The Pulaski County Special School District plan for equalizing Mills University Studies High School to other campuses in the district doesn't go far enough, attorneys for the district's Black students told a federal judge Tuesday.
The attorney team headed by Austin Porter Jr. for the McClendon intervenors told Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that the district's four-part, $19 million proposal that includes 10 new classrooms and an 2,200-seat arena for Mills "is an important opening."
"This response is an essential next step," the team continued. "It addresses content needed to ensure that the remedies are complete and in accord with the Court's elevated equality standards."
The legal team said that some "shortcomings" at Mills -- such as lack of office space for a school registrar and inadequate auditorium seating for the school's enrollment -- were not addressed by the district in its proposal.
The team also objected to the district's request to be declared unitary and released from further federal court oversight upon court approval of a building plan -- even though the completion of the projects is estimated to take as long as three years.
The McClendon intervenors said regular progress reports to the judge on the construction are a necessary safeguard, along with status hearings in court.
"This would add to the opportunity to learn of any problems and to provide for corrective actions sooner rather than later," the attorneys wrote.
In a May 6 order, Marshall ruled that the Pulaski County Special district has met its desegregation obligations and is able to operate without court oversight in all areas except in regard to facilities. Marshall is the presiding judge in the 1982 federal school desegregation lawsuit in which the Pulaski County Special district is one of two remaining defendants.
The judge directed in the May order that the Pulaski Special district send to him by Aug. 1 a plan "to comply ... and square up" the construction differences between Mills High and what he said was the "superior" Robinson Middle School. The two schools were built simultaneously and opened in 2018. Mills is in a lower-income area of the district with a higher percentage of Black students and Robinson is in a more affluent and higher-percentage white area of the district.
The judge said the initial building plans for Mills were "squeezed" by the district's simultaneous construction of Robinson. Classroom sizes were reduced to the state minimum at Mills, he said. Hallways shrunk in width and height. Overall capacity was reduced from 750 students to 700.
The judge summed it up saying that if the Mills' construction rated an A grade, Robinson Middle rated an A++.
The district's proposal to Marshall for enhancing Mills calls for 10 new classrooms to be attached to the main building, which would increase the capacity from 700 to 800 students. The plans also call for improvements to the existing stand-alone ROTC building; construction of a regulation-size softball field and construction of a 2,200-seat multipurpose arena.
The McClendon intervenors argued Tuesday to the judge that neither the district's executive director of operations, Curtis Johnson, nor architects were involved in identifying criteria for the building plans. Their views on these elements and other project parameters should be available for court consideration prior to the judge's decisions on the enhancements, the attorneys said.
That will help to ensure compliance over time with the court's equality standards, the team wrote.
In regard to the 10 proposed classrooms, the McClendon lawyers questioned whether the number is adequate.
Rep. Joy Springer, D-Little Rock, a monitor for the intervenors, said in documents to the judge that her Aug. 19 visit to Mills indicated that 11 teachers were sharing classrooms this school year, that a Spanish class was meeting on the cafeteria stage and that a choir class was meeting on the auditorium stage. The choir room is being used by a consumer science teacher.
"The classroom addition matter is pivotal; it deals with academics," the legal team said.
In regard to housing for the Mills ROTC building, the intervenors argued that the Mills facility should be comparable to ROTC housing at the new Jacksonville High School in the neighboring Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, and not to a room in the former Robinson Middle School building.
Similarly, the intervenors argue that the Mills arena should be comparable to the newly constructed arena at Sylvan Hills High School that is also in the Pulaski County Special district.
"Meeting Sylvan Hills arena quality will 'square up [this element of] the Mills High School/Robinson Middle school inequity.' Each school will have a state of the art arena suitable for its grade level," the attorneys wrote.
The attorney team concluded the argument to Marshall saying: "The communities served by Mills High School deserve facilities of the same elevated quality as those constructed at new Robinson Middle and Sylvan Hills High School. In the next phase of the case, every effort must be made to complete projects 'state of the art' in quality."
Attorneys for the school district will have an opportunity to respond to the intervenors' allegations in court filings later this month.