Drop lawsuit over charter and move on

Can the San Antonio Independent School District and SAISD teachers union agree to disagree and move on without lengthy and costly litigation?

State District Judge Karen Pozza recently denied the union’s request for a temporary injunction to halt Democracy Prep Public Schools, a New Yorkbased charter school operator, from taking over Stewart Elementary.

Specifically, the union wanted the judge to order the charter operator to stop hiring employees and moving materials into what will become Democracy Prep at P.F. Stewart School at the beginning of the fall semester.

In a lawsuit filed against the inner-city school district and Democracy Prep, the union alleges the school district violated provisions of a partnership law that requires campus employees to be consulted about contracts that allow an open enrollment charter school to operate the campus.

The union is seeking to nullify the contract. Pozza’s ruling in this case means the lawsuit will now follow its usual course through the courts, though it could be well be spring before the case gets a trial, and that is being optimistic.

At that point, students would be completing their first year of classes in the restructured setting established by the charter school operator. A court judgment will not turn back the clock.

Any outcome — favorable to either side — will leave the school district’s taxpayers with hefty legal expenses. The bill for the injunction hearing is not in, but those costs are expected to be in the $10,000 to $20,000 range.

The tab for a trial that requires depositions, multiple hearing and experts testifying could run well into six figures.

This makes no sense. SAISD can ill-afford to spend money on costly litigation when the needs of its student population are so high.

We agree the district could have been more transparent in its actions, which resulted in contracting with an out-of-state charter school to operate one of its more troubled schools. It did this out of fear the state would shutter it. This was not an unwarranted fear, and the school does need a turnaround — a goal that, so far, has defied more traditional methods. A “win” does not gain the union any ground. Should a jury or judge find in favor of the plaintiffs and nullify the current contract, there is nothing that prevents the district from entering into another similar one.

Let’s stop wasting the court’s time and the taxpayers’ money on this.