Remote testimony sought in desegregation suit

LITTLE ROCK — On the eve of a multiweek hearing on whether the Pulaski County Special School District has met its desegregation obligations, key witnesses for the district are unable to travel to the state and attorneys are at odds on how to accommodate that situation.

Attorneys representing the school district have asked U.S. District Chief Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. to allow one or more officers of the Advancement Via Individual Determination organization to testify on the district’s behalf from remote locations — from federal courthouses in California and Texas.

The two men are prohibited by their company from out-of-state travel because of covid-19, which is on the increase in Arkansas, Texas and California.

Advancement Via Individual Determination — AVID — is a training program for educators on strategies to help all students — particularly minority and low-income students — reach their potential.

The Pulaski County Special district put AVID practices into use systemwide last school year in what the district described to Marshall “as a massive undertaking that required the investment of significant PCSSD time and resources.”

Attorneys for the McClendon intervenors who represent all black students in the Pulaski County Special district objected last week and again in a document Monday to the prospect of long-distance testimony from designated expert witnesses Wendell Brown of Dallas and Dennis Johnston of San Diego.

The McClendon intervenors are challenging the district’s assertions that it has met requirements in its desegregation plan, Plan 2000, and subsequent court orders in regard to student achievement, student discipline practices, equitable condition of school buildings and self monitoring of desegregation efforts.

A court finding of district compliance would entitle the 12,000-student district to unitary status and an end to decades of reporting to the federal court on its compliance efforts.

The hearing to begin at 9:30 a.m today at the Richard S. Arnold Federal Court House is to take two or more weeks. The judge’s decision on the matter would likely come later in the year.

“AVID represents an important part of PCSSD’s current efforts toward compliance with Plan 2000 and its ability to continue complying in the future,” attorneys for the district told Marshall in a motion for the remote appearance of expert witnesses.

Brown and Johnston have compiled a report about the AVID program in Pulaski County Special, putting it into the context of their decadeslong work at hundreds of campuses throughout the world.

“The testimony of an AVID expert and the Expert Report are critical to PCSSD building its case in student achievement and discipline.,” the district’ legal team told Marshall. “Without this evidence, PCSSD does not have an expert opinion to causally link AVID’s potential to reduce the opportunity gap or to reduce discipline referrals. While fact witnesses are qualified to testify about AVID’s implementation at PCSSD, expert testimony is important to PCSSD’s ability to establish that AVID is proven to have important impacts in student achievement and discipline.”

The district’s legal team noted Marshall denied a request by the McClendon intervenors to have one of its attorneys — 79-year-old Robert Pressman — participate remotely in the hearing from Lexington, Mass., where he lives so as to avoid exposure to the coronavirus while traveling.

The Pulaski County team said there is a difference between the testimony of the AVID witnesses and the dayto-day participation of Pressman in the case.

“The AVID expert is expected to offer testimony on one day for approximately two hours. Intervenors’ attorneys present in the courtroom will have a full and fair opportunity to cross examine him, the district’s team said.

The McClendon intervenors said Monday the district “mischaracterized” the reason why the intervenors object to the request for a remote appearance of the expert witnesses.

“The efficiency of trial proceedings would be furthered to a much greater extent by their physical presence in the courtroom,” the McClendon attorneys said about the expert testimony.

The district’s legal team is made up of Sam Jones, Devin Bates, Amanda Orcutt, Jay Bequette and Cody Kees.

The intervenors’ legal team is comprised of Austin Porter Jr., Pressman, Shawn Childs and Lawrence Walker.