Supreme Court Denies Stillwater School Closings Appeal

STILLWATER, MN — On May 19, the Minnesota Supreme Court denied a motion submitted on behalf of 834 VOICE to consider review of the Independent School District 834 school closure case. With this ruling, Stillwater Area Public Schools may move forward with the closure of Marine, Oak Park and Withrow elementary schools at the end of this school year.

In its decision, the court stated: “It is hereby ordered that the motion of petitioner 834 VOICE for an extension of time to file and serve a petition for review be, and the same is, denied. In the alternative, and assuming that the petition for review was timely filed, the petition is denied on the merits.”

This follows an April 3, 2017 decision by the Court of Appeals that affirmed the school board’s decision to close Marine, Oak Park and Withrow elementary schools. The Court of Appeals held that the March 3, 2016 school-closing hearing process afforded a reasonable opportunity for interested parties to be heard, the hearing process conformed to the requirements of Minn. Stat. § 123B.51, subd. 5, and the board’s decision to close the schools was supported by substantial evidence in the record.

"While we know this decision by the Supreme Court doesn’t make the closing of Marine, Oak Park and Withrow any easier, it does end many months of uncertainty as we conclude this year and move into a new school year," ISD 834 said in a statement. "We are committed to working along with our entire community to continue our transition into a new year and support our students, staff and families."

Members of 834 VOICE say the organization has been formed "to provide a voice for the ISD 834 community and influence district policy and decision making." A primary goal of 834 VOICE is to reverse the ISD 834 decision to close Marine Elementary, Oak Park Elementary, and Withrow Elementary. 834 VOICE issued the following statement on its Facebook page:

It was announced today that the Minnesota Supreme Court has declined to review the recent Court of Appeals decision in 834 Voice v ISD 834 Stillwater, Minnesota (Court of Appeals Number A16-0472) effectively ensuring the closure of Marine Elementary, Oak Park Elementary and Withrow Elementary, absent any action to delay the closings by the ISD 834 school board. While the technical error was unfortunate, ultimately the court decided not to hear the case based on the merits.

Closing these schools will have a ripple effect through the entire Stillwater Area School District, negatively impacting all students with larger class sizes, reduced access to teachers and individualized learning opportunities and longer bus rides.

While this is a disappointing outcome, it does allow us to focus on the remaining charges in the District Court case. 834 Voice will continue to work to bring accountability, transparency and good governance to ISD 834 through this case that will address open meeting law violations, failure of board members to uphold their fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest and anti-trust abuses in contract awards and lack of internal accounting controls.

Read the court's full decision below:

What's ahead

• The school district says elementary class sizes will now be "balanced," meaning fewer large and small classes and more classes in the middle of the range.
• Students will have access to support services in every building, every day including a psychologist or Student Advocate and intervention teachers, and English Learners will have consistent access to an EL teacher.

Preschool

ISD 834 is offering preschool in all of its elementary buildings next year. Children learn group social skills while they also work on early math and literacy skills.

Middle Schools

ISD 834 is creating small learning communities (or teams), designed so students get to know teachers and classmates personally. "We're giving students more exploratory experiences and offering them real-world learning through hands-on projects," the school district said.

9-12 High School

ISD 834 is moving its GATE program for students in grades 4-6 to Stillwater Middle School, and expanding gifted and talented (G/T) learning opportunities for seventh and eighth grades as well.

Spanish Immersion

The first cohort of kindergarten students will be part of the new Spanish language immersion program at Lake Elmo Elementary.

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