OPS' vision: One city, one school
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BY MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star
Sixty miles down I-80, in Nebraska’s biggest city, a war is raging. The battle lines are drawn by school districts and those on either side are fighting over land and property taxes, state aid and students.
Amid the rhetoric, the thorny issues of racial segregation, poverty and educational equality rise up out of the shadows and present themselves as problems to be solved.
The debate encompasses state-wide issues of school boundries and annexation.
It stirs feelings of community and choice and wades into the intricacies of school finance and the myriad of state laws governing Nebraska’s widely divergent school districts.
The fight, everyone agrees, is ultimately headed for the Legislature.
“I think that’s where it has to be solved,’’ said Keith Lutz, Millard Public Schools Superintendent. “The real resolution as to what’s best for kids will have to go through the Legislature. So all roads will have to go through there.’’
The journey there began June 6, when Omaha Public Schools voted to absorb 21 Millard and four Ralston schools districts within the city limits. It cited an 1891 law as its authority.
The OPS plan — dubbed “One City One School’’ — met heated opposition from the suburban school districts.
As summer turned to fall the rhetoric became pointed, politicians weighed in, and groups and coalitions formed on both sides.
The stakes are high: more than $5 billion in property valuation, millions in state aid and more than 14,000 students.
The demographics are fueling the debate: Fifty-five percent of OPS students are minorities, 53 percent are eligible for free or reduced lunch and one in eight students are English Language Learners. The suburban school districts are primarily white and have fewer poor students.
And the debate has focused on an enduring concern: That school boundries can lead to economic and racial segregation.
Sen. Ron Raikes of Lincoln, chairman of the Legislature’s education committee, believes lawmakers must address those issues.
“We need to fix this,’’ Raikes said. “I believe these issues are valid. I don’t think we the people of the state should endorse those characteristics.’’
That said, the solution is unclear and Raikes doesn’t believe the OPS plan will address the segregation and financial inequitites it says it will.
“I don’t see how the proposition addresses the issue they bring forward,’’ Raikes said.
OPS contends widening its tax base will add money to the district, give students more equal opportunitites and create one community, where everyone has a stake in all students.
He points to the verbage of war and battles in this debate and ones before it.
“If there is any doubt that we must be one community, how long can we sustain a system that brings the type of sentiment that we have witnessed in the last six months into the education of our children?’
The suburban districts say they, too, want what is best for all children but don’t believe creating a bigger school district is the answer. None of the suburban districts would lose all their schools or students, though they would become substantially smaller.
“That’s why we say competition and choice,’’ Lutz said. “It’s a rising tide that raises all ships. We’ll all be better. Make one colossal school district and our contention is that mediocrity will abound.’’
A coalition of Westside, Millard, Ralston and Elkhorn officials has traveled to other communities to see how those districts handled similiar issues.
They say magnet schools and option enrollment can help integrate schools. Mackiel calls the large school district argument a “red herring’’ and says option enrollment has been a primary vehicle for “white flight’’ not integration.
And so the debate goes on, while sixty miles west, the second-largest school district in the state is going about its business, not taking sides in the Omaha debate but standing firm on one point: Lincoln wants to continue a long-standing practice of growing as the city does.
One city one school.
In many ways, Lincoln and Omaha are very different.
The city of Lincoln has traditionally followed a strict policy of managed growth, not annexing land before it can add the infrastructure, said Dennis Van Horn, LPS associate superintendent of business affairs. And it rarely annexes existing communities like Omaha.
“(Lincoln) is annexing cornfields, not sanitary improvement districts or other small urban communities,’’ Van Horn said.
LPS has followed that managed growth, growing as the city does.
“It’s important for us as a community, for the situation we’re in, for us to be able to grow as the city grows,’’ Van Horn said.
But possible solutions being discussed in the halls of the state capital have implications wider than Omaha.
For one thing, other districts — like Grand Island and Hastings — are dealing with annexation issues similar to Omaha’s.
“I suppose you could say the solution should be confined to the metro area but better state policy doesn’t deal with one part of the state in isolation,’’ Raikes said.
John Bonaiuto, executive director of the Nebraska Association of School Boards, agrees.
“I think the theme that really stands out here is there are issues that need to be looked at and solutions . . .to improve opportunitites for students not just in the metro area but across the state.’’
Raikes is considering a plan that would maintain the existing school district boundries but broaden the tax base to include all the districts in the metro area. A “superboard’’ with representatives from all districts would oversee the districts and decide how to divide property tax money.
His proposal likely will include allowing districts to levy outside the lid for building improvements.
Other districts —-like LPS —- would have the option of creating a similar board. In Lincoln’s case that could be districts like Norris, Malcolm and Waverly.
“I think Lincoln is watching this very closely,’’ Bonaiuto said. “This is a statewide issue and not isolated to the metro area.’’
Numerous laws govern how school districts operate. LPS has its own laws, ones that govern class IV schools. The law allows LPS to negotiate with other school districts but gives them ultimate control.
The law cited by OPS dates back to 1891 and says all schools within Omaha’s city limits must be under the direction of the Omaha Public School board.
OPS officials haven’t invoked the law for more than three decades, most noticeably in the 1970s during the contentious annexation of Millard by the city of Omaha. During that time, OPS was being forced to integrate through busing but the suburban school districts were not.
Fastforward 30 years, after mandatory busing to enforce integration is part of the history books, and OPS’ Mackiel points to the annexation of Elkhorn as part of the reasoning behind its recent plan.
The Elkhorn annexation is being challanged in the courts but if it prevails, parts of Elkhorn’s districts would likely be swallowed in the OPS plan.
Another law, written in 1947, protects Westside High School from an OPS takeover, and OPS doesn’t include the affluent Westside in its plan.
But Raikes says his plan -- still i being formed -- would include Westside. And Westside officials joined the coalition formed by suburban districts to fight the OPS plan.
Although Gov. Dave Heineman has said he opposes the OPS plan, other state officials have been more circumspect.
Nebraska Stat e Education Commissioner Doug Christensen hasn’t taken sides and wants to see the districts address the financial and segration issues.
“Clearly there are some educational issues I don’t want to see forgotten,’’ he said.
Any solution, he said, must be a balancing act between the needs of both sides, not an easy prospect.
“How do you get the whole metro area to behave in some respects like they’re all in this together and yet maintain their own distinct identity and history?’’
Christiansen said he’d like to see the communities themselves find a solution, not the Legislature.
Omaha Togther One Community, a coalition of about 30 congregations, has hosted hundreds of meetings in households across the city to talk about “One City One School.’’
The group does not endorse the OPS plan but does feel strongly about many of the issues it raises.
“We don’t want the language of ‘one city one school’ to be taken off the books because it has been the catalyst for conversation,’’ said Madaline Fennel, one of the group’s leaders.
The group wants any plan to address property tax and state aid inequities, create equal opportunities for students and promote integration.
“I think it’s sad that Omaha didn’t take this on 30 yearsa ago,’’ Fennell said.
The problems go beyond school districts to living wage and housing issues, she said.
“It’s much broader than just the school districts. But we have to start somewhere,’’ she said.
“I do believe a lot of this is a social justice issue.’’
Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com
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