Problem Statement
On June 27, 1972, mandatory desegregation and integration of the San Bernardino City Schools by September 1974 was ordered by Superior Court Judge Paul Egly. This decision came in response to a class action suit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, alleging violation of Black Students ' civil rights, as a result of segregated schools.
In September 1976, the California Supreme Court upheld Judge Egly's decision and the Board of Education was forced to deal with mandatory integration of schools by the 1979-80 school year.
The school district then accelerated its involvement in the development of a voluntary plan which would bring the and racial distributions within the limits set down by the courts.
Research Methods
Material for this thesis was obtained by this writer's attendance at and participation in the following meetings:
1. 23 Board of Education
2. 31 Planning Unit Advisory Council
3. 12 Magnet School
4. 44 Roosevelt Elementary, Planning for Integration
5. 6 Roosevelt Parent Advisory Group
6. 4 Roosevelt School Advisory Council
7. 9 San Bernardino Teacher's Association
8. 11 Parkside-Roosevelt Parent and Staff
9. 6 Planning Unit Disseminator
Data were collected from the minutes of San Bernardino Board of Education meetings, the Office of Desegregation, Integration, San Bernardino Unified School District, the research division of the local newspaper, the San Bernardino Sun Telegram, and the Public Library.
Personal interviews were conducted with 3 school administrators, one member of the present Board of Education. Parents, students, and teachers. Polls were conducted to assess the attitudes of students, parents and staff.
This recorder participated in all the process described in this thesis as an elementary classroom teacher, in both predominately Anglo schools, from February, 1965 to June 1970, and Roosevelt Elementary, a minority school, from November, 1970 to the present time.
Roosevelt’s attendance area population is roughly 60% Chicano, 35% Black, the remainder, ‘Other”, and the school has generally maintained a total enrollment averaging 550 students. It is a school which receives federal and state monies, over and above district funding, since more than half of its population is identified eligible for ESEA, Title I, Senate Bill 90, and/or Bilingual Education projects.
