Weiner merger suit dismissed

LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Weiner school supporters who argued that the state mandated merger of the small town’s school district into the nearby Harrisburg School District threatened the agriculture of the rice producing region and, ultimately, national security.

U.S. District Judge James Moody wrote in his ruling Monday that the group could not prove the harms it claimed would result from the merger of the two districts.

Defendants listed in the suit were the state, Gov.Mike Beebe, the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, the Arkansas Department of Education, the Harrisburg School District and the individual members of the state Board of Education.

The plaintiff group, called Friends of Weiner School District, fought the school’s annexation into Harrisburg’s district, even after it took effect July 1, holding rallies in Little Rock and posting “for sale” notices on school signs in protest.

“We don’t have to go very far to see what happens when a town loses its schools,” organizer Greta Greeno said,noting schools closed in the wake of mergers throughout Arkansas’ rural areas. “When a little town loses its schools, that town dries up.”

Greeno, the third generation of her family to farm rice and soybeans in Weiner, said the group fears the Harrisburg School Board will ultimately close the schools in Weiner, removing the core of the town - population 719.

Harrisburg’s board now oversees the operations of schools formerly operated by the Weiner School District, which the Department of Education closed because of Act 60 of the special 2003 legislative session on education and related legislative acts.

School districts in which the average enrollments for the first three quarters of the school year fall to fewer than 350 in each of two consecutive school years - as happened in Weiner - must voluntarily annex to another district or be subject to a state-ordered consolidation with one or more districts.

In September, Moody denied an injunction that would have halted the merger as he decided other issues in the case.

Heber Springs attorney Kim Kelley argued in the group’s complaint that the closure of Weiner schools would make the town a less appealing place for farmers to live, driving them farther away from their fields.

With less oversight, the area’s agriculture could be the subject of “agroterrorism,” said the complaint, which listed as involuntary third-party plaintiffs the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Weiner School District.

Moody later granted a federal Agriculture Department request to be dismissed as a party in the suit.

“When you take away the people who watch the crops, you’re taking away the people who protect the crops,” Kelley said Monday. “The government cannot do it. It’s up to the people.”

The original filing also claimed Act 60 violates Article 14 of the Arkansas Constitution - ensuring equal opportunity to a free education - and the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The suit also claimed the Arkansas Board of Education acted in bad faith by rejecting its original plan to combine administrations with the Delight School District, nearly 200 miles away and another subject of state-mandated merger.

Moody said in his ruling the Friends of Weiner School District did not have standing in the case because they could not prove damages claimed in the suit or a causal relationship between the districts’ merger and a negative effect on the state’s agriculture.

He also noted that Weiner schools remain open.

“There is no evidence that it will be closed and, thus, there is no injury in fact,” Moody wrote.

The plaintiff “has no legally protected right to any particular administrative structure for the school district in which they reside,” he wrote.

The mergers are designed to produce one administration with a single superintendent, but the schools in the small districts can be left open as long as it is financially feasible.

Closing schools in the case of a merger requires a unanimous vote by the new district’s school board, said Julie Johnson Thompson, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Education. In the event the board cannot reach a unanimous decision, the issue would be decided by the state Board of Education.

“We were pleased with the judge’s ruling in this case,” Thompson said. “The department understands that the change for districts and for small communities is always difficult, but we are hopeful that this will allow the students at Weiner to continue their school year and focus on learning.”

Most Harrisburg School Board members did not respond to messages Monday.

Board Member Greg Reddman refused to discuss the merger or plans for Weiner schools, referring questions to Superintendent Danny Sample, who did not return messages left with his secretary.

The state attorney general’s office defended various state agencies and officers listed in the suit.

“We respect the court’s decision and appreciate the careful consideration that was given to the plaintiff’s claims,” said Aaron Sadler, spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

Kelley said Monday that the group planned to meet later in the week to decide whether to appeal the decision, file in a state court or file a new federal complaint.

“[Moody] was saying we didn’t have standing because we weren’t dead yet,” she said, comparing Weiner’s schools to a feeding tube for a patient on life support.

“It’s like if you take a feeding tube out of a dying patient, that’s the first step in letting them die.”