District News Roundup

The Denver school board has agreed to allow almost a third of the schools in its mandatory busing program to revert to neighborhood schools next year.

The board voted overwhelmingly this month to release nine elementary schools from busing students for racial desegregation. The decision leaves only 16 of the district's 78 elementary schools involved in the busing program established in 1974.

The district has placed steadily less emphasis on mandatory busing since 1987, when a federal judge granted it the freedom to make adjustments in its desegregation plan. The district has filed a motion asking the judge to release it...