Kelley v. Metropolitan County Board of Education

479 F. Supp. 120
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedAugust 27, 1979
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 2094, 2956
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 479 F. Supp. 120 (Kelley v. Metropolitan County Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelley v. Metropolitan County Board of Education, 479 F. Supp. 120 (M.D. Tenn. 1979).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

WISEMAN, District Judge.

This twenty-four-year-old case is before this Court upon a series of motions and petitions by both the plaintiffs and defendants. The various motions, petitions, and pending matters and dates of filing are as follows:1

1. March 17, 1972: Defendants’ request for approval of construction of White’s Creek Comprehensive High School, included in March 17, 1972, report to this Court and merged into July 24, 1978, petition, listed infra.

2. May 30, 1973: Petition by defendants for approval of long range plan, dealing with twenty-six building projects. This petition has essentially merged into more recent pleadings.2

3. May 31, 1973: Defendants’ petition for approval of portables for use in kindergartens. No action was taken by the Court in regard to this petition and the defendants subsequently implemented the proposed plan.

4. October 14,1976: Defendants’ motion to amend their May 30, 1973, petition for approval of long range plan. Such motion proposed a new location for the Goodlettsville-Madison High School and asked the Court for approval of construction of that school.

5. December 27, 1976: Plaintiffs’ petition for contempt and further relief. Plaintiffs therein moved that defendants be held in contempt for their plan to construct the Goodlettsville-Madison High School, the expansion of Hillsboro, Bellevue, Hillwood, Glencliff, Stratford, and Maplewood high schools, the use of portables for kindergartens, the establishment of the Cole Annex for Cole Elementary School grades five and six at the old Turner School, and the proposed closing of Pearl High School. The Board of Education subsequently rejected the proposal to close Pearl. In this petition, plaintiffs also asked that the Court modify its 1971 order to equalize the burden placed on black and white children as a result of bussing, to compel defendants to maintain a black-white staff ratio commensurate with the black-white student ratio, and to force defendants to upgrade Pearl High School and inner city schools. Finally, plaintiffs requested attorneys’ fees.3

6. July 24, 1978: Defendants’ petition for approval of school attendance zones for 1978-79, as amended August 18, 1978. In this petition, defendants requested court approval of the expansion of Hillsboro, Hill-wood, Overton, Maplewood, Glencliff, and Stratford into comprehensive high schools with grades nine through twelve, the addition of grade nine to Cohn and Pearl high schools and to McGavock Comprehensive High School, the opening of the Whites Creek Comprehensive High School to include grades nine through twelve, the elimination of one grade schools, the changes in zoning to alleviate overcrowding and to close inadequate buildings, the plan to develop an inner city comprehensive high school, and the establishment of junior high schools including grades seven and eight with feeder systems into the high schools.4

[122]*1227. August 28, 1978: Plaintiffs’ amendment to petition for contempt and for further relief, previously filed on December 27, 1976, and discussed supra. Plaintiffs therein allege that construction and expansion of schools in predominantly white areas, and the closure of formerly black schools in the inner city, the institution of optional transfer programs, discussed infra, and the failure of defendants to increase the black-white faculty ratio are violative of the 1971 court order.

8. August 7,1979: Plaintiffs’ motion for contempt, which charged that defendants had violated the Court’s order directing defendants to terminate the optional transfer plan, discussed infra.

In pretrial conferences held with all parties, the Court divided the matters into four phases:

Phase 1: Historical recapitulation of school integration since the order of 1971; consideration of the Long Range Plan of the school board; consideration of the proposed zoning for school year 1978-79 (now moot since the year 1979-80 was only one month away at the time of the hearing); consideration of the Board’s request to proceed with certain construction projects.

Phase 2: Consideration of matters relating to racial mix of staff and faculty.

Phase 3: Consideration of all petitions for contempt.

Phase 4: The matter of attorneys’ fees.

The Phase 1 hearings began on June 26, 1979, and continued on June 27, 28, 29, 30, 1979, and July 2, 3, 5, and 6, 1979. The proof on Phase 1 overlapped substantially with the matters of Phase 3.

At the conclusion of this hearing, the Court directed the defendant, Board of Education, to reconsider its entire plan assuming no parameters heretofore ordered by the Court, but with the primary objective of the achievement of a unitary school system for the entirety of Davidson County. In addition, the Board was instructed to consider: maximum utilization of existing buildings (specifically including those in the inner city); economic factors of transportation costs and fuel economy; time and distance involved in transportation; and any other factors which would impact upon the ultimate objective of a quality educational opportunity for all children in Davidson County through a unitary school system.

The defendant Board has advised the Court that the foregoing request of the Court is a massive undertaking which, if approved by the Court, will represent a substantial redrawing of zone lines and transfer of numerous students.

From the proof adduced on Phase 1 of the hearings, the Court finds the following:

1. The perimeter line drawn by the Court in 1971, by which no requirement of either transportation or attempts at racial balance was mandated outside the perimeter, has encouraged white flight to the suburbs and to those school zones unaffected by the 1971 order. The combined effect of the order and the flight therefrom, either to suburban public schools or to private schools, has been:

a) that inner city schools have become progressively resegregated;5
b) that the projected ideal ratio of 15 percent to 35 percent black population in each school has become increasingly more difficult to meet;
[123]*123c) that the school facilities outside the Court-ordered perimeter have become increasingly inadequate to accommodate the growing student bodies.

2. The resegregation, resulting, at least in part, from the nonetheless good faith efforts of the School Board in the implementation of the Court’s order, amounts to a de jure segregation.

Recognition of the above results impels a complete reexamination of the remedy fashioned in 1971. As the United States Supreme Court has said,

The obligation of the district courts, as it always has been, is to assess the effectiveness of a proposed plan in achieving desegregation. There is no universal answer to complex problems of desegregation; there is obviously no one plan that will do the job in every case. The matter must be assessed in light of the circumstances present and the options available in each instance. . . .

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Bluebook (online)
479 F. Supp. 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelley-v-metropolitan-county-board-of-education-tnmd-1979.