Jefferson County schools drop racial ratio for teachers

This from the Courier-Journal:

Jefferson yields in face of lawsuit

Faced with a lawsuit they say they couldn't win, officials with Jefferson County Public Schools say they will no longer consider race when hiring or transferring teachers.

The decision ends the district's longstanding policy of dispersing its limited number of black teachers among all schools.

"After consulting a variety of experts, we determined there was no way to enforce it," said district personnel director Bill Eckels, citing last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling rejecting the district's policy of similarly using race in determining student assignment.

The demise of the so-called "Singleton Ratio," which was named after a 1960s desegregation lawsuit and used in Jefferson County since the 1970s, is part of a confidential settlement between the district and Laukhuf Elementary teacher Lorraine Hill.

The teacher assignment policy had required that most Jefferson County schools maintain their percentages of black instructors between 7 and 22 percent, depending on the grade level...