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Friday, November 11, 2005
Hispanic students a pressure on schools?
Two commissioners raise issue as board grapples with system's needs

By Michael Hewlett
JOURNAL REPORTERS

Two Forsyth County commissioners raised questions yesterday about the number of Hispanic children coming into the school system, after educators said they would need $405 million for new schools and renovations over the next 10 years.

Commissioner Beaufort Bailey first raised the issue by asking for an ethnic breakdown of the student population. He then asked Superintendent Don Martin whether immigration laws might help stem an increasing student population.

His comments came after he had said earlier this year during a forum on the issue of homelessness that efforts to help the homeless should not focus too much on Hispanics. At the time, Bailey said he had nothing against Hispanics but believes they are too often singled out as needing more help.

Meanwhile, Debra Conrad-Shrader, the vice chairwoman of the commissioners, said at yesterday's meeting that she has been told that 80 percent of Hispanics living in Forsyth County are undocumented workers. She acknowledged that she has not independently verified that figure.

The U.S. Census does not ask people about their legal status. Nor does the school system.

The school system is obligated to educate children regardless of their legal status.

Conrad-Shrader said that state and federal legislators need to pass tougher laws to curb the number of illegal Hispanic immigrants. "It is imperative that this be dealt with immediately," she said.

The Hispanic student population has grown at a faster rate than the overall student population, school officials said. In 2001-02, the school system had 3,860 Hispanic students out of 45,707 students, or 8 percent. The school system now has 6,923 Hispanics out of 50,447 students, or 14 percent.

The overall student population has increased 22 percent over the past 10 years, school officials said.

The Hispanic growth rate in the nation as a whole for the 12 months starting July 2003 was 3.6 percent, compared with the overall population growth of 1 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

Martin said that other factors play a role in the increasing student population, such as new housing developments popping up around the county.

And the school system usually has an 18 percent jump in ninth-grade students every year because some students are coming in from private schools, he said.

Even if a large number of Hispanic students are here illegally, as Conrad-Shrader argued, it would not discount the need for more schools, Martin said.

For the past six years, enrollment has increased an average of 1,000 students a year. Two large new housing developments - Caleb's Creek and Brookberry Farm - are expected to add several thousand children to area schools. To keep up, school officials say they will need money to improve technology, build 13 new schools and renovate 24 others.

Caleb's Creek is making the need for a new elementary school even more urgent, resulting in a request to the commissioners for $13.5 million.

Owners of Caleb's Creek in Kernersville have offered 11 acres free if the school system can begin construction in 2007. Before commissioners commit to providing the money, they wanted to get a better idea of the school systems' future needs.

That's why Martin made his presentation yesterday.

Commissioner Walter Marshall wanted to know why Atkins High School doesn't have soccer, football and baseball fields completed yet. Reagan High School does, he said.

Marshall, who is black, has often accused the school system of neglecting schools attended by large numbers of minorities.

Reagan and Atkins exemplify what he sees as inequities in the school system, Marshall said.

"I think the school system needs to be concerned with the equity issue," he said.

Martin said that the athletic fields would be built and fully operational at Atkins by the next school year. He disputed that school officials are neglecting schools within the city, citing Latham Elementary School as a school within the city that has been renovated in recent years.

County Manager Graham Pervier said he would discuss the Caleb's Creek elementary school with commissioners in the next few weeks to see what they want to do. School and county officials will talk more about the school bond over the next six months.