Lewis v. Ascension Parish Sch. Bd.

806 F.3d 344

Darrin Kenny LEWIS, Sr., individually and as natural tutor of his minor child B; Oscar Varnado, Plaintiffs–Appellants,

v.ASCENSION PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 15–30030.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Nov. 17, 2015.

Robert Ryland Percy, III, Esq., Percy, Lanoux & Mumphrey, Gonzales, LA, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.

Robert L. Hammonds, Pamela Wescovich Dill, Hammonds, Sills, Adkins & Guice, L.L.P., Baton Rouge, LA, Jeffery Paul Diez, Gonzales, LA, for Defendant–Appellee.

Opinion

EDWARD C. PRADO, Circuit Judge:

This school-redistricting equal protection case is now before us for the second time. In the first appeal, in 2011, a divided panel of this Court reversed summary judgment in favor of Defendant–Appellee Ascension Parish School Board (“Board”), holding that material fact issues surrounded the discriminatory purpose and effect of the Board's adoption of a redistricting plan that concentrated economically disadvantaged students in a majority-nonwhite school district. Lewis v. Ascension Par. Sch. Bd.,662 F.3d 343 (5th Cir.2011)(per curiam). On remand, the district court held a three-day bench trial and entered judgment for the Board. It concluded that the plan was facially race neutral, that the plaintiffs had failed to prove the redistricting plan treated similarly situated students of different races differently, and that, even if he had made this threshold showing, he failed to establish that the plan had a discriminatory effect. Discerning no material infirmities in the court's legal conclusions and no clear error in its findings of fact, we affirm the judgment.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background¹

The Ascension Parish School District (“the District”) operates four high schools in southeast Louisiana—Donaldsonville High School on the west bank of the Mississippi River, and East Ascension High School, Dutchtown High School,²and St. Amant High School on the east bank. Since at least 1972, the District has assigned students to these schools through an attendance-zone-based “feeder plan,” whereby specified elementary schools “feed” into specified middle schools, which in turn “feed” into one of the high schools. This organization allows students to matriculate together to middle school and high school.

In 2004, a federal district court dismissed the District's longstanding desegregation case and declared the District unitary after finding that all vestiges of the prior compulsory dual school system had been eliminated to the extent practicable.

Later that year, in response to dramatic population growth in the Dutchtown area, the Board convened a “Growth Impact Committee.” Troy Gautreau, Sr., a Board member and chairman of the Committee, presented the Board with a “Growth Impact Charter,” which included the following “objectives”: (1) “develop a plan to address the growth with minimal impact on residents”; (2) “ensure equal facilities and instructional quality for all children”; (3) attain “enrollment maximums” established for the elementary, middle, and high school levels; and (4) “maintain unitary status.” (alterations omitted). According to then-Superintendent Donald Songy, the District sought to move approximately 450 students from Dutchtown Middle School, and thus out of Dutchtown High School's feeder zone, to other east bank schools with capacity for growth.

To facilitate the Board's consideration of various rezoning options, Superintendent Songy, Gautreau, and other Board members requested that Demographics Application Specialist David Duplechein generate demographic data for several plans. Using the District's “Edulog” computer program—which “geographically code[d] all students actually enrolled in the school system based on their physical residential addresses”—Duplechein projected the demographic effects of various prospective rezoning plans. Ultimately, the Board, which governs the District, narrowed its consideration down to four rezoning plans, referred to as Options 1, 2, 2f, and 3.

Between 2004 and 2007, Gautreau delivered several PowerPoint presentations to the Board on the topic of rezoning. In a 2004 presentation, Gautreau discussed the persistent overcrowding issues in several of the District's primary and middle schools. The presentation indicated that, since the implementation of the 2002 feeder plan that accompanied the construction of Dutchtown High School, the percentage of at-risk students³at the primary and middle schools in the East Ascension High School feeder zone had increased and the average School Performance Scores (“SPS”)⁴at those schools had decreased. It further highlighted a decline in student enrollment, SPS, and standardized test scores, and an increase in the percentage of at-risk students, at East Ascension High School. In addition, the presentation delineated the negative effects of a higher at-risk student population, emphasizing that “the concentration of poverty within a school can be shown to be harmful to all students in that school whether or not an individual student comes from a poor background.” It concluded that “a higher percentage of majority students should increase at[-]risk achievement.” It is unclear whether the presentation incorporated demographic data derived from Edulog.

By 2006, the enrollment of Dutchtown Middle School, a Dutchtown High School feeder school, had risen to over 1,000 students, causing severe overcrowding. No other east bank middle school had more than 730 students enrolled. Accordingly, in 2006 or 2007 Gautreau prepared another PowerPoint presentation that examined Options 2f and 3 in detail. The presentation compared then-current racial demographics at each of the high schools, projected total enrollment at several primary and middle schools, projected percentages of “black” and “white” students at several primary and middle schools, and projected percentage of “Title I”⁵and “fully paid” students at several primary and middle schools. It concluded that Option 3 “clearly offers the best opportunity for all students in Ascension Parish and avoids putting an undue burden on one particular school by increasing the at[-]risk student population.” (alteration omitted). As with Gautreau's 2004 presentation, it is unclear whether the 2006–2007 presentation incorporated Edulog data.

Sometime after 2007, Gautreau created a chart using Edulog data that projected the total enrollment and the percentages of “minority” and at-risk students at each of the three east bank high schools under each of the rezoning options under consideration. The chart indicated, in relevant part, that: (1) under current conditions, with no redistricting, (a) the enrollment of Dutchtown High School would increase from 1695 students in 2007 to 2072 students in 2012, a total student population exceeding the 2012 projections at East Ascension High School and St. Amant High School by 700 students and 400 students, respectively, and (b) the percentage of at-risk students in all three high schools would increase, with the largest jump occurring at East Ascension High School; and (2) under each of Options 2, 2f, and 3, (a) the total enrollment in all three schools would increase but would approach parity, and (b) the percentage of at-risk students in all three high schools would increase, again with the largest jump occurring at East Ascension High School.⁶

In 2008, Superintendent Songy also compiled a chart with Edulog data, titled “Statistical Analysis of Options 1, 2, 2f and 3,” and presented it to the Board for consideration. The chart listed the current enrollment, percentage of African–American students, and percentage of at-risk students at each school in the district, then projected the enrollment, percentage of African–American students, and percentage of at-risk students at each school under each of the four rezoning options. Unlike Gautreau's chart, Songy's chart did not project data beyond the 2007–2008 school year. Songy's chart indicated, in relevant part, that: (1) the current African–American population at East Ascension High School exceeded that of the other high schools, but would decrease at East Ascension High School and would increase at the remaining schools under any plan; (2) the at-risk population at East Ascension High School would decrease under any plan, with the greatest drop under Option 3 and the second greatest drop under Option 2f; (3) the at-risk populations at Dutchtown High School and St. Amant High School would increase under any plan; and (4) the total student enrollment would increase at East Ascension High School and St. Amant High School, but not at Dutchtown High School, under any plan.⁷

At its January 15, 2008 meeting, Gautreau discussed the School Board's redistricting efforts and, according to the meeting minutes, told the School Board and audience that “the criteria most concentrated on was [sic] maintaining our current unitary status with the Department of Justice and moving the least amount of kids as possible.” Lewis,662 F.3d at 345. Gautreau also “informed the public that Option 2f or Option 3 needed to be passed by the School Board that night, and that some people would be upset with the School Board's decision.”⁸Following remarks by each of the eleven Board members and by nineteen members of the public, the Board voted on Options 2f and 3.⁹Option 3 failed by a vote of six to four, then Option 2f passed by a vote of the same margin, with precisely the same voting blocs on either side. Each Board member was in possession of Songy's chart at the time of the vote, but it is unclear which Board members, if any, were in possession of Gautreau's chart or presentations. Four of the six Board members who voted in favor of Option 2f testified at the bench trial, and each Board member who testified stated that, at the time of the vote, they were aware of the demographic projections and of the correlation between at-risk status and lower academic achievement.

Option 2f employed...