A judge's expert in a long-running school desegregation lawsuit says the Pulaski County Special School District's current administrative team "inherited a can of worms" in regard to school facilities.
Margie Powell, in her latest report to U.S. District Chief Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., also said that the school district leaders -- obligated by a 20-year-old court-approved desegregation plan to have "equal" facilities -- contend that two newly built campuses "may not be equal, but that they are equitable."
"The court will have to make that determination," Powell concluded in her four-page report that puts a spotlight on the new Mills High in the district's southeast section and Robinson Middle on Little Rock's western edge.
[DOCUMENT: Read expert's report to judge » arkansasonline.com/13report]
Marshall is the presiding judge in the 37-year-old school desegregation lawsuit in which the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski districts are the two remaining defendant districts.
Powell's series of reports on discipline practices, student achievement, staffing incentives and the condition of school facilities in the two districts are being prepared at Marshall's request.
The reports come in advance of a multiweek, federal court hearing that Marshall has scheduled to begin in July. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether the two districts have met their obligations and are eligible to be released from ongoing court oversight of their desegregation efforts.
Attorneys for the class of all black students in the two districts -- once known as the Joshua intervenors and now known as the McClendon intervenors -- are expected to challenge desegregation compliance by the districts.
Attorneys for the intervenors have previously told the judge they wanted to delve into the sources for Powell's reports.
Sam Jones, an attorney for the Pulaski County Special district, said Friday that Powell's report was generally encouraging for his client.
"We do believe that equal and equitable are synonyms, and so our mission in July will be to demonstrate to the court that all of the newer schools are equitable if not literally equal," Jones said. "To be literally equal, they would all have to be precisely the same size and look exactly the same -- and nobody set out to do that."
Jones also said that the district had pledged to spend $50 million on the new Mills High and $5 million on the conversion of the previous Mills campus into Mills Middle School.
"We will exceed that,"Jones said of the promised minimums. He also said the district is anticipating spending about $42 million on the Robinson campus, less than initially projected.
The terms of the Pulaski County Special district's desegregation plan -- Plan 2000 -- called in part for the district to prepare, with the help of consultants as necessary, a plan so that existing school facilities are clean, safe, attractive and equal."
Plan 2000 also called for the construction of what is now Daisy Bates Elementary School in the vicinity of 145th Street in southeast Pulaski County and what is now a middle school in Maumelle. The plan further restricted the district from closing schools that are in "predominantly African-American areas absent reasons of compelling necessity."
Finally, the plan required the district to notify the intervenors in the case of plans for constructing schools and for adding capacity to existing schools.
In December 2014, attorneys for the district and intervenors filed a motion to alter facility provisions in the desegregation plan to replace Mills and Robinson high schools and turn the existing high school campuses into remodeled middle schools.
A proposed millage to finance that plan, however, was rejected by voters. That resulted in district leaders at the time proceeding with the construction of a new Mills High and a remodeled campus for Fuller Middle school on the former Mills High site. The district also began at the same time construction on a new Robinson Middle School.
Both Mills High and Robinson Middle -- along with the converted Fuller Middle to Mills Middle -- are now in the second year of operation.
"Although the PCSSD completed construction of the new Mills High School and a new Robinson Middle School, as well as the conversion of the old Mills High into Mills Middle School, the projects were fraught with controversies," Powell recalled in the report to the judge.
Powell listed issues and accusations about the building projects, some of which were:
• Robinson Middle was completed before Mills High.
• Different construction materials were used in the hallways of the two schools, with the less durable product used at Mills,
• Mills was planned for 900 students but built for 700 and "is already bursting at the seams."
• Cost-cutting was done at Mills in terms of lighting, trim and other building finishes.
• Some aspects of the indoor sports complex at Robinson were seen as superior to that of the sports complex at Mills.
In regard to the student count at Mills, the Arkansas Department of Education lists the Oct. 1 enrollment there as 623, and the enrollment of 590 at Robinson Middle that has a capacity for 799.
"The new and repositioned facilities seem to be clean and safe," Powell wrote and added, "Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder, but they are not equal."
She also noted that the decisions made about the schools' construction were made by people other than current Superintendent Charles McNulty and his staff. McNulty is in his second year as the district's superintendent. He arrived at the district from Waterloo, Iowa.
"With respect to facilities, the current administration at the PCSSD inherited a can of worms," Powell wrote. "No one denies that there were inequities with respect to the construction of the new Robinson Middle and the new Mills High School. The PCSSD administration promised to bring Mills High School to being as close to equal with Robinson Middle as physically and fiscally possible."
"In order to be equal, among other things, the two schools would have had to been built the same size, with the same materials, have the same amenities, etc. That did not happen," Powell also wrote. "However ... a new Mills High School has been built and the old high school has been fully renovated and has been transformed into a middle school. Therefore, according to PCSSD's filing to the court [earlier this year] the district has addressed the problems associated with the construction of Mills High School and has met the requirements [of the desegregation plan obligations].
"It seems that the PCSSD administration may be saying that the two schools may not be equal," Powell observed, "but that they are equitable. The court will have to make that determination," she said.
A Section on 12/28/2019