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Huntsville Superintendent Casey Wardynski presents the city's rezoning plan at a Huntsville school board board work session one year ago on Jan. 16, 2014. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

(Bob Gathany)

For eight months, two public agencies have been negotiating in private over what's best for Huntsville and its public schools.

Today, finally, we see the results. They aren't long on surprises. And there are no instant remedies. Instead, what emerges is a long list of ways Huntsville might try to do better, while still doing most of what it wanted to do in the first place.

The whole skirmish started over zone lines.

Huntsville in 2013 had wanted to redraw school boundaries, in part to adjust for all the new schools the city is building. But Huntsville continues to operate under a 1970 court order that ended dual schooling based on race. The city board can not take steps that impede desegregation. And they needed the court to OK the new zone lines.

But the U.S. Justice Department, who generations ago sued to force desegregation, remains the plaintiff in the case. The Justice Department didn't like the proposed zone lines. Eventually, in early 2014, Huntsville decided to go it alone and try to win the court's approval, despite the Justice Department's opposition. That didn't work.

The Justice Department argued in legal briefs that Huntsville's new zones would move many black students into more racially isolated schools.

The two squared off in court last May. In the end, the judge sent the two sides into mediation and told them to work on everything, not just zone lines, but racial inequities in advanced courses and teaching credentials and more. U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala also told them not to discuss in public what they were working on.

So here it is, finally, the roadmap to a desegregated school system. It hasn't been approved by the court yet, but both sides have agreed to it. Here are the highlights:

The Winners:

Monte Sano

A school bus leaves Monte Sano Elementary School. (Eric Schultz / eschultz@al.com)

The mountaintop parents get to keep their children in Huntsville High. The U.S. Department of Justice had singled out Monte Sano for a seemingly token desegregation effort. Federal filings argued for zoning the small, mostly white Monte Sano into majority black Lee High. Mountaintop parents had written the court, arguing it made no sense to make them drive past their current middle school to reach a new one. Huntsville argued Monte Sano may seem close to Lee High on a map, but it wasn't safe to use the back road down the mountain. Huntsville prevailed. Monte Sano stays put.

McDonnell Elementary

Huntsville, not the feds, had wanted to shut down McDonnell and split up the students. But McDonnell in southwest Huntsville is an unusual school, long home to the city's heaviest concentration of Hispanic families. The families there spoke of their unique community. The federal government didn't ever raise the issue in court, as the Justice Department was focused on historic issues related to equitable treatment of black students, not Hispanic students. Still, somewhere in private negotiations, the plan changed. Huntsville backed off. McDonnell stays open.

Magnet schools

Big winners. Set up under the desegregation order to draw white students to north Huntsville, the city's magnet schools and magnet programs will not only remain in place, the agreement calls for more marketing, more recruitment and the creation of a new magnet academy inside Jemison High School (which replaces Johnson High in north Huntsville). That magnet will be called the College Academy.

The paperwork says students there can earn up to two year's worth of college credits while still in high school. The new program starts at 7th-grade, inside the new McNair Middle in north Huntsville, and will have room for 120 students in grades 7-12. A quarter of the students will be from the majority black McNair/Jemison zone. Plus, the plan calls for increasing enrollment at the arts magnet at Lee High by 75 students over three years.

Pre-kindergarten

Every elementary school will have at least one pre-kindergarten class, with extra classes placed in schools in poorer neighborhoods.

Gifted students

Huntsville will hire an administrator to oversee gifted programs in the elementary schools. The plan calls for a good bit of attention paid to improving the gifted program. By next year, the district will provide pull-out services for gifted students in each elementary school.

Westlawn Middle & Morris Elementary

They get new schools. The agreement requires construction of a new school to combine and replace the two older buildings in west Huntsville. Construction must begin by the 2019-2020 school year.

New Century

The consent order calls for increased enrollment at the technology magnet located on the Lee High School campus. The plan calls for New Century to add 75 more slots over three years.

The Losers:

Butler High

U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala has yet to approve the agreement. (File)

The alma mater of many a Huntsvillian, and once the most crowded school in this city, will be no more. Not exactly a surprise. No one on either side had ever suggested it should stay open. But the court had never ruled. Now with both sides making it official, the court is likely to agree. Butler will close this spring.

Lee High

This school did not expand much through rezoning. The federal plan had been to add Monte Sano Elementary. That didn't happen. Lee will now draw students from just three small elementary schools, two of them among the poorest neighborhoods in Huntsville. That's compared to seven elementary schools flowing into Grissom and six, including some of the largest, flowing into Huntsville High. The Lee magnet and the shared facility with New Century will keep the building populated, but this is looking like a very small neighborhood school.

Law Academy

The law academy at Johnson High is also finished. It will be replaced by the College Academy in the 2016-2017 school year.

Draws:

White vs. Black

The debate of long-standing inequities quickly divided Huntsville leaders along racial lines, as every black local official, save one school board member, called for the federal government to stay involved in Huntsville schools. White officials argued the city had changed and desegregated and no longer needed federal supervision. The divide was made even more apparent during a court hearing last summer. Dozens from the audience addressed the judge. Each black community member opposed ending the desegregation order, and all but one white community member called for the court to side with Huntsville and approve new zone lines.

Neither side prevailed. If anything, the federal government will be more watchful and more involved in city schools, as Huntsville must submit a status report to the court each year by Nov. 15. But the order also lays out a clear plan: Follow these many, many steps and the order could finally be lifted. That's guidance Huntsville didn't have before.

Huntsville vs. the DOJ

The two sides faced off in federal court in Huntsville in May of 2014. (Challen Stephens / cstephens@al.com)

Neither won. Despite a rambling legal brief and shoddy demographic analysis, the U.S. Department of Justice stopped Huntsville from rezoning without winning the approval of black residents and federal attorneys. Despite a costly legal battle and a protracted negotiation, Huntsville mostly got approval to do what it had intended to do anyway.

The zoning plan agreed upon here largely mirrors what Huntsville wanted, with the most major change being the addition of more black students into the Huntsville High zone. But no school was kicked out to make space, as the feds had originally suggested. Instead, majority black Hereford Elementary (a new school consolidating University Place and Terry Heights) was added to Huntsville High.

Ridgecrest Elementary in southwest Huntsville will now feed into Columbia High, also as proposed by the Justice Department.

The federal government also conceded that there are no racial disparities when it comes to busing and which students have to travel however far. So that's completely off the table. This agreement, if and when approved in court, would declare an end to the desegregation order in regard to this one count, student transportation. The agreement also suggests that both sides feel the system is nearly unitary on facilities, meaning the new buildings will remedy any cross-town inequities on the physical structures. But the agreement says for now Huntsville will still need court approval for the closure or construction of any new school.

Transfer students

Black students will still be allowed to switch to majority white schools, and vice versa. So that doesn't change. The transfers remain a requirement of the 45-year-old court order to desegregate the schools. However, this will no longer be first come, first serve. Huntsville will instead run a lottery for all interested students. And these students will get a little more help in adjusting to the new schools.

The fine print:

New oversight on racial inequities

The order would set up something called the Desegregation Advisory Committee, which is a watchdog group to advise the superintendent and to tell the court whether Huntsville is making good on its efforts. That's 12 members, 10 parents and two students, to be chosen by both the school board and the Justice Department. They'll meet twice a year and discuss their findings in public.

Cultural lessons for teachers

Starting next school year, Huntsville will provide all teachers and certified staff with at least seven hours of training on "culturally responsive strategies for serving students from all backgrounds and to address concerns such as implicit bias."

More black students in Hampton Cove

Goldsmith-Schiffman Elementary School (Huntsville Times file)

The district will recruit more black students to attend Hampton Cove and Goldsmith-Schiffman elementary schools on the other side of Monte Sano. The goal is no less than 15 percent.

Equally skilled faculties

Starting next year, Huntsville will review the credentials of all high and middle school teachers to make sure the faculties are equitable in various parts of the city.

More AP courses

Huntsville promises to offer at least one Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate class in each school in each of the following areas: English, math/computer science, science, and history. By next year, each high school must offer at least 10 of those courses. The minimum goes up to 12 the following year. If four or fewer students enroll, the district promises to provide a ride and let them take the course at another school, or offer it online.

No financial hurdles

No fees will be permitted for core courses or magnet courses. The district will help students who can't afford fees for exams or magnet activities.

More clubs

Every high school, starting next school year, must offer National Honor Society; math team; four other academic teams or professional clubs; Junior ROTC; three student leadership groups; and at least "four other clubs."

Racially balanced faculties

The line to get inside the federal courthouse for Huntsville's desegregation hearing on May 22, 2014. The audience filled the court room and those who showed up late watched the hearing on monitors in overflow seating. (Eric Scchultz / eschultz@al.com)

The racial breakdown of the faculty at each school must be within 15 percent, give or take, of the district average. Right now, about 40 percent of Huntsville students are African American.

No more trailers

Huntsville pledges to eliminate the use of all portable classrooms by the 2017-18 school year.

SaFE program

There will be no more expulsions for Facebook photos. Huntsville agrees to "discipline students only for conduct occurring on school property or at school activities." However, there is an exception for an "identifiable serious threat of physical harm" to employees or students.

Watching the student code of conduct

The Justice Department gets 30 days to review any proposed changes in the system's discipline policy.

Still under desegregation order, same as before

"Until the District achieves unitary status, the Court will continue to have supervision of this case to ensure the District undertakes in good fair its obligations in this Consent Order.