And, if the School Board shuts down Pratt, that clearly doesn't qualify as
"expanding to K-5." The School Board will then have violated it contract
with NRP and that is actionable in court.
We in Linden Hills went through the same analysis, briefly, when the Library Board considered closing Linden Hills Library in response to budget pressure. This was less than a year after completing a thorough remodeling of the building, to which Linden Hills had contributed about $240,000 of NRP money.
The answer we got from our NRP staff person was "no dice." The problem is the doctrine of sovereign immunity -- government is immune from suit unless and until it permits itself to be sued. Unless your NRP contract contains an explicit waiver of sovereign immunity under which the School District allows itself to be sued for breach of contract, the School District is immune. I suspect your NRP contract does not have that language -- ours didn't. There are potential ways around this -- I was just beginning to look at the state statutes and some court decisions on the issue when the Library Board chose to cut hours system-wide instead of closing some libraries -- but my impression was that challenging such a decision in court would have been a serious uphill battle.
However, the political situation is different. Were I in your shoes, I'd initiate a letter-writing campaign to the School Board, all organized around the theme of "how dare you go back on your promise, and waste $400,000 of our NRP money." I would also organize testimony from neighborhood residents at the hearings on this topic scheduled by the School Board.
Politically speaking, I would think that you have a reasonable chance of either reversing the decision to close, or getting the School Board to give the $400,000 back (a one-time payment to save ongoing operating expenses may make sense to them).
Good luck.
Greg Abbott Linden Hills 13th ward
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