LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Both sides in a federal busing lawsuit have agreed to a two-month pause in the case ahead of Thursday’s first day of school in Jefferson County.
But the rhetoric in the civil rights lawsuit ramped up Wednesday, with an attorney for the parents claiming in a press release that the school district had agreed to some terms in a settlement proposal.
Jefferson County Schools (JCPS) vehemently denied that in its own statement, saying lawyer Teddy Gordon, “has misrepresented the circumstances of this arrangement, misrepresented commitments that were made by the District, and misled the public.”
At a hearing last Friday, JCPS leadership testified against the federal civil rights lawsuit filed June 20 by parents who attend Male and duPont Manual High Schools and Whitney Young Elementary. Louisville attorney Ted Gordon, representing the parents argued the students may now have to enroll in less desirable neighborhood schools due to a lack of bus service.
Gordon said the students who attend Male, Manual and Young Elementary will be placed in their magnet and traditional schools as requested for the start of the school year.
“These settlement talks have been ongoing, with both sides trying to resolve these issues,” Gordon said. “My first and only priority was to my clients who now are able to send their children to their schools with the promise of bus transportation happening.”
But JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan said the students were already enrolled in the magnet programs before the lawsuit was filed and there has been no change in their assignments since then.
“Like all other JCPS students, remain entitled to attend any magnet school for which they applied and were accepted, but in most cases such students, like the Plaintiffs, now have to provide their own transportation to and from those schools at this time,” Callahan said.
According to court documents, the joint motion pauses the lawsuit for 60 days pending the implementation of JCPS’s bus plan and to restore some transportation. Both sides agreed to the pause.
The lawsuit claims the district’s bus plan, passed in April, has a disproportionately negative effect on students of color and violates their civil rights. The parents claimed the kids’ civil rights are being “eviscerated by Defendants’ edict of April 10, 2024.” They said they placed their kids in magnet and traditional schools because of the quality of the education and “to decrease the achievement gaps between African American students and Caucasian students of 15 to 60% which has existed for three generations of students attending JCPS.”
They now may be forced to lose benefits of those schools, they said in the lawsuit, because their kids can no longer get to and from school each day. Both said there is no public transportation from their homes to their magnet schools. Uber and taxi service isn’t financially viable, so the children and others may be forced to go to their neighborhood school.
One of the parents, Mary Bledsaw’s children are an incoming junior at Male and freshman at Central, the lawsuit says. Now, she said her junior may be forced to go from Male and, both “one of the best high schools in Kentucky,” to Valley High School, “one of the worst high schools in Kentucky.”
“It’s going to be an additional strain with him either waiting at the school or trying to get other parents with carpooling,” Bledsaw said of her son at Male. “And that’s going to be a huge drain on us.”
The lawsuit says Bell’s child, an incoming fifth-grader at Whitney Young, is a special needs student whose teacher and therapist recommend he not change schools.
“It is the best environment for his education needs,” the lawsuit says.
Taryn Bell, one of the other parents suing JCPS, said her child may now be forced to go from Whitney Young a “title 1 magnet school,” to Martin Luther King, “one of the worst schools in Kentucky.”
Outside the federal courthouse Friday, Gordon, who’s representing Bledsaw and Bell, disputed the testimony from JCPS Chief Operations Office Rob Fulk, saying district leadership is exaggerating and that it’s “not true at all” that the judge granting a TRO would delay the school year.
JCPS Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio said it has taken several months, working seven days a week the last two months, to solidify the district’s bus routing plan for the new school year. He said it would be a “major lift” to have to redo it.
“Redoing every route and bus stop, whether we use the term ‘catastrophic’ or not, would be a very lengthy process,” Pollio said.
The school district agreed to make Whitney Young, Manual and Male and other schools a priority in restoring bus routes if there are enough drivers. Pollio previously mentioned restoring bus routes to students on free or reduced lunch who attend Male, Manual and Butler high schools. As wells as all students attending Johnson Traditional Middle School, and direct runs for students attending Coleridge-Taylor and Young Elementary.
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This list of schools, originally mentioned at the district’s July 23 board meeting, would address all schools attended by the children whose parents filed the lawsuit.
“We have stated publicly for some time, and well before the current lawsuit was filed, that if JCPS can hire or lease a sufficient number of additional bus drivers in the coming months, then the District might be able to restore transportation to some magnet and traditional students,” said Callahan. “The District’s position remains unchanged–if additional bus drivers become available, then the District may be able to resume some transportation to some magnet and/or traditional students.”
The Jefferson County Board of Education meets on Aug. 20. That’s when Pollio said he plans to bring a proposal to restore routes in the future.
The district has been working all summer to make changes. JCPS maintained that the only option to keep buses on schedule and students on time is to cut transportation for all magnet and traditional schools, which would impact more than 14,000 students.
JCPS said as of Monday, it has 561 bus drivers and 510 bus routes.
For the last several years, JCPS has struggled to recruit enough bus drivers, resulting in buses running delayed, some up to several hours. Last school year, the state’s largest school district dealt with the same problems.
To address the busing issues, in February 2023, Pollio introduced a plan that would change the district start times from just two, 7:40 a.m. and 9:05 a.m., to nine times ranging from 7:40 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. Most schools would start at 7:40 a.m., 8:40 a.m., or 9:40 a.m.
However, the first day of school with new start times and bus routes, proved to be disastrous for the district. The first day was plagued with bus delays in the morning and the afternoon. Some students’ buses never showed up that morning, and others didn’t get dropped off from school that evening until almost 10 p.m.
JCPS decided to cancel classes for the remainder of that week and later extended that closure to include most of the following week as it implemented a staggered return for students. During an interview with WDRB in December 2023, Pollio said part of the problem the district faced is that from the introduction of the start time proposal, to the first day of school, JCPS lost around 100 bus drivers.
Admitting the first day was unacceptable and the reality JCPS would not be able to hire enough bus drivers to meet the transportation plan’s need, the Jefferson County Board of Education made a contentious decision in April 2024: cut transportation for students not attending their reside and choosing to attend magnet programs/schools, traditional schools or Academies of Louisville programs. An exception was made for Central and Western high schools, which both have a 75% threshold of students on free or reduced lunch.
The full statement from JCPS can be read below:
“There is no settlement of the pending lawsuit and no commitment in any way to change the District’s transportation plan.
We have stated publicly for some time, and well before the current lawsuit was filed, that if JCPS can hire or lease a sufficient number of additional bus drivers in the coming months, then the District might be able to restore transportation to some magnet and traditional students. District representatives repeated those statements in Court last Friday in connection with the lawsuit that was filed, which sought an injunction to prohibit implementation of the April 10 transportation plan and a return to last year’s transportation plan (a change that would take months to implement). The lawsuit is baseless.
After that Court hearing, the Plaintiffs’ attorney contacted counsel for the District to ask if some resolution was possible. Following discussions, an agreement was reached to stay the litigation for 60 days to allow for the current transportation plan to begin and possibly be modified to expand service in that time frame. No other commitments of any sort have been made. Plaintiffs were already enrolled in magnet programs before the lawsuit was filed and the lawsuit has resulted in no change to those assignments. Plaintiffs, like all other JCPS students, remain entitled to attend any magnet school for which they applied and were accepted, but in most cases such students, like the Plaintiffs, now have to provide their own transportation to and from those schools at this time.
The District agreed to the stay, but made no commitment whatsoever about student assignment or guaranteeing any student a resumption of transportation. The lawsuit is unnecessary. The District’s position remains unchanged–if additional bus drivers become available, then the District may be able to resume some transportation to some magnet and/or traditional students.
For whatever reason, the Plaintiff’s attorney has misrepresented the circumstances of this arrangement, misrepresented commitments that were made by the District, and misled the public.
JCPS schools will open tomorrow as scheduled.”
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