Feds say Robertson County schools must rezone

The Robertson County Board of Education revealed a mandatory, district-wide rezoning plan Monday night after federal investigators determined that the county failed to desegregate schools.

The board was notified early last month that federal authorities had completed their investigation into the district and that they will be required to enter into a settlement agreement “in order to avoid litigation by the United States Department of Justice, and the potential loss of all federal funds to the Robertson County School District,” according to a letter posted to the school system’s website from Robertson County Director of Schools Mike Davis.

As part of the settlement, the district is required to adopt new attendance zones, developed by the U.S. Department of Justice, for all of its schools, Davis said Monday.

He and other school board members emphasized that the new zone lines were developed by the federal government and their contractors, not the local school board.

“The Department of Justice puts the least amount of money into our budget, but they’re the ones who get to call the shots on what we do,” School Board Vice Chairman Jeff White said. “We didn’t get to make any choices in what was going on and we were told, ‘This is what you’ll do.’”

In a findings letter issued by the Department of Justice, federal authorities determined that the school district “has engaged in a longstanding pattern of decisions that have hindered, rather than furthered, the desegregation of its schools.”

Two examples were noted in the letter: the construction of seven “almost all-white schools,” since 1970 and the use of portable classrooms to alleviate overcrowding in schools with high minority populations rather than shifting students to other under-capacity predominately white schools in the same cluster.

Jonathan Wade, 36, a lifelong Greenbrier resident, said his children, ages 11, 8, and 5, will be unaffected by the rezoning, but many of their friends will be impacted.

“Most of what I’ve heard from people is they don’t want to be leaving Greenbrier and going to Springfield,” Wade said. “Most don’t have a problem with Springfield kids coming into Greenbrier. They just don’t want to have their kids going up to Springfield.”

Wade noted that most of the people he’s spoken to had concerns about an increased threat of violence in Springfield, due to the city’s high crime rate, and how well their children would perform in Springfield schools.

“There’s a belief that Springfield schools do not perform as well as Greenbrier schools, but I don’t know how accurate that is,” he said.

Several public forums have been scheduled at district schools throughout the month of October as a way for parents and students to weigh in on the proposed zoning changes issued by the Department of Justice.

Public Forums scheduled

White House Heritage High School: 5-7 p.m. on Oct. 20

East Robertson High School:

5-7 p.m. on Oct. 22

Greenbrier High School:

5-7 p.m. on Oct. 23

Jo Byrns High School:

5-7 p.m. on Oct. 27

Springfield High School:

5-7 p.m. Oct. 28

Coopertown Middle School:

5-7 p.m. on Oct. 29