WHY DISTRICT ZONING DOES NOT WORK FOR NEW ROCHELLE
In New Rochelle, Elementary School zones are largely determined by geography. Despite large demographic shifts since the 1980s, school zoning has remained largely unchanged.
This has led to increased de facto racial segregation within New Rochelle, as reflected in the demographics of New Rochelle Elementary Schools. In 1961 the New York State Supreme Court ruled in Taylor v. City School District of New Rochelle, that Lincoln Elementary School, which was 94% Black, was unlawfully segregated and violated Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Lincoln Elementary was closed the following school year, and the students who had attended Lincoln were sent elsewhere. Though this ruling was meant to desegregate New Rochelle’s schools, nearly 70 years after the landmark case, the racial makeup of its elementary schools is still deeply imbalanced. The Lincoln School Zone still exists, even after its namesake’s destruction. Instead, the superintendent’s office assigns students in this zone to a school, though parents have been allowed to request specific schools in the past.
As evident from the demographic maps of New Rochelle, the current zoning system has created an immense racial imbalance across the city’s elementary schools. White students, for instance, make up the majority of those students living in the northern end of New Rochelle, who typically attend Davis, Webster, and Ward Elementary Schools. Black and Lantix students, on the other hand, are more heavily concentrated in the southern end of New Rochelle, and generally attend Trinity, Jefferson, and Columbus Elementary Schools.
Desegregating our schools is the first step to closing the educational achievement gap in New Rochelle.
HOW IT HAS SUPPLEMENTED DE FACTO SEGREGATION
The United States Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate but equal is inherently not equal, and called for the desegregation of public schools in this country. However, as we have seen time and time again in American history, systems of oppression and inequality are often reinvented and simply wear a new mask while serving the same purpose. What I am talking about here is de facto segregation.
De facto segregation is “racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups...without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.”, and this is what is currently taking place within the City School District of New Rochelle. The children of this city are growing up in a town where there are majority white residents on the North End of New Rochelle that attend schools such as Webster, Davis, and Ward and Albert Leonard, and majority minority residents reside on the South End of New Rochelle. These minority students usually attend Trinity, Columbus, Jefferson, and Isaac E. Young.
The grouping of New Rochelle students in schools causes them to be separated by socioeconomic class and by race. This promotes inequity in education, mental health services, disciplinary action and the overall schooling experience. Furthermore, when students enter the high school coming from such different educational environments, to some it can feel like a culture shock. Students in advanced classes in IEYMS will often become separated from the friends they grew up with and were used having class with, and are thrown into classes with majority white ALMS students. Students from IEYMS who were not in advanced classes are clumped together with students at the same level as them from ALMS and kept at that same level with rare encouragement to try to strive for an AP or honors class. This tale is not hard to believe when looking at the clear data on the racial demographics of students in one or more AP classes or the percentages of students graduating with an advanced regents diploma that are white versus the percentage of those that are black or Hispanic.
While analyzing this data is important, the most important data one can collect is the effects that this system of grouping students has on the individual. How does it feel to know that your school places you at a certain level and has no expectation for you to rise above that? How does it feel to be one of three or four minority students in you AP or honors class? How does it feel to be a minority student with white teachers who are unaware of your culture, your individualized experiences in the world, and all of the attributes that make you who you are? Are these the questions that our school district officials consider when making decisions on behalf of all students in our school district? If not, then that explains why our school system has failed it’s students year after year by creating an environment where some thrive while others are left behind.
Situations such as these cause feelings stress, worry, anger loneliness, discouragement and imposter syndrome in many of New Rochelle’s minority students. While some force themselves to push past these emotions, many understandably are affected by these emotions every day. This impacts their ability and willingness to learn, the conversations or lack thereof that they have with their parents and families about their education, and can cause the very thought of school to bring about negative emotions. Teachers may become frustrated with such students and not know how to properly communicate with them or how to direct them to someone who can, possibly resulting in disciplinary action.
The City School District of New Rochelle is not only failing their minority students with our current system. They are failing their teachers, white students, and parents and families of students as well. Our education system is plagued by de facto segregation, lack of diversity among staff, ineffective student-teacher communication, and inadequate resources to ensure that each and every student has the ability to achieve their academic goals.
We will not allow these issues to be ignored or put on the back burner any longer. The time for change is now.
Visual Representation of
De Facto Segregation
Income Statistics by Zip Code
Median Household Income
10804
10801
10805
New Rochelle
Westchester County
$191, 773
$64, 769
$71, 439
$80, 919
$92, 758
All income statistics above for 10801, New Rochelle and Westchester County are the most current, comparable income statistics available from the US Census Bureau and are from the American Community Survey 2018 5-year estimates. These values are in 2018 inflation-adjusted dollars and were downloaded on 19 December 2019.
New Rochelle Racial and Ethnic Distribution
The darker green coverage directly correlates to the 10804 zip code, the zip code of many Albert Leonard Middle School students.
The area with >70% Black percentage depicts the affordable housing units, or "Heritage Homes" in New Rochelle. The City has passed affordable housing legislation for new private developments requiring minimum set-asides of affordable units or a payment into an Affordable Housing Fund used to construct new units.
The racial composition of the New Rochelle population under 18 years old, on a map, clear as day. This is a result of de facto segregation and further proves the isolation within the city.
If we want to stand together, we must live together. We must go to school together. We have to teach ourselves and the future generation to be better. To be comfortable in a community that isn't based off of the color of your skin.
We would like to highlight that the most dense Black/African-American neighborhoods is where the Heritage Homes are located.
"The American Negro is a totally American responsibility. Three hundred years ago he was brought to this country by our forefathers and sold into slavery. One hundred years ago we fought a war that would set him free. For these last one hundred years we have lived and professed the hypocrisy that we was free. The time has now come when we must face up to that responsibility. Let us erase this blemish -- let us remove this injustice -- from the face of America. Let us make the Negro free."
-An excerpt from: De Facto School Segregation by Arnold Rose, 1964.
We can not build a solid structure when the foundation has cracks. This strategic placement was a result of inherent racism decades ago continues in our lives. Every single life of a New Rochelle resident.
If we cannot fix our neighborhoods, if we cannot fix our inherent racial biases because of the culture we grew up in, let us fix this in our schools. We cannot improve our "community" by pushing this segregation.