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CROYDON, N.H. (AP) — A judge has denied the state Department of Education's request to bar the Croydon School Board from using tax money to pay for some students' tuition at private schools.
Judge Brian Tucker ruled Monday that the request does not pass the test of "irreparable harm" needed for an immediate injunction. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2016; Tucker noted that his ruling does not convey a view on the merits of the legal arguments.
The complaint filed last month asked for preliminary and permanent injunctions against Croydon. Officials gave the board until Sept. 28 to stop using public funds— more than $32,000 —to pay for four students studying this year at the Newport Montessori School.
Croydon's one school goes up through the fourth grade. Parents then have school choice, with most choosing Newport public schools.
The Valley News reports (http://bit.ly/1Nx0mEC) two of the four students attending the Montessori School this year are the children of a sitting board member, and a third is her nephew.
Tucker noted that the Education Department first noted the issue of Croydon's students attending private schools with taxpayer funds in November 2014, when the commissioner cited the practice as unlawful in a letter to the district superintendent. But the commissioner later agreed that under the circumstances, the students could finish the school year in the private school.
In June, an attorney for the chairwoman of the Croydon School Board wrote to the commissioner to disagree with the department's interpretation of the law. No changes were made in paying for the students.
"It was not unreasonable for the department to wait until the start of the new school year to determine how the school board would act, but its willingness to risk a repeat of the conduct militates against a finding that the resulting harm is irreparable," Tucker wrote. "Likewise, the commissioner's decisions to refrain from seeking an injunction in February 2015 and to permit public school students to complete the school year in the private schools in which they were enrolled suggests the harm is not so pressing that an injunction must be granted now."
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