Judge upholds education law challenged by Collier, Lee and other school boards

A Leon County Circuit Court judge has upheld an education law that was being challenged by 14 Florida school boards, including those of Collier and Lee counties, but the decision is being appealed. 

In the lawsuit, School Board of Alachua County Florida vs. Department of Education, the school boards questioned the constitutionality of six provisions in House Bill 7069, including a highly disputed measure that requires public schools share property taxes with charter schools.

Full Bill Here: Florida H.B. 7069

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The Collier School Board intervened in the lawsuit to fight the state on two provisions. The first requires that school boards use standard state-written contracts, not individual contracts written by each school board, when approving charter schools. The other measure creates Schools of Hope, which are charter schools designed to compete with perpetually low-performing traditional public schools.

The Palm Beach County School Board filed its own suit to create added difficulties for the state.

Collier School Board members Roy Terry, Stephanie Lucarelli and Erick Carter voted last November in favor of participating in the lawsuit. Board members Erika Donalds and Kelly Lichter voted against it.

The day after Collier’s motion to intervene was approved, the Marco Island Academy charter school requested to intervene in the lawsuit on the side of the state.

Marco Island Academy Principal Melissa Scott and her school’s attorney, Shawn Arnold, did not respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear whether a potential appeal will be discussed at the May 8 Collier School Board meeting. School district attorney Jon Fishbane could request a private attorney-client session. Fishbane did not respond to a request for comment. 

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Other counties, including Lee, already have decided to appeal.

James Fox, who represented the Collier School Board in the case, said the suit will go next to the1st District Court of Appeal. Because the case is considered a matter of great public importance, Fox said, it likely will rise to the Florida Supreme Court. 

“When you have the Legislature taking actions that are arguably unconstitutional, that ultimate determination is to be made by the Florida Supreme Court,” he said.

Collier School Board member Lucarelli said the judge's order was disappointing.

“I took an oath to uphold the constitution of Florida,” she said. “Schools of Hope are definitely a violation of that constitution.”

Village Oaks Elementary is the only Collier school at risk of losing students, and the funding that comes with them, to a School of Hope. The school has received a D rating for the last three years, which qualifies it as a perpetually failing school.

The Department of Education agreed to give the school an extra year to increase its performance due to the disruption caused by Hurricane Irma, according to Collier School Board Chairman Roy Terry.

Terry and Lucarelli said the district is working hard to provide much needed support to the struggling school.

Lucarelli said she wishes the state would consider reallocating the funding reserved for Schools of Hope to traditional public schools in need of a boost.  

“It would be so much more helpful if the state could recognize the fact that if a school is doing poorly, it needs extra resources, and extra resources sometime need extra funding,” she said.

Lucarelli noted the Constitution Revision Commission, which includes Collier School Board member Erika Donalds, has proposed a ballot measure that suggests Schools of Hope are unconstitutional as the law now stands. If successful, the amendment would allow the state to establish and operate charter schools. Such authority currently is  limited to local school boards. 

Donalds said she was not surprised by the judge's decision because she thinks the measures in dispute are constitutional.

“I would hope the School Board would stop wasting taxpayer money on this and not be part of any appeal that might take place,” she said.

The Collier school district has spent nearly $30,000 on the suit thus far. 

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