Jefferson County Board of Education to create new student-assignment policy
Kentucky’s Jefferson County Board of Education has voted unanimously to approve a plan that it hopes will help create a new student-assignment policy in time for the 2009-10 school year. The 14-page plan, which will be submitted to U.S. District Judge John Heyburn for guidance and approval, is one of the district's first steps to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that race can't be a deciding factor in individual student assignment. Superintendent Sheldon Berman says the district will immediately begin to follow the timeline established in the plan, which was put together by district officials with the help of the school board’s attorney, Frank Mellon. Mr. Berman says the district will "no longer use race to determine whether a student is granted a transfer or placement at a particular school."
The plan includes working with desegregation experts, researching the effect of different assignment models, such as neighborhood schools, income-based assignment, lottery and multiple-criteria plans. It also provides for examining plans in such cities as Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco. In addition, the plan calls for extensive input from teachers, principals, parents, city leaders, civil rights groups, business groups, and religious leaders. The district plans to conduct surveys, hold up to seven community forums, and create a website for comment. "I think it touches all the appropriate bases," say board member Debbie Wesslund. "It is going to be a huge responsibility to make this decision, and we want to look at the issue from a variety of perspectives. We want it sliced and diced every which way so we know that we are doing the right thing." The plan will not affect students for the 2007-08 school year who were assigned to a school before the Supreme Court decision. However, the superintendent has sent a memo instructing principals not to use race to decide whether they can accept new or transfer students for this year. Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), promises his organization will "actively participate" in the process, and he hopes other community organizations will do the same. "I think it's very important for everyone to realize that this is going to be a long process," he said. "The debate over what is constitutional is over. Our kids will have to live with whatever decision is made. That is why it is so important for everyone to get involved."
Louisville Journal-Courier
By Antoinette Konz
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: The Supreme Court decision is summarized below. The district’s announcement that the already completed school assignments for 2007-08 would not be changed had prompted threats of further litigation. For further discussion, see the transcript of an online chat hosted by Education Week on this and other Supreme Court decisions and featuring assistant managing editor Mark Walsh, NSBA Deputy General Counsel Naomi Gittins, and senior staff attorney Paul Beard of the Pacific Legal Foundation.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Parents Involved in Cmty. Schools v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1]
[Education Week online chat]