A federal judge on Thursday issued a consent judgment that incorporates the Jan. 13 settlement agreement, dismisses some of the parties and describes the court's role going forward in the long-running Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit.
Document set
School districts takeover and desegregation
- Consent judgment in Pulaski County desegregation case
- Defense of legal fees in desegregation lawsuit
- State objects to legal team's request in desegregation case
- Court: Desegregation office will close June 30
- U.S. District Court receives responses to proposed settlement
- City of Sherwood objects to deseg settlement agreement
- Sherwood ed group objects to deseg agreement
- Little Rock Chamber voices support for desegregation settlement
- NLR resident objects to proposed deseg settlement (3)
- NLR resident objects to proposed deseg settlement (2)
- NLR resident objects to proposed deseg settlement
- Stipulation by Joshua Intervenors and PCSSD regarding unitary status
- Updated draft of school desegregation lawsuit settlement
- "Transitional agreement" between PCSSD and Joshua intervenors
- Desegregation settlement draft outline, November 2013
- LR school district appeals charter school ruling
- Feb. 1 status report on Pulaski County Special School District
- Report concerning one-race classrooms
- LRSD response to ADE's motion for release
- Building fund projects numbers
- Judge's ruling on charter schools in desegregation case
- Judge's ruling for hearing in payment case
- PCSSD's memorandum in support
- PCSSD's motion for discovery order
- Judge denies PCSSD motion
- NLR schools declared unitary
- Joshua brief in support
- Joshua brief in support
- PCSSD Response
- NLRSD Response
- Brief in support of PCSSD response
- LRSD brief in support
- LRSD motion to dismiss
- Brief in support of NLRSD response
- Kimbrell's Letter
- Motion for release from settlement
- Brief in support of state
- State's Response - 3/12
- Response to facts - 3/12
- Charter Motion - 3/12
- Brief in Support
- ADE Response
- Desegregation Filing - Feb 14
- Desegregation Facts Filing - Feb 14
- Desegregation Motion Support - Feb. 14
- North Little Rock deseg documents filed in St. Louis - July 26
- PCSSD deseg documents filed in St. Louis - July 26
- Joshua Intervenor's Motion Persuant to Rules 52 (b) and 59 (e) - July 22
- Joshua Intervenors' motion filed July 22
- Joshua Intervenors' memorandum - July 22
- Joshua Intervenor's memorandum in support of motion
- Joshua Intervenor's memorandum in support of motion - July 22
- Joshua Intervenor's memorandum in support of their Rule 62.1 motion
- Desegregation case - Judge Marshall agrees not to recuse
- LRSD's brief on recusal issues in desegregation case
- NLRSD's response to recusal in desegregation case
- Desegregation case - State's response to recusal order
- Intervenors' response to recusal order - PCSSD desegretation case
- PCSSD Recusal Comments - Jacksonville
- LRSD v. PCSSD, Reply to Responses to Motion for Order
- June 19 2011 Letter from David Newbern to Dustin McDaniel
- PCSSD Financial Statements with report of accountants for June 30, 2008
- PCSSD Financial Statements for June 30, 2009
- June 10 Letter from ADE to Charles Hopson
- Letter from ADE to Charles Hopson
- Investigative Report Update #1
- Report of Independent Certified Public Accountants
- Letter from ADE to Charles Hopson
- Investigative Report Update #2
- Letter from Dept. of Education to PCSSD
- May 14 Investigative Report
- PCSSD response to recusal order
- PCSSD memo June 30
- Joshua Intervenors brief
- PCCSD Audit Part 1
- North Little Rock School District's brief in response to show cause order
- Little Rock School District's brief in response to show cause order
- Statement from John W. Walker
- PCCSD Audit Part 3
- PCCSD Audit Part 2
- Act 1467
- Letter from Tom Kimbrell to Willie Williams
- Letter from Tom Kimbrell to Vandell Bland
- Helena-West Helena School District audit
- PCSSD dissolved - School District's brief
- Elliot-PCSSD Lawsuit
- PCSSD dissolved - State's brief
- Joshua Intervenors' response to show cause
- Districts in fiscal distress
- Desegregation: 8th circuit filing response by state
- Desegregation: 8th circuit filing by LRSD Part 1
- Desegregation: 8th circuit filing by LRSD Part 2
- PCSSD dissolved - Motion for Order
- PCSSD response to motion for stay
- Desegregation state response
- Desegregation order denying stay pending appeal
- Desegregation response motion
- Joshua Intervenor's memorandum in support of motion for stay
- Motion for construction, reconstruction, consolidation
- Brief in support of motion
- Proposed Zone Changes — Jacksonville Elementary
- Letter about school facilities
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. noted in the three-page order that he had already approved the multimillion-dollar January agreement in which the state will make desegregation payments to the three Pulaski County school districts through the 2017-18 school year.
"This Consent Judgment is entered to effectuate the terms of the agreement," Marshall wrote.
And, for most intents and purposes, he dismissed the Little Rock and North Little Rock school districts, the state and its agencies as parties in the school desegregation case that was filed by the Little Rock district in 1982.
"The Court retains jurisdiction over these parties and the issues resolved by their agreement only to the extent necessary to enforce the terms of this Judgment and [the settlement agreement]," he qualified. "In any event, this limited retention of jurisdiction shall cease on the date of the last payment by the state."
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Thursday's order "marks the formal end of a decades-long journey toward equality for Pulaski County public school students. With the settlement of this case, the state and the school districts in Pulaski County are working together for the benefit of our children, rather than standing as adversaries in the courtroom."
McDaniel and his staff attorneys represent the state -- including the Arkansas Department of Education and the state Board of Education -- in the lawsuit.
Attorneys for other parties in the lawsuit said Thursday that the consent judgment "wraps up" and "formalizes" what has previously been agreed to by the parties and ordered by the judge.
"It's something that we all agreed should happen some months ago," said Rep. John Walker, an attorney for black students known as the Joshua intervenors, adding that the attorneys contributed to the judge's writing of the order. "It's a formality more than anything else," Walker said.
The settlement agreement is a component of the consent judgment, he said.
"The settlement agreement is not a final order. This is somewhat technical but if any party wants to appeal, they can now appeal. They couldn't appeal after the settlement agreement," he said, adding that he anticipates no appeals.
He also said that should any of the dismissed parties violate the settlement agreement, they would be "subject to the contempt powers of the court."
Steve Jones, an attorney for the North Little Rock district, said the consent judgment "mirrors what the judge has already ruled in the courtroom or in earlier orders.
"He ruled from the bench that he was dismissing Little Rock and North Little Rock and the state and then gave everybody the chance to negotiate the actual language of the consent judgment. We have been passing some drafts around," Jones said. "This is formalizing the agreement."
Jones agreed that the parties will continue to have access to the court should a dispute arise about the state desegregation payments.
"We can come back to enforce the settlement agreement in the court," Jones said. "I'm personally not very worried about that. We've had lots of problems with the state but they were about how to calculate a number. It was not about the state paying a determined amount."
Allen Roberts of Camden, an attorney for the Pulaski County Special district, called the consent judgment a means to "wrap up unfinished business."
"There's nothing new," he said.
Chris Heller, the longtime lead attorney for the Little Rock School District, was out of his office and could not be reached for phone or email for an immediate comment on the consent judgment.
Marshall described in the consent judgment the different issues or areas of the multifaceted case in which he will retain authority.
He said he will retain the jurisdiction to address an ongoing dispute between the state and the attorneys for the Joshua intervenors over the Joshua intervenors' request for state-payment of $3.3 million in legal fees.
The judge will oversee, as necessary, the possible formation of a Jacksonville/North Pulaski school district out of the Pulaski County Special district. Voters in the area that is proposed for a new school district will choose whether to form a new school system at the Sept. 16 school election.
He will enforce the state's commitment to oppose the creation of any other new school district out of the Pulaski County Special system until the Pulaski County Special district is declared unitary and released from court supervision.
And the judge said the Pulaski County Special School District will remain under court supervision until unitary status is attained in all areas of its operation. The Pulaski County Special district has not yet complied with its desegregation Plan 2000 in six areas, including facilities, student achievement, special education and student discipline.
The judge dismissed the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts "with prejudice," meaning that final decisions have been made about the issues in the case and the parties cannot be sued again on the same complaints or grounds.
"The judgment not only dismisses the State with prejudice," Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said about the decision. "It also vacates "[a]ll prior orders, decrees, and judgments of any kind imposing any obligation on the State in this case.
"Those two provisions coupled together mean that as far as the State is concerned, this case is over," Sadler said.
The settlement agreement negotiated by the parties last fall and approved by the judge in January calls for the state to pay desegregation aid to the three Pulaski County school districts for four years, in the amounts of $37,347,429 a year to Little Rock, $20,804,500 a year to Pulaski County Special and $7,642,338 a year to North Little Rock. In the fourth and final year of the payments, the money must be used by the districts for school building needs.
The settlement agreement also provides for the phaseout of the interdistrict majority-to-minority student transfer program and the interdistrict student transfers to Little Rock special-program magnet schools.
The consent judgment reinforces the sense that the long-running school desegregation case is heading toward a close.
McDaniel talked Thursday of his pride in having a role in the case.
"I am glad to have been able to serve as attorney general during this landmark moment for the state," he said in an email. "I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the attorneys in my office, the attorneys involved in the case, the administrators and school boards of the three school districts, the Legislature and the governor to make this agreement possible."
Jones, the North Little Rock attorney, has noticed the change in his participation level in the case in the months since the settlement agreement.
"You feel a sense that there is a vacuum in your life after you spend 30 years with one piece of litigation," he said. "I still get notifications about what is going on primarily between Joshua and Pulaski County Special. I feel like I need to go read it but I'm doing it on my own time because I can't bill it to the client. It's just personal interest at this point."
Metro on 08/22/2014