Supreme Court rejects Pearl Creek filing, but charter advocates file new motions

The Alaska Supreme Court rejected the effort by the state and advocates of the Pearl Creek charter school Monday to overturn a lower court order and mandate opening the charter school in August.

The court order said the request for an emergency review filed Thursday was denied.

This likely means the school will not open in August, as the school district continues its legal challenge in Superior Court of the Dunleavy administration decision to override a unanimous ruling by the local school board.

But the Pearl Creek planning group filed two new motions in Superior Court Monday trying once more to get an order to open the school, so there is still some uncertainty.

Attorney Mike Kramer filed this motion to reconsider a court order from last week, arguing that the judge should have entered a declaration that the school must be operated. He asserts the judge made a mistake.

Kramer writes that Judge Kirk Schwalm should have found that the district is required to “undertake all reasonable efforts to operate the school. The judgement could then be enforced via a contempt order if necessary.”

The second motion by Kramer claims that the district should not be granted a stay.

“Lawlessness, and tactical delay to perpetuate that lawlessness, should not be condoned,” Kramer writes. He said Schwalm had already effectively given a stay and allowed the district to avoid complying with the law.

In the Supreme Court, the school district filed this document early Monday on its objection to requests for an order opening the school.

Had the Supreme Court sided with the Dunleavy administration, there would have been chaos at three neighborhood schools in August—Anne Wien, Woodriver and University Park.

It would also have placed the district back where it was before—possibly faced with the need to close another neighborhood school because of declining enrollment. Charter schools have never been forced to close to deal with declining enrollment.

Dunleavy’s acting attorney general and Pearl Creek advocates claimed last week that Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Kirk Schwalm “rewarded the district’s blatant disregard of the legal rights of Fairbanks families wishing to enroll at Pearl Creek” and asked the court to order the district to permit the school to open in August.

The Dunleavy administration continues to claim that it is illegal to cite financial harm to the district as grounds for opposing the creation of a charter school.

The state said the district “erred” when it claimed that financial harm to the district justified rejection of a charter school.

But the source that the acting AG cites for the alleged error is this treatise from Dunleavy’s education excellence division, which is a dubious document. Author Courtney Preziosi simply declares on pages 27-28 that it is against the law for any school district to reject a charter school on grounds that the district will face significant harm financially and operationally.

I have asked for an explanation of where in state law it says that a locally elected school board must approve a charter school even if the locally elected officials are sure that it will harm the district and likely will not succeed. No one has provided a clear answer.