CEQA ruling upends school closure plans
(Calif.) A recent court decision in a case aimed at overturning the closure of two schools based on exemptions from environmental impacts should serve as a warning to other districts contemplating similar moves, according to education lawyers.
The Barstow Unified School District Board of Education cited various exemptions from the California Environmental Quality Act when it decided to close down two elementary schools and transfer the students to different campuses within the district.
“There was nothing in the record indicating that the district would limit the number of students that would be allowed to transfer to a particular receptor school,” said attorneys Harold Freiman and Kelly Rem of educational law firm Lozano Smith.
“The lesson from this case is that, when relying on CEQA exemptions, school districts and other public agencies should ensure that their administrative records contain evidence supporting any criteria set forth in the exemption,” they said.
There are two types of exemptions from the CEQA: statutory and categorical.
The plaintiff, a citizens group called Save Our Schools, argued that the district did not meet the criteria to prove that the closures and transfers were exempt from the environmental quality law. If, however, the court found the district did provide sufficient evidence, the group also alleged that the "cumulative impacts" and the "unusual circumstance" exceptions to the categorical exemption used by the district still applied.
In Save Our Schools v. Barstow Unified School District Board of Education, the categorical exemption the district cited – Class 14 – states that when students are transferred to new schools within the district, the student capacity at those sites should not increase by more than 25 percent or 10 CEQA ruling upends school closure plans :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: