The newly constructed sports complexes at Mills High and Joe T. Robinson Middle schools in the Pulaski County Special School District "are not equal," and someone should have stepped in to correct the "glaring inequities."
Those are among the findings made by Margie Powell, an expert adviser to the federal judge presiding in the long-running Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit.
Powell visited each of the sports complexes in mid-September and again in late October to prepare the report on the facilities that was requested from her by U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.
She also met with attorneys for the parties in the lawsuit, and she conferred with the Pulaski County Special district's previous superintendent, Jerry Guess, about the school construction work that Guess and his staff initiated before he was fired last summer in an unrelated dispute over the employment of attorneys.
[DOCUMENT: Read the report on Robinson/Mills sports complexes]
"Former district personnel have been quick to point out that the Mills and Robinson projects had different architects, which is true, but district personnel approved the designs," Powell said in the report to Marshall. "There is some debate on when and how changes in designs were made and by whom. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that the two schools are not equal and someone should have stepped in to correct the glaring inequities between the two projects."
The Pulaski County Special district is a remaining party in the 34-year-old federal school desegregation lawsuit. As such, the district is subject to court monitoring of some parts of its operation. That includes the district's efforts to upgrade older campuses that serve high percentages of black and/or poor children to make them equal to the district's newer schools, such as Maumelle Middle and High schools and Chenal Elementary, that are in wealthier, predominantly white sections of the district.
Janice Warren, interim superintendent of the Pulaski Special district, said Friday after reading Powell's report that she was disappointed that it appears the district deviated from its commitment to the federal court regarding Mills and that the district may have intentionally built schools that aren't equitable.
"I don't want to do anything that is half-done or looks like patchwork," she said about the district's next steps. "We set out to provide the best for both communities," she said, adding that in recent weeks she has involved department heads from all aspects of school operations -- academics, special education, athletics and others -- to help in the planning for the completion of the schools.
The district's School Board will hear presentations on the Robinson school project and on upgrades to Mills at its regular monthly meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Sam Jones, the district's attorney, said Friday that by Nov. 20 he will send to Marshall the district's response to Powell's report and to earlier requests from attorneys for the Joshua intervenors, who are black students in the district. The intervenors have asked Marshall to appoint an independent facilities expert to evaluate the quality and equity of the facilities in the district.
Marshall had assigned the task of evaluating the two school sites -- particularly the multipurpose indoor athletic facilities -- to Powell after Pulaski County Special district leaders alerted the judge in September of possible disparities in the funding and construction of a new Mills High on Dixon Road in the district's southeast section and the new Robinson Middle on Arkansas 10 in the district's more affluent and predominantly white west Pulaski County.
At issue has been whether spending and features at the Robinson site are superior to those of Mills and in violation of the district's commitment to the federal court in 2015. At that time, the district committed to the court to spend about $55 million to build a new Mills High and convert the existing Mills campus into a new home for Fuller Middle School. Over time, the budgeted amount was $80 million for Mills and Robinson.
At the time of the $55 million commitment on Mills and Fuller, there were no plans for a new Robinson Middle School. That came came later. An earlier plan to build a new Robinson High School and to make improvements at other campuses was abandoned when a proposed property tax increase was defeated by voters.
More recently, district leaders have said the school system is committed to spending the promised $55 million on Mills and Fuller schools but that the promise puts them $20 million over budget on completing the Robinson and Mills area projects.
"The first thing of note on my initial visit to the Robinson complex is that it was up and running, fully functional, and the landscaping was almost complete," Powell wrote to the judge. "Mills was not operational and the land preparation was no where near completion. According to the athletic director no work had been done on the site in three weeks. On my follow-up visit to Mills on October 24 the the field house was in operation, but the landscape looked much the same."
Available office space, square footage, the availability of restrooms, parking, and locker space for women's athletics and for referees all factored into Powell's evaluation.
"It is clear that the two facilities were inherently unequal from the start of construction," Powell wrote, citing the district's own Oct. 10 report to the judge on the matter.
"The field house at Robinson is 19,130 square feet larger than the one at Mills," she said. "Part of the reason is that the field house at Robinson has a 15,047 square foot second story. Even if the second story's square footage was removed from the equation, Robinson's field house would still be over 4,000 square feet larger than the one at Mills. It should also be noted that the field house at Mills was originally designed to be a two story building."
That second story at Robinson provides space for academics, feeding and other activities, while the Mills building has no unassigned space.
"Every room in the Robinson field house is larger than its counterpart at Mills," she said, citing the weight room, which is 2,700 square feet larger than that at Mills.
Robinson's athletic director has a separate office with a restroom, while his Mills counterpart does not have an office. The Robinson complex will include additional parking, while the Mills facility will have half the parking space it once had and it is farther away.
"The floor in the team room at Robinson slants up theater-styled, has padded chairs with a built-in desk top feature, [and] a large flat screen TV that is wall mounted and has internet access," Powell wrote. "The team room at Mills has a flat classroom styled floor plan, a desk top TV and what can best be described as 'glorified folding chairs.'"
Robinson, Powell said, has separate men's and women's restrooms on the practice field. Mills for seven years had a portable potty on the field, which was briefly replaced with a trailer that served as a unisex bathroom, but now the portable potty is back.
Powell, who has a long history with the desegregation lawsuit, having previously served as a federal court desegregation monitor, was plain-spoken and specific in her findings about the multi-purpose athletic facilities.
She was critical of the fact that the Mills' athletic director was not given an opportunity until very recently to participate in the planning for the Mills facility, even though he asked to do so. The Robinson athletic director was invited at least twice to provide input on what would be important to include in that school's complex.
In monthly meetings with the attorneys in the lawsuit, John Walker, who represents black students in the district, reported that Guess took responsibility for the shortcomings on the Mills project, Powell wrote, but that Guess felt "current demographic trends warranted downsizing the Mills project and speeding up the Robinson project."
Powell also spoke to Guess, and he emphasized to her that his focus "was always on the kids in the southeast quadrant" and providing a quality school in the area. He said he had given oversight of the projects to Derek Scott, the district's chief executive for operations, who resigned from the district in September.
The two of them had worked well on various other projects. Guess told Powell that he had been adamant to Scott that Mills and Fuller had to be top priorities.
Powell also said that Guess insisted that the district has the money to cover the costs of construction, including $55 million for Mills and Fuller.
"Finally, while the impetus behind the changes in design and the downsizing of the Mills project may never be known, it is clear that there was an amazing lack of sensitivity to the people of the southeast quadrant," Powell wrote.
"They were promised a campus with facilities equal to that at Robinson and they have not gotten that. While district officials may not have meant to signal that the Mills facilities did not warrant all of the features included at Robinson campus, perception is reality. The PCSSD should make every effort to make things right and, based on my conversations with officials, they will try to do so."
A Section on 11/11/2017