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 REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
