JUDGE'S RULING DELAYS INTEGRATION OF CLASSES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993                   TAG: 9302070138
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
JUDGE'S RULING DELAYS INTEGRATION OF CLASSES
A judge Saturday granted a request by a dozen parents to delay integration of classes at an elementary school where pupils had been grouped by race for at least seven years.
The judge, T.J. Markow of Richmond Circuit Court, said the School Board had not held a required public hearing before ordering 74 of the 452 students at Bellevue Model Elementary School to move to new classes.
"If the law is a technicality, we won on a technicality," said Gerald T. Zerkin of Richmond, the lawyer for the parents.
The School Board chairman, Clarence L. Townes Jr., said the board would hold the hearing. But he said no matter what objections might be raised, the board could stand by its decision.
The parents said they might go back to court if the board went ahead with the move.
The case arose in December when a black parent complained about Bellevue's policy of "clustering," in which white students who made up 12 percent of the school's population, were put in a few classrooms. That left other classes with only black pupils.
Townes investigated and said he found clustering at two city schools. Officials said 70 students at the other school would be moved to different classrooms next week. The school was not involved in the court case.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB