Attorneys for black students in a long-running school desegregation lawsuit are accusing operators of the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District of working in concert with the state to create an inferior school system for black and mostly poor children.
John Walker, who leads a team of attorneys for the black children known as the Joshua intervenors, asked U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. to hold an evidentiary hearing on school building plans in the new district and to direct district leaders "to promptly provide equalized facilities, such as those in Maumelle and Chenal schools, for all of the children of the JNPSD, post haste."
Marshall is the presiding judge in the 33-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit. He is overseeing efforts by both the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district and the Pulaski County Special School District -- from which the Jacksonville district was carved -- to comply with the Pulaski County Special district's desegregation obligations. Those obligations call for equitable school buildings, as well as equity in staffing and student discipline.
Walker, joined by Robert Pressman of Lexington, Mass., and Austin Porter of Little Rock, sent the request for a hearing to the judge Wednesday evening as part of a 16-page report detailing objections to the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District's proposed building plan. That plan is due in final form to the state Department of Education in the next several weeks. The new district will apply for millions of dollars in state aid for school construction based on the master plan.
The building plan calls for the replacement of Jacksonville High School, the construction of a new elementary school near Little Rock Air Force Base to replace the existing Arnold Drive and Tolleson elementary schools, and the addition of multipurpose rooms to each of four other elementary schools: Bayou Meto, Murrell Taylor, Pinewood and Warren Dupree.
Additionally, the existing North Pulaski High campus would be converted to be the sole middle school for the new district that will detach from the Pulaski County Special district and begin operating independently on July 1.
The Joshua attorneys contend that the new district is "starting out by creating a white refuge or enclave" in proposing to build just one new elementary school that is predicted to serve a majority white student enrollment.
"Jacksonville elementary students, most of whom are African-American, thus will continue to be denied equal facilities under the JNPSD's plan. Beyond that there is no intent to replace the facilities where they live," the attorneys wrote.
The attorneys suggested that the new district replace all or nearly all the schools in the new district to ensure that the schools are on par with the recently built Maumelle High, Maumelle Middle and Chenal Elementary schools in the Pulaski County Special district.
"Joshua earnestly contends that if facilities are not PROMPTLY EQUALIZED in Jacksonville, they will ask the court for further relief and possibly to rejoin Jacksonville with the PCSSD," the attorneys wrote.
Scott Richardson, an attorney for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, said Thursday that a court hearing on the district's building plan is not necessary and that the judge can evaluate it based on what has been presented to him by attorneys. He also said the court monitoring of the district's efforts will be ongoing as the new district is not at this point asking to be declared unitary (or released from court supervision).
"It's a good plan. It's a plan that is good for all the kids," Richardson said, adding that all middle school students in the district will attend one school, as will all high school students. He said that is a classic way of ensuring racial desegregation.
Richardson also noted that there has been a large amount of renovation work already done in at least some of the four existing elementary schools that are to remain in operation. That kind of work has not been done at Tolleson and Arnold Drive schools in anticipation of those schools being replaced.
Marshall, in a Dec. 16 status conference, told the attorneys for the Joshua intervenors and the Jacksonville/North Pulaski and Pulaski County Special school districts that he was initially impressed with the Jacksonville/North Pulaski building plan. But he also said he doesn't know as much about the subject as the longtime attorneys in the lawsuit. He directed Walker and his team to provide him with specific, fact-based objections to the plan.
Marshall also directed his court expert, Margie Powell, to put into writing her views on the building plan, which she did last week. He gave the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district until Monday to respond to the Joshua intervenors' objections.
Powell found "no obvious negative effects on desegregation issues" in her review of the building and renovation plans for the new district. Her largest concern centered on the funding for the school construction and renovation projects if a proposed 7.6-mill property-tax increase for schools is defeated by voters at the Feb. 9 special election.
At the Dec. 16 status conference with attorneys, Marshall set 1:30 p.m. Jan. 19 as a time for an evidentiary hearing on the building plan, if one is necessary.
"It is important to me to move if possible in a way that allows this state funding process to go forward," Marshall said.
Leaders in the new district want to meet a March 1 application deadline for 2017-2019 state Partnership Program money. That state aid could cover about half of the cost of constructing academic space in the new district.
"We want the state dollars to flow to these children," Marshall said. "At the same time the Court does not want to act with haste or in the face of an argument from Joshua that this plan will promote unequal facilities instead of promoting equal facilities and improved educational space for the children."
The Joshua attorneys, in their report to the judge, raised a concern about the new district's anticipation of U.S. Department of Defense funding to pay for the new elementary school on property close to Little Rock Air Force Base.
"There is no documentation which confirms an application for government funding by either PCSSD or JNPSD," the attorneys said about the possibility of Defense Department money. The attorneys also said that the district had prepared an application for state building aid -- but it was not shared with the Joshua intervenors for several weeks.
"Accordingly, Joshua was not in a position to review the application before it was submitted," the attorneys said.
The attorneys for the black students raised issues related to staffing in the new district, particularly the selection of a principal for the middle school that was done in consultation with Arkansas Department of Education staff because the school has been labeled by the state as academically distressed. That was the result of chronically low student test scores.
The hiring of the principal was described by district leaders as a "binding recommendation" from the state agency.
The Joshua intervenors said the recommendation and hiring were not disclosed to the Joshua intervenors nor to the judge.
The attorneys said the hiring shows that the state is interfering in the management of the Pulaski County Special School District "in a way which has the effect of undermining" the district's desegregation plan requirements.
"While these documents do not address facilities, it points up the State's interference with Plan 2000, thus emphasizing Joshua's need for a hearing to address JNPSD's good faith and to possibly ask for reinstate of the State as a defendant," the Joshua attorneys wrote.
Metro on 01/08/2016