U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey has denied in part a request by the Stephens School District to put a hold on the state Board of Education’s order to break up the tiny school system and assign its parts to three neighboring districts, effective June 30.
Clay Fendley of Little Rock, an attorney for the Stephens district, last week asked the court for the Western District of Arkansas to enter a temporary restraining order and an injunction that would stop the dismantling of the Stephens district until a full court hearing can be held.
The state Education Board voted April 10 to split the district among the Camden-Fairview, Magnolia and Nevada school districts. The Stephens district was subject to the state action when its enrollment fell below the 350-student minimum required to maintain a district.
The Stephens district had sought to be merged in its entirety with the Nevada district.
The motion in federal court for the restraining order included a request that the district be excused from a deadline the state Department of Education set for last Friday for sending letters to employees telling them that their contracts will not be renewed for the 2014-15 school year.
“At the outset, the Court would like to make it clear that a hearing on the merits of Stephens’ claims will be conducted well before the effective consolidation date of July 1, 2014 and well before staff contracts expire on June 30, 2014,” Hickey wrote in an order dated Friday.
Hickey said the only pressing issue is the matter of issuing the letters of nonrenewal and whether issuing those letters now would create irreparable harm should the district ultimately win its challenge to the state’s merger order.
“The Court finds that the non-renewal notices in this case do not pose a threat of irreparable harm to the Stephens School District,” the judge concluded. “These notices do not amount to the immediate termination of Stephens staff members. Rather they simply inform staff that when their respective contracts expire- on June 30, 2014 in most, if not all cases - their contracts will not be renewed. Nothing in these notices will prevent staff contracts from being re-instated or renewed if this Court declines to approve the consolidation.”
The judge said she was sympathetic to the distress and uncertainty caused by the state’s decision but said the Stephens district must comply with the directives of the Education Department and send out the nonrenewal notices to all state-licensed and unlicensed staff members.
Other issues in the Stephens district’s motion to stop the dissolution of the district will be addressed at a later court hearing, she said.
Fendley, the Stephens district attorney, said in an email that district leaders are satisfied with the court’s decision that makes it “clear that it will conduct a hearing and issue a ruling before July 1.
“We will comply with the Court’s order and Arkansas Department of Education’s directive to send non-renewal letters to all personnel,” Fendley said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/22/2014