Vaughn G. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, No. 84-1911 (D. Md. Aug. 12, 2005)
A Maryland federal district court has issued an emergency order turning control of the Baltimore City Public Schools System's (BCPSS) special education operations over to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). The court found that "the evidence demonstrates the school district's repeated failure to implement effective remedial measures to address interruptions in services and repeated empty avowals that remedies would be promptly and fully implemented." Having previously directed the parties to the suit to submit proposals as to whether MSDE "should be authorized to assume broader authority with regard to oversight, management and operation of BCPSS' provision of special education services as well as of all school district departments and operations which vitally affect special education, including Transportation, Human Resources, Finance, and General Instruction," the court proceeded to analyze the merits of proposals by BCPSS, the plaintiffs, and MSDE. The court found BCPSS' proposal wanting on two counts. First, the outside company BCPSS contemplated hiring to "turn around" special education services, Alvarez and Marsal, would not be given the level of authority to effect changes that would lead to responsibility for the success or failure of their efforts. Second, the proposal did not call for developing a plan until the end of September, a month after the school year commences. The court offered no specific criticism of the plaintiffs' proposal that the court appoint a special administrator, David Gilmore, a court-appointed of special education related transportation services in the District of Columbia. Instead, the court simply stated that it preferred MSDE's proposal, which it found "provides the least intrusive proposed systemic remedy likely to effect compliance and squarely builds on the supervisory role provided MSDE under federal and state education law." However, the court cautioned that it would not completely adopt the plan as proposed but would order "implementation of the Plan subject to conditions including the requirement that initial priority shall be given, on an emergency basis, to the delivery of special education services on a current basis commencing the beginning of the 2005-06 School Year (and continuing thereafter) and the cessation of interruptions in services."
Vaughn G. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, No. 84-1911 (D. Md. Aug. 12, 2005)
[Link to full opinion][Emergency order][
Editor's Note: For background information on the lawsuit, see the item on NSBA's School Law pages, below. According to the Baltimore Sun
, shortly after the court issued its opinion and emergency order Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley criticized both the court and Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. "You cannot run the city school system, or especially the complicated task of special education, from a bench, albeit a federal bench, once every couple of months in status report hearings," he told reporters at a welcoming session for new public school teachers. "[The governor] and his administration seem to be obsessed with getting in the way of public school progress." However, he added, "It'd be nice to have a reliable partner in the state, but the absence of one is not an excuse for our not making progress ourselves." Shareese N. DeLeaver, a spokeswoman for Governor Erlich, retorted, "Although no leader likes to see his power usurped, this is about the students of Baltimore, not about the mayor's ego. Hopefully, the mayor's involvement will increase while working with the state to improve the city school system."]
[NSBA School Law pages on Baltimore dispute]Baltimore SunBy Doug Donovan
[Link to full story]