A commonwealth court judge in Philadelphia has postponed indefinitely a hearing to determine whether the city’s desegregation program complies with an order handed down by the court last year.
Lawyers for the school district filed papers with the court late last month asking Judge James C. Crumlish Jr. to delay the hearing, which was scheduled to begin on March 1.
The lawyers said that a 21-day strike by the district’s blue-collar workers last month hampered the district’s ability to comply with the order. Futhermore, they said, Superintendent Constance E. Clayton, who assumed her position on Oct. 4, has had little time to develop “a clear and concise” position on the issue of desegregation.
School officials were also said to be concerned about the “politicized atmosphere” hovering over Philadelphia as a result of the city’s upcoming mayoral elections, and the possible effects of the election cam-paign on the outcome of the hearing, according to an official who asked not to be identified.
Despite a court order requiring that it remain closed, the Faith Christian School in Louisville, Neb., has reopened.
The school was reopened on Feb. 28 by the parents of children who attend it. On the following Monday, Cass County Attorney Ronald D. Moravec filed motions for contempt citations against 14 individuals who reopened the school.
The Faith school has been the most widely publicized of several Nebraska cases involving state certification of private schools.
The Rev. Everett Sileven, founder of the church and the school, recently completed a four-month jail term for defying court orders to close the school. At present he is on an “evangelical tour” of the United States, according to a spokesman at the Faith Christian School.
