The Proposed High School on North Maple is Racially Insensitive: There are Better Locations

J. Mark Finnegan, October 1, 2004

Ann Arbor Public Schools is proposing to build a state-of-the art high school on North Maple, northwest of Ann Arbor. This choice is racially insensitive, and will compound the "achievement gap" at the expense of African-American students.

Both federal and Michigan law require AAPS to track the number and percentage of African-Americans at each of its schools. We use these AAPS statistics to prove our point.

Wines Elementary and Forsythe Middle School Districts

The proposed North Maple Road high school site is in the Wines Elementary and Forsythe Middle School Districts. According to AAPS statistics, Wines Elementary is the whitest of AAPS's twenty elementary school, with only 3% African-American students. By those same numbers, Forsythe has only 11% African-American students, and is the whitest of AAPS's five middle schools. To compound problems, the North Maple site is at the west side of the two districts, in the richer and whiter regions of Wines and Forsythe districts.

Mitchell Elementary and its Adjacent Districts, and Scarlett Middle

At the exact opposite of the AAPS district, in the southeast corner of the AAPS district, are the six elementary school districts with the highest African-American percentages. The Mitchell, Pattengill, Carpenter, Bryant, Pittsfield and Allen Elementary school districts are all at least 20% African-American. Scarlett Middle School is 30% African-American. These schools are by far the blackest, and they are also the furthest schools in distance from the North Maple proposed high school. These schools will almost certainly not be included in the Proposed High School District, absent some extraordinary busing plan.

Already the Furthest from Huron High School

Huron High School students from the Carpenter, Mitchell, Pittsfield, Allen and Scarlett districts already are bused the greatest distances of any students to Huron High School. The proposed high school does absolutely nothing to shorten the travel of these students, who go to the highest percentage African-American schools in the Huron High District.

Already the Furthest from Pioneer High School

Pioneer High School students from the Pattengill and Bryant elementary districts are already bused the greatest distances of any students to Pioneer High School. The proposed high school does absolutely nothing to shorten the travel of these students, who go to the highest percentage African-American schools in the Pioneer High School District.

The Proposed High School Will be the Whitest of the Three High Schools

AAPS insists that the three high schools should have "parity," that is, be as fully equal as possible. Thus, each high school will have approximately 1,600 students. According to AAPS's most recent statistics, there are currently 714 African-American students at the Pioneer and Huron High Schools. Thus, if there will be three high schools, and there will be approximately 714 black students, then each of the three high schools should have approximately 238 African-American students.

Because the North Maple location is so far away from where most African-Americans live, it will have many fewer nearby African-American students than Pioneer and Huron High Schools. For example, Wines elementary district will contribute approximately 7 of the 238 blacks. The five elementary school districts adjacent to the Wines district are Abbott, Haisley, Bach, Northside and Logan. Abbot will contribute only 21 of the 238 blacks; Logan will contribute only 22 blacks; Haisley will contribute 36; Northside will contribute only 36, for a total of 122 of the 238 African-Americans needed for the proposed high school.

Where will AAPS find the remaining 116 African-American students? The most logical choices are the Bach and the Eberwhite Elementary Districts. These would contribute approximately 69 additional black students. However, most students in the Bach and Eberwhite Elementary districts live within a mile of Pioneer High and can walk to school; but if those students are reassigned to the North Maple site, they will have to be bused. The same is true for Northside Elementary. These students can get to Huron High School relatively easily, but when they are reassigned to North Maple they will have to negotiate the M-14 Freeway or the Huron River, an impossible walk and a very difficult and unsafe drive for teenagers and bus drivers alike.

We have divided the districts several different ways, and we see no way that the proposed high school will have more than 191 African-American students, only 12%. Pioneer and Huron will each have approximately 261 African-American students, or 16%. This is not "parity." The new high school will be the same size as Pioneer and Huron, but will have many fewer African-American students, and on average these black students at the Proposed High School will face much longer distances than their white classmates.

The Scarlett Upgrade: Too Little Too Late

AAPS statistics prove that Scarlett Middle School is 30% African-American, much more than any of the other four middle schools. Scarlett has almost as many African-American students as Forsythe and Slauson combined. And AAPS statistics also prove that Scarlett's academic scores are consistently far below the other four Middle Schools. For example, Scarlett's 8th graders scored approximately 20% lower in the MEAP Mathematics tests than 8th graders at the other middle schools. This is the "achievement gap" that everyone talks about. Yet, we are building the new high school over ten miles from Scarlett! AAPS's solution is to offer Scarlett more computers. This does nothing to shorten the longest travel times that African-Americans are forced to endure. Also, additional computers at Scarlett will not benefit the large numbers of African-American students from Bryant, Pattengill, Bach, Northside, and Eberwhite elementary districts who do not attend Scarlett.

Even the AAPS administration acknowledges that the students concentrated at Scarlett are achieving academically at lower levels. AAPS should build the new high school closer to these students, not just buy some more computers for Scarlett.

Where Is A Fair Location?

It is clear that the choice of the North Maple location is racially insensitive. Where is a fair location? Many in the community have repeatedly suggested three sites: 1) Pioneer; 2) Platt and Ellsworth, and 3) Ellsworth and State. Let's take these in order.

Adjacent to Pioneer: AAPS could build a new high school on the same campus as Pioneer. For African-Americans, this would allow the students in the Bach and Eberwhite districts to continue to walk to high school, rather than be bused. Otherwise, it would not improve conditions, but at least would not make the distances to school longer for most African-American students.

At Ellsworth and State: This location has several advantages for African-American students. It is much closer to the six blackest elementary schools and to Scarlett. It is much closer than either Pioneer or Huron. It would also allow students in Bach and Eberwhite districts to continue walking to Pioneer. It would not disrupt the African-American students in the Northside and the Logan elementary districts, who could continue at Huron.

At Platt and Ellsworth: This is the fairest location. This location borders the Scarlett, Mitchell, Carpenter, Pittsfield and Allen school districts. It is also close to Pattengill students. Many African-American students could walk to the new high school at this location. White students would actually be further from the new high school than African-American students, and it would cut down considerably on the time and distance African-American students and their families would spend in commuting to and from school. As a result, Pioneer and Huron would be located closer to largely white districts, but the new high school would be located, for a change, closer to the African-American students in the southeast corner of the AAPS school district. This makes thing fairer than they are now, and would be much fairer than locating the new school far away in Ann Arbor Township.

Conclusion

Currently, school students who live in the elementary districts with the highest percentage of African-American students (i.e., Mitchell, Carpenter, Bryant, Scarlett Middle) are bused farther than their mates in schools with lower percentages of African-American students. This is because both Pioneer and Huron High Schools are located far from the southeast corner of the district. Now, AAPS plans to make this problem worse by building a new high school even farther away, Northwest, outside of Ann Arbor. The fair thing to do is build the new high school in southeast Ann Arbor, close to the schools which are now farthest from the current high schools. African-American children have borne the weight of long commutes to and from Pioneer and Huron long enough. Buying some new computers for Scarlett Middle School is no solution. It is time to shorten their commutes by building close to southeast Ann Arbor.