Friday, April 26, 2002
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Friday, April 26, 2002 |
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Fulton schools seek relief from court order The Fulton County Board of Education is asking a federal court to release the school system from a 1970 order which requires the desegregation of the county schools. This request also asks the court to declare that it is operating a "unitary" school system for all students regardless of race. The Hightower v.West case is one of many resulting in federal court orders issued in the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court's 1954 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which required the desegregation of public schools throughout the nation. The Hightower order requires the school system to: · Base student assignments on geographic proximity. ·Operate a Majority to Minority transfer program. ·Maintain racial balance within the faculty and staff of each school. ·Submit annual reports to the federal court. Fulton County schools have complied with each of these requirements for the past 32 years and are seeking judicial recognition of these efforts. "In recent years, a number of school systems across the state, including DeKalb, Muscogee, and Savannah-Chatham, have been declared unitary and have been released from federal court oversight,"said school board President Linda Bryant. According to Bryant, the school system is deeply committed to racial diversity in its schools, faculty, and staff and to equal educational opportunities for all students. "Continuing court involvement in our schools is no longer needed," she said. The school system plans to file a motion for unitary status by the end of April. During the next several months, the parties to the Hightower case will have an opportunity to exchange documents and other information concerning the school system's compliance with the court order. The federal court judge overseeing the case has scheduled a hearing on the motion for Jan. 21, 2003.The hearing will be open to the public.
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