Williams/Columbia School Zone in Madison

[deesonic]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

The reason I hear most often is that the Triana kids, if they still had to go to Madison County schools, it would be too far for them to travel.

That may be true, but I think the real reason, and one the officials never mentioned, is that Madison City would never have been able to have a separate school district because of racial non-balance, so they added Triana to include more blacks.

Unless I'm mistaken, Hampton Cove residents have an Owens Crossroads address, but the kids go to Huntsville City Schools, and there's even a Hampton Cove Elementary and Middle School that's part of the Huntsville system.

Town of OCR residents and county residents with OCR addresses attend Madison County Schools (Nee Hope High School and feeder schools). OCR addresses (Hampton Cove) in Huntsville city limits attend Huntsville City Schools.

As for Triana, the distance to the closest county schools would certainly have been a hardship for Triana residents. I'm not sure about the desegregation aspect of that arrangement. I was under the impression Madison City Schools weren't subject to the desegregation rules since their school district did not exist at the time the order went intro effect. And I'm not sure how DOJ or DOE could justify making a school in one city take students from another independent city in order to meet the requirements. But I honestly don't know for sure.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by deesonic

Town of OCR residents and county residents with OCR addresses attend Madison County Schools (Nee Hope High School and feeder schools). OCR addresses (Hampton Cove) in Huntsville city limits attend Huntsville City Schools.

As for Triana, the distance to the closest county schools would certainly have been a hardship for Triana residents. I'm not sure about the desegregation aspect of that arrangement. I was under the impression Madison City Schools weren't subject to the desegregation rules since their school district did not exist at the time the order went intro effect. And I'm not sure how DOJ or DOE could justify making a school in one city take students from another independent city in order to meet the requirements. But I honestly don't know for sure.

Yes, that's what I meant - Hampton Cove residents, even though they're in the Huntsville City limits, have an OCR mailing address; one reason is that they wanted it to be that way and they post office agreed. Regardless of the street address, they are zoned for Huntsville City schools.

You're right that Madison Schools would not be subject to the Huntsville desegregation ruling. But - I think - that establishing Madison Schools at all would not have been allowed had they not had more black students. And yes, it would have truly been a hardship for Triana students to travel to county schools. I suppose they could have gone to Williams (Huntsville City), if Williams existed then, but allowing those students to go to Madison City Schools "killed two birds with one stone", so to speak; it better racially balanced students in the proposed schools (which, in my opinion, made establishment of the system possible), and it removed some of the hardship the kids would face by staying in the county system. But they still have a ways to travel, even in the Madison Schools. It also removed the need for the county to run buses all the way to Triana. So everybody won with that solution.