Nancy Anne Spangler, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor-Appellee v. Pasadena City Board of Education

In 1970 the district court ordered the Pasadena Unified School District to implement a district-wide plan to remedy the effects of past racial discrimination in its schools. The plan was called the “Pasadena Plan.” The history of the litigation is set forth in the margin.

In 1973 the Pasadena School District decided to operate, on an experimental basis, elementary schools called “fundamental schools.” The curriculum in fundamental schools is designed to stress basic skills in reading, written expression, and mathematics. Conversion to fundamental schools was to begin at the kindergarten level. Children could elect to apply for admission to the fundamental schools, rather than to attend the regular curriculum schools in the district. In 1973 the first school started to convert to a fundamental curriculum by introducing the new program at the kindergarten level. It was in a white neighborhood. In 1975 a fundamental curriculum was instituted at Audubon School, which is located in a black neighborhood.

In August 1975 eight persons who had not previously been parties to any of the Pasadena school cases appeared in the original suit. They filed an affidavit stating that they were…