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Tampa residents question effects of middle-school plan on blacks

 
Published Feb. 22, 1990|Updated Oct. 16, 2005

A number of residents of Tampa's black community told Hillsborough County school Superintendent Walter Sickles on Wednesday night that they have serious doubts about the potential benefits middle schools hold for black youth. "There are those of us who desire to keep (the school system) exactly as it is .

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. unless it is clearly demonstrated to us that (the middle-school concept) will not adversely affect our children," said lawyer Warren Dawson. He was one of 12 panelists to address Sickles and several other school officials during a community meeting at Beulah Baptist Church.

The tone of Wednesday night's meeting ranged from concern to exasperation, as speakers voiced skepticism about the middle-school plan and general dissatisfaction with the educational system.

Sickles has said that one of his main goals is to eliminate single-grade centers and develop middle schools, housing sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders, by the 1993-94 school year. A task force of school officials and community leaders is studying the idea.

The meeting, sponsored by the local chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority, was organized to give members of the black community a chance to ask how middle schools will affect black children.

Among the panelists were Gloria Anthony, vice president of the Greater Tampa Urban League; Henry Carley, president of the Tampa chapter of the NAACP; activist Bob Gilder and Jim Rinehart, program coordinator with WTMP radio.

Their concerns included plans for current single-grade centers, which were established 19 years ago to foster desegregation and are primarily in the inner city.

"I don't have any plans to close any schools," Sickles said. He also said no teachers or administrators would lose their jobs if middle schools are adopted.

Because the task force still is studying the issue, Sickles and staff members said they couldn't answer many of the panelists' specific questions about middle-school locations and busing.

Sickles told the group that he favors the middle-school concept because it provides greater stability at a crucial age. Now, many children change schools as many as four times in five years.

Panelists used the two-and-a-half hour meeting to air a number of other concerns, including making sure black businesses get their share of $500-million in school construction projects planned for the next five years.

They also called for more blacks to be chosen for administrative positions within the system and asked that black history and culture be integrated into the school curriculum at all levels.