Is Riverview Charter School TOO WHITE?

The Board of Education conditionally approved Riverview’s charter in September 2008 contingent upon five stipulations being met, one of which was compliance with a desegregation agreement with the Office of Civil Rights that governs any new school approval. The Beaufort County School District is required to comply with the desegregation agreement that dates back to 1970 whenever new schools are constructed, approved or when rezoning occurs. The Office of Civil Rights has been involved in discussions regarding several proposed changes in Beaufort County, including rezoning for Red Cedar Elementary, restructuring of Davis and Whale Branch Elementary Schools and Riverview Charter School.

After months of investigation, on Friday, representatives of the Office of Civil Rights presented their findings to Riverview Charter School and School District leaders. The opening statements of the agreement include,
“The Riverview Charter School has applied to the Board of Education of the Beaufort County School District for approval of a charter application to open at the start of the 2009-2010 school year. Riverview is required to comply with the District’s March 9, 1970 Title VI Desegregation Plan, as amended, and the District is required to ensure that compliance. Riverview, as currently constituted, is not in compliance. With regard to student assignment, the Desegregation Plan provides that the percentage of White and African-American students, faculty, and staff in each school will approximate as nearly as possible the percentages in the school district. The District’s student enrollment is 45% White and 34% African-American. Despite efforts to recruit applications from African-American students, fewer than 10% of the applicants for Riverview were African-American students and the selection lottery resulted in a proposed school enrollment that would be over 76% White and slightly less than 10% African-American students. If permitted to open as a racially identifiable White school, Riverview would violate the District’s Desegregation Plan. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the District agree that preventing the opening of the school at this late date would be unduly burdensome to students, parents, staff, and other stakeholders but that the District must immediately reduce the racial identifiability of the school for the start of the school year and must ensure that Riverview is no longer racially identifiable by the start of the 2010-2011 school year. Accordingly, the District and OCR agree to amend the Desegregation Plan, as follows:

1. Effective the date of this agreement, the Board may approve Riverview’s charter application for the 2009-2010 school year if that application is amended to incorporate the terms set forth in this Agreement. The Board shall revoke Riverview’s charter if the terms of this Agreement are not met.” Additional conditions follow that specify requirements and suggestions for obtaining a diverse student and staff population at Riverview.

Riverview Charter School and School District leaders concurred that the agreement was acceptable, in that it allows Riverview to open and to continue to strive toward compliance. Mr. Fred Washington, chairman of the Board of Education, stated, “The Board and School District look forward to continuing to work diligently with Riverview Charter School to meet requirements of the Office of Civil Rights.”

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