A Suburb Believed in Liberal Ideals. Then Came a New Busing Plan.

This suburb, with its high-performing schools, seems a haven of diversity and progressiveness. Signs that trumpet “Stigma-free Town” and “Hate Has No Home Here” hang from lampposts and, after a series of fatal police shootings across the country, “Black Lives Matter” placards popped up on lawns.

But now a strategy to tackle racial inequity in the school district is challenging the town’s self-image, casting a harsh light on segregation and the stark achievement gaps between black and white students — and raising pointed questions about race and class.

In the district that serves Maplewood and its neighbor, South Orange, the plan is to eliminate guaranteed seats in neighborhood elementary schools, bus children to other buildings and reduce the grouping of students by test scores, which has resulted in white students filling a disproportionate share of higher-level classes.