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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Orr school closing

School board rewrites history and leaves its credibility shattered

Posted 2/19/11

When students leave, a school closes.

So says the Minnesota Court of Appeals , which ruled in 1988 that the Mountain Iron-Buhl School District had failed to conduct a required public hearing …

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Orr school closing

School board rewrites history and leaves its credibility shattered

Posted

When students leave, a school closes.

So says the Minnesota Court of Appeals , which ruled in 1988 that the Mountain Iron-Buhl School District had failed to conduct a required public hearing before it shuttered a school. In that case, the district actually still used the building to house administrative offices and even conducted a class of 20 students at the site. Even so by the court’s standards, the building had ceased to be a school because it no longer offered a full curriculum nor had a sizeable student body.

Instead of learning from another district’s mistakes, ISD 2142 seems intent on repeating them. Four members of the school board insist a vote on Jan. 31 merely merges programs at Cook and Orr for the next school year. Students will be transferred to Cook, they acknowledge, but they insist the Orr School has not been closed prior to a hearing. It’s like saying you’re transferring someone six feet under, but haven’t declared them dead yet.

It brings to mind President Clinton’s squirming under cross-examination when he famously tried to avoid the painful truth of his sexual hijinks by claiming “it depends on your definition of what is is.” Clinton’s laughable attempt at parsing semantics didn’t fly with the public then and people were audibly groaning at board members’ clumsy linguistic gymnastics on Monday.

The courts are likely to share the public’s disdain for the district’s performance. It’s actions, not words, that matter and, for all practical purposes, the district’s vote on Jan. 31 was a vote to close the Orr School.

Some may argue over the wording as board members themselves did on Monday. But whether board member Bob Larson included language specifying the closure of the Orr School in his Jan. 31 motion is irrelevant. It’s the effect of the board’s decision that matters.

Board members want to treat two pieces of a single act as independent, but they’re linked. Whether you vote first to transfer students in Orr to Cook and second to shutter the Orr School doesn’t matter since one automatically follows the other. That was plain to everyone who attended the Jan. 31 meeting, including Superintendent Charles Rick who told a television reporter immediately following the Jan. 31 meeting that the board’s decision that night “means we’ll close the Orr School down for next year.” To suggest otherwise, as some board members are, is not only dishonest, it’s insulting to district residents.

Meanwhile, the board’s legal defense misses the point entirely. Legal counsel Michelle D. Kenney relies on a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that a school board’s receipt of information and formulation of a proposal to close a school prior to a public hearing is not in violation of state statute. No one is arguing that point. In fact, the board was waiting for Business Manager Kim Johnson’s financial analysis before it made a decision on the Orr School and no one has protested the district’s right to gather that information.

But the board went beyond compiling data and exploring the mechanics of a change when it voted to merge programs at the Cook School. That vote effectively closes the Orr School. Board members in favor of the motion even cited the cost savings it would generate for the district and thesupposed educational benefits it would produce for students when Orr is closed.

Let’s also remember that the board called a special meeting on Jan. 31 to act on this proposal. Indeed, the board stressed the need for a decision so it could budget and staff accordingly for the next school year. The agenda was clear from the get-go — to determine the fate of the Orr School — and that violates the law, which specifies that a public hearing must be held before a final decision is reached.

The city of Orr, Leiding Township and Bois Forte officials need to take their case to court so justice can be served and due process followed. It may not change the outcome for the Orr School, but it will serve notice to school board members that they can’t bend the rules when it suits their needs.

School board members have already strained their credibility with many of the district’s residents and Monday’s attempt to bury the truth has further undermined the public’s trust. If board members can’t behave, it’s time for a visit to the woodshed, or a courtroom.

ISD 2142, Orr School, Orr