TUSD Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer says the number of student transfers will be a "manageable figure."

Dean Knuth / arizona daily star

Related articles:

TUSD adopts open-enrollment policy TUSD adopts strict rules on enrollment; parents upset TUSD transfer bids exceed 100 TUSD desegregation order may end Open enrollment could hit TUSD between the eyes 42 schools fail fed assessmentTUSD to release more information on open enrollment TUSD to hold forums on enrollment TUSD will face new challenges of educational equality End of TUSD's desegregation order appears close

Other articles by Josh Brodesky:

Sellers also-rans in market for homesJosh Brodesky: For untold thousands, it all began at BrodskyBeaudry RV buys time in reorg plan All aboard survive Tucson air crash Pima foreclosure filings spiked in JuneState has help for buying foreclosuresJosh Brodesky: What will we do with all that dirt?Parade of Homes houses go to bankJosh Brodesky: Quarrel clouds Sun City VistosoHOA in Sun City Vistoso seeks to create real estate brokerage

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps

While TUSD officials spent Wednesday tallying the number of students who might transfer schools under the district's new open-enrollment policy, Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer called the transition a "historical moment" that he expects will affect only a small number of students this school year.

"I think the timing of this is going to soften the numbers" of students who might transfer, Pfeuffer said.

His comments, at a press conference, came a day after the Tucson Unified School District's governing board, by a 3-2 vote, repealed a long-standing policy that used race to determine if a student could transfer from one school to another.

As of Wednesday, the only factor the district considers for school transfers and student placement is if there's room at the receiving school.

TUSD has been under a desegregation order since 1978, and while the removal of the policy does not change that order, Pfeuffer said it is a crucial step toward removing the order and letting the district achieve what is known as "unitary status."

Despite the change in policy, the district was not overwhelmed Wednesday by parents seeking to move their children.

About 60 parents had called the district, said Pam Fine, director of School Community Services. Another 20 or so parents dropped by her office. But she said not all the inquiries were related to open enrollment and were par for the course for two weeks into the school year.

Neither Pfeuffer nor Fine could say just how many students already had been on waiting lists for transfers, how many new transfers they expected or how many spaces are available in the district's schools. But Pfeuffer said the number of transfers will be a "manageable figure."

Some students and parents aren't likely to pursue transfers because the school year is already several weeks under way, he said. Students who do pursue transfers will be placed in three prioritized groups: Those who applied for enrollment in a different school and weren't accepted, those who submitted their applications late, and any new applicants.

The open-enrollment policy does not include district-to-district transfers, and it will not change the enrollment process in magnet schools for this year, Pfeuffer said.

Since 1969, when the district began federally ordered desegregation efforts, student transfers and placements in the district had been defined by what was known as "Board Policy 5090." Essentially, it allowed students to transfer if the move improved the ethnic balances of receiving schools and didn't imbalance home schools.

The policy, which was voluntary, was designed to support desegregation efforts at a time when Anglo students were the majority at TUSD. But, over time, the policy has limited school choice for minority students, who now make up the majority of the district's roughly 57,000 students. It eventually evolved into a 1978 desegregation order designed to provide racial balance at area schools.

But last week, U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ruled the policy was unconstitutional, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling that rejected race-based student placements.

Bury's ruling was part of a larger interim order requiring TUSD to show it has fulfilled the 29-year desegregation order while also filing a plan for student placements and transfers.

Rubin Salter, an attorney representing black families in the desegregation case, said he thought TUSD acted too quickly in repealing the policy.

"I think they are putting the cart before the horse, and there is no need to rush," he said.

Most critical, Salter said, was that Bury has not ruled on whether the district has fulfilled the desegregation order.

It would have made more sense for TUSD to wait for Bury to make that ruling before repealing the policy, he said.

In his order, Bury noted that "racial balancing is sometimes a constitutionally permissible remedy for the discrete legal wrong of intentional segregation, and when directed to that end, racial balancing is an exception to the general rule that government race-based decision-making is unconstitutional."

Like TUSD governing board members Adelita Grijalva and Judy Burns, who voted against repealing the policy, Salter said the district should have developed a plan before acting.

"What happens if they get a rush of parents? What about capacity?" he asked.

Pfeuffer acknowledged there was nothing in the judge's order that required the district to act immediately.

But Richard Yetwin, an attorney representing TUSD in the desegregation case, said the ruling didn't leave the district with an alternative.

"The option is you continue to function under a policy which a federal judge said is unconstitutional," he said.

The plaintiffs and the district are supposed to meet before Sept. 15, and from there TUSD has 30 days to put together a plan outlining how it will operate without the desegregation order.

"It was a historical moment at TUSD," Pfeuffer said. "We are not all the way to unitary status, but it was a big step."

Read in-depth coverage of Southern Arizona education issues at azstarnet.com/education