Berry v. School Dist. of City of Benton Harbor

564 F. Supp. 617, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16964
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedMay 13, 1983
DocketCiv. A. 9
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 564 F. Supp. 617 (Berry v. School Dist. of City of Benton Harbor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berry v. School Dist. of City of Benton Harbor, 564 F. Supp. 617, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16964 (W.D. Mich. 1983).

Opinion

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION AND ORDER

HILLMAN, District Judge.

This case is currently before the court pursuant to various motions made by the parties, as well as other matters which have been held in abeyance while this case was before the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. On January 24, 1983, the Court of *619 Appeals rendered its decision in this case, Berry v. School District of City of Benton Harbor, 698 F.2d 813 (6th Cir.1983), as clarified. I will now address those outstanding matters which presently are before this court.

I. STATE OF MICHIGAN’S MOTION TO VACATE

State defendants Milliken, et al. (the State) have moved this court to vacate portions of its May 1,1981, Decision and Remedial Order, 515 F.Supp. 344 (W.D.Mich. 1981), and various supplemental orders entered by this court. The matter has been briefed by the parties and oral argument was held on May 11, 1983. The State of Michigan has moved to vacate the following portions of this court’s May 1, 1981, Order:

“The defendants, their administrators, officers, staff members and employees are expected to take all steps necessary to accomplish the tasks outlined in the court’s opinion of this date, on or before the dates specified in that opinion, and to implement the court’s desegregation plan, consistent with the court’s opinion.
The State of Michigan is directed to pay the following expenses related to this desegregation plan:
(a) Sixty percent of the fees for consultants used in the magnet programs component of the plan, for the 1981-82 school year and the 1982-83 school year;
(b) transportation costs, according to the existing state transportation reimbursement formula, for students transported across school district lines to participate in the magnet programs and/or interdistrict transfer components of the plan;
(c) for each student who elects to transfer to another school district under the court’s plan, the state shall continue to pay the home school district 100% of the state financial aid that the student would have generated had he or she not elected to transfer;
(d) for each interdistrict transfer student, transferring under this plan, the state shall pay to the receiving district 100% of the costs involved in educating that pupil, computed as an amount equal to that district’s annual maintenance cost per enrolled student;
(f) fees and expenses of Dr. Michael J. Stolee, acting as the court’s representative for the implementation of the desegregation plan;
(g) the state shall reimburse school districts, in at least quarterly increments throughout the school year, for teacher incentive salaries of $1,000 per teacher, paid by the district, for each teacher accepting a temporary cross-district reassignment under this plan; and
(h) the annual budget for the inservice training program, in an amount equal to $100 per employee of the three school districts for the 1981-82 school year and $20 per employee for the 1982-83 and 1983-84 school years. These expenses may be paid in actual money allocations or in inkind services of qualified professionals or a combination of both.

Additionally, the State has moved to vacate this court’s orders of May 26, 1982 and October 28, 1982. These orders required the State to reimburse 66⅔% of desegregation transportation costs incurred by defendant school districts in implementing this court’s May 1,1981, desegregation plan.

The basis of the State’s motion stems from a portion of the Sixth Circuit’s opinion affirming this court’s May 1, 1981, opinion and remedial plan. That portion of the Court of Appeals opinion reads as follows:

We now turn to the last issue in this case. Judge Hillman clearly was not (nor are we) satisfied with the relative ineffectiveness of the remedy we have just discussed and affirmed. His opinion continues for many pages to discuss the development of a desegregation plan between the Benton Harbor School system and the school systems of Coloma and Eau Claire. He describes this as a ‘voluntary’ desegregation plan contemplating the construction of ‘magnet schools.’ We have no doubt that this sort of planning could be engaged in by the three school districts concerned with the approval and *620 cooperation of the SBE and the Benton Harbor Interdistrict School District. To the degree that Judge Hillman’s opinion in this regard represents a series of suggestions to the local and state authorities concerned, we have no hesitation in endorsing them. We point out, however, that they are not enforceable orders and that the only agency before this court with power to require the measures which Judge Hillman talks about in the building of these magnet schools is the Michigan SBE as a result of the broad powers given it in the 1963 Constitution of the State of Michigan. That Constitution provides: ‘Article I, Section 2. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of his civil or political rights or be discriminated against in the exercise thereof because of religion, race, color or national origin.’ Article VIII, section 2, states that ‘[e]very school district shall provide for the education of its pupils without discrimination as to religion, creed, race, color or national origin.’ Article VIII, section 3, of the Michigan Constitution gives the SBE ‘leadership and general supervision over all public education,’ and further provides that the SBE ‘shall serve as the general planning and coordinating body for all public education.’ (Emphasis supplied.) Mich. Comp.Laws Ann. § 380.1281 (1977) reinforces the State Board’s duty to enforce the laws against discrimination in education by stating that ‘SBE shall require each board, and intermediate school board, and the officers thereof to observe the laws relating to the school.’ With these state law powers, the Michigan SBE could, of course, be of great assistance to the District Court assuming he was able to gain the active cooperation of that body.
On remand of this case to the District Court after completion of appellate review, the District Judge might, however, meet obdurate opposition to his voluntary desegregation plan from some or all four of the added defendants. If so he may then consider whether or not such conduct represents additional violations with additional ‘incremental segregative effect,’ which might warrant consideration of orders of a mandatory nature to effectuate his desegregation plan. See Dayton Board of Education, [v. Brinkman], 433 U.S. [406] at 420, 97 S.Ct. [2766] at 2775 [53 L.Ed.2d 851].”

698 F.2d at 820.

The State contends, based on the above language, that certain orders from this court involving State defendants in inter-district desegregation efforts are invalid.

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Related

Berry v. School Dist. of City of Benton Harbor
703 F. Supp. 1277 (W.D. Michigan, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
564 F. Supp. 617, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berry-v-school-dist-of-city-of-benton-harbor-miwd-1983.