U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. on Friday invited anyone who wrote in response to a tentatively approved settlement on state desegregation aid to the Pulaski County school districts to speak at a fairness hearing the judge will conduct Jan. 13.
A total of nine individuals and organizations wrote to the court by a Dec. 23 deadline about the plan to end $68.5 million a year in desegregation aid to the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts after the 2017-18 school year.
The proposed settlement also includes provisions that would phase out interdistrict student-transfer programs in the county and preclude the establishment of any new school districts, other than a Jacksonville/North Pulaski County district, until the Pulaski County Special district becomes unitary and is released from federal court supervision.
In November, Marshall gave preliminary approval to the agreement that was negotiated by attorneys for the state, the three districts, the class of black students known as the Joshua inter-venors and the class of employees in the three school districts known as the Knight intervenors.
The judge said he would conduct a fairness hearing on the proposal before deciding whether to give it final approval.
He directed the parties to publicize the settlement to the members of the intervenor groups and to the public and give those class members and the public an opportunity to object to the settlement.
“The parties have implemented the court’s orders … in letter and spirit,” Marshall wrote in Friday’s three-page order.
He also said that he “appreciated” and has “been informed” by the filings submitted in response to the notice of the settlement.
The responders included parents of children concerned about limits on future interdistrict transfers to Little Rock magnet schools, proponents of a new Sherwood school district, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce/Fifty for the Future and a former monitor for the Joshua intervenors.
“Anyone who made a filing may speak at the fairness hearing if he or she wants to do so,” Marshall wrote about the session that is to begin at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 13 at the Richard Sheppard Arnold Courthouse, 500 W. Capitol Ave. “We’ll proceed in the order that the filings were made,” Marshall said.
The judge singled out the Sherwood Public Education Foundation and Sherwood’s objection to the limit on new school districts.
“The Court is considering this objection as part of evaluating the whole proposal,” Marshall said.
“Finally, the court notes the supportive filing by business leaders from the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and Fifty for the Future. The court accepts this paper as a friend-of-the-court submission about the proposed settlement.”
The judge also described in the order what he expects from the parties in the 31-year old lawsuit, whom he will hear from after the responders make their presentations.
Marshall suggested that the districts respond in writing to the individuals who had questions about the mechanics of the plan and their particular students. The districts should copy the judge on those responses and also present their responses during the hearing, he said.
“Some brief testimony about the funding wind down, and how it will affect district operations, would be helpful,” Marshall said to the parties. “Some testimony, perhaps from LRSD, on the [majority-to-minority] and magnet-school transitions would be informative.”
The judge requested that the attorneys for the parties address the settlement’s effect on the Pulaski County Special School District’s efforts to be declared unitary and released from federal court monitoring.
“This is an important point, which goes to the proposal’s adequacy,” he said.
The Pulaski County Special district is the only one of the three districts not yet unitary. Attorneys for the district and the Joshua intervenors recently agreed that the district should be declared unitary by the judge in the areas of student assignment and gifted education/Advanced Placement programs.
That leaves other areas - including racially disparate student-discipline practices and inequitable school facilities - still to be corrected. The attorneys have asked the judge to appoint a magistrate to assist the parties in negotiating a separate settlement on those remaining issues.
The judge asked that the parties specifically address during the fairness hearing the written objection of Rizelle Aaron, a leader in the local NAACP unit and former Joshua intervenors monitor.
Aaron asked that the Pulaski County Special district be obligated to improve the condition of school buildings in Jacksonville if the city is unsuccessful in forming its own school district. Aaron also raised concerns about a separate side agreement between the Joshua intervenors and the Pulaski County Special district and said it should be treated as part of the proposed settlement agreement.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/04/2014