Hernandez

In its final order in this 34-year-old school desegregation case, the trial court: (a) found the Stockton Unified School District was no longer segregated (that is, it was operating as a “unitary” school system without vestiges of past discrimination and no longer operating as a “dual” or segregated school system); (b) dissolved its prior orders, injunctions, and decrees; (c) approved the settlement agreement between the school district and the original petitioners in this action; and (d) dismissed the action, while retaining jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement for two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6. Interveners (current students of the Stockton Unified School District, their parents, and taxpayers living in the school district) challenge the trial court’s orders.

Interveners argue once the court found the district had reached “unitary status,” the court should have immediately returned complete “control of the [school district] to the duly-elected Board of Education.” Interveners further contend the settlement agreement violates the Education Code in its use of certain grant funds and also violates the California Constitution by granting…