CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER

I hereby certify that the foregoing is a

correct and complete report of the proceedings detailed

therein, reported by me and transcribed under my

supervision.

Ewe R Mech

EDWARD R. MACK,

Official Reporter.

Attachment

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT

OF FLORIDA

MAXINE HAYS, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

VS.

SARASOTA COUNTY BOARD OF

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, et al.

Defendants

TAMPA DIVISION

No. 4242 Civ. T.

ORDER

THIS CAUSE came on for consideration upon defendants'

Amended Plan for Desegregation, filed May 27, 1970. A hearing thereon was held on June 29, 1970, at which evidence was received

and counsel were heard.

At hearing counsel for plaintiffs announced he had no

objection to the plan.

The Court finds that the Amended Plan will not substantially alter the extent of desegregation achieved in Sarasota County and is consistent with unitary operation. It is, therefore,

ORDERED and ADJUDGED

1. Defendants' Amended Plan for Desegregation with regard to the Booker-Bay Haven project, as set forth in defendants' Exhibit 1, filed in evidence June 29, 1970, is hereby approved. 2. Defendants' Amended plan for desegregation with regard to the Osprey Elementary School, as set forth in Part 3 of the plan filed May 27, 1970, is hereby approved.

3. In all other respects the order of this Court of

April 7, 1967 and January 29, 1970 are teaffirmed.

4. Jurisdiction is retained for such further proceedings

and orders as may be necessary in this cause. on or after December 1, 1970, the Court will receive and consider a motion

to end its jurisdiction and dismiss this action.

Green v.

County School Board of New Kent County, 391, U.S. 430 (1968).

DOVE and ORDERED at Tampa, Florida, this 29__ day of

There's a new and very good thing
happening or trying to happen -
in the Sarasota County school system.
There's a plan to narrow the gap be-
tween what a child is capable of getting
out of school and what he or she ac-
tually gets.

The idea is to have teachers who want
to teach helping youngsters to want to
learn.

It's that simple -and revolutionary.
It's also facing some obstacles, the
most serious of which may be a lot of
State of Florida red tape and rigamarole
that has to be dealt with before the
Booker-Bay Haven project can open in
the fall.

The new school also needs some more
volunteer students.

Booker-Bay Haven will be a "research
and demonstration" project. Teachers
will be allowed, indeed encouraged, to
search out new methods.

It will offer kindergarten through
sixth grade only, this year. Junior high
will be added next year, and high school
-the next.

The county school board and super-
intendent, in approving the project, ex-
pect to learn how our public schools can
provide better education and resolve
many of their present-day 'difficulties
without increasing operating costs.

It's a test. And Jerald Strickland, who
is going to be its principal teacher, is so
convinced of what it can accomplish
that he has not only persuaded the
board to try it but he is leaving his
headquarters job as top assistant to the
county superintendent to go to Booker-
Bay Haven.

Bold And Beautiful

For Strickland, and for a number of
teachers who will be working with him
at the school, it's not a new idea. The
school board was asked several years
ago to set up a school of this kind, but
there was always too much that had to
be done first. So last year, after court-
ordered desegregation emptied what
had been all-Negro classrooms at the
:Booker campus, Strickland suggested
:his proposed "demonstration" school
could make the best possible use of the
existing facilities.

Comes now the battle of the red tape.
Locally, what needs to be done to get
the new school started is being done.
But there are state procedures and reg.
ulations

having to do with certifica-
tion and accreditation and approved
textbooks and such matters--that must
be waived or modified if the school is
going to work.

So it's off to Tallahassee, to persuade
the educational experts there that with
less bureaucratic control and with few-
er arbitrary rules and more on-the-
spot, in-the-classroom, on-the-scene de-
cision-making, schools can do better.

Some people in authority welcome the
experiment; others may see in it a
threat to their positions in the educa
tional superstructure. For Strickland
doesn't hesitate to say that he wants to
change a system that is top-heavy with

people telling teachers what and how
much to teach.

Some who have gotten to that top!
heavy and better-paid level of the edu-
cational hierarchy are not going to wel
come an attempt to do away with a lot i
of their jobs by giving the responsi
bilities back to each school and each
teacher. And then to reward the latter
on the basis of how well they perform
-how well they handle increased re-
sponsibilities instead of on the basis
of how many hours they have spent
taking education courses and how many
years they have spent on the public
school payroll.

Radical? Yes indeed. And promising.
The results, of course, cannot be
guaranteed, although those who are go-
ing into this new school project are bet-
ting their very good reputations that
they can produce results. Taking a rep-
resentative cross-section of the overall
county school population (which is why
they have opened the school to volu
teer white students, since the new Book-
er-Bay Haven district embraces pre-
dominantly Negro neighborhoods), they :
expect to show that with purposeful
teaching, in a school atmosphere de-
signed to encourage students to open
their minds and exercise their capabili-
ties, they can get better results per tax
dollar spent than in conventionally
structured schools.

To do this, they are going to have to
find solutions to problems that have
been defying the best efforts of other
educators.

For example, Sarasota's school ope-
rating costs. per pupil, have increased
by two-thirds in recent years. Teachers
are better paid. Disciplinary rules have
also been stiffened and more strictly en-
forced. More effort has been directed
toward policing attendance.

Yet, during the same years, the drop-
out rate has gone up, there have been
more failing marks handed out, there
have been more unexcused absences
from classes, and suspensions for dis-
ciplinary reasons have increased.

To point this out it not to suggest that
the remedies tried have made matters
worse. There is no telling, as Strickland
observes, how 11ch worse the record
might be if the schools End just ignored
their problems.

But it's also true, he quietly insists.
that things haven't gotten better.

So he and a group of teachers who
have all asked for assignment to Book-
er-Bay Haven want to try a different
approach.

They are confident they can show re
sults, and these will be measured and
tested so the school board can deter-
mine how well they are producing.
Which means, in this case, measuring
how successfully they are closing the
gap between pupil potential and pupil
performance.

It's a beautiful plan. It needs and de-
serves help and cooperation every step
of the way. All it can get.