Parents offer settlement to keep Stillwater district schools open

Parents trying to stop the Stillwater district from closing three schools this fall have offered to end legal action if district leaders agree to keep two of the schools open for two more years.

In a "final settlement offer," attorney Fritz Knaak wrote that the parents' group, 834 Voice, would drop a Minnesota Supreme Court appeal and a district court lawsuit in exchange for pushing back the closing of Withrow Elementary in Hugo and Oak Park Elementary on the border of Stillwater and Oak Park Heights.

In the meantime, members of 834 Voice hope to elect another member to the school board who would reverse the school closings. Terms held by three of the five board members who voted to close the schools end in late 2018.

The third school targeted for closing is Marine Elementary in Marine on St. Croix, but that city will get a new charter school this fall and wasn't mentioned in Knaak's letter.

Entering the 2017-18 school year without a settlement would pose significant challenges, Knaak wrote the school district's attorney, Peter Mikhail of Minneapolis.

"Certainly, planning for the fall without the anxiety of these legal conflicts provides needed predictability and certainty," Knaak wrote.

Mikhail said Friday that he hadn't yet responded to Knaak's May 1 letter.

Knaak had requested a Supreme Court review of a state appeals court ruling in April. The appellate court concluded that the board's decision to close the three schools was "supported by substantial evidence," and upheld it.

A second legal action by 834 Voice — a district court lawsuit scheduled for a jury trial in October — accuses former board member Kathy Buchholz (who voted to close the schools and didn't run for re-election last fall) and school district finance director Kristen Hoheisel of financial conflicts of interest. That suit also alleges violations of Minnesota's open meetings, bond issue and election laws.

A possible settlement wouldn't affect three new lawsuits filed this winter against the district, Knaak wrote Mikhail.

"It should be noted that the most recent open meeting law violation cases are not by 834 Voice plaintiffs and if it would be your intention to include cessation of those proceedings as well, I am not presently able to make that part of this offer," Knaak wrote.

An initial plan to close the schools this September stalled a year ago when the school board voted to delay those changes until the 834 Voice appeal was resolved.