An Anchorage group hoping to prevent the closure of a local elementary school that focuses on science, technology, engineering and math took its case to court Monday.
The Campbell STEM Preservation and Education Foundation filed suit in early April against the Anchorage School District and Anchorage School Board over their decision to close Campbell STEM Elementary School. The lawsuit claims the school district did not give enough notice when it recommended closing the school to address the district’s roughly $90 million budget deficit.
A lawyer for the school district and board says the community got sufficient notice of the decision to close the school.
The group supporting Campbell STEM is asking a Superior Court judge to put a temporary block on the closure and order the school district to present to the public a detailed reasoning for why it recommended closing the school within 30 days.
A Superior Court judge heard oral arguments on the group’s request for a preliminary injunction Monday.
The group’s attorney, Kevin Fitzgerald, told Judge Una Gandbhir the time period between when the school was recommended for closure and when the public could testify was too short.
“Five days is not sufficient time for appropriate preparation of opposition concerning an issue of this complexity and importance,” Fitzgerald said. “Further, such short notice lessens the likelihood of a fair hearing before the school board and of the school board reaching a reasoned administrative decision.”
The sudden decision to close the school caused “irreparable” harm to the school’s students, since it is the state’s only nationally STEM-accredited elementary school, Fitzgerald said.
“The closing of this school will functionally result in the loss of a unique educational program, the disruption of specialized curriculum and instruction, the reassignment of trained staff, really the disbursement of them, hither and on, displacement of student-specialized learning environment, and the loss of a certification and program continuity,” he said.
An attorney for the school district and board, Matthew Singer, told Judge Gandbhir that a proposed 30-day timeline for the district to give its reasons for closing Campbell STEM would cut into the district’s May 15 deadline to issue layoff notices.
And, Singer said, the 11 days between when the school was recommended for closure and when the school board voted to close it was enough time for the public to weigh in.
“The point of the public notice and the opportunity for a hearing is not to demonstrate a reasoning by the school board,” Singer said. “It’s to make sure the public is let in and the public gets to provide input. And that happened here.”
State guidelines on school closures for rural Alaska communities that only have one school is 10 days, Singer added.
“Here, we have something like 50 other elementary schools,” he said. “So this is a traumatic decision for the folks in this one particular school, but it's far less significant than closing the only school in Stony River, for example.”
Gandbhir did not say when she planned to issue an order on the request for a preliminary injunction.
If the school district’s decision stands, officials say they plan on transferring the school’s STEM accreditation to nearby Klatt Elementary and allow a lottery to enroll former Cambell students in the program.
Anchorage School District Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said at a recent school board meeting that he does not intend to introduce any school closure recommendations next year.
