Little Rock School District Will Appeal Desegregation Ruling

Members of the Little Rock School Board voted last night to ask a federal appeals court to overturn an order that the district be under court supervision for two more years. District attorney Chris Heller said in a memo to the school board that US District Judge Bill Wilson Junior`s ruling was flawed. The board voted on Heller`s recommendation, also saying that it won`t put suggested increased program evaluations into effect. Wilson ruled in June that the school district did not successfully evaluate its academic programs for how well they helped black students. The district was released in 2002 from all aspects of its federal desegregation order except those relating to program evaluations. Wilson said the district should remain under a court order through the 2005-06 school year. Bill Pressman, an attorney working with Little Rock lawyer John Walker to represent the district`s black students, said he didn`t think the district`s appeal is viable. If the court were to rule in the district`s favor, the district would save one million dollars in program evaluations and it would no longer have to pay a five million dollar desegregation loan to the state.