Parents accuse Wheaton schools of racism

A cry of racial bias is part of the initial backlash Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 officials must address as part of a plan to transfer students from a Carol Stream apartment complex to a new school.

The controversy stems from an effort to alleviate overcrowding at Longfellow Elementary School in Wheaton.

In the last five years, the school's overall student population has grown by 68 children. As a result, the building's art room, music room, teacher's lounge, office area and library all have been converted to classrooms.

The situation is only getting worse. District 200 officials expect they'll need two more classrooms within the next two years. But there is no more space to accommodate those classes.

Adding a mobile classroom would require displacing the playground. Meanwhile, attendance boundary changes are difficult because the entire southern dividing line for the school is a railroad crossing the district doesn't want to bus children across.

That leaves only one option, according to district staff.

There are two buses bringing students to Longfellow from the north side of the boundaries. One bus carries about 50 children from the French Quarter Apartments in Carol Stream.

That apartment complex is in a neighborhood with a true melting pot of races.

Census data from 2000 for the block where the apartments are located show a relatively three-way split of whites, Asians and Hispanics. There's also a notable but smaller black population.

Some parents at the French Quarter say they believe their children's skin is why they've been selected to move to a new school -- Pleasant Hill Elementary in Winfield.

"Most of our children are minorities," read a letter to the school board signed by several residents of the complex. "Therefore, we feel as though this is a racial issue. We are a different community than the white community."

Another letter from a French Quarter parent to the school board expressed frustration about some single-parents having 60-hour work weeks, making it hard to attend meetings about the school switch.

That fact was reflected by French Quarter residents choosing an eighth-grader, Karen Suarz, to read both letters to the school board this week.

"What about their feelings and fears?" asked a letter from Suarz' mother. "What about the relationships they've built with their classmates, teachers and the rest of the staff? Our kids don't want to go to a different school, and we don't want them to, either."

Superintendent Richard Drury responded to the concerns by saying the move has nothing to do with dispersing minorities. French Quarter students were chosen because of the size of their group and the fact that their bus ride to Pleasant Hill wouldn't be any longer than the ride to Longfellow, he said.

"We looked at the overall demographics of children and such, and balance and so forth, and this seems to be the best match," Drury said. "Certainly, in no way was it a racial issue whatsoever."

Drury is planning to meet with French Quarter residents on March 24 to pitch a compromise.

The new plan would allow almost all the current French Quarter students to stay at Longfellow until they graduate. New students from the apartment complex will attend Pleasant Hill, as well as eight current kindergarten students.

The plan would create the space Longfellow needs and decrease the number of children who must change schools. Both schools have equal services for students in special education and English as a Second Language courses.

Drury also stressed that no final decision has been made about the move yet. The school board ultimately will make the call.