Juanita Wade, a School Committee member and co-chair of the Student Assignment Task Force which proposed the plan, was quoted then as saying, "The planners did not sit down and say to the plaintiff class, 'what do you want?'"

Mayor Flynn responded by calling Wade's argument "the most bogus point of view I've ever heard."

Before drafting the plan, Willie and Alves held three community forums attended by over 500 people. They met with the Urban League, the Black Educators Alliance and "every recognized advocacy group in the city dealing with education," according to Alves and Ellen Guiney, Flynn's educational adviser.

Willie, who is himself Black, says, "The allegations that minorities were not involved were false. The actual fact of the matter is that there was an extensive amount of majority and minority involvement."

But others say that the charges may reflect minority distrust of Boston city politics, whether or not they accurately portray the circumstances of the plan's development. School Committee President Tom O'Reilley says, "There were probably some legitimate concerns under the rhetoric... Blacks were protected under the courtordered plan. For some, there's a sense of insecurity and risk."

This distrust led Superintendent of Schools Lavalle Wilson to develop his own desegregation plan, which he said accounted for the views of minority Parents. Wilson's plan included not only controlled choice but also school closings, educational themes and other issues. Last Tuesday, Wilson's plan was merged with the School Committee's plan--written by Willie and Alves--with most points of disagreement set aside for further debate.

And many now say that the initial controversy over minority involvement in the plan's formation may dissipate as the School Committee has agreed to hold an additional public hearing.

For example, John O'Bryant, a long-time Black School Committee member, says that lack of minority involvement "was never a serious issue." And Hattie McKinnis, president of the Citywide Parents Council which joined Black School Committee members in making the charges, asserts that at least on some issues, minority voices are now "being heard."

The Mayor and the Bureaucracy

But while the controversy about the extent of minority involvement in the plan may be subsiding, disputes about the political motivations of the plan's opponents are not likely to fade.

The mayor and other proponents of the plan say that individual School Committee members have used the issue of minority involvement to obscure the real reasons for their opposition.

For example, Daniel Burke, a School Committee member from Dorchester, was quoted as calling the Black members "four politicians" who are "more interested in preserving the existing bureaucracy."

The struggle has roots in controlled choice itself, which threatens to take power from the entrenched School Department bureaucracy. Because the choice element means that schools must compete with each other to make themselves more attractive to students, Willie argues that "we have helped Boston move a considerable distance towards decentralizing its decision-making structure."

But the conflict between the School Department and the mayor goes deeper than this one student assignment plan. Flynn has virtually declared war on the Boston School Department and was quoted as saying, "We're talking about fundamental reform, and I'm taking it forward. And I'm not finished. I want school-based management. I'm for real reform. I know its going to rock the system. And after that, I want a serious review of how the School Committee is elected."

Flynn has even proposed selling the School Department building at 26 Court Street, where most bureaucrats in the system work.