CCSD steps up legal challenge to state-mandated overhaul

The Clark County School District has stepped up its legal battle against a state-mandated reorganization by seeking a preliminary injunction to halt regulations for the overhaul.

The motion, filed in Carson City District Court, mirrors arguments posed in the school district’s complaint in December that the regulations are invalid. It also argues that the Advisory Committee for AB 394, composed of state legislators overseeing the overhaul, acted beyond its legal authority by preparing the regulations itself.

In its latest filing, the district calls the regulations an unfunded mandate, noting that they require the district to spend millions of dollars on various requirements.

“The CCSD administration has undertaken its best efforts to date to comply with (the regulations) and will continue to do so,” the motion filed on Jan. 17 states. “The portions of the regulation that have proved infeasible, if not enjoined, will do irreparable harm to the district’s ultimate goals of improving student achievement and providing equitable educational opportunities for all students.”

The state attorney general’s office has yet to respond to the district’s lawsuit, which lists the state Department of Education and Board of Education as defendants.

But in an advisory committee meeting Thursday, an attorney for the Legislative Counsel Bureau outlined weaknesses in the district’s main arguments and said that they won’t have reasonable success in court.

Sen. Aaron Ford took issue with the legal explanation offered in an open meeting while litigation is pending.

“I find it highly inappropriate for us to be having a public hearing where essentially you just laid out the state Board of Education’s response brief on the record,” he said, adding that the advisory committee is not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit appears to further complicate matters less than six months before the deadline in August, but state and district officials expressed some willingness to work together on key issues.

Those include the need for a weighted student funding formula, an 80-20 funding split between school funds and money for central services, and the accelerated timeline that moved up the rollout one year to 2017-18.

State Superintendent Steve Canavero was conciliatory toward the district. He asked the advisory committee to consider modifying the reorganization plan, so that the State Board of Education might amend the regulations.

“If changes to the regulations need to be made, I think this committee is ready and willing to listen to potential recommendations to the state board,” said Sen. Michael Roberson, chairman of the advisory committee. “I haven’t heard anything to do that is insurmountable that we can’t work out.”

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky said reorganization work is still moving “at the speed of light,” although working with the volunteer Community Implementation Council and the TSC² Group consultant has been difficult at times.

“I know that our board is working to come to a resolution,” Skorkowsky said of the lawsuit. “But there are some things that are still challenges that we want to address and I think that’s what we’re doing here today.”

Clark County School Board President Deanna Wright maintained that the lawsuit is not an effort to stop the reorganization altogether.

“It’s really more about trying to get some tweaks and changes to the regulations so that no harm is being done to the kids,” Wright said, noting that the bulk of the work will still be implemented.

State and district officials who spoke at the meeting each raised their right hand and swore to “testify truthfully,” an act Roberson said was recommended by the Legislative Counsel Bureau attorney.

The reorganization will give more power to individual schools, breaking the district into smaller precincts overseen by associate superintendents. Each school must craft its own budget based on its needs and student population.

“We know there’s a lawsuit out there,” Roberson said. “I would just simply encourage all the parties to work together to resolve this.”

Contact Amelia Pak-Harvey at apak-harvey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4630. Follow @ameliapakharvey on Twitter.