Opinion ID: 764702
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the unitary status of the cleveland public school system

Text: 46 In its Order of May 8, 1996, the district court in the instant matter ordered that Defendants are entitled to a declaration of unitary status with respect to pupil assignments and that the Court's jurisdiction over pupil assignments was dissolved so as to permit the school authorities henceforth to assign pupils in accordance with their best judgment. We are satisfied that the district court did not err in its application of the controlling law in this regard. See Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U.S. 70, 115 S.Ct. 2038, 132 L.Ed.2d 63 (1995); Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 112 S.Ct. 1430, 118 L.Ed.2d 108 (1992); Board of Educ. of Oklahoma City v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237, 111 S.Ct. 630, 112 L.Ed.2d 715 (1991); Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267, 97 S.Ct. 2749, 53 L.Ed.2d 745 (1977) (Milliken II ); Pasadena City Bd. of Educ. v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424, 96 S.Ct. 2697, 49 L.Ed.2d 599 (1976); Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974) (Milliken I ); Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 402 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971). In so ruling, we rely upon the reasons set forth by the district court in the thorough analysis of its Order of May 8, 1996. See Termination Order, 934 F.Supp. at 1546-58. 47 We find convincing the district court's analysis of Freeman, where the Supreme Court found that the school system in DeKalb County, Georgia, had fully and satisfactorily complied with the student assignment component of the remedial decree in that case. Having examined both the efforts of the DeKalb County school system and the demographic changes that had occurred within the 17-year life span of the remedial consent decree, the Supreme Court affirmed the conclusion of the trial court in that case that massive bussing was not a viable option and further enunciated an important principle for school desegregation cases across the nation: 48 That there was racial imbalance in student attendance zones was not tantamount to a showing that the school district was in noncompliance with the decree or with its duties under the law. Racial balance is not to be achieved for its own sake. It is to be pursued when racial imbalance has been caused by a constitutional violation. Once the racial imbalance due to the de jure violation has been remedied, the school district is under no duty to remedy imbalance that is caused by demographic factors. Freeman, 503 U.S. at 494. See also id. at 512 (Blackmun, J., concurring) (A school system's obligation to desegregate does not always require the district court to order new, affirmative action simply because of racial imbalance in student assignments.). 49 The statistical analysis found in the district court's termination order indicated that the imbalance of schools not in compliance with the remedial consent decree in Freeman far exceeded the number of Cleveland schools that were outside the 15% parameter mandated by Judge Battisti's remedial Order and Consent Decree in the instant matter. Indeed, a direct comparison of the DeKalb County School System in Freeman and the Cleveland School District from 1983 to 1991 indicates that the latter achieved substantially greater student desegregation than the DeKalb County School System, as measured by all the following factors: (1) the percentage of African-American students each year who attended schools which were more than 90% African American; (2) the percentage of African-American students each year who attended schools that had greater than 20% more African Americans than the system-wide average; (3) the percentage of White students who attended schools which were more than 90% White; (4) the percentage of White students who attended a school with greater than 20% more Whites than the system-wide average; and (5) the number of schools each year that had even greater than 90% African-American or 90% White student populations. Moreover, we wish to emphasize that the figures for Cleveland reflected much greater desegregation than that in DeKalb County even after the implementation of the student assignment practices of the Joint Stipulation of May 15, 1995, which relied almost exclusively on the parental choice initiatives of Vision 21 in lieu of the Cleveland School District's outdated 15% mathematical parameters. As the district court noted: 50 The Defendants' record of compliance with this Court's various Remedial Orders stands as an unequivocal manifestation of their good faith efforts to desegregate the Cleveland School District. Defendants have created an innovative school system that has implemented a number of initiatives designed to develop self-esteem and enhance the academic potential of all students regardless of race. Many remedial programs are targeted in African-American schools. Programs have been implemented to involve parents and offset negative socioeconomic factors. If the Cleveland School District has failed in any way, it is not because the school system has been negligent in its duties. The record discloses that the City of Cleveland has historically been a residentially segregated bi-polar community (African-American east of the Cuyahoga River and Caucasian west of the Cuyahoga River). The demographics of recent years have reflected rapid population shifts within the city that were not caused by or attributable to the Cleveland School District. These demographic dynamics were inevitable as a result of suburbanization and socioeconomic conditions. No evidence has been developed in these proceedings to support a conclusion that the effect of the Cleveland School District's previous unconstitutional conduct may have contributed to the residential segregation of the community and/or the dynamics of population mobility. 51 Termination Order, 934 F.Supp. at 1552. 52 We thus affirm the district court's order that Defendants are entitled to a declaration of unitary status with respect to student assignment and that the court's jurisdiction over pupil assignment is dissolved. In light of the district court's exhaustive analysis of these issues, we feel that any further analysis by this Court would be duplicative and would serve no jurisprudential purpose. IV. JUDGE KRUPANSKY'S MANAGEMENT OF THE CASE 53 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) provides: Any justice, judge or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. On January 11, 1996, Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Recuse Judge Krupansky, arguing that ex parte communications between the judge and various parties involved in the litigation required him to recuse himself from the instant matter. We address now the question whether Judge Krupansky abused his discretion in denying that motion. 1 See Order of Feb. 1, 1996. 54 In their Motion to Recuse Judge Krupansky, Plaintiffs complain that the judge created the appearance of partiality by meeting ex parte with a number of different parties, including: (1) state officials such as the Defendant State Superintendents of Public Instruction, various staff members of the Department of Education, and the State Defendants' lawyers; (2) Local Defendants, including Defendant Cleveland Superintendent of Schools; and (3) private citizens, including the General Counsel of the Cleveland School District, the Cleveland Teachers' Union President, and employees of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., whose services had been obtained by the State. These communications are alleged to have covered a variety of topics, including, inter alia: (1) the general management, fiscal status, and future governance of the School District; (2) anticipated student assignment negotiations between State Defendants and Plaintiffs; and (3) the potential for a declaration of unitary status for the school system. 55 When confronted with a Motion to Recuse under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), a district judge must apply an objective standard of inquiry: Would a reasonable person knowing all the relevant facts question the impartiality of the judge? See Roberts v. Bailar, 625 F.2d 125, 129 (6th Cir.1980). Our review of the full record in this case compels our conclusion that a reasonable person with such knowledge would not doubt Judge Krupansky's partiality. 56 During the course of Judge Krupansky's management of this litigation the Cleveland School District suffered total fiscal and administrative collapse. Termination Order, 934 F.Supp. at 1539. Accordingly, on March 3, 1995, the district court ordered the Ohio State Board of Education and its Superintendent of Instruction to assume complete administration and operational control of the District pursuant to its delegated state constitutional and statutory authority and restore the System's integrity, operational control, and capability to resume implementation of this Court's orders without interference from the local Board of Education. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Ted Sanders, the then State of Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction, developed and then began the implementation of a viable contingency plan designed to restore the fiscal and operational administrative capability necessary to alleviate the School District's imminent crisis. Dr. Sanders, with the help of both his assistants Dr. John Goff and Dr. Richard Boyd and McKinsey & Co., stabilized the financial and management integrity of the School District and developed an interim and long-range plan to review the financial and management capabilities of the District. 57 While the school system remained in state receivership, the district court was necessarily involved in the oversight of the State's work. In this capacity, the court necessarily had to communicate with Dr. Sanders, Dr. Goff, and others, as Judge Krupansky made clear in his Order of February 1, 1996. Much of this communication occurred ex parte. Plaintiffs argue that they had no means to address, respond to, or counter, the adverse, inaccurate, incomplete assertions or assumptions in the secret record generated by Judge Krupansky. Plaintiffs' Br. 43. However, as the Defendants note, Judge Krupansky personally explained to Plaintiffs' counsel the ministerial nature of these ex parte discussions before they took place. Moreover, it is undisputed that Judge Krupansky personally extended to Plaintiffs' counsel an invitation to attend all of these meetings. Plaintiffs' counsel consistently refused this invitation over an eight-month period during which many of these meetings took place and failed to register any objection to the meetings at that time despite the fact that they knew ex ante that these conferences had already been scheduled. Finally, Judge Krupansky's communications with the State Superintendent, the Superintendent of Schools in Cleveland, the Auditor of the State, with representatives of McKinsey & Co., and with counsel for the state and local defendants were related exclusively to the judicial oversight of the reorganization which the court had mandated in its Order of March 3, 1995. None of these matters involved any issue which was then or later in dispute with the plaintiffs. 58 Under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), disqualifications must be predicated upon extrajudicial conduct rather than on judicial conduct; and upon a personal bias as distinguished from [a] judicial one, arising out of the judge's background and association and not from the judge's view of the law. Green v. Nevers, 111 F.3d 1295, 1303-04 (6th Cir.1997) (internal quotations and citations omitted). This Court has had numerous occasions to consider a district judge's decision not to recuse himself in the face of a § 455(a) motion. Two of these cases arose in the context of institutional reform litigation. See In re City of Detroit, 828 F.2d 160, 1167 (6th Cir.1987); Bradley v. Milliken, 620 F.2d 1143 (6th Cir.1980). In Milliken, the district judge was involved in a complex school desegregation case in Detroit. During the later phases of the litigation, plaintiffs' counsel Mr. Thomas Atkins--the same attorney who represents Plaintiffs in the instant matter--complained that District Judge DeMascio had created an appearance of partiality by meeting ex parte with the Detroit Board's representative even before the plaintiffs' counsel had received a copy of the court's filed remedial guidelines in that case. The plaintiffs also alleged that they had been excluded from negotiations with the Board which shaped the ultimate desegregation plan. Judge DeMascio denied the plaintiffs' Motion to Recuse him under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), stating that the incidents in question were judicial activities designed to ensure a community climate receptive to the court's orders. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit agreed that Judge DeMascio had acted well within his discretion. See id. at 1157. This Court stated: Judge DeMascio's actions appear to us to have been judicial activities. To make out a case for recusal under § 455(a), a movant must rely on extra-judicial conduct rather than matters arising in a judicial context. Id. 59 Likewise, we find that Judge Krupansky's communications with the aforementioned parties, though ex parte, concerned matters arising in a purely judicial context. All of the communications about which Plaintiffs complain arose out of the court's oversight of the people who were responsible for the implementation of Judge Krupansky's Order of March 3, 1995, which required considerable action by the State. Those communications were ministerial in nature and did not pertain to matters at issue between the parties as adversaries. Such minimum contacts were necessary for the court to maintain effective contact with those parties Judge Krupansky had appointed to assume control of the Cleveland School District. Accordingly, we find that Judge Krupansky's Order of February 1, 1996 denying Plaintiff's Motion to Recuse him under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) was not an abuse of his discretion.