Eisenstadt Claims School Committee Will Reject Harvard Redistrict Plan

The Boston School Committee meet the "radical proposal on redistricting drafted by the Harvard M.I.T. Joint Center for Urban Studies, Thomas S. Eisenstadt, Committee Chairman, said yesterday.

The plan, which would redistribute Negro and white children in nine junior highs and 25 elementary schools, is "extreme and often illogical" Eisenstadt.

Two other School Committee members Louise Day licks and Joseph called the plan a complete failed Both argue that redistributing can not eliminate racial imbalances in Boston schools because Negro school population increases yearly and is concentrated in small areas of the city.

Plans Tentative

Eisenstadt saved his most vigorous criticism for those "panderers of fear" who revealed details of the Joint Center's redistricting proposal to the public. The plan, which the Joint Center prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Education Task Force on Racial imbalance, has not yet been submitted to the Boston School Committee and is still being revised by the Task Force with the help of the Joint Center. But parts of it leaked out Wednesday.

The plan is "extreme" in Eisenstadt's opinion because it is designed for "maximum" compliance with the Massachusetts racial imbalance law. He indicated that the committee could satisfy the Massachusetts Department of Education with an imbalance plan with smaller redistricting changes than the Joint Center draft suggests.

Illogical

He called their proposal "illogical" because the new redistricting lines would actually increase the percent age of Negroes enrolled in some schools which are already predominately non-white. He also objected that children "might be compelled the walk past their neighborhood school to attend another."

Eisenstadt's assistant, William G. Tobin, said that he found the tentative redistricting plan "full of mistakes" after checking with junior high and elementary school principle in the districts where lines will be redrawn.

Angry Parents

Hundreds of angry parents have called the School Committee this week to find out whether redistricting will force their children into a different school next fall.

The wave of protest began when Edmund S. Barry, principal of 99 percent white Grover Cleveland Junior High warned parents that 600 white students in his district would be shifted to predominantly Negro schools by the new plan.

Roxbury parents had planned a protest meeting for the last night but called it off after Eisenstadt's reassurance that the proposal did not have the School Committee's approval.

The Task Force meets today with representatives of the committee to discuss possible technical faults in the tentative plan. A final draft should be ready for the School Committee early next week.