Court upholds school closing in Waco, Texas
In the latest chapter in the open-again, closed-again saga of a long-troubled East Waco middle school, a state judge has denied the temporary injunction that would have kept the school open while two families and a support group pressed a lawsuit against the Waco school district, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. The ruling shelves the temporary restraining order that had kept the school open for a week, since the day the school board repeated its 4-3 vote—first cast on Aug. 7—to close it and move its students to other campuses. The court ruled that unless a school board is breaking the law or violating students’ legal rights, it’s not within a district court’s authority to second-guess a school board decision. School board president David Schleicher, who voted twice to keep the school open, said the “well-reasoned decision provides much-needed certainty for this school year.” The court originally found that, because of vague wording in the school board agenda for its controversial Aug. 7 meeting, the board was in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. However, the school board addressed those agenda shortcomings with clear, concise wording for its more recent meeting, the judge said. That’s when the board voted again to close the campus. In his ruling, the judge said he found no evidence backing up allegations of racial discrimination. He also said he found no evidence that the school’s closure had caused, as plaintiffs alleged, “imminent harm” and “irreparable injury” to the students. The ruling comes after a week of lively testimony that included school board member Alex Williams—who represents East Waco—repeating his objections to the school’s closure and alleging that racism is on the rise within Waco ISD.
Source: Waco Tribune-Herald, 8/30/08, By Wendy Gragg
[Editor’s Note: The Iowa supreme court recently ruled that the school board in Des Moines acted legally in a series of actions that included school closings the parent plaintiffs hoped to prevent with their lawsuit. A news account and the court’s opinion are below. “While we sympathize with the taxpayers and their desire to maintain their neighborhood schools,” the court wrote, “the Board has the authority to determine the number and location of schools and appropriate the necessary resources to maintain them.”]
Des Moines Register, 8/8/08, By Staff
Wallace v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Directors