The Moriarty-Edgewood School District Board of Education has filed a lawsuit against the state Public Education Department and Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera over the department’s rejection of the district reorganization plan that would close two elementary schools.
The suit was filed on Tuesday in the 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.
In the lawsuit, the school board claims the PED’s decision to reject a January application for reorganization as “fraudulent, arbitrary or capricious.”
The board is asking the court to allow the school district to move forward with its reorganization plans.
The board voted 3-1 on Dec. 17 to approve reorganization of the school district, which would result in the closure of Mountainview and Edgewood elementary schools and move the district’s sixth grade students to middle school starting with the 2014-2015 school year.
District officials have said the schools are facing a more than $1.6 million budget shortfall for the 2014-2015 school year without the reorganization.
The district’s application to the PED, which has the administrative authority to approve or reject reorganization plans, was filed on Jan. 10.
On Feb. 25, the PED sent a letter to the district rejecting the plan.
However, the district’s lawsuit contends that the rejection came with no supporting documentation and violated the state’s Administrative Procedures Act. That law, according to the suit, stipulates that the district: should have been notified of deficiencies in the application; been allowed a hearing to address those deficiencies; and been given an opportunity to challenge adverse material and witnesses.
In addition, the district alleges that PED officials kept no records of how they came to a decision on the rejection and most likely relied upon “anonymous, unreliable or politically motivated feedback” to come to their conclusion to reject the reorganization plan.
“Without any record to support the decision or show the basis for it, (the PED) decision cannot be supported by substantial evidence,” the lawsuit states.
The district sent out a statement on Thursday afternoon stating that the board regrets having to take court action, but that the PED has not been responsive to the situation.
