Oliver v. Kalamazoo Bd. of Ed.
| Decision Date | 30 September 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. K88-71 C.A.,K88-71 C.A. |
| Citation | 498 F. Supp. 732 |
| Parties | Michelle OLIVER et al., Plaintiffs, v. KALAMAZOO BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan |
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Thomas I. Atkins, New York City, Duane A. Elston, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs.
Ford, Kreikard, Staton, Allen & Decker, Kalamazoo, Mich., for defendant Kalamazoo Board of Education; Arthur Staton, Kalamazoo, Mich., of counsel.
Richard P. Gartner, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lansing, Mich., for State defendants.
Foster, Swift, Collins & Coey, Lansing, Mich., for intervenors MEA and KEA; Thomas A. Baird, Lansing, Mich., of counsel.
Antoinette B. Little, Kalamazoo, Mich., for amicus UAW TOPS Local No. 2150 (Administrators).
Dunnings & Canady, Lansing, Mich., for amicus Black Educators; Clinton Canady, III, Lansing, Mich., of counsel.
In 1973, this court ruled that the Kalamazoo School District was unconstitutionally segregated, Oliver v. Kalamazoo Board of Education, 368 F.Supp. 143 (W.D.Mich. 1973), aff'd sub nom. Oliver v. Michigan State Board of Education, 508 F.2d 178 (6th Cir. 1974), cert. den. 421 U.S. 963, 95 S.Ct. 1950, 44 L.Ed.2d 449 (1975). The District is now experiencing a financial crisis which requires that it lay off approximately 128 teachers, and under its collective bargaining agreement the most recently hired teachers must be laid off first. A good proportion of these teachers are Blacks who were hired so that teachers from minority races might be more fairly represented in the schools. The lay offs would reduce their representation on the District's teaching staff, and this prompted the Board of Education (KBE) to file a motion requesting that this court, as part of its continuing jurisdiction over this case, declare null and void the lay off and recall provisions of the collective bargaining agreement to the extent that the KBE might recall enough Black teachers to maintain the same percentages that existed before the lay offs. The plaintiffs and an amicus group of Black teachers from the Kalamazoo School District also challenge the collective bargaining agreement, but they request that all laid off minority teachers be recalled. The intervenor-teachers' union and the state defendants have opposed these challenges, arguing that the lay offs must be governed by the labor contract.
The history of this school desegregation case is fully reported, Oliver v. Kalamazoo Board of Education, 368 F.Supp. 143 (W.D. Mich.1973); Oliver v. Kalamazoo Board of Education, 346 F.Supp. 766 (W.D.Mich.), aff'd 448 F.2d 635 (6th Cir. 1971); however, it is necessary to repeat some of this so that the present motions can be placed in perspective.
Up until 1967, the Kalamazoo Board of Education had made little or no effort to seek and hire qualified Black staff. Thus, in the 1967-68 school year only 2% of the District's total staff was Black. 368 F.Supp. at 176-177. This slowly began to change in 1968 when the KBE voluntarily decided to desegregate its schools so that students would not be racially isolated. On November 6, 1968, the President of the Kalamazoo Board of Education appointed a Citizens' Committee on Integration (also known as the Racial Balance Committee) to recommend, among other things, general guidelines for the achievement of socio-economic and racial integration throughout the Kalamazoo public schools. 368 F.Supp. at 192.
The Committee's report was submitted on August 18, 1969.1 It found serious racial isolation in the District's schools and determined that this racial isolation had a serious affect on the academic achievement of Black students. The Committee recommended that the schools be desegregated, and it suggested a plan to accomplish this. Id., at 192. At the same time, it stressed the need for preparation and stated that it would not endorse any plan unless significant progress was made for its implementation, otherwise the desegregation plan would not end the frictions and tensions between Black and White students.
To insure that sufficient preparations were made, the Committee recommended that a three-step integration program be adopted. Report, pp. 6-7; 368 F.Supp. at 192. "Phase One" and "Phase Two" were to be devoted to preparatory matters, and it was recommended that these be begun in September 1969, with actual desegregation (Phase Three) commencing in September 1971. The first two phases called for curricula revision, in-service staff training, increased community communications, and the recruitment of more minorities so that Blacks would comprise 20% of all supervisors, administrators, teachers and counselors. Report, pp. 6-7. Phases One and Two were adopted by the Kalamazoo Board of Education on September 15, 1969, 368 F.Supp. at 192, with the Board's resolution establishing as a guideline that 20% of its staff be Black.
Work on the Phase III school desegregation plan began in 1970, and, with the assistance of a computer, the Committee's idea was given form. In January of 1971, the Board voted that desegregation of the two high schools would commence in September 1971. Id. This was followed on May 7, 1971 by a Board resolution that elementary and junior high desegregation also begin in September. Id., at 194.
This latter decision caused an extreme reaction among the electorate, and in the school board election of June 1971 two proponents of desegregation were unseated. Id., at 195-196. The newly constituted school board then passed a resolution on June 6, 1971 which nullified the former Board's efforts to desegregate the schools.
Shortly after this action was taken, suit was filed in this court which charged the Kalamazoo Board of Education with the creation and perpetuation of an unconstitutionally segregated school system. On August 20, 1971, this court entered a preliminary injunction which required that the KBE "fully and immediately carry out the implementation of the May 7 resolution." 346 F.Supp. at 782. The Board was also enjoined to carry out and implement "the various subsidiary aspects of the May 7 resolution." Id.
Hearings on a permanent injunction were held in 1973. This court's written opinion details how the Kalamazoo School District had become unconstitutionally segregated as a result of the acts of the Kalamazoo Board of Education, the Michigan State Board of Education, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 368 F.Supp. 143 (W.D.Mich.1973), aff'd 508 F.2d 178 (6th Cir. 1974), cert. den., 421 U.S. 963, 95 S.Ct. 1950, 44 L.Ed.2d 449 (1975). Among the KBE's constitutional violations were its rigid maintenance of attendance boundaries for predominantly Black schools; the use of optional attendance zones so White students could opt out of Black schools; the assignment of Black teachers to schools that were predominantly Black, and the failure to seek and obtain qualified Black staff prior to 1967. The impact of this last violation was described as follows:
Based on these findings, this court ordered that its preliminary injunction was to be made permanent. Oliver v. Kalamazoo Board of Education, K88-71 (November 2, 1973).
The Kalamazoo Board has apparently tried to adhere to its 1968 resolution that it attain a staff that is 20% Black. In 1969, its minority staff increased to 5%, and in 1970-71 it increased to roughly 7.5%. 368 F.Supp. at 176-177. From 1971 through the present, the KBE has continued its efforts to increase the numbers of its minority employees. Some of its early efforts are detailed in this court's 1971 opinion concerning teacher layoffs. 346 F.Supp. 766, 782-785 (W.D.Mich.1971). This shows that while the District made great attempts to recruit Black staff, it met with only limited success for it had not only failed to achieve its 20% goal but had not even hired a sufficient number of minorities so that their percentage approximated the percentage of minority students in the system. Id.
How the District has fared since that time was a subject examined in a recent court-ordered study by Dr. Robert Green and Dr. Wilbur Cohen,2 see, Oliver v. Kalamazoo Board of Education, K88-71 (November 30, 1979). Updated statistics from their report were introduced into evidence during the present hearings and these showed that from 1970-71 through 1978-79, 23.5% of all teachers hired were Black.3 Despite these efforts, the District has made only modest gains in increasing the percentage of its Black staff, and during several years, including the past three, it has experienced a decline in this percentage.4
Percentage of Black Teachers
1970-71 6.5 1975-76 10.6
1971-72 7.4 1976-77 10.7
1972-73 7.7 1977-78 11.6
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