A federal judge has ruled that the new Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District must go under the previous desegregation order from the former Montgomery County School District.
On Monday, Dec. 10 Senior Justice Neal B. Biggers, Jr. handed down an order which stated that because the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District absorbed the former Montgomery County School District, it became it successor. According to the order, when the desegregation order went into place in 1967 the court “enjoined MCSD and its agents, officers, and successors from discriminating on the basis of race or color in the operation of the Montgomery County School District.”
The order then states that after the consolidation on July 1, 2018, the United States Department of Justice then attempted to “obtain information from the new school district to assess its compliance with the desegregation orders to determine whether any amendments to such orders are necessary and additionally to ascertain whether continued court oversight is still warranted.”
Andrew Beshai, an attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, came to Winona on Sunday Dec. 2 and Monday Dec. 3 and held meetings with the parents, students and community members of the former Montgomery County School District.
Beshai told those in attendance that the Department of Justice wanted to be able to come in and monitor the consolidation and determine what improvements needed to be made.
During this meeting, many expressed concerns they were having in the district. The biggest being the names of the schools, overcrowding, transportation and senior GPA rankings, and classes they believed were not counted toward graduation requirements.
The order states that the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District has “failed to cooperate with the United States’ requests for information and refuses to voluntarily be joined as a party in this action.”
The court ordered that WMCSD become a joined party – meaning the desegregation order has to fall under the district because it became the successor of the Montgomery County School District. The court then finds the district “would not be prejudiced by granting the United States’ requested relief”
Calls to Superintendent Teresa Jackson and former Montgomery County Board Attorney Chynee Bailey were not returned by press time.
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