Riverview Charter School gets racial reprieve

Riverview Charter School got a racial reprieve from the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Beaufort County School Board as the result of a closed meeting of the school board yesterday, May 10.

Riverview was originally under a mandate to close after only one year of operation for failure to meet a racial quota agreed last year between OCR and the board. That agreement has now been modified by OCR and approved by the board yesterday to give Riverview one more year to meet the racial requirements with further requirements imposed for later years.

The requirements are designed to cause Riverview to have a ratio of white and black students that is within 15 percent of the actual ratio county-wide. Riverview selects its students by lottery, which makes reaching these artificially imposed goals difficult and perhaps impossible.

The entire Beaufort County School District is under a Federal desegregation order that goes back to the 1970s. Only Riverview, of all the schools in the district, has been held to a strict racial quota. Other schools in the district are grossly out of compliance with the order but have not been held accountable by OCR and the school board the way Riverview has.

Riverview is the only charter school in the district. It opened its doors in August 2009 to elementary school students and is planning to add one grade of classes each year until it reaches up to the eighth grade.

Related posts:

1. Riverview Charter School says school board racial numbers are wrong, goes forward with lottery plans
2. Riverview Charter School lottery delay continues, school board drags feet
3. Riverview Charter School adjusts to racial quota requirements
4. School board’s Riverview racial “error” approximates 5%
5. Breaking news: Beaufort County Board of Education imposes racial quota on Riverview Charter School