The NAACP Legal Defense fund has filed a motion in the Gardendale School separation case asking that the deadline for the completion of the depositions of disclosed expert witnesses be extended by 60 days. The new proposal, if granted, would change the original deadline of May 20 to a new deadline of July 29 for depositions to be completed and the deadline for disclosure of expert witnesses be extended until June 28. According to the motion filed in federal court on April 14, the delay is being requested because their expert on school desegregation, educational equity and student assignment planning has notified them that he is unable to continue his service as an expert due to “personal/medical reasons.”

The desegregation expert was retained over a year ago, according to the filing, and reviewed the documents and statements in the case. The expert also performed site visits to Fultondale Elementary, Fultondale High School, Gardendale High School, Bragg Middle School, Gardendale Elementary School, Snow Rogers Elementary School, Mortimer Jordan High School, Mt. Olive Elementary School, Brookville Elementary School, Minor High School and Pleasant Grove Middle School regarding this case, the filing states.

The filing says in part, “Given the amount of work that the Desegregation Expert has already expended on this case, it is not feasible for Private-Plaintiffs to identify and retain a new expert, who can recreate this work in the remaining 16 days before the expert report is currently due.”

Under the current timeline, the deadline for all expert witnesses to be disclosed in April 29 and the depositions of all expert witnesses must be finished by May 20.

May 27 is the deadline for all parties to have met to determine if they can come together and file a joint plan with the judge.

If no agreement can be reached, the plaintiffs have until June 10 to file an objection and Gardendale would have until June 15 to respond to any objections.

The filing goes on to say that the extended deadline, if granted, would not interfere with the meeting scheduled to occur before May 27.

Read the entire filing in the attached PDF.