Posted on 08/13/2005 12:54:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
"This is an education flee. They're running to get an education. It's not about race or color," said Tim Johnson, a 1985 graduate of Hearne High, whose 13-year-old son attends Mumford. "I feel sorry for the kids that are (at Hearne) and cannot get out and go somewhere else."
"It was awful," said Reed, adding that teachers were starting to organize to home-school children who didn't want to attend Hearne schools.
MUMFORD - About 70 white students were turned away from their schools here for two days this week as their parents, school administrators and civil rights attorneys fought the latest round in a racially charged legal battle between two small-town Central Texas school districts.
A ruling Friday will allow the students, who had transferred from lower-performing schools in nearby Hearne, to return to their classrooms in Mumford on Monday.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay to allow the transfer students to remain until a hearing in early October. Students, some of whom have attended the 460-
student Mumford district since kindergarten, were banned earlier this week, after U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice ruled that their transfers violated federal desegregation laws by significantly altering the racial makeup of the school districts.
Relieved parents cheered, cried and hugged when they heard the news at the Mumford Middle School library.
"Thank God. He was listening," said parent Kristy Watson. "He knew it was wrong to deny kids a safe and good education."
The two Robertson County school districts have been at odds since Hearne filed a lawsuit in 2003 in U.S. District Court in Tyler claiming that Mumford was aggressively recruiting its white students. According to federal law, schools cannot purposely take steps to change their racial makeup.
The 110-square-mile Hearne district, which is 25 miles from Texas A&M University, has seen its enrollment drop by about 400 from 1993 to 2003. Nearly 300 of those students were white, according to Texas Education Agency records.
During that same decade, Mumford added 313 students, including 137 white students, according to state documents.
"We complained and said they're taking a whole bunch of our kids," said attorney Roger Hepworth, who is representing Hearne. "They run their buses right into our district and pick them all up."
School districts in Texas receive at least $5,500 in state funding for each child enrolled.
High transfer rates While 83 school-age children lived within Mumford's boundaries in 2002, state records show 391 students transferred into the district that year. Many of the students improperly claimed hardship exemptions to transfer, TEA officials said.
As the district increased its enrollment with transfer students, it built three new schools and stocked them with computers, televisions and VCRs.
Hearne Superintendent David Deaver was hoping some of those students would return to his schools when classes resume Wednesday in Hearne. He's frustrated with the enrollment drain.
"It's been a disruption since 1990," Deaver said. "In the past 14 years, it's hurt us to the tune of $81.6 million."
While two-thirds of Robertson County is white, nearly 60 percent of the Hearne school district is black. Officials said the high transfer rates are further proof of "white flight."
"We draw our suspicions from Mumford's actions," said David Hinojosa, a staff attorney with Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Courts have a job to remove segregation by root and branch. ... We're intrigued and anticipate a fair argument before the 5th Circuit."
MALDEF and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have joined the legal team representing Hearne officials because the case involves desegregation laws.
Some parents say they transfer their students because Hearne schools are dangerous and don't do a good job of educating students.
In ratings released Thursday, the Hearne district and three of its four campuses failed to make "adequate yearly progress" — academic improvement required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Mumford and all of its campuses made the mandated progress.
"This is an education flee. They're running to get an education. It's not about race or color," said Tim Johnson, a 1985 graduate of Hearne High, whose 13-year-old son attends Mumford. "I feel sorry for the kids that are (at Hearne) and cannot get out and go somewhere else."
White transfer students attended classes Wednesday, the Mumford district's first day, but were turned away Thursday and Friday.
Students' views Mumford High School math teacher Ralph Reed said it turned his stomach to have to send students home. The legal fight has really strained the start of the school year, the veteran teacher said.
"It was awful," said Reed, adding that teachers were starting to organize to home-school children who didn't want to attend Hearne schools.
Kelsey Watson, a Mumford eighth-grader, said she was upset when her mother told her she could not return to school because of the court order.
"I didn't understand why only white students," she said. "It shouldn't matter about race. My mother sent me here for a good education."
She said she didn't know how to answer friends who called every day asking when she would come back to school.
Senior Shawna McGarry, who was not affected by the order, said she is thrilled her friends will be returning.
"Our school is my family," she said. "You can't take away a small part of our family and it not affect everybody. It's our support system."
Reed said the community is willing to argue the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. "This is an issue that needs to be resolved because it has implications for the entire America," he said. "If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere."
Reed and others said that Mumford didn't need to recruit for students. The district's small classes, good facilities and strong academic programs speak for themselves, he said.
"It kind of leaked out by word of mouth. There was no effort to do that. Kids just started to show up," he said. "Two facts still remain clear: That Mumford is a good school and that Hearne is not. The choice is clear."
Mumford Superintendent Peter Bienski warned the fight is not over. "I think that we have to maintain a positive attitude and we have to believe we will be successful in this case. Parents have to continue to express their views and let the public know what's happening."
Renee C. Lee reported from Mumford. Jennifer Radcliffe reported from Houston.
jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com renee.lee@chron.com
This story two years ago: Schools at odds in racial division - Hearne ISD sues nearby Mumford for "white flight"***........The accusations of racism sting, said Mumford Superintendent Pete Bienski Jr.
Mumford's growth has never been about race or money, but about educating children, he said. To prove it, Bienski has his own statistics.
Of the 342 students who transferred to Mumford last year, 268 came from Hearne. Of the Hearne transfers, 156 were black or Hispanic.
"This is not a white school. We take all kids," Bienski said. "People come to Mumford because they know they are getting a better education. We don't recruit kids. Parents do our recruiting for us by word of mouth."
Bienski doesn't deny that Mumford relies on the state aid it receives for the transfers, but he insists that has not been the secret to the school district's recent success. Mumford has been successful, Bienski says, because it does more with less.
There is some evidence of that.
Bienski serves not only as the school district superintendent, but also as the principal of all three campuses. When the district began its aggressive building campaign in 1997, Bienski served as the general contractor, saving the district millions of dollars. The district owns all three campuses outright.
The school district stocked its computer labs by taking advantage of grant programs. When it launched its high school a few years ago, it focused on academics and avoided costly athletic programs such as football. ....***
School districts in Texas receive at least $5,500 in state funding for each child enrolled.
Uh huh... I thought so. Follow the money.
So if I get this right, the white kids are tranferring to a school dist. with fewer black kids because their old district is too dangerous and they are not getting a good education.
What's the problem?
Look at how Mumford tightened its belt and stretched their money! (Post#1)
It's more than that. Read the end of the story and Post #1. As usual, the msm hides the other side at the end of the article.
I saw that.
Liberals get absolutely livid when their indoctrination schemes and/or tax dollar fleecing goes awry.
They certainly do!
NEA and local school unions are going to fight this tooth and nail. Who knows, in time this could lead to demands that qualified teachers inhabit classrooms not just union members.
There's some more in the LINKED article.
August 10, 2005 Judge Orders Whites to Attend Black School***Hundreds of students who have transferred from Hearne to the Mumford Independent School District will have to go home to reverse an illegal "white flight" trend that has segregated the districts, according to a ruling delivered out of a federal court in Tyler last week.
In the 110-page document, Senior U.S. District Court Judge William Wayne Justice described Mumford as maintaining a "pattern of fraudulent conduct" in past years as it solicited transfers from Hearne, increasing its enrollment of white students over a 10-year period by 3,540 percent.
The lawsuit was filed by the Hearne school district and three of its students in July 2003. It was based, in part, on the argument that Mumford's actions have been in direct contrast to "No. 5821" - shorthand for a 1970 civil case that stated "no student in Texas will be effectively excluded from equal educational opportunities based on race, color or national origin."
"Mumford has shown consistent and persistent willingness to circumvent the requirements of No. 5281 whenever possible," Justice wrote in the Thursday ruling.
The judge's ruling permanently bars the Texas Education Agency from funding transfers to Mumford that "reduce or impeded racial desegregation at Hearne Independent School District." Districts receive about $5,500 funding from the agency for each student.
Mumford also was ordered to no longer host Hearne students currently attending its schools.
In addition, Justice ordered the TEA to assign a monitor to Mumford to ensure compliance with the ruling from now until the end of the 2007-08 school year.
In response to the accusations, Mumford had argued that "it cannot be determined that [the district's] acceptance of transfers has had a segregative effect on Hearne," according to court documents.
However, Justice sternly dismissed the contention, accusing the school district of apparently having a "misunderstanding of basic arithmetic."....***
Home school ping please.
Yes. How dare they be fiscally responsible and TEACH too!
If that's the case, the Fifth Circuit will slap him down in short order. They're not handy with emergency stay orders, so we're on a roll.
Not to change the subject, but is anyone hollering about making the Hearne school worth attending? Maybe a regime change? Superintendent/Principal x 3/General Contractor/Cost Cutter Bienski sounds like my kind of school administrator--do they have any more of him?
There must be people of many races stuck in the district and unable to transfer; why aren't they raising Cain over their own district's management? Surely they're not all backing this shakedown!
HEARNE ISD
198-905
REGION 06 mail:
900 WHEELOCK ST
HEARNE 77859-3096
site:
900 WHEELOCK ST
HEARNE 77859-3096
phone:
(979) 279-3200
fax:
(979) 279-3631
email:
ddeaver@hearne.k12.tx.us
url:
www.hearne.k12.tx.us
DAVID DEAVER 1229
MUMFORD ISD
198-906
REGION 06 mail:
P O BOX 268
MUMFORD 77867-0268
site:
F M #50
MUMFORD 77867-0268
phone:
(979) 279-3678
fax:
(979) 279-5044
email:
pbienski@mumford.k12.tx.us
url:
www.mumford.k12.tx.us/
PETE J BIENSKI JR 463
As noted in Post #1 .....Of the 342 students who transferred to Mumford last year, 268 came from Hearne. Of the Hearne transfers, 156 were black or Hispanic. ......
But Judge Justice (good Lord) can't buck the LIBERALS.
2006 DISTRICT NAME: MUMFORD ISD
DISTRICT NUMBER: 198906
ACCOUNTABILITY RATING: Academically Acceptable
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SUMMARY
ACCOUNTABILITY RATINGS
NUMBER
OF
CAMPUS RATING: SCHOOLS
EXEMPLARY 0
RECOGNIZED 2
ACADEMICALLY ACCEPTABLE 0
ACADEMICALLY UNACCEPTABLE 0
AEA: ACADEMICALLY ACCEPTABLE 0
AEA: ACADEMICALLY UNACCEPTABLE 0
NOT RATED: OTHER 0
___
TOTAL 2
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Campus Name Links to the Accountability Data Table
CAMPUS LIST (in campus number order)
CAMPUS RATING COMMENTS
001 MUMFORD H S Recognized
101 MUMFORD EL Recognized
Total Count = 2
2005 DISTRICT ACCOUNTABILITY SUMMARY
District Name Links to the Accountability Data Table
DISTRICT NAME: HEARNE ISD
DISTRICT NUMBER: 198905
ACCOUNTABILITY RATING: Academically Acceptable
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SUMMARY
ACCOUNTABILITY RATINGS
NUMBER
OF
CAMPUS RATING: SCHOOLS
EXEMPLARY 0
RECOGNIZED 0
ACADEMICALLY ACCEPTABLE 4
ACADEMICALLY UNACCEPTABLE 0
AEA: ACADEMICALLY ACCEPTABLE 0
AEA: ACADEMICALLY UNACCEPTABLE 0
NOT RATED: OTHER 0
___
TOTAL 4
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Campus Name Links to the Accountability Data Table
CAMPUS LIST (in campus number order)
CAMPUS RATING COMMENTS
002 HEARNE H S Academically Acceptable
042 HEARNE J H Academically Acceptable
102 EAST SIDE EL Academically Acceptable PAIRED WITH 103
103 BLACKSHEAR EL Academically Acceptable
Once there choose "District by Region Number" and enter 06 and "continue"
There you will be able to pull down Mumford and Hearne.
At the bottom of each district recap, you can click on individual schools and get the racial break down and how they preform.
Interesting that when they choose to, they put an * to "protect student confidentiality." Check for yourself what they're really protecting.
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