DALLAS Anxious to halt efforts to consolidate small Arkansas school districts, educators and lawyers scrambled Wednesday to file legal documents that could disrupt a state plan to eliminate school systems with enrollments of less than 350 students.
Under a state law written earlier this year to streamline the cost of public education, school districts with fewer than 350 students were forced to consolidate with other small districts or be absorbed with larger ones. Fifty-seven Arkansas school districts were affected by the new law, which went into effect yesterday.
In an effort to block consolidation efforts, lawyers in Desha County and Pulaksi County filed requests for temporary restraining orders that could prevent consolidation from going into effect.
The Arkansas Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that the states method of funding public education was unconstitutional. In response to the courts order to implement new funding laws by Jan. 1, 2004, lawmakers this year wrote laws that included mandatory consolidation of districts with fewer than 350 students, an increase of the state sales tax, and a November ballot item that would increase the minimum property tax levy required by state law to 28 mills from 25 mills.
The state Supreme Court dropped jurisdiction in the case on June 18, stating that lawmakers had made sufficient progress on the order for school finance reform.
Small districts, including the 136-student Lake View School District, maintain that the high courts order stated all districts should be funded fairly. They say that the consolidation laws violate that ruling by eliminating them altogether rather than funding them adequately.
Lake View was the original plaintiff in the 1992 lawsuit that resulted in the high courts decision, although most of the states then 310 school districts joined the lawsuit as either co-plaintiffs or interveners when it was certified as a class action in 1995.
Arguing that consolidation watered down the racial mix at school districts with historically black enrollments, Marianna-based lawyer Bill Lewellen filed a lawsuit last month in Little Rock District Court asking the state to halt the plan. A request he made at that time for a temporary restraining order to halt consolidation until final adjudication of his case was rejected.
U.S. District Judge George Howard Jr. said he denied the request in part because of a technical flaw. Lewellen filed the motion in conjunction with other requests, and under local rules, a request for a temporary restraining order must be filed separately.
After tweaking the motion, Lewellen filed it again Wednesday. Howard is expected to rule on it in coming days.
Lewellens lawsuit states that consolidation laws are racially discriminatory, dilutes voting rights of citizens in the merged districts and their ability to make decisions that affect local schools, and forces them to accept tax rates and debt service obligations for which they did not have the opportunity to vote.
Lawyers representing the Dumas School District filed a request to halt forced consolidation pending the outcome of a lawsuit they filed last month. That suit seeks to throw out the state Board of Educations order that the district consolidate with the Gould School District.
Desha County Circuit Judge Jerry Mazzanti rejected the request, stating that he has no jurisdiction in the case. Any appeal of a state board decision must be filed in Pulaski County.
