LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools will soon make another change in the student assignment plan.
Tuesday, we found out what the attorney who fought the district all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court thinks about it.
Monday night's action by the school board is designed to reduce the time that students spend on the bus. Attorney Ted Gordon says it's a good start but the district needs to do more.
Monday night's 4-3 vote means, starting in 2013, the number of elementary school clusters will increase from 6 to 13. The move designed to reduce the amount of time students spend on school buses.
"Well, it's a good start. They're still not there," Gordon says.
Attorney Ted Gordon has spent nearly 15 years challenging the busing of Jefferson County School students, including a victory over JCPS in the U.S. Supreme Court. Right now, he has a lawsuit pending before the state Supreme Court which would force neighborhood schools.
"What we did for the last 13 years," he says, "is spend probably close to $900 million for this failed experiment to send these kids two hours away to sit next to a kid of a different color rather than what the majority of the board found last night was, let's concentrate on improving education outcome for all."
The school system insists the new plan will maintain diversity while, at the same time, reducing time students spend on the bus.
"Under the six cluster plan we had an extreme distance of 25-26 miles," said JCPS Director of Planning Dena Dossett. "And now under this new plan that's about 17 miles. So we were able to reduce the extreme distances by about 40 percent with this new plan."
The plan will also cut the number of buses by 25. JCPS is not sure yet how much money it will save, but Gordon hopes any savings goes back into the schools.
"I'd rather see us use that money to reduce class size to give them all the high-tech equipment they need, to give them all the aids that they need."
Gordon does not believe last night's action will affect the case now before the state high court.
He expects a ruling on that by the end of this month.
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