Fuller v. Volk

230 F. Supp. 25, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8797
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJune 3, 1964
DocketCiv. 847-63
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 230 F. Supp. 25 (Fuller v. Volk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fuller v. Volk, 230 F. Supp. 25, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8797 (D.N.J. 1964).

Opinion

AUGELLI, District Judge.

The plaintiffs in this case challenge the validity of a plan (hereinafter called the “Plan”) adopted by the Englewood Board of Education on July 29, 1963, entitled “PROPOSAL OF A PLAN TO COMPLY WITH THE DECISION OF THE STATE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION OF NEW JERSEY DIRECTING THE ENGLEWOOD BOARD OF EDUCATION TO REDUCE THE EXTREME CONCENTRATION OF NEGRO PUPILS IN THE LINCOLN SCHOOL”.

The following facts are based on a stipulation made in open court on December 16, 1963, and on the several exhibits marked in evidence on that date, including a map showing the school attendance areas in Englewood prior and subsequent to the effective date of the Plan.

The School District of the City of Englewood is organized under the pro *27 visions of Chapter 6 of Title 18 of the Revised Statutes of New Jersey, N.J.S.A. 18:6-1 et seq. The Englewood Board of Education consists of five members appointed by the Mayor, and its funds for •operation of the schools are subject to approval by the Board of School Estimate.

The City of Englewood is a community with a population of approximately 30,000 people, and has a geographical area which measures roughly 2.7 miles in length and ■2.3 miles in width. The City has one junior high school, attended by children in grades 7, 8 and 9; and one senior high school, attended by children in grades 10, 11 and 12.

The controversy in this ease centers around the elementary schools of Englewood, with its focus on the Lincoln School where the enrollment was composed almost exclusively of Negro children.

Prior to the adoption of the Plan, there were five elementary schools in Englewood, kindergarten through sixth grade, to which pupils were assigned generally on the basis of residence in certain designated attendance areas. As of September 19, 1962, these schools, their enrollment, and racial composition, were as follows:

School Enrollment % White % Negro
Cleveland 477 99.6 .4
Liberty 418 38.0 62.0
Lincoln 505 2.0 98.0
Quarles . 343 96.8 3.2
Roosevelt 345 85.5 14.5

Prior to the commencement of this litigation, the intervening defendants herein, Spruill and Ancrum et al., filed petitions with the Commissioner of Education of the State of New Jersey, in which they charged the Englewood Board of Education with the maintenance of racially segregated schools and with refusal to consider plans, including a proposal for a central intermediate school, to eliminate such racial segregation. The intervening plaintiffs herein, Volpe et al., were permitted to intervene in the proceedings before the Commissioner. They objected to the establishment of a central intermediate school, and sought to restrain the Board of Education from violating the neighborhood school principle and from expending public funds in furtherance of the changes demanded by the Spruill and Ancrum petitioners.

' The Englewood Board of Education denied that it was guilty of intentional segregation or discrimination. It asserted that educational opportunities afforded Englewood children were equal, regardless of the school attended. The Board also pointed out that the racial imbalance that existed at the Lincoln School resulted not from any action attributable to the Board, but from the fact that the neighborhood in which the school was located was inhabited by a predominantly Negro population.

In an opinion dated July 1, 1963, the Commissioner directed the Englewood Board of Education to formulate a plan to reduce the extreme concentration of Negro pupils in the Lincoln School; to submit such plan to the Commissioner for approval on or before August 1,1963; and to put a plan, as approved, into effect at the beginning of the 1963-64 school year. This decision was based upon the Commissioner’s determination that the pupil assignment policies then in force in the Englewood School District resulted in an extreme concentration of Negro children in the Lincoln School; that attendance at the almost exclusively Negro Lincoln School engendered feelings and attitudes in pupils which tended to inter *28 fere with learning; that such continued concentration of Negro pupils as existed at the Lincoln School constituted a deprivation of educational opportunity under New Jersey law for those pupils compelled to attend that school; and that reasonable and practicable means, consistent with accepted educational and administrative practice, could be devised to reduce the racial concentration in the Lincoln School. The Commissioner also found that there was no evidence in the case before him of any deliberate attempt by the Englewood Board of Education to segregate the pupils in its public schools by race.

Acting pursuant to this decision by the Commissioner, the Englewood Board of Education formulated the aforementioned Plan, and submitted it to the Commissioner for approval. The Commissioner approved the Plan on August 1, 1963. The Plan directed the Board to take the following action:

“1. To establish at the former Junior High School building at 11 Engle Street, a city-wide sixth-grade school to which the Board assigns all sixth grade pupils of the Englewood Public schools,
“2. To assign all pupils of grades one through five residing in the Lincoln School attendance district to the Cleveland, Quarles and Roosevelt Schools, such assignment to be determined by the Superintendent on the basis of the following criteria:
“a) define attendance districts so that children of the Lincoln School district will be assigned as nearly as possible, to the school nearest their homes,
“b) provide for an even distribution of class loads,
“c) to permit the children whose parents wish them to remain at the Lincoln School to remain there provided that it is administratively and educationally practicable to do so.
“3. As a prerequisite to the establishment of the city-wide sixth-grade school referred to in Paragraph (1), either of the following two conditions must occur:
“1) 125 or more present students of Lincoln School must NOT elect to remain for the 1963-64 term at Lincoln School or
“2) The number of transfers from Lincoln School will result in class loads in Quarles, Cleveland, or Roosevelt Schools which, in the opinion of the Board of Education, are educationally undesirable.
“4. To assign to Lincoln School all children of Kindergarten age residing in the present Lincoln School district.
“5. To transfer the central administrative offices of the Board of Education to the Lincoln School.
“6. To instruct the Superintendent to proceed immediately with all necessary arrangements, notices and procedures consistent with the laws of the State of New Jersey to execute these directives.”

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Bluebook (online)
230 F. Supp. 25, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fuller-v-volk-njd-1964.