State faces 2nd suit over LR school rules

Superintendent selection challenged

A second lawsuit, filed Tuesday, is challenging restrictions imposed by Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key and the state Board of Education that would prevent the Little Rock School Board from choosing its own superintendent, among other restrictions.

The 15-page suit, filed by lawyers Ross Noland and Clarke Tucker, further accuses Key and the seven-member education board of violating open-government laws by failing to publicly vet the “exit criteria” that the Little Rock District and its schools needed to demonstrate to be eligible for release state control.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed last week by attorney Matt Campbell on behalf of a parent of a student, a teacher and an ex-school board member. That suit argues that state authority over the school district expired two months ago because the law limits supervision to a five-year term that ended in January.

Tuesday’s lawsuit also makes that argument. Both suits are asking Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan to block Key and the board from exercising further control over the yet

to be elected school board through conditions referred to as “guardrails” until the district rises above its Level 5/intensive support rating in the state’s accountability system.

Beyond limiting the school board’s authority to choose its own superintendent, conditions would restrict the school board’s authority to negotiate with the teacher’s union and engage in litigation.

“There is no support in state law for extending State Board control beyond five years,” Tucker said in a news release. “An elected school board, without the arbitrary ‘guardrails,’ should be in place now. The State Board waited too long to perform what the law requires and is now trying to extend its control beyond what the law allows.”

The new lawsuit, brought by a group of parents and educators, goes further by asking the judge to declare that the defendants illegally exceeded their authority by imposing unauthorized restrictions on the school district, and that they violated open-government laws by failing to abide by the Administrative Procedure Act to establish the district’s exit criteria. The act requires public input on many state rules and regulations before they can be imposed.

The Department of Education, a defendant in the second suit, along with Key and the Education Board declined comment Tuesday.

The plaintiffs are:

■ Amber Booth McCoy, the parent of a Parkview Arts Science Magnet School student, who also has been a regular school volunteer, including at Forest Heights Stem Academy.

■ Don Booth, a grandparent of students, who is a career educator and public education advocate.

■ Husband and wife Gene and Katherine Lu, both Central High School graduates who have two children enrolled in the school, with a third at Pulaski Heights Elementary.

■ Skye Adams, who has a special needs child attending Pinnacle View Middle School and another child enrolled in kindergarten at Fulbright Elementary School.

The state took over the district in January 2015, citing chronically low test scores in six academically distressed schools — Baseline Elementary, Cloverdale Aerospace Technology Center, Henderson Middle, Hall High, J.A. Fair and McClellan high schools — out of the district’s 48 schools.

The elected school board was replaced by Key.