Once
again, Fairport’s taking a stand.
The
school district that made a name for itself by taking on Albany and refusing to
adopt a budget until the state adopted one of its own is digging its heels in
again.
This
time, the opponent is a bit more formidable: the Pentagon.
The
impending showdown is over the district’s interpretation of a little-known
provision in the No Child Left Behind act: School districts are required to
turn over information about students, including addresses and phone numbers, to
military recruiters. NCLB also stipulates that military recruiters must have
the same access granted other recruiters — college admissions counselors, for
example.
Parents
and guardians are granted the right to block the release of student
information. Up to that point, Fairport and the US military agree. The trouble
comes over how the district notifies parents of that right.
“The
military is claiming there is only one way to do it,” says Fairport
Superintendent Bill Cala. He describes what the military wants as “the passive
way.” The military has argued the law allows the district to withhold student
information only if parents specifically request that. Fairport’s policy
requires more participation from its parents.
The
district sends a letter to every parent explaining the new rule, and there are
boxes for parents to check either “yes” or “no” to the release of their child’s
information. Then Fairport takes it one step further:
“We
won’t act on releasing the information until the parents return [the letter],”
Cala says. Such a system amounts to an opt-in policy rather than the opt-out
policy suggested in the legislation’s language, the military has argued.
Fairport
has had that system since No Child Left Behind was enacted. “We’re the only one
in the country,” Cala says. And the district has no plans to abandon it.
“Our
position is firm,” Cala says. “We’re not backing off. We feel we’re right.”
That
stance has earned Cala what he calls “threatening” phone calls from local
recruiters. Cala says the recruiters say they will take the matter to their
higher-ups if the district doesn’t change its policy.
Apparently
that’s already happened: Cala says the Pentagon has contacted him, and he’s now
negotiating a time to chat with an Army colonel.
What’s
comes next is unclear. The New York State Civil Liberties Union has been
working with Fairport and may represent the district if the matter goes to
court.
But
regardless of the outcome of his meeting with the Washington-based Army
officer, Cala believes he knows what to expect. In California, after several
districts adopted policies similar to Fairport’s, the Defense Department and
the federal Education Department pressured the California Education Department
to bring schools back into line by threatening a loss of federal funding, says
Cala.
“I
suspect that’s all going to happen here,” Cala says.
One reason Cala can face
down the Pentagon more confidently than many other school administrators is the
support he enjoys from parents and students in his district. Asked whether he’s
fielded any criticism about the district’s system from parents, Cala responds
with an emphatic “no.”
“I’ve
not had any complaints,” he says. “Why would anyone complain that they’re being
adequately notified?”
Among
Fairport’s students who are sympathetic to what Cala’s doing are members of a
student-run organization devoted to peace and justice issues — the Fairport
High School Peace Club.
“We
formed three years ago when there was talk of invading Iraq,” says senior
Michael Freeman, one of the club’s leaders. After the invasion, he says, the
group succumbed to a sense of helplessness. That started to change when the
students noticed military recruiters in their school hallways. Freeman declines
to label the club’s activities as “counter-recruiting” (an activity that has an
identity and history of its own, dating back at least to the Vietnam conflict).
Instead, he says, the club was “just giving information and basic facts” to
fellow students, like the number of soldiers killed in the current conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Freeman
says those actions prompted a verbal confrontation between him and some of the
Marine recruiters toward the end of the last fall semester. After a similar
incident involving another student, Freeman says, principal David Paddock asked
the recruiters to leave the building.
Now
the recruiters are back, but in the meantime the students have been doing some
studying. “We’ve been finding out about the conduct that governs recruiters,”
Freeman says. One rule that the group intends to push is one Freeman says is
designed for the recruiters’ protection; it requires a school official to be
present when recruiters meet with students.
“Even
being in a place where there’s a secretary or some adult around, the recruiters
wouldn’t lie to kids,” Freeman says. The group also plans to dive into the
world of counter-recruitment.
The Rochester
school district once banned military recruiters because of the military’s
“don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward homosexual students. That ban bit the
dust with the No Child Left Behind act requiring school access for recruiters.
And
compared to Fairport, the Rochester district uses a soft way of telling parents
about the release of information to military recruiters. In the district’s
yearly calendar — 48 pages packed full of information — parents are told
that they may tell the district not to release student records without written
consent. That notification is on pages 13 and 14 — and doesn’t include the
word “military.”
The
Rochester district’s attorney, Michael Looby, says the district is more
concerned with recruiters’ behavior around students on school grounds than
whether they call or write those students at home. The district has adopted
extensive policies reflecting that concern. It allows counter-recruiting, for
example, and other measures that moderate the influence of recruiters, while
still fully complying with the law.
But
even if the Rochester district wanted to mimic Fairport, the district could
probably ill-afford to do so. Fairport’s stance could jeopardize its federal
funding. “It’s not that large,” says Cala, “but it’s large enough that we can’t
afford to ignore it.” “Not that large” is about 4 percent of Fairport’s $86
million budget.
For
the cash-strapped city district, the figure would be considerably higher; it
gets nearly 6 percent of its budget — $34.6 million — from Uncle Sam.
And
while Cala may be diligent in protecting the interests of his students, it’s
likely that fewer Fairport students than city students would be interested in
joining the military. Of the 1,600 Fairport students in grades 10 through 12,
only 78 opted to release their contact information to the military. Perhaps
that’s because more than 90 percent are headed to college.
City
school district officials say they don’t even know how many graduates attend
college. The number of students who return exit surveys asking about future
plans is too small to be statistically significant, the officials say. And the
military may be an attractive option to many city students, given the
district’s large number of poor and low-income students.
One
city school administrator who supports Fairport’s stand is School Without Walls
principal Dan Drmacich. With the military struggling to enlist young people in
a time of war, city schools may be attractive recruiting places, says Drmacich.
If the district’s students “are having a hard time finding jobs, they would
tend to be prime pickings for the government,” he says.
Placing
information about notification rights in the Rochester school district’s
calendar isn’t enough, he says. “The average low-income parent doesn’t have
time to pursue that.”
Drmacich
says he’s not out to kick the military out of schools, and he acknowledges
military recruiters’ right under NCLB to parity with other recruiters.
“But
going to Brockport versus going to Iraq — there’s some serious differences
about the consequences for young people,” he says.
The
goal, he says, is the right to inform parents and students “in a more upfront
manner.”
“I
think the bottom line is just to be fair to students and parents” when
releasing information, he says. “It’s unfair. We’re not giving a true
picture of what the alternatives are and what the consequences are.”
Drmacich
would like to see the city district follow Fairport’s lead, calling its
approach one that “makes sense.” And he says he hopes that if Fairport succeeds
in keeping its policy intact, others will follow suit.
“I’m
sure that various districts are just looking for someone to challenge it,” he
says.
This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2005.
