-Tar Heel Talk-
A conversation with a man about schools
At last month's public hearing on
school attendance zones, Fred Cundiff
sat silently on the Page High School
auditorium stage A parade of speakers, mostly white, debated the merits
of "change" versus "stability."
Cundiff, perhaps more than anyone
else in the audience, had heard it all
before. As assistant superintendent for
administration in the city schools,
Cundiff had the task of juggling school
transfers and assignments, and smoothing parents' ruffled feathers when
they didn't like the result.
Seven years ago, when the city wrestled with its first busing plan, Cundiff
sat in the same auditorium and listened to a very different kind of conversation. Parents angrily denounced
the school board, the courts and the
school administration for taking away
their "freedom of choice."
At Page the other night — this time
as a member of the board's Advisory
Committee on School Attendance
Zones — Cundiff couldn't help note
the difference."While it was emotional," he says, "it was not the high-
pitched emotionalism we had experienced during the days of desegregation several years ago."
Most striking was the fact that no
one in the audience questioned the
reality of busing or racial integration.
"We're just not going back to freedom
of choice and neighborhood schools
unless desegregation can be achieved
at the same time," Cundiff says. For
this relatively bloodless transition, he
believes, the community deserves
''reat credit.
Fred Cundiff in his Greensboro office
On January 1, Cundiff left his old
job with the city schools to become
the director of the state's new regional
education center here. In a wide-ranging interview at year's end, Cundiff offered his views on a variety of school-
related topics:
• On his participation in the two-
man Interim Management Team
which has run the schools this year in
the absence of a superintendent: "I
didn't know people could work this
well together, this effectively."
• On the kind of superintendent
the Board of Education ought to be
seeking: "An able and effective communicator," a "professionally,honest
person who will say what he means
and mean what he says." And preferably a southerner.
• On the access of black students
to the schools' Gifted and Talented
Program: "We're not talking about
just IQ. There's got to be a better
means of referring minority students
to the program." As for pressure from
the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare to broaden the G/T program's black representation, "nobody
has helped the city of Greensboro
more than the Office of Civil Rights
in Atlanta."
• On his own reasons for'.'eaving
the school system and not aggressively
seeking the superintendent's job: "I
feel bummed out and used up. I think
I've done my crusading. It's time for
other young blacks to move on to the
scene."
Bummed out and used up. They're
not words most people associate with
Fred Cundiff. The energetic 52-year-
old Wilkes County native first came
here 23 years ago as a teacher at the
all-black Washington School. Later he
became ESEA Title I director and, in
1969, stepped into the central administration — only the fourth black administrator in North Carolina at that
time.
In those years Cundiff has seen it all
and heard it all. When he speaks of adjusting school attendance zones, he
speaks with the wisdom of a Solomon
who's been asked to achieve perfect
racial balance in walk-in schools with
no disruption to any child's education*.
Perhaps that's why Cundiff sighs
when you ask him about possible drastic change in school assignments this
year. The system needs, he thinks, "as
extensive a degree of stability as possible." When parents invest in a home,
it's a major commitment and the
school board has an "obligation" to
take it into account.
Whatever assignment guidelines the
board adopts, he thinks, should be just
that: Guidelines and not rigid percentages to box the board in. He also
thinks the board shouldn't feel wedded to its February 21 deadline to ac-
Cundifi's intimate experience with
the race issue may also explain his
own mixed feelings about the consequences of desegregation for blacks.
While desegregation has had an incalculable effect on educational opportunities for blacks, Cundiff believes
blacks have lost something, too. "We
don't have the sense of togetherness
that we ought to have," he says.
"There's not the unity in the black
community."
The schools' biggest challenge, he
says, is to do a better job of communicating with parents and students of
both races. "To call a youngster's
name is important. 'Son' or 'boy,' that
doesn't do much." As a teacher, he remembers visiting or calling parents
frequently to point out problems or to
praise their child for a job well done.
If the schools devised a plan of regular
contact with parents and homes, Cundiff believes talk of "discipline," along
with many of the worries about busing, would melt away.
As for trie board's task in adopting
new guidelines and hiring a superintendent, Cundiff thinks the wax the
board goes about handling it is as important as the final result. There must
be a sense of purpose, but also of healing. Only then will the community begin to share a consensus about
education that transcends the formulas, the stereotypes and the divisions
of the past.
JOHN ALEXANDER
