Side’s last witnesses missing for day
Judge’s expert unable to testify
The case being made by attorneys for Black students in a federal court hearing on whether the Pulaski County Special School District has met its school desegregation obligations was waylaid Wednesday by medical issues.
Two of the final witnesses to be called by the attorney team for the Black students, who are known as the McClendon intervenors, could not be present in the courtroom. Nicole Townsend, a former program administrator in the district, is recovering from a procedure earlier in the week, and the other witness — the judge’s own desegregation expert Margie Powell — was in the hospital after becoming ill while in court the day before.
U.S. Chief District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. is presiding in the hearing on whether the district has met its obligations in its desegregation plan, Plan 2000, and related documents regarding student achievement, student-discipline practices, the condition of facilities and the district’s self-monitoring of desegregation efforts.
Representatives of the district have argued to the judge in the hearing that began July 14 and could end Friday that the district has, in good faith, substantially fulfilled its commitments. The intervenors are challenging that, arguing to the judge that the district has not met the mandates and doesn’t deserve to be declared unitary and released from any further court supervision of its operations.
Powell, at Marshall’s request, had prepared a set of reports on the Pulaski County Special district’s initiatives to meet each of
the requirements. She had testified earlier in the hearing on those but was subject to being recalled by the McClendon intervenors as they put on their case.
Austin Porter Jr., lead coun- sel for the intervenors, told Marshall on Wednesday that he had intended to question Powell about the condition of school facilities.
In that December report, Powell noted that the construction of the new Mills High and Robinson Middle School — both of which opened in 2018 — “were fraught with controversies.”
She also said that while the district’s Plan 2000 called for a plan to make school facilities clean, safe, attractive and equal, “the new and position facilities seem to be clean and safe. Attractiveness in in the eye of the beholder, but they are not equal.”
Porter said he would prefer to question Powell on the stand but asked if the parties would be able to cite her report and make arguments about it. Marshall said “Absolutely,” as he will consider all of Powell’s reports as he prepares his decision.
“The question we need to confront … is whether to close the proof or leave it open for further examination of Ms. Powell,” Marshall said. “The difficulty is that I can’t start ruling or in fairness I can’t start pulling it together until I have the whole of the proof,” he said. “My preference — not that I can decide immediately — but I can at least immediately begin to decide,” he said.
The judge asked the attorneys, including the district’s team of Devin Bates, Jay Bequette and Amanda Orcutt, to give some thought on how best to proceed once there is more information on the desegregation expert’s ability to testify.
The judge announced Powell’s hospitalization Wednesday morning but gave no further indication on the nature of her illness.
Porter said he intends to call Townsend on the issue of student achievement when the hearing resumes at 8:30 a.m. today. She is one of five program administrators who were once employed by the Pulaski County Special district to support schools in teaching core academic subjects. The program administrator positions were eliminated as a money-saving measure in the 2017-18 school year and replaced with two instructional specialists.
Earlier Wednesday, Porter called back to the witness stand Rep. Joy Springer, D-Little Rock, a paralegal and longtime school desegregation monitor in Pulaski County, for her views on the district’s system of self-monitoring.
Springer said she was overjoyed in September 2018 when the district leaders showed an interest in incorporating into school-improvement plans the educational goals contained in the Ross plan. The Ross plan, attached to Plan 2000 after they were developed by Steven Ross at the University of Memphis, set goals for improving student achievement for all students, especially Black students.
In response to questions from Porter, Springer also went through some of the school equity monitoring reports done by school employees and parents at each campus and ultimately submitted to the district.
Later Wednesday, Pulaski County Special district Superintendent Charles McNulty was called back to the stand by the district’s attorneys to explain the scoring on ACT Aspire tests taken by students in grades three through 10 in math, literacy and science. The lowest of the four categories of performance on the state-mandated tests is “In Need of Support,” which has historically included greater percentages of Black students as compared with white students.
McNulty said he did not agree that the “In Need of Support” category was equivalent to failing.
McNulty also said that the district has a wish list of desirable construction projects but not the money to pay for them all.