Small-school supporters: Mergers still possible

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BY NATE JENKINS / Lincoln Journal Star

Elementary-only school districts could be dissolved by a state committee despite a judge’s order last week that the process be put on hold until voters have their say next November.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state say that is what the committee plans on doing should some pieces of the legal puzzle fall into place in coming weeks. The committee chairman denied that the committee had adopted the potential move as its legal strategy, but said that it could be pursued.

“When there are no prohibitions against the committee doing what it’s supposed to do under law, I think we’ll go ahead ... but we haven’t discussed it,” said Kendall Moseley, chairman of the State Committee for the Reorganization of School Districts.

“If our legal counsel says we’re good to go, we’ll go,” he added.

Don Stenberg, the former attorney general and current U.S. Senate candidate representing the plaintiffs, said he learned of the alleged strategy late last week, but declined to say from whom.

“State officials plan to dissolve all 205 Class I school districts and effectively deny Nebraska voters the right to vote even though the court has said it is unconstitutional for those officials to do so,” Stenberg said during a morning news conference. He described the committee’s alleged plan as “outrageous, reprehensible, unprofessional, arrogant, shocking.”

The potential for the state committee to move ahead with school mergers lies in the probable appeal of a court order that could be issued by the end of the month.

Early last week, Lancaster District Judge Paul Merritt Jr. pleased Class I supporters when he issued a temporary injunction against the state reorganization committee. The injunction prohibited the committee from moving ahead with school mergers pending the result of the referendum vote in November 2006.

Class I supporters got the chance to overturn the law by gathering enough signatures this past summer and autumn to put the issue on the ballot; merger supporters argued to Merritt that the petitioners didn’t get enough signatures to halt implementation of the bill, LB126, approved by the Legislature earlier this year.

The bill calls for school mergers to be completed nearly five months before the November 2006 referendum vote — timing that Class I supporters say could make the subsequent vote meaningless.

While a temporary injunction can’t be appealed, a permanent injunction can. And because the appeal expected to be filed by the state  — should a permanent injunction be issued — involves the constitutionality of a statute, said Stenberg, it would rescind the injunction.

“Shortly after the notice of appeal is filed, the committee will meet and issue orders dissolving all 205 Class I districts,” Stenberg said.

Stenberg said Merritt is expected to decide whether to issue a permanent injunction by the end of the month. A court hearing on the issue is scheduled for today.

Under LB126, the reorganization committee is to issue merger orders by Dec. 1.

Should the state committee issue dissolution orders after filing an appeal, as Stenberg predicted, Class I supporters would fire back by requesting the state Supreme Court to step in according to John Recknor, co-counsel with Stenberg. Recknor said they would ask the court to preserve the injunction during an appeal.

And if the committee beat the Class I legal team to the punch, signing merger orders before an appeal was filed? Recknor said they would ask for an injunction to stop local officials from enacting new district boundaries ordered by the committee.

A Monday morning meeting of the reorganization committee buttressed Recknor’s belief it indeed planned on following the strategy outlined by Stenberg. On the agenda: discussion of information filed by Class I districts.

“I don’t think they should be meeting today” because of the temporary injunction, Recknor said.

The injunction says the committee cannot issue, enforce or implement any orders to merge Class I districts.

“They’re probably doing this so if they time an appeal correctly, they can basically blow this injunction away,” Recknor added.

Reach Nate Jenkins at 473-7223 or njenkins@journalstar.com.