School board denies parent's complaint School board denies parent's complaint (December 28, 2005)

** Parent claims favoritism and racial discrimination in class-assignment policy.

By Marjorie Mader

Almanac Staff Writer

The school board of the Menlo Park City School District unanimously upheld the district's class-assignment policy last week when it denied a parent's complaint alleging favoritism toward "well-connected" parents, and racial discrimination in assigning children to classrooms.

The board rejected the parent's call for changes in the district's class-assignment practices and reprimands of the Laurel School principal and the district's superintendent.

The complaint was brought by James Doody, a Naval officer and father of a former first-grader at Laurel School. Mr. Doody complained about the class his son was assigned to at Laurel but the school refused to change it.

He said his son, a Caucasian who now is in the first grade at St. Raymond School in Menlo Park, would be academically disadvantaged by being placed in a class that he perceived included too high a percentage of economically and educationally disadvantaged students.

He noted that the class had a disproportionate number of transfer students under the Tinsley desegregation program, a 1986 court-ordered settlement under which students in the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto and Belle Haven can transfer into predominantly white school districts on the Midpeninsula, including Menlo Park's.

Of the 17 students in the class, five were Tinsley transfer students, or 36 percent of the total. In all eight first-grade classes at Laurel School, there are only 14 Tinsley students, or 9 percent of the 158 students enrolled.

Later Mr. Doody amended his complaint to say it was not filed on behalf of his son, but on behalf of the ethnic groups that Mr. Doody alleges are being discriminated against by Laurel's class-assignment practices.

In its decision, the board pointed out that in assigning students to classes the district seeks balance in several factors, including gender, ethnicity and academic achievement, but does not consider whether the student was transferred under the Tinsley program. The class that Mr. Doody's son was assigned to met the district's standards for balance, the board decided.
Complaint and decision

Mr. Doody filed a written complaint October 24, alleging racial discrimination at Laurel School because the class-assignment practices "unduly burden certain ethnic groups," depriving them of full participation in the educational opportunities of the K-2 school.

The board's written decision on Mr. Doody's appeal was made public December 21 after he received a copy of the decision that was reached by trustees in closed-session deliberations after the public hearing December 14 and at a meeting on December 20.

Mr. Doody noted that six of the 17 students assigned to his son's former class are minority students, and there is a higher percentage of minority students in that class than the school as a whole.

Further, Mr. Doody said he believes parents who are active in the school's Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation have influence on the class assignments of their children.

Mr. Doody's complaint was filed after a series of informal meetings with the principal, teacher and superintendent when he did not get his request granted to have his son's class assignment changed.
Class-assignment policy

The district policy that governs class-assignment practices in the Menlo Park district says that when assigning students to classrooms, "the superintendent or designee shall strive to provide the best possible learning environment for each student."

Under the policy, consideration is given to these factors: recommendations of the current classroom teacher; gender and ethnic balance; academic balance of high, medium and low achievers; balance of students with social or emotional problems; strengths of teachers; student interests, readiness, behavior and motivation; and scheduling students into special programs, such as music, art and special education.

Parents or guardians may give information that would be helpful in making placement decisions, but that information is only one of many determining factors, according to the policy.

Assistant Superintendent Jo Mitchell, serving as the district's compliance officer, investigated Mr. Doody's complaint. She collected and analyzed a variety of data concerning class assignments and achievement levels at Laurel School.

Her decision, issued November 17, denied the remedies sought by Mr. Doody: to require Laurel School to develop a class-assignment process that would provide public disclosure of class-assignment deliberations; and to issue formal written reprimands to the district superintendent and principal of Laurel School.

Ms. Mitchell's decision was based on her findings that the Laurel staff, Principal Nancy Hendry and Superintendent Ken Ranella had followed the board's class-assignment policy.

The report provides the following information:

Laurel's principal and staff were faced with assigning 158 students to eight first-grade classes. Of the 158 students, 49 (about 31 percent) could be identified as "minority students" as defined by the California State Department of Education's CBEDs (enrollment) report. The minorities include African-American, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics and Latinos.

These 49 students were placed in first-grade classrooms with a range of five to eight minority students per classroom, resulting in an average of six minority students per classroom. The classroom to which Mr. Doody's son was assigned had six minority students enrolled out of a class total of 17 students.

Under the Tinsley program, 24 students from the Ravenswood City School District may choose to attend school in the Menlo Park district, usually in grades K-2. Ms. Mitchell's report said participation in the Tinsley program is not a criterion for class placement.

"Once students are admitted to the Tinsley program by the San Mateo County Office of Education and transferred to the Menlo Park district, they are treated the same as any other district student and assigned according to the board policy," she wrote.

There are 14 Tinsley students in the first grade, and five (36 percent) of the 14 were assigned to the class taught by Joanie Woodard that also included Mr. Doody's son. Assignment of Tinsley transfer students ranged from 0 to 5 per first-grade classroom.

Ms. Mitchell found it is not necessary to amend the board policy to include Tinsley status as a criterion for class assignment because the policy already includes race, achievement and other factors. Although Ms. Woodard's class has a relatively higher number of Tinsley students, this fact, she said, was immaterial since the class is balanced on the basis of minority students and academic achievement levels.

The achievement levels of all first grades had ranges of: 0-8 students in the "high" category; 9-17 students in the "average" group; and 0-2 students in the "low" category. In comparison, Ms. Woodard's class had five students in the high category, 10 in the average and two in the low group.
Rationale

Trustees "declined to grant the relief" Mr. Doody had requested and agreed that "no corrective action is necessary."

Their rationale had five key points:

** The number of minority students in Ms. Woodard's class is, on average, the same as the number of minority students in the remaining seven first-grade classes. There are six minority students in Ms. Woodard's class compared with a range of 5-8 minority students in all first-grade classrooms.

** Trustees disagree with Mr. Doody's assertion that a student's ethnicity is a predictor of achievement level and ability. The achievement levels of students in Ms. Woodard's class are sufficiently high compared with the students in the other first-grade classes, the board said. This fact, trustees said, refutes the assertion that six minority students out of 17 results in a class "where the general achievement level is well below the median for the entire first grade population."

** Requiring district schools to publicly disclose class-assignment deliberations, as requested by Mr. Doody, could breach student privacy rights and the confidentiality of student records.

** Principal Hendry and Superintendent Ranella demonstrated keen interest in providing Mr. Doody's son with the classroom assignment they believed "most appropriate." They should not be reprimanded for refusing to accede to a parent's demands regarding class placement.

** No evidence was presented by Mr. Doody that minority students are being "deprived of full opportunity to participate in the educational opportunities of the school."

Mr. Doody has 15 calendar days from his receipt of the board's decision to appeal to the California Department of Education. Civil law remedies may not be pursued by Mr. Doody sooner than 60 days after filing an appeal with the Department of Education.

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