Big Easy Zoning Difficulties

Recovery School District neighborhood attendance zones debated

The board that governs most schools in New Orleans began debate Wednesday on what's likely to be among the most contentious issues facing school administrators this year: whether to return the city to a system in which children have guaranteed access to -- or at least a first shot at -- a school in their own neighborhood. Though it seems unlikely that the city will return to a system of strictly neighborhood schools anytime soon, State Superintendent Paul Pastorek offered his first informal proposal Wednesday for giving students in the city some neighborhood preference. Pastorek favors a limited policy, allowing the independent charters that predominate in the RSD to set aside perhaps 20 percent of their slots to children living near the school. But many parents, teachers and activists are demanding that children be given the absolute right to attend a school close to home.