LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Tuesday, September 29, a federal judge declared that the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District is now unitary after having complied with court orders in a desegregation lawsuit with its roots in the 1980s.

The lawsuit was originally brought in 1982 by the Little Rock School District against the Pulaski County Special School District and North Little Rock School District, arguing that the policies of the defendant districts amounted to racial segregation of students.

Jacksonville North Pulaski School District inherited that lawsuit when it separated from PCSSD in 2016, and was ordered by the court to improve its student discipline, academic achievement, incentives for hiring minority staff, and facilities.

“The court order obligation told us that all requirements told us that they wanted to make sure that we had equal buildings, that all buildings were equal so that all students were able to matriculate through buildings of the same caliber,” said Jeremy Owoh, superintendent of Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District.

The school district has now complied with all stipulations laid out in the desegregation court order, the last of which was replacing all its aging school buildings with new, state-of-the-art facilities and ensuring that schools that serve majority Black students are as excellent as those serving majority White students.

In the last decade, the school district has built six new schools—a testament not only to the work of the district but the support of the community, which invested in its schools with a high millage rate of 48.3 mills.

“The community championed that. They stood behind the district that they voted for just a couple of years before, and they were going to ensure not only that they support the district in word, but they also supported in action and funding,” Owoh told KATV.

“And hopefully, preferably, they see that we stood behind our word and we built brand new buildings and offer competitive salaries so we can continue to keep the very best educators in front of our young people here in Jacksonville,” he said.

In his ruling Tuesday, Eastern District of Arkansas Judge D. Price Marshall gave high praise to the school district for its new facilities and efforts to improve itself and declared it fully unitary, or desegregated.

“The court, Judge Marshall, recognized that and that our good faith effort has always been to do what’s right and all the components of the desegregation court order to do what’s right for kids,” Owoh said.