Consider changing the school zoning for EVERY school to be a magnet school. If necessary, there would have to be limitations placed on this (EVERYONE can't go to University Place, after all), but I think it is really more workable than you might think at first glance. You would have all the schools competing for students and trying to improve just to keep their jobs. People who wanted to keep in neighborhood schools probably could...People who thought their children would do better in other schools could request the other schools.

It would certainly cut the legs out of the unspoken racism of houses being zoned in "good" or "bad" school zones. It also might reduce the white flight that segregation started and the Tuscaloosa High School/Druid High School court order added to.

Why this is the time for this? Let's rebuild our WHOLE city, not just the tornado damaged parts. I can't think of anything more transformative than a change in school zoning.