Abstract:
The issue of racial integration in public schools has typically taken the form of controversies about busing across neighborhood lines in big cities, or proposed cross-boundary desegregation involving cities and their surrounding suburbs. The issues of race and poverty and their relation to education policy can also arise within smaller, even suburban municipalities--and that is exactly what happens in this case. Mary Leiker, the superintendent of the Kentwood (Michigan) public school systems in suburban Grand Rapids, must face the challenges posed by the variation in demographics and student performance within Kentwood. Leiker decides that it is her moral obligation to find politically acceptable ways to draw school district lines to ensure that, despite housing patterns, African-Americans are not concentrated in any one school, and that "at-risk" children are spread throughout the school system.
Learning Objective:
This leadership case describes how Leiker developed and implemented a plan she believed moved in those directions, notwithstanding citizen opposition. The case describes both her methods of dealing with the public and, in particular, her relations with Kentwood's elected board of education members.
