The second committee meeting of parents, teachers and administrators included a 11Ž2-hour presentation by the district that showed slow and steady improvement in test scores for both whites and Latinos. But district administrators acknowledged that there was still a significant difference in scores.

The handful of parents invited to join the committee said they were happy to see the data and be part of the process. But after the meeting, parents told the Almaden Resident that although the district is making a good-faith effort, they believed returning students to their neighborhood schools is an important part of the solution. Parents said the focus should be on helping those individuals who are disadvantaged rather than shifting children all over the district.

"I think everyone is well-intentioned," Joan Cooper said. "It's a difficult thing in the district."

The district developed its voluntary integration plan, as an alternative approach, after it was ordered by the federal court in August to end its desegregation plan by Dec. 31, 2003.

"Students shouldn't have to leave their own community to get great programs that are offered at certain schools," Cooper said.

Cooper, who opted to send her children to schools out of their own neighborhood many years ago, said she didn't know at the time how much she was giving up.

"Their school friends lived far away and they didn't know the kids in their own neighborhood," she said.

She added that she thinks school choice should still be available, but that the district should work on improving schools that are seen as less desirable.

With the budget crisis, schools will only be squeezed more, and Cooper said one antidote is more parental involvement, which "can only happen when you have neighborhood schools."

Bernadette Rodriguez, another parent, agrees. If students live far away from their schools, parents are less likely to spend as much time as they would like at the school because it isn't as convenient, she says.

Rodriguez said that the district's open-enrollment policy—having the option of going to any school within the San Jose Unified School District—has hurt several neighborhood schools during the last several decades.

She said what has happened is students from North San Jose will come as far south as Willow Glen, making Willow Glen schools representative of San Jose as a whole but not the Willow Glen neighborhood. In turn, families from Willow Glen send their children south to magnet schools in Almaden that end up serving the children who are not disadvantaged, she said.

"I don't know why the district is not more frustrated," she added. "They've pumped all these dollars into the magnet schools and things have gotten a little better, but it hasn't closed the gap."

Cooper said she wished the three separate committees that are meeting about voluntary integration, school closure and school boundaries "had more to do with each other."

Sandra Madrigal, whose daughter attends Horace Mann Elementary School downtown, said she was impressed with the district's information gathering.

"I think they are trying to really understand the overall situation," she said. "They acknowledged they could be doing this better."

Madrigal also strongly believed students should stay in their home neighborhoods.

"For students and parents alike, it could be very devastating to be taken out of neighborhood schools," Madrigal said. "The houses look different than theirs, and their parents may not even have cars."

She has talked to parents who are concerned that if an emergency happened, it would take them a long time to ride the bus across town to pick up their student.

Madrigal said the notion of diversifying schools is good, but "is it really helping children relate to everyday reality? Probably not."

If a less-diverse school has a better system or resources, she said other schools should learn from them rather than transporting children around.

She said parents, especially Latinos, want to know "what kinds of things can we do to make sure our children are not just a statistic, but are successful."