Smith ex rel. Smith v. Sch. Bd. of Concordia Parish

• Decision Date: 12 October 2018
• Docket Number: No. 17-30548,17-30548
• Citation: 906 F.3d 327
• Parties: Vernon SMITH on behalf of Irma J. Smith, Plaintiff United States of America, Intervenor Plaintiff - Appellee v. SCHOOL BOARD OF CONCORDIA PARISH, Defendant - Appellee v. Delta Charter Group Incorporated, Intervenor - Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

906 F.3d 327

Vernon SMITH on behalf of Irma J. Smith, Plaintiff

United States of America, Intervenor Plaintiff - Appellee

v.SCHOOL BOARD OF CONCORDIA PARISH, Defendant - Appellee

v.Delta Charter Group Incorporated, Intervenor - Appellant

No. 17-30548

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

October 12, 2018

STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:

In 2012, Delta Charter Group sought to open a public charter school in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, which is under a long-standing desegregation order overseen by the Western District of Louisiana. Louisiana law states that charter schools "shall ... [b]e subject to any court-ordered desegregation plan in effect for the city or parish school system." La. Stat. Ann. § 17:3991(C). Delta therefore intervened in this case and asked United States District Judge Dee Drell for permission to operate in Concordia Parish. The district court granted permission after Delta and the Concordia Parish School Board entered into a consent decree obliging Delta to, among other duties, comply with the desegregation order; not impede the Board's ability to comply with the desegregation order; and enroll a student body with racial demographics reflecting the demographics of the Concordia Parish School District as a whole.

When Delta opened for the 2013–14 school year, only 15% of Delta's 323 accepted students were African American. In contrast, enrollment in Concordia Parish School District was 49.5% African American and 49% white. Delta's enrollment, in the Board's view, therefore violated the terms of the consent decree, and in June 2014, the Board requested relief from the district court. Years of discovery and failed negotiations followed, during which Delta continued to operate and to enroll predominantly white (greater than 80%) student bodies. In February 2017, the district court held a three-day evidentiary hearing and found that Delta had violated the consent decree. In June 2017, the district court imposed further remedies to enforce the decree. Delta has appealed.

This appeal presents a narrow question: whether a party is bound by the terms of a consent decree that it voluntarily entered. We hold that it is and generally affirm, but vacate one provision of the ordered relief that exceeded the district court's remedial authority.

I.

In 2012, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education ("BESE") approved Delta Charter Group to operate the Delta Charter School of Math, Science, and Technology in Ferriday, Louisiana, as a "Type 2" charter school within Concordia Parish.¹ Under Louisiana law, charter schools are "independent public school[s]" and are "subject to any court-ordered desegregation plan in effect for the city or parish school system." La. Stat. Ann. §§ 17:3973(2)(a), 17:3991(C)(3) ; see also Iberville Par. Sch. Bd. v. Louisiana State Bd. of Elementary & Secondary Educ. , 248 So.3d 299, 308 (La. 2018) (finding that Type 2 charter schools are "public schools" under the Louisiana constitution). Since 1970, Concordia Parish has operated under a desegregation order entered by the Western District of Louisiana. Accordingly, Delta moved to intervene in the case in September 2012 and asked that the district court allow it to open Delta Charter School.

While a desegregation order remains effective, the district court has a "constitutional duty" to enforce the order and to ensure that the school district "take[s] all steps necessary to eliminate the vestiges of the unconstitutional de jure system." Hull v. Quitman Cty. Bd. of Educ. , 1 F.3d 1450, 1458, 1453 (5th Cir. 1993) (quoting Freeman v. Pitts , 503 U.S. 467, 485, 112 S.Ct. 1430, 118 L.Ed.2d 108 (1992) ). A district court asked to authorize a new charter school will consider whether the proposed school would undermine the ongoing desegregation order and may impose conditions on the school's operation if necessary. See, e.g. , Cleveland v. Union Par. Sch. Bd. , 570 F.Supp.2d 858, 867–68, 871 (W.D. La. 2008) ; Berry v. Sch. Dist. of City of Benton Harbor , 56 F.Supp.2d 866, 875 (W.D. Mich. 1999). In this regard, we note that new school districts hoping to separate from existing districts governed by desegregation orders must "prove the availability of procedures, methods, and agreements that ... will avoid any adverse impact upon the present federal plan of desegregation ... [and] support implementation of those procedures." Valley v. Rapides Par. Sch. Bd. , 173 F.3d 944, 945 (5th Cir. 1999) (en banc); see also Ross v. Houston Indep. Sch. Dist. , 583 F.2d 712, 714 (5th Cir. 1978) ("The division of a school district operating under a desegregation order can be permitted only if the formation of the new district will not impede the dismantling of the dual school system in the old district." (citing Wright v. Council of the City of Emporia , 407 U.S. 451, 92 S.Ct. 2196, 33 L.Ed.2d 51 (1972) and United States v. Scotland Neck City Bd. of Educ. , 407 U.S. 484, 92 S.Ct. 2214, 33 L.Ed.2d 75 (1972) )).

Accordingly, in January 2013, Delta and the Board entered into a consent decree establishing the terms and conditions for Delta Charter School's operation. "To ensure that [Delta] meets its desegregation obligations consistent with orders entered in this case," the consent decree "enjoined [Delta] from failing to implement in good faith" various obligations. Among other promises, Delta agreed to "comply with the desegregation obligations mandated by this case" and to "take no action that will impede the Concordia Parish School Board's ability to fulfill its obligations to comply with the Orders in this case and applicable federal desegregation law." Delta also agreed to advertise and recruit students within African American communities, and to maintain a student body that "reflect[s] the racial demographics of the Concordia Parish School District." If "the percentage of black student enrollment in Delta Charter School is 10% or more below the black student enrollment in the Concordia Parish School District," Delta committed that it would "analyze the causes of this enrollment rate, propose how to modify the enrollment rate, and submit the analysis and proposal to the Court and the parties."

When Delta opened for the 2013–14 school year, Delta enrolled 323 students, of whom only 49 (15%) were African American and 274 (85%) were white. By comparison, enrollment in Concordia Parish School District was 50% African American and 49% white in 2012. At the end of the 2013–14 school year, in June 2014, the Board moved for remedial relief, contending that Delta had failed to comply with the consent decree. The Board argued that Delta had (1) interfered with the Board's ability to satisfy its desegregation obligations by drawing white students away from disproportionately minority schools in Concordia Parish; and (2) failed to meet its enrollment targets for African American students. Delta opposed the motion, recognizing its obligations under the consent decree but contending that it "ha[d] fully complied with the Consent Order by taking affirmative steps to recruit and enroll black students."

A lengthy period of discovery and negotiations followed, and Delta continued to operate with a predominantly white student body. For the 2014–15 school year, Delta enrolled 380 students, of whom 68 (18%) were African American and 303 (80%) were white. The following year, 2015–16, Delta enrolled 455 students, of whom 89 (20%) were African American and 358 (79%) were white. For the 2016–17 year, Delta enrolled 499 students, of whom 85 (17%) were African American and 401 (80%) were white. Despite Delta's consistent failure to achieve its enrollment targets, the status reports that it filed in 2015, 2016, and 2017 pursuant to the consent decree neither analyzed the causes of Delta's low enrollment rate of African American students nor proposed corrective measures.

The district court set a hearing on the Board's motion for relief on Monday, February 13, 2017. The Friday before, Delta filed a "motion for partial relief" from the 2013 consent decree. Delta sought relief "from any condition of the Order which may limit ... the number of students by race which Delta Charter may accept for enrollment in any given school year." Relying on its self-asserted "good faith commitment to fulfilling its obligations," and a previously undisclosed expert report suggesting that Delta's operation was "not impeding the District's ability to meet its obligations," Delta argued that the consent decree's enrollment requirements were "no longer justified." In the alternative, Delta sought "dismissal" of the Board's motion "for failure to state a claim" on the ground that "a district court should not enjoin an independent school district, such as a charter school, from accepting students just because the transfer may increase racial imbalance." The district court refused to consider Delta's last-minute filing, however, because it was filed immediately before the "long-noticed hearing" and relied on a previously undisclosed expert witness. On the same basis, the district court also refused to consider any testimony from the school district's expert. Delta does not challenge these untimeliness findings on appeal.²

At the hearing, the Board and the United States, as intervenor, presented evidence that Delta had violated the consent decree. An expert witness for the United States, Dr. Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, testified that Delta was drawing "disproportionately white" students away from Concordia Parish and thus having "a negative impact on the district's ability to desegregate." For example, she testified that schools in Ferriday, a majority African American town, lost 20% of their white students to Delta in its first year of operation, and lost a further 5 to 10% each year thereafter. In Concordia Magnet School, which at 50% white student enrollment is Concordia Parish's most racially balanced school, lost 15% of its white students to Delta in Delta's first year.

With respect to...