KC school employee seeks to join lawsuit

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City School District employee whose former administrative job was eliminated by the school board has asked a federal judge to make him a plaintiff in the decades-old desegregation case against the district.

Linwood Tauheed also wants U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to restore him to the his job as chief administrative officer.

Tauheed claims the district's efforts to close the achievement gap between black and white students were undermined when the school board refused to fund that job.

The attorney for the plaintiff schoolchildren in the desegregation case, Arthur A. Benson, said Friday that he would fight Tauheed's effort. Benson said Tauheed's motion filed Thursday appeared "to be more a publicity stunt than a legal action."

Tauheed began his job as chief administrative officer on Oct. 1. But most school board members claimed his hiring by Superintendent Bernard Taylor Jr. was a violation of district policy. The hiring also was criticized because Tauheed has close ties to two board members through their membership in a community group, the Black United Front.

The board voted Jan. 8 against funding the position retroactively. Taylor then hired Tauheed for a $56,802-a-year job in the research and evaluation department -- a hiring that did not require board approval. But Taylor still wants Tauheed to oversee the district's efforts to loosen central-office oversight of schools.

In his motion, Tauheed said the loss of income resulted in injuries that should allow him to intervene as an individual plaintiff in the desegregation case. He said that was "the only way out of this imbroglio" and would create a barrier against micromanagement by board members.

Federal supervision

The Kansas City School District remains under federal court supervision for desegregation following a lawsuit filed in 1977. Judge Whipple, who is overseeing the case, has ordered district officials to avoid micromanagement and patronage.

Pat Brannan, an attorney for the district, said she could not comment about the filing. Through a spokesman, Taylor also declined to comment.

Tauheed was out of state because of the death of his mother and could not be reached.