Posted on 11/06/2003 10:56:44 AM PST by yonif
ALEXANDRIA (AP) -- A federal judge has signed off on a plan that marks the beginning of the end of a 40-year-old desegregation lawsuit against the Rapides Parish School district.
The district is now free from 40 years of federal oversight of its school buildings.
''I think the judge has realized we have done the best we can do,'' said district maintenance director Randy Patterson.
Patterson said he's still got some work to do on infrastructure work in some of the schools and the historical racial background of a school will still be in the back of his mind when he considers construction projects.
''As maintenance supervisor, I will continue to make sure there is equity in the schools,'' he said.
The judge's approval comes after all parties in the lawsuit came to complete consensus that the district's schools are equal. The plaintiff's lawyers and the School Board signed off on the agreement last week.
School Board President E.L. Paulk said he is pleased with the judge's approval.
''Fantastic,'' he said. ''This is a milestone.''
The School Board now must prove that staff and student racial ratios are equalized and that each school has equitable school supplies and resources to completely end the suit.
But some don't agree that the major construction work in the past five years has done the job to make historically black schools equal to historically white schools.
Rodessa Metoyer and Herbert Dixon, the only two black School Board members on the nine-person board, said that many school buildings still have problems.
Specifically, Dixon noted that Arthur F. Smith's mold problems and Acadian Elementary School's dilapidated gym floor need attention.
''We are rushing matters,'' Dixon said.
The Rev. Sylvester Valley filed the desegregation lawsuit almost 40 years ago so his daughters could get an education equal to the white students of Rapides Parish.
Another perversion of the desegregation laws - The laws don't call for equalized ratios; they call for investigation where patterns are occuring...
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