School can’t meet judge’s requirements, superintendent says
Breaux Bridge – Catahoula Elementary School does not meet the requirements U.S. Western District Court Judge Elizabeth Foote set for the school to be reopened in her desegregation ruling for the St. Martin Parish School Board, Superintendent Frederick Wiltz said in explaining the reasons for the school’s closing and possible reopening during a special meeting of the school board this past Wednesday.
Foote ordered the school closed in a 101page decision filed on June 21, 2021. The judge also ordered the school district to implement a magnet program at St. Martinville Primary and at the Early Learning Center, which are now the St. Martin STEAM Academy and Early STEAM Academy, respectively.
Catahoula Elementary School opened in 1936.
A desegregation lawsuit (Thomas vs St. Martin School Board) was filed in 1965 and went dormant in 1974 before becoming active again in 2009.
“At that time it was reassigned to a new judge,” Wiltz said. “Members of the school board who were there remember we moved to have this case dismissed. The district court disagreed with our recommendation that this case be dismissed, so it was remanded back to the district court. At that time parties agreed and we entered into a consent order regarding Green factors: student assignment, faculty assignment and quality of education.”
The school board has been attempting to achieve “Unitary Status” since, meaning that the school system is effectively desegregated.
“Green factors” refers to the criteria established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Green vs the County School Board of New Kent County in 1968, a landmark school desegregation case.
The U.S. 5th District Court of Appeals reversed the decision closing the school on Aug. 11, 2022, stating that the judge abused her discretion in the case. The matter was sent back to the district court for reconsideration.
In 2023, the Western District Court adopted the plaintiff’s proposal to allow the school to reopen if it met certain stipulations.
Those stipulations were: • The successful completion of the first year of the magnet academies and signing of the magnet plans;
• The school could reopen as a Pre-K through Grade 1 or JCEP (Juvenile Continuing Education Program) school with no variation of grades 2-12 attending;
Catahoula
• The school could operate after-school or community events;
• The school would revert to the original Catahoula Elementary zone;
• And the district could not recruit staff or faculty, or allocate resources to Cathouala Elementary that hinders, impedes or is inconsistent with its compliance with the Magnet Consent Order or any other order in the case.
“When the 5th Circuit remanded it back to the District Court in 2023, the court order that was issued by the district judge in this case spelled out all of these stipulations that are written here,” Wiltz said, referring to a slide show explaining the court rulings in the case.
The judge signed the Magnet Implementation Plan and the two magnet schools opened, completing their first year in May after opening in 2024.
Other key factors that Wiltz cited that affect the reopening of the school include court order provisions regarding non-competing with the Magnet School program.
The magnet schools must have a studentteacher ratio of 18-1 by court order, and no other school in the system may have a smaller ratio than 19-1, meaning Catahoula Elementary would have to have at least 19 kindergarten students and 19 firstgrade students in its zone to open. The school district would then have to submit a proposal to the court to reopen the school.
But the school zone currently has 7 pre-K aged students, 8 kindergarten age students and 8 firstgrade students (including 4 black students and 19 white students total), not giving the school system a big enough group to reopen the school.
Supporters of the school attending the meeting expressed their displeasure at the process, stating that the school system had a chance when current Gov. Jeff Landry was the state’s attorney general to fight the court decision.
Landry had offered to file an amicus brief for the school board in the desegregation lawsuit, Celeste Latiolais said, at no cost to the parish, which could have prevented the desegregation rulings that the parish has been trying to get out from under ever since.
