A federal judge Thursday released the Pulaski County Special School District from further monitoring of its special-education services to students, leaving the district with five areas of its operation still under court supervision.
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. declared the 17,300-student district unitary -- or in compliance -- with the special-education provisions of its desegregation Plan 2000, during a status conference with attorneys for the district and for the black students known as the Joshua intervenors.
The Pulaski County Special district and the intervenors are the remaining parties in the 34-year-old federal Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit that until earlier this year involved all three Pulaski County school systems. The Pulaski County Special district remains under court supervision of its desegregation efforts in regard to student achievement, student discipline, facilities, staffing and its own monitoring of desegregation matters.
During the two-hour meeting, Marshall said he would take some time to make a decision on proposals by the district and intervenors for equalizing school buildings, which vary significantly across the district in terms of age and condition.
The judge responded favorably to a recently approved operating agreement reached between the Pulaski County Special district and the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, which will remain under the administration of the Pulaski County Special district for up to two years while it plans for the transition of students, staff members, schools and other assets to the new district.
The new district was ordered into existence last month by the Arkansas Board of Education after voters in September overwhelmingly favored its creation.
Marshall concurred with attorneys for the parties in the desegregation case that it isn't necessary to immediately make the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district a separate party in the ongoing federal lawsuit.
"If I may draw an analogy to life, you and your clients are teenagers and still in the house at home," Marshall told Patrick Wilson, an attorney who has been working with the new district's interim school board. "That's not to say you don't exist."
Marshall assured the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district representatives that they are important and will one day, "probably sooner rather than later," need to become a party in the case and be responsible for meeting the same desegregation obligations that remain unmet by the Pulaski County Special system.
"Perhaps you could use the term 'mature teenagers?'" Wilson asked the judge.
"Granted, Mr. Wilson. You are driving," the judge responded to laughter in the courtroom. "How about that?"
Marshall released special-education services -- including the methods for identifying students for the services -- from future court monitoring in response to a joint motion that was filed Monday by the Pulaski County Special district and the Joshua intervenors.
"I do approve the stipulation for unitary status on special education," the judge said. "This seems to me a model for how the remaining issues in the case need to be addressed."
Marshall complimented the parties on their cooperation that led to an agreement on the provisions, which call for the district to:
• Continue to contract with Sharon Streett, an Arkansas attorney who has specialized in special-education law.
• Routinely meet with Joshua intervenors representatives about special-education matters, including student identification, enrollment data, instructional strategies and employee training until the district is declared unitary in regard to student achievement and student discipline.
• Designate as ombudsmen three staff members to aid and represent special-education students and their parents in meetings regarding special-education services.
The agreement also shifts from an individual school calculation to a districtwide calculation in determining whether there is an over-representation of black students in special-education programs.
"A standard deviation of 5 percent will be used, which will be applied district-wide instead of to individual schools," the agreement said, adding that the previous application of an 8.3 percent standard deviation to individual schools was not always statistically valid in cases of schools with small populations of special-education students.
"The parties had some concerns," Marshall said about the origins of the special-education stipulated agreement. "They have met together. They have talked about them, and they have ironed them out, and they have made this careful side agreement that covers in some detail what the future needs to look like on this issue.
"In general, it seems that is the way we ought to keep making progress in the case. I applaud that."
Regarding the operating agreement negotiated earlier this month by leaders of the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district and the Pulaski County Special district, Marshall said Thursday that he saw nothing in the provisions that is inconsistent with or contrary to any desegregation orders or to the parties' obligations under a Jan. 13 settlement agreement in the desegregation case.
State law on forming a new district through detachment from an existing district in a desegregation lawsuit calls for the plan to be reviewed by the federal court.
The agreement between the districts states that the Pulaski County Special district remains financially and administratively responsible the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district until the transition for the new district is complete -- on a date to be decided by the state Board of Education.
The new district will employ a superintendent-designate and an attorney to be paid for by the Pulaski County Special district, the agreement also said. The superintendent-designate will have a gradually expanding role in making staffing and other decisions for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district has selected individuals to be the superintendent-designate and attorney, but the Pulaski County Special district held off on finalizing the hirings until the federal judge could act on the agreement.
"I think it represents good first steps in this effort to detach the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district and at the same time maintaining the obligations of the new district under Plan 2000 and the parties' settlement agreement," Marshall said Thursday. "I will enter an order approving the tentative agreement so things can move forward before the state Board" of Education.
The Pulaski County Special district and the Joshua intervenors, who are represented by Little Rock attorney John Walker, a Democratic state representative, also asked the judge earlier this week to approve proposed revisions to the school facilities section of the district's desegregation plan.
The revisions would obligate the district to seek voter approval next September of a property tax increase of as much as 5.6 mills to help finance a $200 million building plan.
That plan would include the construction of replacement high schools for Mills High on Dixon Road in southeast Pulaski County and Robinson High on Arkansas 10 on the west side of the district at a cost of $50 million each.
The district also would convert the existing Mills and Robinson campuses into middle schools at a cost of $5 million each, and extensively remodel Sylvan Hills High at a proposed cost of $50 million. The remaining $40 million of the $200 million to be raised would be used for other projects deemed necessary.
The district would pay for the construction with the proceeds from the millage increase, combined with $20.8 million that the district will receive in state desegregation aid.
In the event that voters reject the tax increase, the district and Joshua intervenors prepared a backup plan that would require the district to proceed anyway with the construction of a replacement school for Mills and the conversion of the Mills campus to a middle school. To do that, the district has committed to using state desegregation aid and second lien bonds that do not require voter approval.
The district's current property tax rate is 40.7 mills. A 5.6-mill tax increase would raise that to 46.3 mills. The increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $112 a year.
Marshall questioned whether residents of the new Jacksonville district would be included if a tax increase is approved.
Allen Roberts of Camden, an attorney for the Pulaski County Special district, said the new district would not be affected by any new tax passed by voters in the remaining Pulaski County Special system.
Walker told the judge that he supports the proposed facilities plan because it -- combined with the potential for state funding for the Jacksonville area schools -- is an overdue effort to equalize facilities that have long been unequal.
The judge said he wanted to take a few weeks to review the history of facilities in the district, as well as get the written view of the issue from his consultant, former Office of Desegregation Monitor Margie Powell, and to allow the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski leaders to see if they have any disputes over the proposal.
"I applaud the parties for continuing to make progress on this and for coming up with a concrete proposal of how to address the facilities issue," Marshall said.
"I especially applaud your Plan A and Plan B. I do think we need a fallback. Who knows what the voters are going to do. Whatever that decision is, the district still has the constitutional obligations under Plan 2000 that have to be met."
A section on 12/19/2014