School Committee of Springfield v. Board of Ed.

• Decision Date: 12 November 1974
• Citation: 319 N.E.2d 427,366 Mass. 315
• Parties: SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF SPRINGFIELD v. BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 427

319 N.E.2d 427

366 Mass. 315

SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF SPRINGFIELD v. BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Argued Aug. 22, 1974.

Decided Nov. 12, 1974.

William C. Flanagan, City Sol., for School Committee of springfield.

Harvey F. Rowe, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for Board of Education.

Gerald R. Hegarty, Springfield (William F. Malloy, Boston, and Robert D. Fleischner, Springfield, with him), for Autumn Bruce and others, interveners.

Before TAURO, C.J., and REARDON, QUIRICO, BRAUCHER, HENNESSEY, KAPLAN and WILKINS, JJ.

TAURO, Chief Justice.

On May 1, 1974, an opinion was issued in which we affirmed an opinion and order of the State board of education (board) which directed the school committee of Springfield (school committee) to implement immediately a plan designed to achieve racial balance in the schools of Springfield by the opening of the 1974--1975 school year. School Comm. of Springfield v. Board of Educ., --- Mass. ---, ^a1 311 N.E.2d 69 (1974). We remanded the cases to the jurisdiction of the single justice of this court who, on May 15, entered a final decree after rescript requiring timely compliance with the board's opinion and order. On July 26, the Governor signed into law St.1974, c. 636, an act which in §§ 1--6 amended the racial imbalance law. ² Citing the new statute, the school committee, on August 2, filed in the county court a motion to vacate the final decree after rescript on the ground that the board no longer had statutory authority to require the use of various means to achieve racial balance which are included in its plan. A single justice of this court reserved and reported the case without decision to the full court. Because of the importance of the legal issues involved, an extraordinary summer session of the full court was scheduled, briefs were received from all interested parties and oral arguments were heard on August 22, 1974. In view of the then imminent opening of the Springfield schools, an early disposition of these proceedings was essential. Thus, on August 22, after due deliberation, the full court entered an order without an accompanying opinion. In so doing, the court denied the school committee's motion to vacate and reaffirmed all orders and decrees which had been entered in the case either by the full court or by a single justice thereof. In this opinion we now state the reasons underlying that order. ³

This is the third time we have been called upon to intercede in the lengthy struggle to implement the racial imbalance law in Springfield. Although the history of that struggle is described in detail in our two earlier opinions, ⁴ nevertheless we deem it necessary on this occasion to review once again the historical context in which this case arises.

The original racial imbalance act, enacted in 1965, ⁵ declared the policy of the Commonwealth to be 'to encourage all school committees to adopt as educational objectives the promotion of racial balance and the correction of existing racial imbalance in the public schools.' G.L. c. 71, § 37C. In board outline, the statute required local school committees to adopt plans for the elimination of any racial imbalance existing in their schools. Whenever a local school committee failed to adopt an acceptable plan of its own and refused to adopt recommendations of the board, the board was empowered to require the implementation of a plan which it deemed satisfactory. § 37D. The statute contained no limitations on the devices for achieving racial balance (e.g. redistricting, busing) which the board may direct local school committees to utilize. There was express provision for judicial review of the actions and orders of the board. § 37D.

Since the passage of the racial imbalance act there have at all times been at least five elementary schools in Springfield which are racially imbalanced within the meaning of the statute. ⁶ (An additional elementary school and a junior high school which were found to be racially imbalanced in 1965 were subsequently closed by the school committee.) Between 1966 and 1969 the school committee submitted and the board approved three separate plans for the elimination of racial imbalance in Springfield's schools. Those plans relied on school construction and on open enrollment programs as the principal means to achieve racial balance.

By the fall of 1970, however, it was clear that no substantial progress toward balancing the five imbalanced elementary schools had been made. In January of 1971, therefore, the board ordered the withholding of State school aid from Springfield until the school committee submitted an acceptable short-term plan to achieve racial balance. Although a compromise between the board and the school committee caused the State aid to be released to Springfield in February, the board again ordered State aid withheld in May, 1971, after the school committee had declined to adopt any one of three short-term plans which had been prepared by the Springfield school department. The school committee then brought a bill for judicial review of the board's actions (G.L. c. 15, § 1J).

In Springfield I, --- Mass. ---, ^b7 287 N.E.2d 438 (1972), this court held that the board had acted improperly and prematurely in ordering the withholding of State aid and we ordered that the funds be released to Springfield. In addition, however, we made clear our lack of approval of the school committee's 'performance . . . or perhaps lack of performance' in implementing the racial imbalance law, and we stated that: 'Inasmuch as Springfield has failed to achieve racial balance in its elementary school system in the period since 1965, we think it is reasonable to require that the school committee, with appropriate assistance from the board, develop short-term measures consistent with G.L. c. 71, § 35D, which will achieve racial balance in all city schools by September, 1973.' Id. at ---, ^c 287 N.E.2d at 456. The case was remanded to the Superior Court with instructions to ensure the filing and implementation of a short-term balance plan.

After remand, at a hearing in the Superior Court in November, 1972, the school committee represented that it would file a short-term balance plan with the board by early 1973. In fact, no such plan was filed and in June, 1973, at the board's request, the Superior Court ordered the school committee to file a balance plan immediately. The school committee's response to this order was to file a four-page plan which it never approved and which provided for the balancing of only the fifth and sixth grades of the five imbalanced elementary schools.

At that point the board appointed a hearing examiner to conduct hearings on the plan filed by the school committee as well as on a plan prepared by a group of Springfield residents who had intervened in the proceeding and on a plan prepared by the Springfield school department and the Task Force on Racial Imbalance. At the conclusion of the hearings, which were held during August, 1973, the hearing examiner issued a report in which he recommended adoption of the plan prepared by the school department and the Task Force (the Task Force plan). ⁸ The board then received written objections to the hearing examiner's report, heard oral argument, and on October 12, 1973, issued an opinion and order in which it rejected the objections to the hearing examiner's report and ordered the school committee to adopt and implement the Task Force plan. By this time, of course, it was obvious that there was to be no compliance with the September, 1973, deadline which had been set in Springfield I.

The school committee thereupon filed a bill for judicial review challenging the legality of the proceedings before the hearing examiner and the board, and requesting that the board be enjoined from enforcing its opinion and order. The board filed an answer and a counterclaim seeking enforcement of its opinion and order.

While the case was pending, a single justice of this court, in December, 1973, ordered the school committee 'forthwith' to submit an implementation plan and proposed modifications for the Task Force plan in accordance with the board's opinion and order. The school committee appealed from and sought a stay of that order. The stay was denied on January 9, 1974, but by January 28 the school committee still had not complied with the order. On that date, at the board's request, a single justice of this court amended the earlier order to require compliance by the school committee no later than February 1. The school committee did submit an implementation plan on February 1, which plan the board modified and approved by an order dated February 11. On February 12 the board moved to amend its counterclaim to include a prayer for a preliminary injunction requiring the school committee to implement the Task Force plan in accordance with the implementation schedule. On February 20, after hearing oral argument, a single justice allowed the board's motion and granted the preliminary injunction.

The case reached the full court and was heard in April, 1974. ⁹ As noted above, we issued our opinion on May 1, 1974 (Springfield II). ¹⁰ In that opinion we rejected each of the school committee's objections to the proceedings before the hearing examiner and the board. We also reviewed the Task Force plan which the board had ordered implemented and held that it conformed to the law in every respect. We therefore concluded that the relief requested by the board's counterclaim should be granted and we ordered the entry of a decree affirming the board's opinion and order and requiring compliance therewith by September, 1974. In order that this latest deadline not meet the same fate as the 1973 deadline imposed in the Springfield I case, we ordered that the single justice retain jurisdiction of the cases to ensure implementation of the Task Force plan. On May 15, 1974, a single justice entered the final...