Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 December 2005 — Page 1

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Volume 110 ■ Number 48 ■ Since 1895 ■ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2005 ■ www.indianapolisrecorder.com ■ Four Sections ■ 75C

Every year members of Alpha Mu Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., host the Debutante Cotillion. Andranise Baxter of Lawrence North High School was crowned the 2005 Debutante Queen during last week's cotillion. See page C7 for more photos. (Photo/C. Guynn) NEWS BRIEFS

ICLU challenges noise ordinance The Indiana Civil Liberties Union has filed suit on behalf of the union leading a local "Justice for Janitors" campaign, asking a federal court to declare Marion County's noise ordinance unconstitutional and block the City of Indianapolis from enforcing the ordinance. "The Indianapolis Noise Ordinance is so overbroad and vague that it prohibits a great deal of speech that is protected by the First Amendment,” says ICLU attorney Jacquelyn Bowie-Suess, who filed the complaint on behalf of the union. "The city's use of the ordinance against the Justice for Janitors' campaign prevents the janitors from effectively delivering their message." Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 3 has led a "Justice for Janitors" campaign centered on an unfair labor practice strike on behalf of janitors against Group Service France (GSF). The strike consists of picketing on city sidewalks in downtown Indianapolis, where the union and its supporters use various noise-mak-ers, including bells and drums. SEIU lead organizer Rebecca Maran filed an affidavit with the court saying that Indianapolis Police Department officers have reprimanded the picketers on dozens of occasions and issued several citations for violation of the Noise Ordinance. State toughens diversity contracting goals The Indiana Department of Administration (IDOA) ► See NEWS BRIEFS, A3

Got a hot news tip? Want to be heard? If you would like to report any news or share your comments, call the Recorder News Hotline at (317) 924-5143 ext 300

COMMUNITY RESPONDS TO IPS REORGANIZATION MIXED REACTION

By BRANDON A. PERRY Staff Writer Students, parents and educators throughout the local community are bracing for sweeping changes that will come in the Indianapolis Public Schools District. In a 6 to 1 vote during a meeting last week, the School Board passed a major redistricting plan designed to overhaul schools, expand learning options and reduce spending through a series of modifications that have received a mixed reception so far. The plan, proposed by IPS Supt. Dr. Eugene White, will shuffle 5,000 students around to new schools next fall, redefine middle school grades, expand successful magnet programs, close one popular elementary school and open two new ones (see sidebar). “The district has crafted a plan with community input that should make IPS an attractive, competitive school system,” said White. “I believe this plan will not only help us to retain students, but will provide aviable option to parents who wouldn’t consider us previously.” White and board members who support the plan said it is needed in order to prevent a fiscal crisis by trimming $23.5 million from the district budget, and to address concerns such as declining enrollment rates, over-and under-utilization of some schools and a higher demand for magnet programs that have been

Joyce Kilmer School 69 is one of several schools that will undergo a series of changes as a result of the new plan passed by the IPS School Board. Next fall School 69 will convert from serving elementary students to hosting two alternative schools. New Beginnings High School and Horizon Middle School (Photos/J. Hurst) helpful to students by developing skills needed to pursue specific careers that interests them. The plan was passed after a series of meetings in which parents were invited to voice their concerns. Input from these meetings was combined with several cost-saving measures. But in order for those measures to work Florence Fay School 21 on the Southside will have to close, despite its status as an Indiana Four Star school. IPS administrators say School ► See IPS, A4

Key tenets of the IPS plan include: • Reopening two elementary schools: James Russell Lowell School 51 in Martindale/Brightwood and Wendell Phillips School 63 in Haughville. • Moving sixth grade back to the elementary level. Changing the grade configuration at middle schools to serve grades seven and eight. • Replicating two popular magnet programs: the Center for Inquiry at Joseph J. Bingham School 84 on the Northside, and the Key Learning Community at George W. Carver School 87 on the near Westside. Converting Crispus Attucks Middle School into a grade 6-12 medical magnet program to open next fall. Converting Shortridge Middle School into a grade 6-12 law/ government magnet program to open in 2009 after the building undergoes renovation to add air conditioning. • Converting Coleman Middle School into two grade 4-8 academies (one for boys and one for girls). • Converting two current middle schools, Frederick Douglass on the Southside and Clarence L. Farrington on the Westside, to elementary schools. • Converting Edgar H. Evans School 11, which currently houses an alternative school for grade 45 boys, into a K-6 elementary.

By FRAN QUIGLEY For the Recorder

On a recent visit to Indianapolis, Haitian Catholic priest Pere Jean-Lucien Exantus painted a grim picture of the health, education and environmental challenges faced by his countrymen in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. But Pere Lucien also insists that he and the struggling people from the small mountain village where he ministers find hope in the generosity of Indianapolis residents who support them through a local Roman Catholic parish. “Each time we have some kind of need, I can write St. Thomas and they try to help me,” says Pere Lucien, the pastor of St. Jean-Marie Catholic Church in Belle-Riviere, a village of about 2,000 people located in the mountains 75 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince. For 15 years, St. Jean-Marie has been a “twin” parish with Indianapolis’ St. Thomas Aquinas, which has created and supported a school in Belle-Riviere and sends a medical mission to the region every year, and helps address the transportation needs of the community. Speaking in his native Creole translated to English through an interpreter, Pere Lucien described how he has witnessed the environmental degradation of Haiti. He says that life for the two-thirds of Haitians who rely on agriculture has grown much harder

since he grew up 30 years ago in the Les Cayes region as one of 11 children in a farming family. “We had a lot of trees then, but now the big trees have been cut down for charcoal to sell as fuel,” Pere Lucien says, blaming the loss of once-lush land on the desperation that comes from a 70 percent unemployment

rate.

“The people cut down the trees to

make charcoal because they have no other way to get money,” he says. “But when you don’t have trees, there is nothing to stop the erosion.” The deforestation is particularly damaging to the two-thirds of Haiti’s population who are supported by subsistence agriculture. During Haiti’s rainy season, precious gardens of corn, millet (“pitimi,” pronounced pity-me, in Creole), sweet potatoes and beans are often washed away. Ironically, lack of rain can be equally as deadly for Haitian peasant farmers, Pere Lucien says, especially since they lack the essential complements to modern farming. “The people in Belle-Riviere have no fertilizer and no irrigation, and sometimes they don’t have seeds or the money to buy

the seeds,” he says.

Another challenge for Haitians are the diseases that accompany extreme poverty - malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, etc. - and cause the average Haitian life expectancy to be barely over 50 years of age. “In our parish, sometimes aperson who is sick is the one who used to work and took care of his family, so now there is no one to take care of the family,” Pere Lucien says. “Sometimes they have no doctor there, or sometimes they

have only one chance a year (when the St. Thomas Aquinas-sponsored medical team visits from the U.S.) and can only wait until the next medical mis-

sion comes.”

Some of the illness, particularly that suffered by children, derives from the Haitian water supply, which was recently ranked dead last among 147 countries surveyed for the international Water Poverty Index. Most Haitians, including the people of Belle-Riviere, are forced to drink from water sources corrupted by human and animal waste. But, almost two years ago St. Thomas Aquinas sponsored the Belle-Riviere community with the Gift of Water Program, a non-profit organization based in Melbourne, Fla., that provides water filters and monitoring services to more

Pere Jean-Lucien Exantus

Indianapolis Black, Hispanic school enrollment is up; white is down By AMOS BROWN III Recorder Correspondent

Compared with growth of 2.4 percent two years ago and 1.9 percent last year, Black public school enrollment in Indianapolis/Marion County grew at a somewhat softer rate, up only 1.7 percent in the new school year. The number of AfricanAmerican students in the city/county’s 11 public school districts and 13 charter schools increased by 855 to 52,163; the smallest year-to-year increase in seven years. Meanwhile, AfricanAmerican public school enrollment in the nine suburban counties surrounding Indianapolis increased 19.1 percent to 2,653; a gain of 426. That is some of the results ofThe Indianapolis Recorder’s annual examination of racial and ethnic public school enrollment data compiled by the Indiana Department of Education. In percentage terms, the largest jump in Black enrollment in Indianapolis/Marion County occurred in the 13 charter schools. African-American charter school enrollment climbed a stunning 43.1 percent, from 1,298 last school year to 1,858 this school year; a gain of 560. (Enrollment at the Planner House Higher Learning Center, the charter school closed last month, isn’t included). Twenty years ago, when Indiana began compiling public school enrollment by race, 65.4 percent of AfricanAmerican students in Indianapolis/Marion County attended the Indianapolis Public Schools andjust 34.6 percent attended township schools, which included the then 5,000 Black students bused from IPS to the townships. Today, with busing being phased out and with the advent of charter schools, only 42.7percent of the city/ county African-American students attend IPS schools and 54 percent attend township schools. After four years, we’re starting to see the impact of charter schools. Overall, just 2.3 percent of all city/county public school students attend charter schools. But, 3.6 percent of all city/county Black students attend a charter school. In Indianapolis/Marion County, Wayne Township recorded the largest Black enrollment increase this school year rising 3.9 percent or 163. Warren Township’s Black enrollment climbed 3.2 percent or 152. After three consecutive years of stagnant Black enrollment, Washington Township’s Black enrollment jumped 3.6 percent, or 142 students. In percentage terms, Perry Township recorded the sharpest decline in Black enrollment, down 8.3 percent or 136. The continuing phase-out of busing contributed to that decline. The Indianapolis Public

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► See HAITI, A6

► See ENROLLMENT, A3

The Latest News and Views From SATURDAYS 6AM-9AM AND THE HISPANIC MEDIA ON WISH TV 8

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