St. Louis School District asks court to stop state takeover

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Five members of the St. Louis School Board are asking a Cole County judge to block the state's plan to take over the ailing urban school district.

The board members filed a motion to block the state intervention Monday, calling the move "unlawful, arbitrary and capricious."

The 29-count petition charges that the State Board of Education violated the state constitution when it voted to strip the district's accreditation and install a transitional school district beginning June 15, according to a report Tuesday in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis has the state's largest school district, with 32,000 students. The district has struggled to meet educational standards set by the state. The school board has been in upheaval, with six superintendents having served over the last four years.

In their filing, school board members argue that the state judged the school district by standards it doesn't impose on other school districts because it denied St. Louis a two-year window to improve its standards, said attorney Johnny Richardson, based in Jefferson City.

Board of Education spokesman Jim Morris said the agency had no comment on the filing.

"We just got copies of it this morning," Morris said Tuesday. "We're reviewing it and the attorney general is reviewing it."

The state's actions were "completely inappropriate," Richardson said. He filed the petition on behalf of school board members William Purdy, Katherine Wessling, Donna Jones, David Jackson and Peter Downs.

The petition also says that if the state succeeds in its takeover, it "divests the political power" of city residents -- a constitutional violation.

Richardson said he expects a hearing on the petition before the scheduled takeover June 15.

The petition parallels the district's arguments in a formal appeal filed last week with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

State Education Commissioner D. Kent King, the state board and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are named as defendants.

"We regret that this legal action is necessary," Purdy said in a statement.

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On the Net:

St. Louis School District: http://www.slps.org

State Education Department: http://www.dese.mo.gov

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Information from: www.stltoday.com