Judge Rings Bell for Shelby Schools — Attendance OK Frees All to Open on Time; Board Eyeing Options, Including Appeal of Ruling Keeping Deseg Order

By Lindsay Melvin lindsaymelvin@commercialappealcom

Shelby County school officials can finally breathe now that a federal court judge has approved this year’s attendance zones.

“All our schools will open on time,” said an elated Supt. Bobby Webb, who was notified Tuesday of the decision by U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald.

With less than two weeks till the first day of school, some feared the district would have to go back to last year’s grossly overcrowded high schools, leaving the new Southwind High school unused.

Under a decades-old desegregation order, a federal judge must sign off on any changes affecting attendance zones and other issues.

Plans have been up in the air since last week when Donald denied the district’s request to remove the order, even though both parties in the lawsuit agreed it was time. Donald said more needs to be done to achieve racial equality.

In Thursday’s ruling, Donald chided the school board for not taking race into account when mapping out its latest attendance zones.

Nevertheless, the school system aggressively had been calling Donald to sign off on the plan, said school board chairman David Pickler.

Now the board must face other challenges the judge has put before it, namely becoming a completely desegregated system by 2012.

However, whether the board will comply with Donald’s guidelines is uncertain.

“My personal opinion is that the ruling, if allowed to stand, could create grave damage to the community,” Pickler said.

Areas the judge has laid out in which the school district needs improvement include extracurricular activities, student assignment and faculty integration.

Most central to the district is the order to work toward a racial composition in each school within 15 percentage points of the entire district’s racial makeup. As of last year, the district was 58 percent white and 34 percent black countywide.

Achieving that racial balance would mean busing students, breaking up neighborhood schools and costing the district additional money, said school officials.

“It’s a heck of a dilemma for me,” Webb said.

If 95 percent of people in the Southeast area are African- American, they have to bus them out of that area into areas with more white students, he said.

The board is set to meet with legal counsel at 10 a.m. Thursday behind closed doors.

County school attorney Rick Winchester says the district has three options to consider: comply with the order, ask the judge to reconsider or appeal the ruling.

The board has 60 days to appeal, Winchester said.

Webb said he’s not sure what he will recommend to the school board and needs more legal clarification.

“I imagine our board will decide something pretty soon.”

– Lindsay Melvin: 529-2445

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