. These schools in Topeka Public Schools are now racially
balanced. The work that we're doing is going to ensure that the racial
balance in this district remains just as it should be.
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(Copyright 1997 KTWU/Channel 11, Topeka, KS.)