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Legal Challenge to DESE Decision

By Antonio D. French

Filed Monday, June 04, 2007 at 5:52 PM

According to Acting School Board President Bill Purdy, a petition was filed today in the Circuit Court of Cole County challenging the lawfulness of the State Board of Education's decision to strip St. Louis Public Schools of its accreditation.

"This petition alleges that the State Board’s determination that the District is unaccredited is unlawful, arbitrary and capricious," wrote Purdy in an email.

Purdy says the petition argues:

There is no valid rule which establishes the MSIP criteria being used to un-accredit the District;
The Performance Standards used by DESE and the State Board are "impermissibly vague";
The State Board acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in applying standards to the District because the same consideration and actions have not and are not applied to other similarly situated Missouri School Districts;
The action taken by DESE and the State Board is unconstitutional; and
There are many uncertainties and ambiguities relating to the Transitional District statutes which make the statutes unconstitutionally vague.

Purdy says Jefferson City Attorney Johnny Richardson of the firm of Brydon, Swearengen & England filed the petition on behalf of the School Board. Attorney Kenneth Brostron of longtime SLPS legal firm Lashly & Baer rounds out the district's legal team.

Labels: Schools

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7 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Purdy say how much this legal challenge was expected to cost? Is the School District (city tax payers) paying the bill?

6/04/2007 6:26 PM

kjoe said...

If the suit is successful, the money saved by not being illegally and unconstitutionally unaccredited will be many multiples of the legal costs---after a week or so.

For a month---astronomical.

Cincerned taxpayers should be rooting for them to win.

6/04/2007 6:55 PM

I hope it is Joyce---she is not easily amused by the Clowns in Jefferson City

Honorable Patricia S. Joyce, Presiding Judge

Circuit Judges
Division I – Honorable Jon E. Beetem
Division II – Honorable Richard G. Callahan
Division IV – Honorable Patricia S. Joyce

Associate Circuit Judge
Division III – Honorable Thomas L. Sodergren

Senior Judge
Honorable Byron L. Kinder

6/04/2007 7:12 PM

Clowns they are. They say that announcements have been made that Rick Sullivan is keeping everyone. This would make it more likely that a judge would rule in their favor. We knew Rick was own our side. I guess the labor unions got to him. Rick now well do you think you look?

6/04/2007 11:09 PM

Anonymous 11:09 p.m. sounds like someone who stays up late and posts idiotic, ungrammatical and incomprehensible statements. Don't we all know who that is?

6/05/2007 7:59 AM

Not only is this a legal challenge, it is a request for an injunction to prohibit the state from taking action on June 15.

There is a link to the full document on the SLPS website, www.slps.org. I urge everyone to read it--especially those who think the state takeover is being done in response to a "failure" of SLPS.

I am no lawyer, but having read the document, I cannot see what possible argument the state could have to support the actions it has taken.

6/05/2007 3:00 PM

soapbox said...

DESE's actions are more of the same outlandish actions that common sense dictates as impossible to actually occur. No way the state could win if sincere, honest, and impartial thought were the judge. But like so much of what is happening in this city, state, and country now, I am sad to think that the state may take the public school (not that it really wants the role).

Soapbox

6/05/2007 8:29 PM

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