COASTAL OBSERVER

Georgetown County School District school board is evaluating its options before deciding its future under a desegregation order that has provided more than 50 years of federal oversight.

Chairman Keith Moore requested more information on teacher and student retention.

“There were some concerns – my community especially,” Moore said, who resides in the Carvers Bay attendance area.

Under a 1997 consent decree that stems from a 1969 complaint, the district was required to create Carvers Bay Middle and High schools by combining Choppee and Pleasant Hill attendance zones.

The U.S. Department of Justice offered the district an option to move away from the order in January.

The decree required the district to seek approval from the DOJ for school openings, school closures, magnet programs, attendance zones and facility improvement. It received approval in 2022 for its magnet program.

The board has not discussed a tentative timeline, Moore said, but hopes to make a decision “sooner than later” in April.

“I know where I’m at on the issue,” he said. “I want to have a discussion based on personal opinion and not persuasion from one person or another.”

Myrtle Milton, who served in human resources for the district for 26 years, and Marvin Neal, an official with the state and county chapters of the NAACP, spoke in support of the consent decree during public comments at this week’s board meeting.

“A very crucial component of that decree is staffing. We’re not there yet. The boxes have not been checked,” Milton said.

Neal said the purpose of the decree was never to punish the district. He asked if all schools receive equal investment.

“The answer is no,” he said. “Until we can confidently answer those questions with transparency and data, it would be premature to remove the safeguards that protect education equity.”

The school district is still bound by other laws, such as the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, to offer equal educational opportunities.

Dave Duff, the attorney representing the district, told the school board earlier this year that a Trump administration directive had the department review school districts under desegregation orders to determine if those districts would move forward with an application for unitary status.

The school district and DOJ filed a motion in 2017 with the federal court in Charleston seeking partial unitary status.

There are five areas in which a school district can seek unitary status are referred to as “Green factors,” originating from the 1968 Supreme Court case Green v. County School Board of New Kent County.

The landmark decision in 1954 by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional and ruled that state segregation laws violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The court granted the district partial unitary status in transportation, extracurricular activities and facilities. Student assignment and teacher staff assignment were the two remaining Green factors which required federal oversight.

Duff said the school district has eliminated the remnants of the prior dual system to the extent that is “satisfactory” to the court. 

Superintendent Bethany Giles said satisfying the needs is only part of it. That comes with consistent review and assessment of the compliance of Green factors, she said.

“Even though we checked the box then, let’s make sure we’re keeping up with it and provide equitable facilities and opportunities for all students,” Giles said. “We want to make sure we’re providing the best we can for all students.”