By DAVID VITRANO

News Editor

RESERVE—Tensions once again rose in the chambers of the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board when the topic turned to restructuring St. John attendance zones to accommodate the new Emily C. Watkins school, expected to be open for the 2008-09 school year.

Although another concerned citizen voiced concerns over the racial ramifications of the new proposed zones, this time the friction was mostly among members of the board, many of whom had strong, differing opinions on the matter.

When the board reached the issue of attendance zones on the agenda, Board Member James Madere offered a motion to accept alternate attendance zone plan two, saying, “Alternate plan number two is the only plan that equalizes population at all schools.”

He went on to explain that in his opinion keeping the populations at all St. John schools as low as possible was the most important factor to consider when selecting a plan.

When citizen concerns over the racial makeup of the new school—under plan two, Emily C. Watkins will be 83 percent minority—surfaced, a substitute motion to accept alternate plan number four was made.

Board Member Patrick Sanders countered that the parish’s public school system is 77 percent minority and that under those circumstances, reaching a 50-50 equilibrium is impossible.

He went on to acknowledge that much of St. John’s white student population has fled to the area’s private or parochial schools and that the only way to get them back is to improve the quality of public schools. “I can’t make people come, but I can do the best I can to make it better,” he said.

According to the board, plan four brings the school system’s attendance zones most in line with a desegregation order from the justice department.

Board Member Lowell Bacas, however, furthered the debate, stating, “I have a problem with number four because it doesn’t really solve the problem of LaPlace Elementary,” referring to bringing the school’s population in line with other area schools.

At this point Board Member Russ Wise offered his opinion on the matter, saying, “We are spending way too much time on things that should be of least importance, percentages and race.”

According to Wise, plans two and four were “both racially driven,” and adopting a plan because of such a factor made no sense because the racial makeup of an area is so changeable.

He then made a second substitute motion to accept plan number three, the most neighborhood-driven plan, according to Wise, pointing out, “If plan three goes into effect, a lot more kids will be able to walk to school.”

His motion, however, was not seconded, so it was never voted-on.

In the end, the substitute motion to accept plan four failed, but the motion to accept number two, which offers the smallest school populations, narrowly passed 6 to 4 and will be passed on to the justice department.

All of the alternate attendance zone plans can be viewed at the St. John the Baptist Parish public school system website, www.stjohn.k12.la.us.