An Aug. 9 tour of three schools in the Pulaski County Special School District vividly demonstrated differences in the quality of facilities, the judge presiding over a 35-year-old federal lawsuit said Monday.
While impressed with the newly built Mills University Studies High School in the southeastern part of the county, which serves communities with a high percentage of black students, the accommodations there pale in comparison with those at the newly built Joe T. Robinson Middle School in the western, predominantly white area of the county, U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. told attorneys Monday.
He told attorney John Walker, who represents a group of black intervenors in an ongoing desegregation case, that he had proven his point about the inequality of the facilities by suggesting the tour of those facilities and the 8-year-old Maumelle High School, which also serves predominantly white students.
Marshall praised the district for marching ahead over the past decade with efforts to improve Mills, despite voters' rejection of a proposed millage increase, and said that both schools "will be great spaces for learning for decades to come."
But, "as good as Mills and Robinson are," he said "neither of them are the equivalent to the Maumelle facility," which he called "palatial" and "the equivalent of almost a college facility."
Marshall is being asked to consider whether any construction differences at the schools violate the district's desegregation plan, Plan 2000, and related court orders.
The 12,000-student district is obligated to equalize the conditions of its school buildings; specifically by making its old schools that serve neighborhoods with predominantly black students comparable to the newer schools in predominantly white areas. To that end, in 2015 the district promised to spend $55 million to build a new Mills High and to relocate Fuller Middle School, also in southeast Pulaski County, to the former Mills High building. At the same time, it began constructing a $45 million replacement for Robinson.
A year ago, district officials notified the judge of some potential inequities between the two projects. Since then, attorneys for the black students, known as the Joshua intervenors, have complained that the Robinson project, including its athletic facilities, is superior to the new Mills.
On July 5, the intervenors noted that in 2011, when the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, he found that the district had violated the equal facilities mandate of Plan 2000, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis agreed, saying the district "had devoted a disproportionate share of its facilities spending to predominantly white areas."
They noted that a court expert later agreed that Robinson facilities were superior to those at Mills, indicating "an amazing lack of sensitivity to the people of the southeast quadrant."
After the 2015 millage proposal failed, the district implemented "Plan B," to construct a new Mills High School and rehabilitate the current Mills facility to replace Fuller Middle School, the intervenors noted. But they said the district also proceeded with the construction of Robinson Middle School, with planned use of some of its facilities by Robinson High School students, and has also committed to other projects favoring white communities, such as the construction of a multi-purpose complex at Robinson, substantial rehabilitation work at Robinson Elementary and Robinson High schools, and planned construction of an addition at the Sylvan Hills High School location in Sherwood, with no plans to replace College Station or Harris elementary schools in predominantly black communities.
The intervenors asked Marshall to order the replacement of the College Station and Harris schools, as well as additional work making Mills, in conjunction with its feeder school, Fuller Middle School, "equal in size and quality to the new Robinson Middle School in conjunction with Robinson High School."
Marshall said Monday that he would partially grant and partially deny the motion, saying a written order will follow, but that the issues about the College Station and Harris schools will be reserved for later.
The judge said that the parties should keep in mind that the plan requires facilities throughout the district to be equal, but not identical, which would be impossible.
"They are different places, and they should be different places," he said. "I don't think we want every school to look exactly alike."
But he said he would like a group of parents to take a tour of the two schools, similar to the one he took and others he will take soon, to see how they believe the facilities at each compare.
"I believe much of it can be addressed," Marshall said.
For example, he said, "One thing that struck me was how much more light there is in the Robinson facility than in the Mills facility." He said this is true not just in the athletic facilities, but "in the structures and the atmosphere for learning that creates."
"I wonder if there are ways to get more light into that Mills facility so it provides the uplift I felt going in Robinson?" he asked, noting the presence at the status conference of district architects.
Marshall noted the obvious differences in the size of each school's athletic facilities, with Robinson's gymnasium being able to hold 2,300 people and Mills having a capacity of 1,200. He noted that Maumelle's gym holds close to 2,300 as well.
But he said that as a parent of a former high school athlete, he also noticed some less-obvious differences, such as spectators being able to sit in a chair with a back at Robinson, as compared to sitting in a fold-down, no-back chair, like most of those at Mills.
"Those main gyms are not equal," he said.
Marshall said he also noticed differences like the "cool light fixtures in the cafetorium at Robinson," while "there is nothing like that at Mills," saying the Mills cafeteria "is a good space, but it does not have the life and energy that the Robinson facility does."
While Robinson has lighted walkways, Mills doesn't, the judge said, pointing out that all students need to be able to see where they're going; "it needs to be an accessible, safe kind of thing."
Although he said he was less impressed with the flooring at Mills than that at Robinson, Sam Jones, an attorney for the district, later told the judge that the polished concrete floors at Robinson that the judge preferred are actually a cost-cutting "downgrade" over the luxury vinyl tile used at Mills. Marshall noted that even though he isn't an architect, he wouldn't approve Walker's request for an independent expert to analyze the differences.
"The aim is equal, clean, safe, attractive facilities across the district," he said.
Marshall said areas where he considered the two schools on equal footing included classroom spaces, science laboratories, computers, computer areas, libraries and administrative areas.
The judge asked attorneys to submit a report every 60 days on ongoing facilities issues involving Robinson and Mills. He said this will help him make a decision in July 2020 on whether the district has achieved equality in its facilities district wide.
Marshall told attorneys that he believes the case is "entering a new phase," which is "more litigation-oriented," and he wants to plan for that by setting aside the month of July 2020 to have a series of hearings on whether the district may finally achieve unitary status.
"I believe it's time for us to head in that direction again," he said.
Metro on 09/25/2018