By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 10:42 PM
From the Missouri Board of Education: In a ruling issued today, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan gave state education officials a clear victory involving last year’s decision to strip the St. Louis Public Schools of accredited status.
“We are gratified with today’s decision by Judge Callahan,” said Commissioner of Education D. Kent King. “This ruling affirms the State Board of Education’s decision regarding the St. Louis school district. Every one of the district’s efforts to overturn the board’s accreditation decision was rejected by the judge.”
In March of 2007, the State Board of Education declared the St. Louis Public Schools to be unaccredited, after concluding that the district had met only four of the state’s 14 academic performance measures. That decision took effect on June 15, 2007, allowing the state to remove the local board of education and replace it with an appointed, three-person special administrative board.
At a hearing in Judge Callahan’s court last October, the elected St. Louis school board sought to overturn the State Board of Education’s decision. The district claimed numerous technical, legal and constitutional reasons why the accreditation decision should be reversed.
In today’s ruling, Judge Callahan stated: “Based upon the facts presented at trial, the credibility of the witnesses presented to the Court, and the totality of the circumstances facing the State Board of Education, this Court finds that the State Board of Education’s accreditation decision was reasonable, that it was amply supported by the facts, and that it was neither arbitrary nor capricious.”
In addition, the ruling specifically upholds the authority of the special administrative board to govern the St. Louis Public Schools, in place of the elected board of education.
“This case provides clear confirmation of the state’s authority to set and enforce accreditation standards which are designed to protect the educational interests and welfare of children in every school district,” King said.
From St. Louis Public Schools:Today Judge Richard Callahan of the Cole County Circuit Count ruled that the state legally had the right to name the Special Administrative Board (SAB) to govern the St. Louis Public Schools. In his 61-page ruling, Callahan agreed with the state on all claims.
Most notably, Callahan ruled that the Special Administrative Board assumed complete control of SLPS operations on June 15, 2007. State law allows the elected board only the powers of “auditing and public reporting.” Elected board members may continue to meet, as well as to monitor and report on district activities.
Today’s court ruling – according to SAB members – reaffirms that the appointed board governs the St. Louis Public School District. The Special Administrative Board is made up of Rick Sullivan, Melanie Adams, and Richard Gaines.
The SLPS elected board made more than a dozen claims, among them:
- The law providing for the creation of the SAB and the Transitional School District for the City of St. Louis was unconstitutional.
- The process that the State Board followed in removing the SLPS’ accreditation was unlawful.
- The appointment of Rick Sullivan, chief executive officer of the Special Administrative Board, was improper.
- The elected board retained governing authority over the SLPS, even after the district lost its accreditation.
SAB members hope that today’s ruling will answer all questions concerning governance of the district. The appointed board says it wants to put the legal issues behind and move forward with its primary mission – the education of children.
17 Comments:
So much for the Democratic judge saving the day for the elected board.
1/24/2008 12:57 AM
what a surprise
1/24/2008 6:10 AM
finally!
School board. Be part of the (admittedly painful) progress or stop getting in the way. I am tired of the same grandstanding. Our kids deserve better than the crazies on the elected board. The board should over see not dictate.
Good luck to the appointed board. The crazies are out of the way and the world is watching you.
1/24/2008 9:07 AM
Hopefully the appointed Board can now see their way with connecting to the Non-For Profit Community Organizations in an effort to deliver the required Eductional Services that has been neglected thru ydears of bickering.
1/24/2008 9:48 AM
Blunt picked Sullivan. When Bray says no to him, look for the lame duck to select another loser who doesn't have a chance of being confirmed. I though the takeover was supposed to bring stability to the district? Thanks a lot Lazy Clay, Troupe, O.L., and all the rest of you nimwits for supporting this awful piece of legislation! When will we get legislators who actually read the legislation?
1/24/2008 9:59 AM
Anony 3,
Can you name the current members of the elected board? I bet you can't. I bet you don't know them either. Most aren't crazy, most of them are parents of kids in this district who are doing their best to help fix the mess the 2003 board left our district in. Just because one or two "crazy" members get a lot of press from local biased media doesn't mean they are all that way. It's a sad day when concerned parents are booted out of the process of helping improve their kids' education.
And its a sad day when the political leanings of a judge are considered part of the analysis of how he will apply the law.
1/24/2008 1:39 PM
It's a good day because the elected board won't be able to further destroy my son's school.
School boards are for oversight not the executive.
Good riddence "elected board" don't let the door hit you on the ass.
1/24/2008 4:27 PM
The SAB will destroy it. Do you have any idea how many schools they are about to close? Obviously you haven't been paying attention, because the elected board as currently comprised of a majority of parents of SLPS students has only been in existence since April. How they could have destroyed your son's school between April and June, you need to explain. The SAB is the political appointee replacement of the people who served on the elected board since 2003. This is the problem, people don't pay attention to the people involved and when they see "elected board" they think of people who aren't on it, and they don't know the history of those who are on the SAB. If you want to protect our schools, educate yourself.
1/24/2008 5:32 PM
Last anonymous is correct. All but one of the "crazies" got booted out but she was still able to spread dissent and destruction. People are so forgetful and/uninformed that they relate all the problems the board had with the current elected board instead of Slay's board.
The mayor played his cards PERFECTLY and was usually several steps ahead of the game because he knows how short the average citizen's memory is.
By the way, the class sizes at my school have been getting larger and larger since the first day of school. The amount of learning is dropping and we have not received one meaningful bit of help from the precious Dr. Bourisaw or the appointed board.
Now they are closing more schools. Idiots.
At least the elected board was willing to be realistic and address the real problems.
1/26/2008 12:09 PM
I realize that some of you had expectations that the courts would let St. Louis "elected" board members gain control of the schools again, without any improvement being made in improving schools. I realize it was a matter of hurt pride to St. Louis, that the State took away local power.
Apparently, the State values educating St. Louis students more than the City does.
1/27/2008 1:34 AM
Last anonymous,
Do you have any CLUE about reality in the SLPS, or are you just blabbering out of your piehole?
1/27/2008 11:40 AM
Last anonymous, I can ask the same question about you. I realize that losing local control of the school district but previous results showed that the status quo was not working. Too bad some, like you, value local pride more than the education of the city's children.
1/27/2008 7:05 PM
Do you honestly believe this is all about local pride? You really are uninformed.
1/27/2008 8:10 PM
The status quo? See, here it is again. The elected board was not the status quo, these were people voted in to replace those whose motives were obviously not to educate our kids, given their complete failure to do so and destruction of the system intended to provide education. Now the SAB is carrying out the policies that the previously elected (and subsequently voted out) board members began. "Elected board" is not some sort of static entity, the composition of the elected board has changed with every recent election, for good reason. The "status quo" you decry is exactly what the state has reinstituted by ousting the most recently elected board. They weren't appointed to educate the kids, they were appointed to carry out a political agenda of destroying public education so that private businesses could move in and make a profit running charter and public schools--businesses give money to politicians, non-profit public schools do not. Residents who care about the city and our kids' education were getting in the way with those pesky elections so they had to find a way to do away with them. And they did it, because people aren't paying any attention and they won't until the whole system collapses around them.
So much for local pride (sarcasm, sarcasm).
1/27/2008 8:18 PM
Correct, anonymous at 7:05 seems unable/unwilling to accept these facts.
1/27/2008 10:03 PM
Paranoia rides high in St. Louis. Any failure must be part of a bigger conspiracy by outside forces. Heaven help us if we try to grasp the reality of a failed school system.
1/28/2008 1:59 AM
I grasp the reality of the failings of the school system my children attend quite well. That was why I voted for people I believe would help save the system. Now I and all the others who worked to save our schools have seen them handed back to those who hold the same beliefs that have led to failure. There's no conspiracy, that's just the facts. Smug comments like that above have no credibility--probably written by someone with no real knowledge of the system.
1/28/2008 10:12 AM
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