JCPS school board sues over law limiting its authority
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The university board of Kentucky’s premier faculty district is suing around a new legislation limiting its authority.
Jefferson County’s board of education introduced Monday afternoon it submitted a lawsuit against state Instruction Commissioner Jason Glass in Jefferson County Circuit Court docket to block pieces of Senate Bill 1.
Senate Invoice 1, an omnibus education measure, targets the 7-member regionally elected school board by shifting additional authority from the board to Superintendent Marty Pollio and restricting how normally the board can satisfy.
“The elected board of the most significant faculty district in the condition should really not be subject matter to specific and significant legislative overreach that restricts our potential to uphold our constitutional oaths of business,” board chairwoman Diane Porter explained in a statement.
“The taxpayers of Jefferson County deserve to have elected university board members overseeing their educational facilities in the very same way as each and every other Kentucky university district. It is unfortunate that we are compelled to convert to the courts to proper the wrongs the Kentucky Legislature has enacted against this board, the citizens, and learners that we stand for,” she ongoing.
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Under SB 1, JCPS’ superintendent would get electric power more than “day-to-working day functions and implementation of the board-authorized strategic prepare in a fashion that encourages the successful, timely procedure of the district.”
That may possibly incorporate “pupil transportation, personnel matters, and the organizational construction of administrative staff,” alongside with linked contracts. Superintendents would be equipped to approve any contracts fewer than $250,000 with out board consent — up from the present charge of $20,000.
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Board users would be in a position to override Pollio’s selections with a two-thirds vote, up from the uncomplicated the vast majority threshold at the moment used. SB 1 also boundaries the JCPS board to meeting once each 4 months.
Gov. Andy Beshear formerly vetoed SB 1, in component, simply because it “unfairly singles out” the JCPS board.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for the JCPS board agreed, expressing legislation targeting particular people today in a specific locale violate the Kentucky Constitution. Point out lawmakers frequently use language to focus on costs to use only to a “county college district in a county with a consolidated nearby govt.” JCPS is the only this sort of district.
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The board sued Glass because he would be tasked with forwarding infractions of the law to regional prosecutors.
Toni Konz Tatman, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Division of Schooling, stated Glass is reviewing the lawsuit.
“Dr. Glass values and encourages sturdy and accountable leadership at all stages of public faculty management and honors the specifications established forth in the Kentucky Structure,” she continued, incorporating “the JCBE provides a issue that deserves critique by the judicial department.”
Monday’s announcement arrives a day before the filing deadline to operate for school board seats in November. With a working day still left to file, all 4 incumbents up for reelection — Porter, Corrie Shull, James Craig and Linda Duncan — are slated to encounter at the very least just one challenger.
This story could be updated.
Get to Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.
