Monday morning, the Pulaski County Special School District held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Mills University Studies High School in the southeastern Pulaski County suburb of Sweet Home, marking the beginning of the conclusion of a decades-long federal desegregation dispute.
Principal Damian Patterson and Pulaski County District 9 Justice of the Peace Tina Ward cut a green and gold ribbon at the front door to a new wing of the high school that will house classrooms mostly for ninth graders, drawing the attention of teachers, administrators, and members of the media. The district is also working on a new basketball arena and other facilities, and a new softball field has been finished.
“This event is a long end to an arduous road that we have fought over the last 40 years, but we are coming to the end of that fight to some extent,” Patterson remarked prior to cutting the ribbon.
In a desegregation action that started in 1982 when the Little Rock School District sued the PCSSD and the North Little Rock School District, the PCSSD is one of just two defendants left. Attorneys for various groups of Black children intervened in the case as it developed over the decades, and all of the districts were ultimately placed under federal court supervision. The PCSSD has continued to be supervised by the court in the years since the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts were released from the lawsuit in 2014. (The Jacksonville North Pulaski School District, which was established in 2016 by combining parts of the PCSSD, is the other defendant still in existence.)
Price Marshall, a U.S. District Judge, determined in 2021 that the PCSSD had complied with its mandate to desegregate all areas except facilities. The judge decided that Mills, a predominantly Black school, must have buildings of the same caliber as Joe T. Robinson High School, a predominantly white school situated in west Pulaski County, just outside the city boundaries of Little Rock.
When Mills High was constructed seven years ago, Patterson said the Arkansas Times, it was too tiny and didn’t fit the requirements of the desegregation lawsuit. As part of the court’s order, the district must construct a new softball field and gym at Mills in addition to this new ninth-grade wing.
The district intended to complete construction on the gym and a space for the school’s ROTC program by the end of August, according to the Astatus report that PCSSD submitted to the court in June.
Before the ribbon cutting on Monday, Patterson stated, “What it represents is an opportunity for our kids to learn in this open, beautiful, calming space where we can continue to push the efforts of learning in our building.” We will undoubtedly use every effort to sustain that growth process. This is what’s right for kids. At Mills High School, we have a growth mindset and everything we do is focused on what’s best for kids.
When it comes to teaching pupils, the setting is crucial, according to Jeff Senn, the superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District, who took over the district this summer.
No matter how wonderful a teacher you are, he added, if you don’t give your pupils a safe, healthy, and clean environment, they won’t learn.
According to Senn, he believes that this new building will promote student achievement.
Senn declared, “We’re going to keep going forward.” Instead of discussing the past, we are going forward as of right now.
It’s dragon-slaying time!
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