The 15 local parents who allege that the state's commissioner of education and the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education broke state law when they approved the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School's charter took the first step in appealing a Superior Court judge's decision to dismiss their lawsuit.
Ian Roffman, the attorney representing the plaintiffs — all parents of children in the Gloucester Public School District — said the 15 filed a notice Wednesday to appeal Judge Robert Cornetta's decision.
That filing, he said, starts a months-long process before the Appeals Court makes any decision on the case.
Cornetta dismissed the suit last month, ruling that the parents don't have standing to contest the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's decision to grant the charter, and the Legislature did not intend the board's discretion to be subject to claims from parents.
Colin Zick, the attorney representing Gloucester Community Arts, said he's not expecting a different outcome this time. The Appeals Court, he said, will look at the precedent set by the Hudson School Committee v. the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education case, in which the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the board has broad discretion with no judicial avenue for review, and that school committees do not have standing to contest the issuance of a charter. Massachusetts charter schools — including the one in Gloucester, which opened in September 2010 in Blackburn Industrial Park — are public schools that are open to all students, but are independent from school committees and operate under their own boards of trustees, with independently hired teachers.
Roffman said he expects the Appeals Court to review the parents' standing, and how broad the board's discretion is. The parent plaintiffs have argued that the board should abide by its regulations for approving a charter to the letter. They have said that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the board did not do that when they approved Gloucester's charter school.
"The question we will put to the Appeals Court is whether the people have the ability to seek judicial review of a charter decision if the board has unfettered discretion," said Roffman.
The law's answer to that, said Zick is clear in both cases. If the appeals court ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, that could set precedent for people in any town that objected to a charter school to tie the school up in litigation. That, he added, is what the law aims to keep from happening — and the Hudson decision reinforces that.
"Each time, on merits of the case, they've lost," Zick said, "and I'm expecting a similar result on appeal."
The plaintiff parents are Peter Dolan, Jason Grow, Erika Andrews, Diane Bevins, Hugo Burnham, Kevin Clancy, Jane Cunningham, Josephine Curtis, Martin Del Vecchio, Fredericke Grotjahn, Jonathan Hardy, Shelley Morgan, Denise San Paolo, Leora Ulrich and Maria Zervo.
Both Zick and Roffman are handling the case on a pro bono basis.
Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
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