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A federal judge said Friday that she was concerned that if Gardendale was allowed to form a new, predominantly white school system the switch could have an adverse effect on certain black students.
"If those students are not feeling welcome in the Gardendale system, that gives the court concern," U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala said in court late Friday.
During the second day of a trial to determine whether Gardendale should be allowed to break away from the Jefferson County school system, Haikala grilled the man tapped to be the first superintendent for the small city north of Birmingham.
Gardendale Schools Superintendent Patrick Martin testified he got emails from residents concerned that some homeowners living outside Gardendale would not have to pay an extra 10 mills of tax, even though their children would get to attend the new system.
A few of the emails presented in the courtroom stated that the residents would not have voted for formation of the system if they had known that would be the case.
Haikala told Martin she was trying to understand the extent of those concerns.
The emails didn't specify the predominantly black neighborhood of North Smithfield Manor. But under Gardendale's proposed 13-year transition period, a period where students outside the city would gradually be weened from attending the new system, the North Smithfield Manor area students could continue to go to the schools "indefinitely."
Property taxes designated for schools from the North Smithfield Manor residents would continue to go to Gardendale, but those residents would not have to pay the extra 10 mills the city voted to go towards the schools.
Gardendale officials decided to keep the North Smithfield Manor students in order to meet the percentage requirements of a 1971 desegregation order in the case Stout v. Jefferson County - a case that still applies to spinoff systems in the county.
Right now the North Smithfield Manor students are in the Jefferson County schools by "right." Under the proposed plan they would be in Gardendale schools by "invitation," Haikala said. North Smithfield residents would not be allowed to serve on the city board of education.
Haikala said she hadn't made up her mind in the case as there's still more testimony to be presented. But she told Martin why she considered making the black students feel welcome was important.
She asked Martin to explain what he knew of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education - the 1954 case that held separate but equal schools for blacks and whites to be unconstitutional.
Haikala read from a portion of the 1954 ruling that stated the separation of black students from others of similar age and qualifications generates a feeling of inferiority among the black students as to their status in the community.
Martin said he wouldn't want a student to come into the schools and feel unwelcome. "We'll work every day to make sure they feel like a Rocket," he said, referring to the Gardendale High mascot.
Martin was the last witness for Gardendale at the trial, which began Thursday and is scheduled to continue next week. Attorneys for the Department of Justice, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Jefferson County schools will begin presenting testimony beginning Wednesday. The trial is set to end Friday.
Monique Lin-Luse, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund which represents the private plaintiffs in the lawsuit, questioned Martin about his experience, particularly in working with African American educators.
Before being hired by Gardendale, Martin served as Superintendent of the Washington District 50 Schools in Illinois and also had served as a principal. That school system was 85 percent white when he was there.
While he had worked with three to five African Americans during his time in the Illinois school system, Martin said he had never hired an African American during his tenure as an administrator there.
Martin also testified that he had never worked at a system that was under a desegregation order. He also said that school system raised its student test scores under his leadership.
During questioning by Veronica Percia, a DOJ attorney, Martin said there was no discussion about desegregation, or whether he had worked with a diverse student population or faculty, during his 2014 interview for the superintendent job with the Gardendale Board of Education.
Martin, however, said that Gardendale will comply with the 1971 desegregation order that requires that a school system separating from Jefferson County's system maintain a racial balance with black students equal to at least one-third of the number of white students. He said the system would also maintain the percentage of black faculty and staff at its schools.
Of the 3,110 students who were enrolled in four schools that would make up the Gardendale system - Gardendale High, Bragg Middle, Gardendale Elementary, and Snow Rogers Elementary - 25 percent were black and 71 percent were white last school year, according to a court document.
Martin testified that there are no plans to build new schools, but there have been discussions of additions to Snow Rogers Elementary. He said the new school system would have a debt capacity of $7 million to $12 million.
In order to free up room among schools that are already at overcapacity, the city could reconfigure the grades at the schools, Martin testified. For example city school officials have talked about turning the elementary schools, which are both over capacity, into K-4 schools, making the middle school a 5-7 grade facility, and turning Gardendale into an 8-12 school. The high school now serves grades 9-12.
Haikala presides over the 1965 schools desegregation case Stout vs. Jefferson County Board of Education. Since a 1971 order in that case, federal judges have continued oversight - including approval of attendance zones - to make sure racial balances are maintained and no discrimination occurs.
Cities splitting off from the Jefferson County system since the 1971 order have been required to remain under the desegregation order until their system has reached "unitary status" - meaning the system had erased the vestiges of the former, unconstitutional dual system and become whole.
Gardendale, like other cities around Birmingham before it, wants to break away from the Jefferson County school system. Gardendale residents voted in November 2013 to form a school system, and in 2014 named a school board and hired a superintendent. Residents and the city council also voted to impose a total of 10 mills to help support the effort.
Gardendale couldn't reach a separation agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Jefferson County School System during negotiations earlier this year. The DOJ, county schools and private plaintiffs represented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have all told Haikala they oppose the split, setting up the trial.
In the split, Gardendale wants to take over the $50 million high school completed in 2010, one middle school and two elementary schools from the county.
If approved, Gardendale would become the 13th school system operating in Jefferson County. There are currently 11 city school systems and the county system.