January could be D-day for ECISD desegregation lawsuit

Come January, the long-standing desegregation case against ECISD could be over.

CRUCIAL representative Gene Collins and the district’s attorney, Mike Atkins, said an update hearing between both sides is planned for the new year in U.S. District Judge Rob Junell’s courtroom.

ECISD received a bit of a setback in its quest to be released from an ongoing desegregation case Tuesday evening when Junell denied any immediate dismissal of the suit from his federal courtroom in Midland, though without ruling on the specific merits of the case. Instead, both sides came together in conference to try to find a path toward resolving differences.

Junell has yet to issue official orders, but the conference left open the path for resolution without lawyer involvement. A significant piece is the Tri-Ethnic Committee, which was designed to oversee the district’s progress on equality for all students — particularly in regard to a 2006 consent agreement. The consent agreement provides an outline for what the district needs to do to satisfy the plaintiff CRUCIAL, which alleges the district has long treated minority students unfairly compared to others.

Collins was at the meeting and said the judge wanted the process to move forward through direct talks between various stakeholders in the matter. He said the idea is about developing a plan to reconcile areas of disagreement and ultimately come to a conclusion in the case.

He agreed with Atkins that stakeholders involved would likely include an administrator like Superintendent Hector Mendez, a school board member or two and then the Tri-Ethnic Committee.

Mendez said he found the meeting with Junell helpful to get a feel for the next steps in coming to a resolution of the case, including an expected hearing date and structure. However, he did admit the outcome was a bit of a surprise.

"It’s different than expected, and I’m still taking down my thoughts on what happened at the hearing," he said.

He said he likes the idea of CRUCIAL, the district, Tri-Ethnic Committee and others coming together to try to find real solutions to the remaining issues.

"This means we are at the table trying to find a mutually arrived conclusion," he said.

Mendez declined to identify any specific areas for future discussion since he said they were waiting on a written set of orders by Junell.

Collins estimates discussion will begin soon after a ruling by Junell if indeed that is the ultimate decision because of the January meeting’s closeness. He said he was surprised by how the judge took some of the district’s arguments.

"I was shocked. He just flatly denied to dismiss and said we needed to resolve the problem ourselves," he said.

He said he felt the judge empowered the Tri-Ethnic Committee. Collins said the gifted and ESL programs still need modifications to work more effectively, and the efforts for minority teacher recruitment need to go beyond job fairs, and perhaps use a headhunter approach. In the end, he said a list of concerns like that was presented to the judge, who will outline areas needing a plan of action.

"It was like David and Goliath — very dramatic. And we have always praised the district on some things and are not saying they are bad; we just thought unitary status was premature," Collins said.

Mendez said he didn’t view Tuesday’s conference in terms of winning and losing.

"If there’s a victor, there’s also a loser. I think Judge Junell made it clear he wants the winners to be the students," he said.

FUTURE STEPS

>> A discussion between ECISD and CRUCIAL lawyers regarding the nearly three-decade old desegregation case took place Tuesday evening and though final orders are to come, an update meeting was tentatively scheduled for January. Before that time, current indications are that the Tri-Ethnic Committee and other stakeholders like a member of the board of trustees and the superintendent will come together to try to reach common ground on any areas of disagreement.