Attorneys for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District on Monday asked a federal judge to allow the new district to proceed with its plan for new and expanded schools -- over the objections of black students known as the Joshua intervenors.
Scott Richardson and Patrick Wilson told U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that the Joshua intervenors' call for the immediate replacement of every academic facility in the district is not legally required and "is completely unrealistic."
"JNPSD's plan balances available resources with current facilities needs to maximize the district's ability to improve the condition of all of its facilities now and into the future," the attorneys told the judge in documents submitted Monday evening.
Last week, attorneys for the Joshua intervenors in a 33-year-old desegregation lawsuit accused operators of the new district of working in concert with the state to create an inferior school system for black and mostly poor children.
Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, who leads a team of attorneys for the Joshua intervenors, asked Marshall to hold an evidentiary hearing on school building plans in the new district and to direct district leaders to ensure that all school buildings in the new district are made comparable to the relatively new Maumelle High and Chenal Elementary schools in the Pulaski County Special district "post haste."
Marshall, the presiding judge in the long-running Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit, is overseeing efforts by both the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district and the Pulaski County Special School District -- from which the new district is separating -- to comply with the Pulaski County Special district's desegregation obligations.
Those obligations call for equitable school buildings, as well as for equity in staffing and student discipline, in schools throughout the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski school systems.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district's facilities plan calls for building a replacement for Jacksonville High School, constructing a new elementary to replace Arnold Drive and Tolleson elementaries, and adding multipurpose rooms to four other schools -- Bayou Meto, Pinewood, Murrell Taylor and Warren Dupree elementaries. The current North Pulaski High is set to become the middle school for the new district.
The building plan is largely contingent on the passage of a 7.6-mill property tax for schools to be decided by residents in the new district at a special Feb. 9 election.
The Joshua attorneys last week suggested that the new district replace all or nearly all the schools in the new district to ensure that the schools are equal to other new schools.
"Joshua earnestly contends that if facilities are not promptly equalized in Jacksonville, they will ask the court for further relief and possibly to rejoin Jacksonville with the PCSSD," the attorneys wrote.
The Joshua attorneys particularly disagreed with Jacksonville/North Pulaski's plan to replace the Arnold Drive and Tolleson schools first. They argued that the new district is creating "a white refuge or enclave" in the one new elementary school that is projected to serve a majority-white enrollment.
Three of the other four elementaries that wouldn't be immediately replaced have a majority-black enrollment.
Richardson and Wilson told the judge Monday that Arnold Drive and Tolleson are two of the oldest buildings in the new district and that assessments show that their replacement would be more cost effective than renovation. In contrast, the other elementary schools have undergone substantial renovations. The new multipurpose rooms at those schools will replace portable buildings and allow the expansion of educational offerings.
Additionally, the attorneys for the new district said that the U.S. Department of Defense is expected to provide as much as $8 million, plus land, for the new elementary school that will include in its enrollment the children of military personnel at the Little Rock Air Force Base. The $8 million, which is likely to be forthcoming but not absolutely certain, would pay for about half the cost of the building construction.
The federal support would give the district greater flexibility in addressing its future school building needs, the attorneys added. Richardson and Wilson argued that the assertion that a new elementary would be a white refuge or enclave, or a white flight school is "complete speculation" and that no one can say what the enrollment will be when the new building finally opens.
"The scope of JNPSD's request for relief is important," Richardson and Wilson also said.
"JNPSD is not asking for unitary status in facilities based on this plan. It is simply asking for acknowledgement from the Court that the plan is consistent with Plan 2000," which is the Pulaski County Special district's desegregation plan that applies to that district and to the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski system. "The facilities are a beginning, not an end."
The Jacksonville attorneys in the 14-page report to the judge highlighted the plans for a new high school that will serve all ninth through 12th graders in the district. The school for 1,400 students at a proposed cost of $60 million would amount to $42,857 per student.
"If per student cost is the measure, the proposed new high school will be substantially equal (if not better than) the schools that the Joshua intervenors compare it to," the attorneys said, adding that the new high school will be located in the city's center, which is what the Joshua intervenors said they preferred.
"A new high school will have multiple benefits to the district and the community it serves. It will help attract students to the district and will demonstrate JNPSD's strength as a new school district. A new high school will be a bold move that will make the JNPSD competitive with the other school districts in the area."
Richardson and Wilson said that it would be wonderful to build all new facilities for the students within the first three years of the new district's existence.
"But that is simply not possible," they said. "Typically a school district (for example the North Little Rock School District) will have fund balances that can be built up over time to build new facilities or renovate existing facilities. JNPSD does not have that. It is starting from scratch and building the best plan it can to maximize its investment (from all available sources) in the district in its first years of independent operation."
Marshall, the judge, said last month that he was reserving Jan. 19 as a date for an evidentiary hearing on the Jacksonville/North Pulaski facilities plan should he decide that a hearing is necessary.
A Section on 01/12/2016