Hearing Tomorrow in JCPS Student Assignment Case

A hearing is set for tomorrow afternoon in federal court in Louisville regarding a challenge to Jefferson County Public Schools’ student assignment plan.Last week, attorney Teddy Gordon filed a request for an injunction on behalf of two plaintiffs whose children were seeking entrance to Stopher Elementary school as kindergarteners. Gordon wants the plan halted, and new assignments made before the start of school on the 13th.Gordon says JCPS claims kindergarteners are exempt from the plan but is assigning them as it would older students.“If kindergarten students are exempt, number one, why are they still being bused?," says Gordon, "and number two, who chose the 124 spots at Stopher Elementary?”But JCPS Student Assignment Director Pat Todd says kindergarteners aren’t exempt from the plan. She says they’re only exempt from the district’s diversity guidelines.“There is one student assignment plan," says Todd. "One component of that applies to elementary schools, grades K-5. And all of the strategies and components apply to all grades, and only the issue of the diversity guideline does not apply at the kindergarten level.”Gordon’s clients are of Indian and Chinese descent.  He claims they were assigned based solely on race, which would violate the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Meredith vs. the Jefferson County Board of Education.