Armstrong v. O'CONNELL, Civ. A. No. 65-C-173.

• Decision Date: 11 June 1976
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 65-C-173.
• Citation: 416 F. Supp. 1344
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin
• Parties: Kevin ARMSTRONG et al., Plaintiffs, v. Donald J. O'CONNELL et al., Defendants, Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, Undesignated Intervenor.

416 F. Supp. 1344

Kevin ARMSTRONG et al., Plaintiffs, v.Donald J. O'CONNELL et al., Defendants, Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, UndesignatedIntervenor.

Civ. A. No. 65-C-173.

United States District Court, E. D. Wisconsin.

June 11, 1976.

Lloyd A. Barbee, Milwaukee, Wis., for named plaintiffs.

Irvin B. Charne, Milwaukee, Wis., for the absent members of plaintiff classes.

L. C. Hammond, Jr., Ross R. Kinney and Patrick W. Schmidt, Milwaukee, Wis., for defendants.

Curry First, Milwaukee, Wis., for Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, undesignated intervenor.

REYNOLDS, Chief Judge.

ORDER

This matter came on for hearing on June 9, 1976, pursuant to Court direction, for the announced purposes of (1) adopting, modifying, or rejecting the recommendations made by the special master in his May 24, 1975, progress report; and (2) acting upon plaintiffs' motions dated May 7, 1976, seeking an order for (a) the cessation of all activities relating to the planning and construction of four school projects, and (b) a stay of action upon the student transfer policies enacted by the Milwaukee Board of School Directors on May 4, 1976.

The special master at the commencement of the hearing publicly withdrew a substantial portion of his recommendations of May 24, 1976, and submitted a second progress report dated June 9, 1976.

During the course of the proceedings held, the Court announced various orders as hereinafter set forth.

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:

1.Faculty Desegregation

Effective immediately, all faculty vacancies will be filled with reference to seniority unless a transfer would not help to promote in the faculty of the school in which the vacancy exists a racial percentage within 5% of the percentage of black teachers within the entire school system.If excessing occurs, those teachers excessed due to a drop in enrollment will be placed in accordance with the foregoing procedure.If the racial composition of excess teachers and teachers returning from leave precludes adherence to the foregoing procedure, then they shall be placed in accordance with pre-existing practice.

2.Student Desegregation

By June 30, 1976, the defendants shall file with the court a plan for student desegregation of the Milwaukee public school system.This plan shall describe in general terms the steps the defendants propose to take to accomplish the complete desegregation of the Milwaukee public school system by September 30, 1978.In addition, the plan shall describe in specific detail the steps the defendants propose to take in September 1976.On July 7, 1976, at 10:00 A.M., the Court will hold a hearing on the plan so submitted in Courtroom 425 of the Federal Building, 517 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The number of schools having a student population between 25% to 45% black shall be deemed indicative of the extent of the desegregation of the school system.The plan which the defendants submit should cause at least one-third of the schools in the system to have student populations falling within the foregoing racial range by September 30, 1976, at least an additional one-third of the schools to have student populations within that racial range by September 30, 1977, and the remaining schools to...