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Three Warsaw schools may close after this school year after all.
Thursday, Special Judge Douglas B. Morton granted the Warsaw Community Schools' motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed last fall by Concerned Citizens for Quality Education. That suit asked for an injunction against closing Atwood, Claypool and Silver Lake elementary schools.
Morton based his ruling on the WCS argument that the closings were the result of a decision by a political body - the elected school board - and that the court has no authority to interfere or reverse the board's decision.
He said, " ... The courts are not in a position to take over the running of the school system or substituting the court's or any other person's opinion as to a proper decision when the duly designated board has acted properly. ... Courts can intervene in this setting, when the board has not acted properly, defined as where action is either illegal, unconstitutional or is so unreasonable as to be arbitrary and capricious. Nothing in this case rises to that level."
Morton, the Fulton Circuit Court judge, also said, "... The court believes that the board's actions are supported by appropriate studies and proper and responsible motives, as would various other courses of action. Nothing in the record of the case indicates the Atwood, Claypool or Silver Lake elementary schools are being closed because of the superintendent's petty anger."
However, he gave CCQE until June 4 "for further discovery to establish legal positions relevant to appeal."
Warsaw school board voted in September to close the three schools, citing budget concerns. School superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire said the school corporation would save approximately $300,000 per year for the first two years by closing the schools.
In October, CCQE filed for an injunction to stop the closings; in March, WCS filed to dismiss the CCQE lawsuit, and CCQE responded by filing an objection to dismissal.
On May 7, at a hearing in Kosciusko Circuit Court, both sides presented their cases to Morton, with Thomas Weaver, the WCS attorney, arguing that the court has no jurisdiction in a political matter and that CCQE never alleged that the decision to close the schools was illegal or that the process the board used to make the decision violated state law.
The CCQE attorney, John Price, said the closings were "arbitrary and capricious" and were a response by McGuire to a previous remonstrance against closing four schools, building a new school in Winona Lake and expanding Claypool Elementary.
He also said the students from the closed schools would be forced into already crowded schools, endangering the health and welfare of all students.
After the May 7 hearing, Price said if Morton ruled in the school board's favor, he would talk to CCQE about whether the members were willing to pursue an appeal.
Becky Thomas, spokeswoman for CCQE, and McGuire could not be reached for comment this morning.
