Suit to end state control of LR district gets go-ahead

A lawsuit aimed at ending state controls imposed on the Little Rock School District that would keep it from choosing its own superintendent, among other restrictions, has been cleared to proceed to trial through a judge’s ruling Wednesday.

Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key and the state Board of Education, the defendants, had moved to have the case thrown out of court. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan denied that bid Wednesday in a three-page decision.

McGowan’s ruling stated that the plaintiffs — a partnership of parents and educators — have shown enough proof to overcome the argument that Key and the board have done nothing wrong so they must be shielded from the litigation because of sovereign immunity. The parent-teacher group will now get a chance to prove their claims at trial.

Key and the seven-member board, all appointees of Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, are being represented by Kat Guest, a senior assistant attorney general.

The parent-teacher group, represented by attorneys Ross Noland and Clarke Tucker, claims education authorities illegally extended state control over Little Rock schools past a January expiration date.

The suit further accuses state regulators of violating open-government laws by failing to publicly vet the “exit criteria” that the Little Rock schools needed to demonstrate to be eligible for release from state control.

The lawsuit is one of two filed in March that assert the state’s authority expired when it passed a five-year deadline established by the Arkansas Educational Support and Accountability Act, which allowed state regulators to take control of the Little Rock school system in 2015.

The plaintiffs in the other suit are a parent, a teacher and a former school board member who are being represented by attorney Matt Campbell. That suit was only served on the state defendants earlier this week because of the pandemic.

Both suits have called on the judge 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.

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.