SOUTH BEND — Four South Bend Community School Corp. primary centers and one intermediate center are out of compliance with a 34-year-old consent decree requiring the desegregation of black students.
LaSalle Intermediate Academy and Warren Primary Center enroll too few black students to meet the federal guidelines, while Madison, Muessel and Perley primary centers enroll too many.
For both primary and intermediate schools to be compliant with the court order, the enrollment of black students at each of those buildings has to be within 15 percentage points above or below the districtwide average.
All of the district’s high schools and middle schools have been desegregated as required by the U.S. Department of Justice, Cynthia Oudghiri, who is in charge of South Bend’s high school and magnet programs, told the school board at its Monday meeting.
However, with 49.1 percent of its enrollment made up of black students, Washington High School narrowly made the cut off, which this school year requires no more than 49.4 percent of a high school’s enrollment to be comprised of black students.
Consequences for the noncompliance, Oudghiri said after being asked by board member Bill Sniadecki, include potentially being required to develop a corrective action plan that the U.S. Department of Justice would monitor.
Plans for bringing LaSalle Academy, a high-ability intermediate center, into compliance, she said, include ensuring black students are supported in the school, as well as advocating to black families about LaSalle’s offerings.
“It can and will be done,” Oudghiri said.