This plan is DPS’ effort to provide that opportunity through the new DPS Regional Access Model, improving program placement across all elementary schools, and refining DPS school boundaries.

Kelvin Bullock, WeAre co-founder and former DPS senior executive director for equity and professional learning was a part of the team developing the Growing Together Plan.

“Sometimes as a system, you have to make a decision to make sure the opportunity is there,” said Bullock.

The Growing Together plan will be implemented in elementary schools first and then in middle and high schools. There will be changes to the previous school calendar, curriculum and the schools some students will have to attend. As a result, students are now exposed to year-round schools, magnet schools, dual language programming and more because of the new zones and reassignments.

This is not DPS’ first time implementing integration to combat the quality of education its students are receiving.

“When we’re talking about the 60s and 70s, we’re talking about the integration of the schools where black and white students started going to school together,” said Bullock. “But in 1992, there was a merger between the city schools and the county schools.” 

The 1992 merger formed DPS. This segregation in the school system is reflective of how society itself is segregated.

“Society is very much separated by economics…and so by and large people live among folks who have similar economic backgrounds with them. And so there isn’t always that much diversity within neighborhoods and communities. And that is intentional,” says Co-founder and executive director of WeAre Ronda Taylor Bullock.

She explains how laws and policies, like redlining, were created to put people in certain communities. 

Ronda Bullock illustrates “You have some people who live in communities where people can afford 200 plus thousand-dollar homes, and you have some people living in communities that receive financial support for their housing.”

Typically, the more upscale communities are predominately white, and this is reflected in the school systems. “There was more money and resources in the whiter county schools than there was in the more underfunded black centered cities,” said Kelvin Bullock.

The effects of these laws and policies spill over into the school system. “Durham City Schools were like 90 something percent black and the county schools were like 70 percent white,” illustrating “the schools were integrated, but they weren’t really integrated,” said Kelvin Bullock depicting segregation in the early nineties.

The Growing Together plan revises a system that has not been revised in 30 years. Bullock says the plan’s socioeconomic integration helps us to grow as humans and see the world through different lenses. It’s additionally beneficial to the student body because of the cultivation of resources.

Kelvin Bullock says prior to the Growing Together plan there were no magnet programs in East Durham or any year-round schools in the predominantly Black and Brown parts of the county.

“Diversity is a benefit to all students,” says Ronda Bullock. “Having a class with economic diversity is more reflective of the world that we live in.”

Some parents approve of the plan because they believe their child has a chance at a better education. Others are not in favor because of the unexpected changes and astonishing lack of information increasing the difficulty of the changes ahead

Despite the growing pains, the Growing Together plan is moving forward with strong hopes and aspirations. This plan will be revisited every 5 years ensuring that it stays fair and balanced, standing the test of time.

“A plan is only as good as the people who are implementing it, people who are monitoring it, and the people that are holding leadership accountable to the plan,” said Kelvin Bullock. The key to Growing Together’s success will take the support of the full community.

Edited by: Davis Seik