The Alaska Supreme Court on Monday declined to grant a petition for fast-tracked review that looked to flip a lower court ruling in a first-of-its-kind legal dispute over a new charter school in Fairbanks.
The denial comes just a few days after a superior court judge decided against forcing the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District to take administrative steps to open Pearl Creek STEAM Charter School in August.
Bobby Burgess, president of the district’s school board, said he expected the Alaska Supreme Court would turn down petitioners.
“I will say there was a little bit of relief there,” he said. “I was not particularly surprised by the ruling.”
Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Kirk Schwalm on Wednesday denied a motion for preliminary injunction sought by supporters of Pearl Creek. The motion had asked the court to order the Fairbanks school district to execute a contract with Pearl Creek’s organizing committee so that the 350-student, K-6 school can open in the fall. It would become the largest charter school in the FNSBSD.
The Alaska Department of Law quickly filed a petition for emergency review of the superior court’s denial Thursday on behalf of the Alaska Board of Education and the Pearl Creek committee. The filing said the matter required expedited consideration from the state’s highest court because the school needs to hire staff by the end of June to get up and running on time. The Fairbanks school district submitted its opposition Monday morning, and state supreme court justices issued their one-page denial a few hours later.
In an interview last week after the lower court ruling, Burgess said it seemed “unlikely” that the timeline would work out as the charter school committee planned. On Monday, he gave a more definite answer to a question about whether Pearl Creek would be open in the fall: “No.”
Pearl Creek committee members have repeatedly held that the in-limbo charter school would be a net benefit for the district, saying the school is already oversubscribed and would attract students back into Fairbanks public schools amid years of declining district enrollment.
Jennifer Redmond, treasurer for the charter school committee, said members are still in the process of deciding next steps following the state supreme court’s denial of the emergency petition.
“Whatever comes next, we will face it together. We will stay hopeful, stay involved and continue to work towards a future that serves the children, families and educators of Fairbanks,” she said.
The legal battle comes after a series of disagreements between local and state education officials.
The Fairbanks school board voted unanimously to deny the Pearl Creek charter application last year, pointing to what members saw as numerous flaws in the proposal and fearing the school could fail entirely. But the charter school committee appealed to state Education Commissioner Deena Bishop, who decided in favor of Pearl Creek earlier this year, saying the application met or exceeded all legal requirements for charter applications under Alaska law.
The state board of education gave final approval to the application in April. That led the Fairbanks school district to appeal to the court system in May, and the appeal was consolidated with the lawsuit filed later by Pearl Creek’s committee.
In seeking the injunction, the committee argued the district has been stonewalling since state approval of the application in an attempt to illegally prevent the school from opening as planned. Attorneys for the district argued that compelling it to enter into a contract would unlawfully force the district to act to its detriment while the appeal is ongoing.
At an evidentiary hearing last week, district officials, including Superintendent Luke Meinert, said operating Pearl Creek would cost the district about $2 million, and that doing so would likely mean dialing back other, districtwide reinvestments budgeted for this year, like lower class sizes and elementary orchestra programs.
In his order, Schwalm said preliminary injunctions preserve the status quo, and that the status quo is an unopened school. He also said the Pearl Creek committee hadn’t shown that it would face “irreparable harm” or shown probable success on the merits of the case – other bars for granting the proposed injunctive relief.
The ruling doesn’t resolve the district’s overall appeal to the court, though, which is ongoing.
At the hearing last week, Schwalm said he believes Alaska has never seen a case of this sort before, and he wrote in the preliminary injunction ruling that current law doesn’t make it clear what sufficient reasons are for denying or granting a charter application. He said in a footnote that the applicable statutes and regulations are “void of any command such as ‘may approve’ or ‘shall approve’ and are similarly void of any elements or factors to guide decision making.”
Burgess said the case is highlighting a variety of problems with charter school laws in Alaska. He said he thinks the case’s outcome will have ramifications for districts beyond Fairbanks and will show how existing laws apply when state and local education officials are so at odds about an application.
“It’s not about trying to throw any wrenches in the gears or anything like that,” he said. “This is about trying to clarify the process, trying to understand, really, how it is that we’re supposed to proceed.”
Redmond said the committee’s belief in the school and how laws should apply to it are unshaken by the court proceedings so far.
“We’re remaining confident in our position and look forward to the court providing clarity on how state-approved public charter schools are implemented under state law,” she said.