Ruling finalizes desegregation pact

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.

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School districts takeover and desegregation

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

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