BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The NAACP and several black plaintiffs have challenged a federal judge’s order allowing suburban Gardendale to withdraw from the Jefferson County School District and form its own public school system.

Their motion, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, requested Judge Madeline Haikala reconsider her order of last week granting Gardendale permission to begin the process of seceding by taking control of its two elementary schools next school year.

If all goes well and Gardendale holds to a policy of desegregation, Haikala ruled, it can assume control of the middle and high schools three years later even though the judge said the plan was racially motivated.

The NAACP objects to Gardendale seceding from the county school system, contending it would undermine integration efforts for equal education opportunities that date to 1965 when black parents filed a lawsuit to desegregate Jefferson County’s public schools. In 1976 a judge ordered federal oversight of the school system due to lack of progress.

Gardendale is a northern Birmingham suburb of 14,000, with a racial makeup of 86 percent white, 9 percent black and 5 percent other minorities, according to the 2010 federal census.

Gardendale has long been part of the Jefferson County School District, making white and black students from the county eligible for attending Gardendale schools. The city voted to establish its own public school system three years ago.

The NAACP and the black plaintiffs contend if Gardendale is allowed to secede from the county school’s system, then other largely white communities will follow suit, leaving black students with fewer school choices and inferior education.

Their legal motion for reconsideration said Judge Haikala’s order was “deeply flawed” and contrary to the original finding of the 1965 case that allowed black children the opportunity to attend all-white schools in Jefferson County schools.

The motion said the judge’s order phasing in Gardendale control of its schools over a three-year period is “practically unworkable and fundamentally misaligned with the interest of the North Smithfield Manor community.”

North Smithfield is a predominantly black community in Jefferson County.

Details for this story were provided by the North Jefferson, Alabama News.