Judge tosses consolidation lawsuit against west Sonoma County school district

A west county parent lawsuit filed against the regional school district over the consolidation of two high schools has been thrown out by a Sonoma County Superior Court judge.

In a tentative ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Arthur Wick said the lawsuit was filed after the 35-day window for legal challenges based on the California Environmental Quality Act — the basis for the residents’ lawsuit.

He also said the plaintiffs’ arguments for why the school district failed to follow the law in implementing the consolidation were “unpersuasive.”

The plaintiffs, organized under the nonprofit Community Alliance for Responsible Education, declined to present oral arguments in a hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, meaning the tentative ruling will become permanent without challenge.

“We and the district are elated,” said Stan Barankiewicz, attorney for the school district. “The ruling was so strong against the petitioners that they have decided not even to argue this at trial.”

CARE said it opted not to present oral arguments Wednesday to save money. It called the ruling “extremely disappointing” in a statement.

The group will meet this weekend to discuss whether to appeal the ruling, said Jessalee Mills, a member of CARE.

Pursuing an appeal would likely require another $50,000 to $70,000 in legal fees, she said. The group has raised about $130,000 since it filed its lawsuit in April, she said.

“This is just one battle in the war,” Mills said. “CARE’s purpose is just to save (El Molino High School) so we can continue to fundraise even if we decide not to go the appellate route.”

West county residents filed the lawsuit about six weeks after the West Sonoma County Union High School District board approved combining Analy and El Molino high schools. Four months earlier, in November, the school board approved the consolidation, but the implementation timeline hung on the results of two tax measures, both of which would have funneled new revenue to the school district. If the measures had passed, the consolidation would have been staved off for at least a year.

Both tax measures failed to garner a two-thirds majority in the March 2 election. Eight days later, the school board approved consolidating the two high schools a year earlier than officials had hoped. The short timeline was possible because the school district had secured an exemption from the environmental studies required under CEQA.

“No one’s happy about the consolidation,” Barankiewicz said. “No one wanted this to happen because it’s painful, but the fact is the district ran out of funding to be able to keep both schools open, so it had to make painful adjustments.”

“The petitioners just slept on their rights to challenge (the exemption), to their own detriment,” he said.

Scott Lewis, the lawyer representing CARE, said residents had no reason to sue the district back in the winter, because they didn’t know then what the result of the tax measures would be and whether the consolidation would be moving forward.

“We believe there were exceptions, very unique circumstances in this consolidation from which the school had to observe the CEQA requirements,” he said.

Lewis expressed confidence in the possibility that an appellate court would have a different take on his clients’ arguments.

“They have the ability to look at the law differently,” he said of appellate justices. “We would be asking them to give us a new opinion about the statute of limitations.”

But Barankiewicz was similarly confident that an appeal would not lead to a different outcome.

“I very much like our position and our arguments,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.