A long-running desegregation battle in northeastern New Jersey took a new turn last week as a 17-town task force called for converting a high school at the center of the conflict into a regional magnet school.
The towns surrounding Englewood, N.J., have been meeting since January to come up with a plan to desegregate the city’s Dwight Morrow High School. (See Education Week, April 24, 1996.)
The communities unanimously approved a plan last week that would create various themed programs at Dwight Morrow--partly through affiliation with a college--designed to attract students from throughout Bergen County. But there remains strong opposition to the plan in Englewood, and officials there are weighing whether to keep pressing for a court-ordered solution.
The task force’s plan has been forwarded to the state education department. Commissioner of Education Leo F. Klagholz will consider it along with several other desegregation proposals in making recommendations to the state school board.
Eviction Overturned
For the second time in as many weeks, a state judge has reinstated a New York City community school board that Chancellor Rudy F. Crew had suspended on grounds of alleged corruption.
Mr. Crew exceeded his authority when he suspended the trustees of District 9 in the Bronx, the judge ruled last week.
Mr. Crew said he was disappointed, but would continue his battle against districts “where educational leadership has failed miserably and corruption has flourished.”
Only a week earlier, another state judge ruled in favor of the District 7 board, which the chancellor had suspended in February on the same day as District 9. (See Education Week, May 1, 1996.)
Mr. Crew has appealed both decisions.
