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U.S. District Court Lifts TUSD Desegregation Order

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Celania-Fagen, (520) 225-6060
Posted on: Dec. 18, 2009

The court found that Tucson Unified School District has established a plan to provide equal advantage for every child and will ensure that resegregation does not occur.

"We collaboratively developed the Post-Unitary Plan by meeting our Post-Unitary Plan goals through strategies we believe to be the best practices in education for the 21st Century," said Dr. Elizabeth Celania-Fagen, TUSD's Superintendent. "Therefore, this plan matches the goals of the developing strategic plan for the district."

"We are excited to begin its implementation," said Fagen.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge David Bury said that the "plan is designed to assist the District in 'becoming a model 21st Century urban school district that ensures personalized success for each student and that manifests principles of equal protection and equal opportunity in the delivery of educational services to its students.' "

On a practical level, the court ruling means that:

  1. The district is no longer under a court order that controls decisions that traditionally are made by the Superintendent and Governing Board members in other school districts.
  2. Students attending non-neighborhood schools can receive transportation to a First-Choice school if they meet certain requirements.
  3. TUSD can move forward with its plan of First-Choice Schools, implemented by Dr. Fagen, which allows each school to define its school focus and gives TUSD's 55,000 students many different types of schools from which to choose.
  4. The district can proceed with a "restorative practices" approach to disciplinary issues, which allows students who make mistakes to make different choices in a restorative, rather than purely punitive, environment.

Governing Board member Bruce Burke praised Judge Bury's ruling.

"I'm delighted that the efforts of the board have brought this case to conclusion," said Burke. "We are looking forward to operating under post-unitary status," he said.

Decision-making authority in TUSD will now fall solely to the TUSD Governing Board and the Superintendent as this court case is now closed.

"This Court finds that given the facts of this case, successful desegregation will exist when the School Board is accountable to the public for its operation of the District in compliance with the above principles of equality," Judge Bury found.