Newport
State officials had asked for a finding of contempt during a Tuesday afternoon hearing in Sullivan County Superior Court in Newport, saying the Croydon School Board should not have sent the roughly $24,000 payment while a judge’s order was pending.
Attorneys representing the state Department of Education also unsuccessfully asked the judge to force either the private school or individual board members to reimburse the district, and by extension the taxpayers.
The two sides are caught in a dispute over whether Croydon can pay tuition for a handful of students attending the private Newport Montessori School.
Beyond their differing legal interpretations, the School Board members say their practice gives parents a choice, while the state officials say it endangers public schools and circumvents educational adequacy standards.
The judge’s ruling this week effectively allows six students — two of them children of the board chairwoman — to attend school for the first half of the 2016-17 year using public funds.
“The six students have begun a new academic year at the school thanks to the school board’s misplaced largesse,” Judge Brian Tucker wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday and distributed on Thursday.
Just four days after the July 25 payment went out, Tucker issued his ruling, barring Croydon from sending tax money to private schools.
The Montessori school deposited the check on Aug. 2, according to a bank receipt provided by Croydon’s lawyers.
Croydon’s attorneys on Tuesday said there was no way for them to repay the money, since the Montessori already had refused them a refund. The attorneys assured the judge that the district had no intention of paying the second half of the school year’s tuition.
In his decision, Tucker said no court order was violated when Croydon paid the tuition, as there had not yet been a ruling.
Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards, who is representing the New Hampshire Department of Education, also asked earlier this week that Tucker order either the Montessori or individual Croydon board members to repay the money.
Tucker declined to do so, saying the board members could not be held individually liable unless they were found in contempt of court; furthermore, he added, Montessori was not a party to the case.
“Understandably, the Department of Education would like to find a way to recoup the money spent so that the students do not attend the school at the expense of the school district,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, no remedy is available within the confines of this case.”
On Thursday, Edwards said state officials were not planning on pressing the issue of the payment any further.
“However,” she added in an email, “the Department (of Education) will be monitoring to make sure that all funds are transferred to the new SAU 99 accounts and that no further public funds are used to pay for private school tuition.”
The Croydon School Board, meanwhile, has appealed Tucker’s injunction against their tuition payments to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.