SEATTLE -- Kathleen Brose never understood why the Seattle School Board wanted to use race in assigning students to public high schools, especially when students from so many backgrounds already attended each.

The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling rejecting Seattle's assignment program and another in Louisville, Ky., vindicated those concerns, Brose said Thursday.

"I knew years ago we would go to the Supreme Court," said Brose, president of Parents Involved in Community Schools. "I believed so much in what we are doing I just felt we had to win. The goal here is to make sure all kids have access to great schools."

Brose, who is white, sued seven years ago, along with 50 other families, after her daughter failed to get into highly regarded Ballard High or her other two top choices because of her skin color. The girl wound up commuting across town to attend Ingraham High School in the city's north end, then transferred when a new high school opened at Seattle Center.

In Seattle, incoming freshmen can choose which of the city's 10 high schools they wish to attend. If too many students apply to one school, the district uses tiebreakers to decide who gets in. The first is whether the student already has a sibling at the school.

The Seattle School District reacted to the decision at a news conference Thursday.

“Of course we are disappointed that a narrowly divided court rejected the plan that our community carefully tailored,” said Seattle School Superintendent Raj Manhas.

The School District pointed out that it suspended the use of a tiebreaker when the suit was filed and said they are focusing on the court’s admission that race may still be a component of School District plans to achieve diversity.

“I don't believe this is about winning or losing. We are encouraged that the nation's highest court has reaffirmed that diversity matters,” said Manhas.

The School District insisted that suspending the use of the second tiebreaker a few years ago has had an impact, reducing the percentage of non-white students in some schools, such as Ballard High, and increasing it sharply in others like Franklin High.

In schools that were considered "racially imbalanced," preference was given to students who would bring the school closer to the district-wide ratio of whites to nonwhites, 40 percent to 60 percent. It helped whites get into predominantly minority schools, and vice versa.

"We've never said we didn't like diversity," Brose said. "We're against discrimination. ... There's just other things they can do without discriminating."

The Superintendent said that in practical terms, Thursday’s decision will not affect students trying to get into a particular Seattle school for next year, though they'll work on new plans in the future.

A U.S. district judge in Seattle and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Seattle's practice, finding that the district "has a compelling interest in securing the educational and social benefits of racial (and ethnic) diversity."