Lawrence schools making progress toward desegregation

By Nancy Glasscock
nglasscock@decaturdaily.com · 340-2443

MOULTON — The Lawrence County school system is continuing to make progress toward achieving federal desegregation guidelines, said the school system’s attorney, Jerome Thompson.

Since March, six of the county’s 13 schools have shown progress in meeting the guidelines, while five schools are on target, one hasn’t shown progress and another is out of compliance.

Lawrence County is one of three local systems, including Decatur and Limestone County, under orders to further reduce racial inequality in schools.

The order applies to hardship transfers, student diversity and more, but the school board has chosen to tackle its hiring practices first.

The court order requires the system to have the same percentage of black teachers at each school as the overall percentage of black residents in the county. The court allows a leeway of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Thompson presented statistics showing the percentage of black employees hired at each school since March at Monday’s Lawrence County Board of Education meeting. Ideally, 7.1 percent to 17.1 percent of a school’s certified employees are black, based on the Singleton Standards for school desegregation, Thompson said.

The standards stem from the Singleton v. Jackson cases of 1965-66, when a judge ruled that school boards had a duty to integrate, not merely to stop segregating.

Six of Lawrence County’s 13 schools — Moulton Elementary, Moulton Middle, Mount Hope, R.A. Hubbard, Speake and Hatton High — are progressing. East Lawrence Elementary, East Lawrence Middle, East Lawrence High, Hazlewood Elementary and Lawrence County High are on target.

Hatton Elementary shows no progress, and Hazlewood High is out of compliance. Hazlewood lost teacher units, which adversely affected its ratio, Thompson said.

No new hires have been made at Hatton Elementary since March, and no available positions at the school have been posted.

Thompson said statistics compiled at the Lawrence County central office show the following changes in the number of black employees at each school since March:

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