plaintiffs charged that the Fairfax grade-a-year plan was discriminatory and dilatory. Fifteen black children had been refused admission to white schools because they did not fall within the prescribed grades of the School Board's assignment plan. The plaintiffs contended successfully that the speed of desegregation was too slow under the school board's plan. District Judge Albert V. Bryan did not categorically rule out such plans in accepting the plaintiff's argument. Instead, he emphasized that they must be judged according to the community's character. Since the black school population of Fairfax County was less than four percent, Bryan considered the fear of racial friction an unacceptable justification for such a cautious desegregation plan. The Civil Rights Commission report of 1962 found that "Every sign indicates that the communities in northern Virginia will be the first in the State to reach compliance with the mandate in the School Segregation Cases." Ultimately, Fairfax County was one of the first school systems in the country to be awarded funds to aid with desegregation because of their efforts to implement a desegregated system. The Fairfax County School Board voted to switch from a 7–5 to a 6–2–4 grade level configuration in 1958, necessitating the creation of what were then called intermediate schools for students in grades 7 and 8. By the time the first eight intermediate schools opened in the Fall of 1960, they were already over their 1000 student capacities. In the fall of 1960, the first black students were admitted to newly desegregated public schools. Jerald R. Betz and Raynard Wheeler were enrolled at the Belvedere Elementary School in Falls Church, and Gwendolyn Brooks was enrolled at Cedar Lane Elementary School in Vienna. The changeover to the 6–2–4 plan was the last major initiative of Superintendent W. T. Woodson, who retired in 1961, having served 32 years, the second-longest tenure as head of the Fairfax County Public Schools system. In April 1961, Wilmington, North Carolina Superintendent Earl C. Funderburk was appointed superintendent to replace Woodson. Post-segregation As early as 1965, Superintendent Funderburk was discussing plans to decentralize FCPS. By 1967, Funderburk had put together a plan for five area offices, each serving a portion of the county and had appointed Woodson High School Principal Robert E. Phipps and West Springfield High School Principal S. John Davis as his first two administrators that December. Although the school board had endorsed Funderburk's plan, they also