Valley v. Rapides Parish School Bd., Civ. A. No. 10946.
| Decision Date | 06 August 1980 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 10946. |
| Citation | 499 F. Supp. 490 |
| Parties | Virgie Lee VALLEY et al. v. RAPIDES PARISH SCHOOL BOARD. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana |
Louis Berry, Alexandria, La., for plaintiff.
John Ward, Baton Rouge, La., for defendant.
Franz Marshall, Civ. Rights Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for intervenor.
This suit to integrate the public school system of Rapides Parish, Louisiana has been on trial since March 23, 1965. It is before us now on motions by the plaintiff and by the Government (intervenor) for additional relief. This school system is operating presently under our decree dated July 9, 1971, as amended. The decree was agreed to by plaintiffs and defendant. The Government took no appeal.
The issue presented by the motions is whether a unitary system ever was achieved. In our preliminary judgment of June 6, 1980 we recognized that the system was not unitary; that the plan of the Government's expert, Dr. Gordon Foster, was not acceptable and was rejected; that a suggested plan would be drawn by the Court, and that the filling of vacancies in the office of principal at several schools was enjoined pending further orders of the Court. Our suggested plan was filed on July 3, 1980, and comments and alternatives received. A suggested alternative to our original junior high school plan was filed and published on July 30, 1980. The hearing scheduled for August 1, 1980 was converted to a status conference since no additional evidence was offered.
We have considered all of the alternatives to our original plan as well as the responses and comments of the parties and others. Based on this consideration we adopt the following:
PLAN
The expertise of the undersigned consists of almost ten years experience as a Federal District Judge in an area not unfamiliar with the problems of school desegregation. The guidelines utilized are the product of this experience.
The scope of the evidence in the case presented at the hearing beginning April 29, 1980 was limited to that part of the Rapides Parish School system located in Wards 1, 8 and 9 which comprised substantially less than the total Alexandria-Pineville metropolitan area. We have informed the parties that we consider the dimension of the matters at issue to be system-wide. Since the evidence did not contain information sufficient to evaluate the system outside Wards 1, 8 and 9 and since the data on those three wards was incomplete (pupil locator maps, etc.) we have utilized the services of Superintendent Nichols (white), Assistant Superintendent Townsend (white), and Assistant Superintendent Davis (black) to assemble and submit information as it was requested by us. This data can be identified as Court Exhibits 1-20. Court Exhibit 1 was requested by us from the Alexandria Daily Town Talk.
There is one all—encompassing purpose: the adoption of a plan which achieves the greatest amount of integration with a reasonably assured prospect of success. Our use of all guidelines set out below will be governed by their contribution to this essential purpose. When they fail to contribute they will be discarded.
1. Busing. Busing has been an essential element of our public school systems for many years. A parent will accept extensive busing to achieve an objective which he approves. He will protest busing for purposes which he disapproves even though the distance be short. Hence, it is not the busing itself but the specific purpose which he approves or disapproves. The plan will utilize busing purposefully and constructively. Busing must be racially non-discriminatory.
2. Neighborhood Schools. We recognize that neighborhood schools in metropolitan areas should exist but only to the extent that they do not impair or inhibit the establishment of an integrated school system. They do not exist outside metropolitan areas. We recognize also that the neighborhood concept is fundamental and most important in the early years of school and that it becomes progressively less important as the pupils become more sophisticated in the later years of elementary school and in junior high school and high school. We shall recognize the neighborhood concept but only to the degree that it does not hinder or inhibit the establishment of a unitary system.
3. Practicality. We shall use all tools lawfully available for our purposes. We shall not adopt measures which are lawful, but have no reasonable prospect of success. We shall give due recognition to physical circumstance and to individual interests as they exist which can exert a substantial impact on our prospects of success, and design remedies which will accommodate, where possible, such circumstances and individual interests.
Although we shall carefully balance the equities between the black and white communities, this is not an end within itself and must give way if it constitutes a substantial obstruction to the successful implementation of the plan.
4. School Construction. Construction of new school buildings, disposition of old school buildings and school sites can substantially affect the development of a unitary system.
Although revision of pupil assignments was the principal additional relief requested we have restated other elements of the plan which have been established in plans previously approved in these proceedings.
1. Pupil Assignment. At the close of the 1979-80 school year Rapides Parish Public Schools were attended by 25,049 students, 8,942 of whom were black and 16,107 white. This figure includes the enrollment of three schools which are not properly part of the integration plan. Kelso-Twin Cities is an alternative school having a total enrollment of 126 students-36 black and 90 white. Lakeside Elementary is a school for trainable mentally retarded children having 92 black and 61 white. St. Mary's is a Catholic institution for mentally retarded children to which the Rapides system contributes a total of 148 students-21 black and 127 white.
PUPIL MEMBERSHIP AS OF MAY 31, 1980
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SCHOOLS PUPILS TOTALS
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B % W
Aaron Elem. 279 (100.00) 0 279
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Acadian Elem. 273 (100.00) 0 273
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Alexandria Jr. High 256 ( 43.7 ) 329 585
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Alexandria Sr. High 409 ( 33.2 ) 820 1229
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Barron Elem. 8 ( 1.5 ) 523 531
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Bolton High 429 ( 43.4 ) 559 988
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Boyce Elementary 195 ( 40.8 ) 283 478
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Brame Jr. High 309 ( 38.4 ) 496 805
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Brasher Elem. 176 ( 43.0 ) 234 410
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Buckeye Elem. 0 602 602
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Buckeye High 0 704 704
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Cherokee Elem. 53 ( 12.0 ) 385 438
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Forest Hill Elem. 26 ( 8.3 ) 285 311
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Glenmora Elem. 60 ( 21.4 ) 220 280
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Glenmora High 69 ( 27.0 ) 186 255
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Mary Goff Elem. 35 ( 5.0 ) 669 704
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Horseshoe Dr. Elem. 130 ( 33.8 ) 254 384
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Huddle Elem. 175 ( 44.6 ) 217 392
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Jones St. Jr. High 779 ( 93.9 ) 56 835
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Kelso-Twin Cities 36 ( 28.5 ) 90 126
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Lakeside Elem. 92 ( 60.1 ) 61 153
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Lecompte Elem. 230 ( 61.5 ) 144 374
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Lincoln Road Elem. 274 ( 99.0 ) 3 277
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Lincoln Road Prim. 209 ( 97.7 ) 5 214
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Martin Park Elem. 125 ( 27.0 ) 339 464
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Lessie Moore Elem. 108 ( 28.0 ) 279 387
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Nachman Elem. 74 ( 17.0 ) 362 436
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N. Bayou Rapides 108 ( 24.7 ) 329 437
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Oak Hill High 4 ( .3 ) 1004 1008
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Paradise Elem. 11 ( 1.5 ) 687 698
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Peabody Elem. 375 (100.00) 0 375
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Valley v. Rapides Parish School Bd., 81-3462
...elected to close the school and reassign its pupils to Lecompte Elementary (K-3) and Carter Raymond Junior High (4-8), both in Lecompte. 499 F.Supp. 490. At the same time the court determined to reassign the student population of Forest Hill, with a minority enrollment of 8.3%, to the two L......
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Valley v. Rapides Parish School Bd., Civil Action No. 10,946-A.
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