[Mpls] Lawsuit Against Minneapolis Schools on Closing of Pratt School

[Steve Cross]

A meeting of the Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association
(PPERRIA) was held tonight to discuss the proposed closing of Pratt School
by the Minneapolis School Board. The central decision was made to sue the
school board if Pratt is closed.  The basis of the lawsuit is that
MCDA/NRP/PPERRIA have a contract with the MPS to operate a K-4 school at
Pratt next year and a K-5 school in 2006 - 2007.  As the quid pro quo, to
pay for the renovations necessary to do that, $480,000 of MCDA/NRP/PPERRIA
money was pledged.  Closing the school instead of operating the K-5 school
is a breach of the explicit wording of the contract.

The lawsuit is not based on the administrative logic or the public policy
behind the decision.  Everyone believes that there is no administrative
logic or sound public policy behind the decision, but that won't be the
bases for court action.  It is based solely on the written contract that is
in effect.  This situation puts Pratt School in a situation that is
apparently different from all the other schools proposed for closure.  As
far as it is known, none have a contract with the MPS that is like the
MCDA/NRP/PPERRIA contract with the MPS.  Others have spent money on their
school (and the PPERR neighborhood has spent $620,000 in money on the school
other than the $480,000 that was committed to this project) but the contract
here involves the specific action that the MPS are doing now that violates
that contract.  Other legal action is also possible.

Several people have attempted to contact Acting Superintendent Jennings or
school board members about this contract but none have resulted in any
statement that any even recall the contract let alone what their position is
on whether they live up to their contracted promises.  (Anyone who is in
contact with the schools can do a lot of people in PPERR a favor by asking
anyone with authority whether they are going to live up to their contract.)

The resolution adopted by PPERRIA does hold out a carrot as well as a stick.
Provided that the MPS lives up to its contract now, the neighborhood is
willing to talk about other alternatives in the future.  Those other
alternatives may include converting Pratt into a charter school.  But, what
can be talked about is wide open.  Many hope that the "big stick" of the
lawsuit might help with the soft talk that several people have had and will
have with the authorities at the MPS.

BTW, PPERRIA has filed lawsuits against various public entities at least
twice before.  It has won both.  One was when an open-air cement crusher was
proposed to be established in the middle of the neighborhood.  The other was
a zoning case where the city claimed that the map that controlled zoning
changes was the one only available at city hall or the one that was widely
published.  (The courts decided that the published map is the one that
counts and not the privately-held one at city hall.)  Both cases went all
the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court but, as said, the neighborhood
prevailed in both cases.  The fact that the cases were pursued and paid for
all the way to the Supreme Court should testify that the neighborhood
doesn't give up when it starts a lawsuit. 

Steve Cross
Prospect Park