Winchester Faces Investigation Over School Redistricting

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint about the redistricting plan devised by Winchester Public Schools, according to the Boston Globe.

The Civil Rights office will be reviewing allegations that Winchester Public Schools created a redistricting plan that assigns hundreds of children to "new elementary schools beginning in September (that) discriminates against some of the children on the basis of race, national origin, and limited English proficiency," according to the Globe.

Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, told the Globe that the probe was opened on Feb. 15 and said, "The complaint is currently under investigation."

A Dec. 19 complaint, which was submitted with a letter of support from nearly 100 foreign-born Winchester residents from more than a dozen countries, claims Winchester Public Schools redistricting plan “targets and disproportionately adversely affects foreign-born families, English language learners, and students and families of color,” moving them “from schools that are high-performing to the district’s only elementary school that is not making adequate yearly progress under the [federal] No Child Left Behind Act,” according to the Globe.

Some parents have contended that the redistricting plan would move children of modest means to the Lynch Elementary School — Winchester’s oldest elementary school — while sending the children of affluent families to the new Vinson-Owen Elementary School, which is expected to open in September, according to the Globe.

To read the complete Boston Globe report, click here.