U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. on Thursday approved the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District school building improvement plan.
But the new district must supplement it by year's end with plans for replacing four elementary schools.
The judge approved the facilities plan -- which calls for a new Jacksonville High school building, a new elementary school near Little Rock Air Force Base, the conversion of North Pulaski High into a middle school and the addition of multipurpose rooms to four other elementaries -- over the objections of attorneys for black students known as the Joshua intervenors.
The intervenors sought the immediate replacement of all, or nearly all, the schools in the new district that is being carved out of the Pulaski County Special School District. The attorneys, headed by Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, asked that all schools in the new district be on par with Maumelle High and Chenal Elementary, which are relatively new schools in the Pulaski County Special district. The attorneys complained that the one new elementary school proposed by the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district would be a "white refuge or enclave."
Marshall, the presiding judge in the 33-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit, began his five-page order accepting the district's building plan, saying: "We must not let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
"When implemented, the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District's proposed facilities master plan will be a significant step toward equal facilities for all students," he continued. "The new high school and middle school will serve children of all races. Locating the high school in downtown Jacksonville signals a commitment -- not only to that city's hub, but to the many African-American families and their children who live close by."
The judge rejected the contention by the Joshua intervenors that a replacement school for Arnold Drive and Tolleson elementaries would create a "white flight" school.
District officials project the new school will have a majority white enrollment when the two old schools are combined. Three of the four remaining elementaries in the new district have majority black enrollments.
"First, the Arnold Drive and Tolleson facilities are some of the most antiquated in the new district," Marshall wrote. "Second, overall enrollment at these two ... has been declining; at the same time, the percentage of African American students has been increasing. There's no evidence suggesting either a reversal of those trends or that the new school would become a white-flight school."
The judge also noted that the new school would be eligible for U.S. Department of Education funding of as much as half the expected $16 million cost of the building.
"In the circumstances, JNPSD's pursuing that opportunity shows good stewardship of limited public dollars, not discriminatory intent," he said.
Marshall also said that while all the elementary schools in the new district need replacing, "the district must start somewhere. And the other four elementary schools will each get a multi-purpose building now, which will replace portable buildings and which will be the start of new, better facilities for each."
The four schools set to receive the multipurpose rooms -- which will provide physical education and stage space -- are Bayou Meto, Murrell Taylor, Pinewood and Warren Dupree elementaries.
Marshall said that, in the long term, those four elementary schools must be replaced "so that all the district's elementary schools are equal." The plans for accomplishing that are due Dec. 31, Marshall ordered.
The judge canceled a court hearing on facilities that was tentatively set for Tuesday. He directed that the parties in the case use the time instead to meet on their own to collaborate on issues of buildings and staffing.
Scott Richardson, an attorney for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, called the judge's order "a great order and I was very pleased with it.
"Everybody knows that there needs to be additional planning done. We just hadn't taken that next step because doing what needs to be done right now is taking so much time and effort," Richardson said.
Walker was happy with Marshall's call for a comprehensive building plan for the elementary schools, although Walker remained critical of what he sees is Jacksonville/North Pulaski district's lack of commitment to black students.
"He did what we wanted him to do, which was to impress upon Jacksonville that it had to replace all of the schools," Walker said of Marshall. "We weren't seeking to not build a high school and we were not seeking for them to not begin work on elementary schools. We were saying, though, that they cannot use construction in bad faith, which is the direction in which it appears to be heading."
Walker said he will renew his request to Marshall to conduct a court hearing to show the unwillingness of the Jacksonville district leaders to tell Jacksonville voters and residents that they will build the schools for the black community. He said the schools that are in the worst repair in the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district are the schools in predominantly black communities -- and not the schools that are close to the Little Rock Air Force Base.
In his order, Marshall said there was a lack of a plan and time table for replacing the four elementaries.
"As much good as there is in the proposed master plan ... there's something missing," Marshall wrote in setting conditions on his approval of the new district's facilities plan.
The judge noted that the four campuses have been improved in recent years but "to achieve unitary status, JNPSD must have a plan for making all facilities, clean, safe, attractive and equal, and must be implementing that plan in good faith to the extent practicable. The proposed master plan is a commendable first step."
Still, the judge said, more must be done by the new district. It is required to meet the same desegregation obligations as the Pulaski County Special School District from which it will officially detach on July 1. Those obligations are in the areas of staffing, student achievement and student discipline, as well as facilities.
"[N]ot withstanding the many challenges of setting up a new district, hiring everyone, and getting ready for the first day of school in ... 2016, JNPSD must also give its attention now to when and how facilities at all the elementary schools will be equalized. The Court expects to receive that expanded master facilities plan by the end of 2016."
He said he realizes that the new district is coping with many uncertainties regarding U.S. Department of Defense funding, construction costs and the results of a Feb. 9 special election on a school property-tax increase.
"That murky and complicated future, however, is precisely why JNPSD needs a complete plan for replacing all elementary facilities -- with options, contingencies, fall backs, and play in the joints to accommodate the developing circumstances. Steering by the final destination will help JNPSD get there," Marshall wrote.
In their objections sent to the judge, the attorneys for the Joshua intervenors, pointed to the Pulaski County Special district's history of bad faith and noncompliance with its desegregation plan -- as recorded by a former federal judge in the case -- as a basis for some of its concerns regarding operations in the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district.
Marshall said that he has observed a change in the Pulaski County Special district.
"In the last several years, this Court has seen something different: PCSSD is making good progress toward becoming completely unitary." He cited that district's planning for new facilities and its partnership in the Donaldson Scholars Program to help improve student achievement.
"JNPSD has, in this proposed master plan, demonstrated a firm commitment to equal educational opportunities," Marshall continued. "By supplementing its plan to give particulars about when the district will replace Bayou Meto, Dupree, Pinewood and Taylor elementary schools, the new district will confirm that commitment. JNPSD will show how the good is a step toward, if not the perfect, the excellent."
A Section on 01/15/2016