GALVESTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its request to depose the superintendent of Galveston public school district and a civil rights consultant hired by the district to help it achieve a declaration of racial desegregation, known as unitary status.
A joint court filing of the justice department and school district stated the justice department attorneys “spoke at length” with Superintendent Lynne Cleveland during a November site visit so the department does not need to question her.
The district has also agreed to send the department John Bell’s expert reports from 1997 and 2005, so department attorneys have dropped the request to question him.
The only sticking point remaining is the justice department’s request to question the district’s testing coordinator, Richard Tullis. The district has continued to deny the request because Tullis is a “low-level administrator” with “no impact on this matter.” Federal judge Sim Lake will have to rule on that request.
In December, school board president Andy Mytelka said assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Brown told him she wanted to “de-escalate the animosity” between justice department and the school district, and work together to help the district achieve unitary status. The joint filing seems to illustrate that spirit.
“The district and the United States are currently working to resolve issues regarding the rezoning options presented to the United States on Feb. 6,” the filing states. “The district and the United States have entered into discussions regarding the district’s reconfiguration plans the United States’ desire to monitor the district for a period of time. The district is willing and interested in pursuing these options and is awaiting the United States’ input on its rezoning plan.”
Justice department attorneys visited the district in November and interviewed school principals, the superintendent and several members of the community about the district’s reconfiguration in 2008-09. The department is reviewing a stack of documents from the district including information about:
• Recent reconfiguration committee vote to redraw lines;
• Transportation routes;
• Middle school magnet program; and
• Science, technology, engineering and mathematics academy at Ball High School.
The district has also agreed to turn over Bell’s expert reports, complaints the district received about the closure of elementary schools and notes on data on the reconfiguration.
The district wants input on its rezoning plan before trustees vote on it in March.
The district has been under a federal order to desegregate for 48 years. The local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens complained to the justice department this summer that closing San Jacinto and Alamo elementary schools put an undue burden on minorities. The justice department asked the district to submit a report detailing the effect of the closures on students.
Later, in motions filed with in Lake’s of Houston federal court, officials with the justice department and the school district accused each other of lying.
When the district files a motion to achieve unitary status, the justice department would monitor the school district for a year before consenting to unitary status, Mytelka has said.
