HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Huntsville City Schools (HCS) says it’s continuing to work to ensure the school system provides equal opportunities to all its students.

The school system’s board of education provided an update Tuesday evening at its work session on where they stand in achieving unitary status.

“If you really want to understand the steps taken to address those previous issues, it’s important,” said Christopher Pape, HCS Board of Education Attorney.

Since 2015, HCS has been part of a federal desegregation plan. The Desegregation Advisory Committee exists to help city schools achieve “unitary status” by evaluating seven factors.

“The board did this in 2019 for transportation,” Pape continued. “Now, we’re in 2022 and we’re moving for these next two factors.”

At Tuesday’s work session, Pape announced that the board is seeking unitary status in the area of faculty and staff. News 19 learned it’s a big document with a lot of policies and procedures baked into it.

“We do understand that not everyone likes to read those kinds of documents as much as lawyers do,” Pape explained. “So, we have an executive summary that’s posted that really gives a quick high-level focus of what the documents are all about.”

Pape is encouraging everyone to look over the documents and submit their opinion.

“We weren’t going to open it until tomorrow, but since we’re ahead of schedule… it’s now open tonight. We’re going to take public comment until December 6,” added Pape.

If you’d like to share your comments, you can do so online or at the next board of education meeting — which is November 29th.

Pape anticipates the board will vote on the motion in December.